The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-02-20
LINES UPON 10.
A Few Of the Characteristics Of the Plains
Arabs Of Both Sexes.

Arabs OF Both Sexes.
Probably nine-tenths Of these United
States are less familiar with the ap-
pearance, customs, manner and morals
of the North American aborigines than
are the same proportion of the inhabit-
ants of Great Britain with ebouy-hued
ladies and gentlemen who are indigo
nous to Kaffario. The average Ameri-
can idea of the Indian is shaped from
the brilliant romances of Cooper or the
impossibly adventurous storiesof Mayne
Reid. Frontier correspondents and
army officers, some of whom OCCASION
ally write for the press, chiefly deal
with the features Of the country itself,
and are mostly content with referring
to the Indian as a barbarous vagabond
whose chief delight is to hunt and muir
der. That the redskin possesses any
qualities capable Of making him ever
slightly akin to Caucasian humanity is
seldom if ever admitted by anybody
living west Of the Missouri and Iowa
state line. Nor can the people Of our
central states form any idea of what the
utterly untamed savage is by contem-
plating the
BROKEN AND DEGENERATE
remains of once powerful tribes shut
up on scattered reservations. Seen in
the garb of the white man, the so-called
" red" warrior is actually deformed.
His free limbs are cramped. His u
perb physique is hampered by garments
that can never fit the frame of the child
of nature-for in his own wild liberty
the Indian of the hostile tribes now
fighting the government is perhaps the
masterpiece of physical perfection. His
face may be dark, ferocious, treacher-
GUS, even ugly; but his form, wrapped
in the loose folds Of his robe or blanket
is imposingly graceful, or, as in battle
or during the heat Of summer, bare
from the waist upward, looks as if cast
in bronze-every muscle showing be-
meath the supple skin, and the small
ness of his joints displayed to perfection
by the absence of superfiuous flesh. No
prize-6ghter has ever attained the COM
bined hardness and ductility Of Indian
form, however perfect may have been
his training.
This has general reference to the
male aborigines, for, on the other hand,
THE FEMALES
are stunted in growth, square-shoul-
dered, thick-waisted, and large-headed
from being worked as tribe drudges al
most from early childhood. How
women of such a type can be the moth
ers of such men is a question that may
be safely left in the hands of physiolo-
gists. Very few of the squaws have
even an approach to beauty, despite all
that novelists have written to the con-
trary. The counterpart of Uncas
might easily be found among "the
braves" but where among the women
could be discovered a Pocahontas or
Minnehaha? The Indians reverse the
law Of civilization. We leave to the
gentler sex the feathers, adornments,
prints, beads and other fnery Of that
nature, while the aborigines decorate
their warriors with plumes and spangle
them with gew gaws, paint their faces
artistically, if %hideously, and. arrange
their hair with the skill and nicely Of a
"belle of the ball" The squaws
rarely wear feathers, and still more
rarely color their countenances with
red ochre and other martial disfigure-
ments, sacred to the men Of their
tribes. Their hair is worn plain-often
cut quite short, after the fashion of
young white girls, and the custom of
wearing beads is not very general
among them. This is especially the
case when the tribe is on "the wal
path" for then the women
HAVE THEIR HANDS FULL
in cutting lodge-poles, Or willow rods
for wicky-ups," packing and unpack-
ing ponies, gathering wild berries, dry
ing buffalo meats, cooking and attend
ing to the welfare of their animals.
The braves" hardly ever condescend
- unless they are very old men-to
bend their limbs to labor. They will
chase the bison, guard the pony herd in
turn, and go out to fight at a moments
notice, but, unless they have been long
among the whites, they leave the fe-
males all the drudgery to perform.
When out for war with women and
children along. Indians make very slow
mar~ches--unless they have some special
object in view-rarely making more
than fifteen miles a day, or "a Sleep"
as they put it in their grotesque trans
lation of the English tongue.