The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1892-04-01
THE KOOTENAI HERALD
Issued Every Saturday By
S. D. TAYLOR, Proprietor.
BEAUTY AMONG INDIANS.

The Women Cannot BE Compared to
whites, but the Children Are Pretty.
The Blackfeet are poor enough, in all
conscience, from nearly every stand
point from which we Judge civilized
communities, but their tribal possessions
include several horses to each head Of Il
family; and though the majority Of their
ponies would fetch no more than twenty
dollars apiece out there even this gives
them more wealth per capita than many
civilized people can boast. They have
managed also to keep much of the saw
age paraphernalia Of other days in the
form of bucllskin clothes, elaborate
beadwork, eagle headdresses, good guns
and the outlandish adornments Of their
chiefs and medicine men. Hundreds Of
miles from any except such small and
distant towns as Calgary and Medicine
Hat, and kept on the reserve as much as
possible, there has come to them less
damage by white mems vices than per-
haps most other tribes have suffered.
Therefore it was still possible for me
to see in some tents the squaws at work
painting the clan signs on stretched
skins, and making beadwork for mecca
sins. pouches, chaps" and the rest.
And in one tepee ] found young and
rather pretty girl wearing a suit OF buck
skin, such as Cooper and all the past
historians of the Indians knew as the
conventional every day attire of the red
skin. say | saw the girl in tent but.
as matter of fact, she passed me out of
doors, and with true feminine art man
aged to allow her blanket to fall open
just the instant it took to disclose the
precious dress beneath it.
asked to be taken into the tent to
which she went, and there, at the inter-
prefers request, she threw off her
blanket, and stood with little display
of honest coyness, dressed like the tradi-
tional and the theatrical belle Of the
wilderness. The soft yellowish leather.
the heavy fringe upon the arms, seams,
and edges of the garment. her beautiful
beaded leggings and moccasins, formed
so many parts of very charming pic
ture. For herself, her face was comely,
but her figure was-an Indians. The
figure of the typical Indian woman
shows few graceful curves.
The reader will inquire whether there
was any real beauty, as we Judge it,
among these Indians, Yes, there was;
at least there were good looks il there
was not beauty. | saw perhaps dozen
fine looking men, half dozen attractive
girls, and something like hundred
children of varying degrees Of comeh-
ness-pleasing, pretty or beautiful
had some jolly romps with the children,
and 50 came to know that their faces
and arms met my touch with the smooth
ness and softness Of the flesh Of our own
little ones at home. was surprised at
this; indeed, the skin Of the boys was of
the texture of velvet.
The madcap urchins, what riotous fun
they were having! They flung arrows
and darts, ran races and wrestled. and
in some of their play fairly swarmed all
over one another, until at times one lad
would be buried in the thick of a writh-
ing mass of legs and arms several feet i'm
depth Some of the boys wore only 20
strings (as, for some reason, the breech
clout is commonly called on the prairie),
but Others We're wrapped in old blankets.
and the larger ones were already wear
ing the BlaclIfoot plume lock, or tuft Of
hair tied and trained to stand erect above
the forehead The babies within the
tepees were clad only in their complex
ions.-Julian Ralph in Harpers.