Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-12-31


$3.50 sao vAmas, . ouiD growing deep
In the ground and very sweet should
fail or the acorn and BLACK cricket"
crop be not plentiful In any year. their
winter Is liable to be one of pinching
poverty and starvation. I have often
looked with profound pity upon troops
Of their old and young squaws under
the hot summer sun wandering. day
after day, over the prairies, the mothers
with their little ones strapped to their
backs, armed with q long iron, with
which they dug the sometimes hard soil
for the roots. which furnish large por-
tien Of their support haggard, broken
down, but never complaining Of their
wearisome task.
Among many of the tribes. however,
the women are allowed to have some
amusement but 1t Is generally when
their lords are half drunk. The Dako-
tabs frequently permitted their women
70 indulge In game Of ball, which,
however, differed entirely from that
played by the men. When the men had
worn themselves out with their own
games, and were in amaudlin state from
too much whisky, but wanted to have Q
little moro fun. they would notify every
one that the squaws were going to have
Q game of bali OF their own Then when
the game began the bucks would roll
over on the ground and laugh ct the
curious antics Of their squaws in their
awkward playing.
frequently. when the men had been
very lucky in their trapping or had been
successful in making good trades with
the whites, they would open their hearts
and donate piles Of gaudy goods, such
Is calicoeA ribbons and strings of
beads besides many other bright
colored things known only to the IN
dian trade and found only in the stores
Of the traders These things, which
were to be tho prizes commended for.
would be put on q stick, which itself
rested on two crotched poles upright in
| the ground, and over which an old man
kept guard The old man was also the
umpire of the game. The women were
then divided into two equal parties, and
the ball, or rather two. for they play
with two. fastened to the ends Of q
string eighteen or twenty inches long.
Every squaw engaged in the game holds
In each hand q small stick, on which
she must try to catch the string to
which is attached the two bsllA and
when she succeeds in doing this she
throws them to and over the goal Of the
side Of which is playing. It is a re-
markedly comical sight to see the WON
en- roll over in the dust and dirt in their
frantic efforts to catch the string on
their sticks. while the men lie fat on
| the ground and roar with laughter al
| them.
| Notwithstanding the women are kept
80 degraded there Is as much affection
among them for their husbands and
children as have ever witnessed among
stance here which came under my OWE
observation, though 1 could present
hundreds
During the campaign of 1s6s-69 wa,
riding with party of men and officers
south Of the Arkansas. We had beer
watching some of the cavalry uneartt
three or four dead warriors who had
been killed by some scouts in terrible
| fight some weeks before, and as we rode
into small ravine in the sand hills We
came to Q rude lodge, inside Of which
on q rough platform or bier. fashioned
OF green poles reposed dead warrior
in full war dress, his shield of buffalo
hide. pipe ornamented with eagle feath
ers, and his medicine bag" lying OF
the ground beside him. At his head, OF
her knees, her hands clasped In the atti
tude Of prayer, was q squaw frozen II
death. Which had first succum bed
whether the wounded chief, her hus
band, or the devoted wife-to the awful
cold Of that winter prairie. will never
be known. but it shows her love for tn,
man who had, perhaps, beaten her
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