The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-02-02
: H NOBLE NoMAD.


They have been among the whites more
or less for many years, and have ac-
quired some slight degrees Of civiliza-
ton. They are, strange to say, honest,
and may be set down as among the best
Of the aborigines. Their young men
are good humored and brave, and in
their old chief, Wash-a-kie, they have
the noblest looking patriarch Of the
plains. This grand old specimen Of
natures noblemanr is about six feet
in stature. and weighs perhaps, about
200 pounds. His hair is nearly white,
which makes him appear older than his
years, perhaps about GO. His features
have non of the Indian type and are
almost Roman in their bold, classic
regularity. The aquiline nose, firm
lips, Bonapartean chin, and broad,
square forehead, give him an appear
ance of intellect which his life does not
belle. Wash-a-kie is considered the
most virtuous of Indian chiefs. His
eyes beam with natural benignity and
he has the general air and bearing Of
an archbishop. Yet, he has not a drop
of white blood in his veins. No one
has ever imputed to him a mean or
dastardly act. His people adore him,
and, while he lives, the Sho-sho-ne
will remain faithful to Uncle Sam.
Wash-a-kie's two sons are also fine
specimens Of their race. The other
members of ''the nation" are only
average in their ''get up"
THE CROW INDIANS
are, m%uscularly considered, a powerful
looking breed. They are mostly five
feet nine or ten inches in height, and
very well made. In battle they used to
be brave and once held sway over q
large tract of country now raided by
the Sioux, but the latter have so often
defeated them that the Crows have
become somewhat timid and need
good backing" before they fight with
any vim. They are very boastful, very
rude, very wild,-even though they have
long associated with the soldiers and
camp-followers around Fort Ellis,-and
will steal on slight propagation. Al
though unable to utter a phrase Of
decent English, they show the natural
aptitude of mankind for filthy slang,
and can, in their broken way, talk more
nastiness than any common street
BLACKBOARD. This charming accom-
plishment they learned from the ''squaw
men, and settlers of the military posts.
The missionaries of all creeds, despite
their many attempts to SOW religion
among the savages, have made a dismal
failure. One emissary of the devil can
recruit more Indians for hell in a week
than a minister of God can make o n
verts to heaven in a year. "Why it is
let doctors tell" but, ''by their fruits
shall We know them"
THE SIOUX,
a name now famous in American his
tory, are, like the Crows, men of large
proportions, and most Of the warriors
are not more than a few inches under
six feet, while many of them tower
above that altitude. In c%ountenance
they are terribly %ferocious, having rest
less, t%reacherous eyes, high cheek bones,
cavernous mouths and noses Of gigantic
proportions-chiehy strongly hooked,
like the beaks Of some birds of prey.
The women of the different Sioux
families-aud their name is LEGION
are better looking than the squaws Of
other nations, being much taller and
Of more graceful figure. They are
fiercely attached to their men, and
hardly ever surrender themselves to
the embrace of white men, unless the
latter marry them. This virtue is es-
pecially true of the wilder tribes, and,
even at the Agencies, the Sioux women
have acquired an enviable reputation
for chastity. The half-breed girls, de-
scended from Canadian French ''squaw-
men" and Indian mothers are much
less strict in their morals, and afford
the young whites around the ''posts''
some occasion for being amorously ro-
mantle.
II CHEYENNEs.
are the tallest Indians outside Of Cali
fornia, and the most fearless. They
fight magnifcently, and have been,
during the recent campaign against the
troops, to the Sioux what the Russian
volunteers were to the Serbs around
Djunis; not that the Sioux were cow
ards, but that the Cheyennes were
more dashing. In the various fights
Of last summer, the guides who under
stood their language, used to hear the
C%heyennes calling out to each other,
"Be brave, be brave!" They inter-
marry with the Sioux and are almost
identical with them.
THE ARAPAHoEs,
who are also recognized at the Agen-
cies and in the field, are not as large,
but are almost as warlike as their
ol;oo Tbax, hox,o looa kbo;- ,hora ~