Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-08-02
LETTER FROM NORTH DAKOTA.
Bismarck, n. D., July 10, 1897

Dear Monitor:
have spent ten years in North
Dakota, have been over the state a
good deal and have just caught my
first sight of real Indian life Ispent
the Fourth at DEVILS Lake, why the
Indian name of Minnewaukan,- the
invisible spirit-was corrupted into
Devils Lake I can't telD. On the
east shore of the lake, which is an r.
regular sheet of water some forty
miles long, Of varying width, having
no outlet and it's waters being salty
and alkaline, in a fine oak grove the
State Chautaqua Assembly was hold :
ing it's meeting; this was an assem-
blage .of cultured, scholarly people,
the conductor being a college presi :
dent from Indiana. They had the
finest ladies' quartette in the North :
west, photograph, the cinemato-
graph, two or three celebrated SOLO
lists, an elocutionist Of national re-
pute, Judge of the Nebraska district
court, and others there to entertain
several hundred preachers, teachers,
editors, doctors, lawyers, business
men and their wives and children,
who were spending few weeks
there in tents and cottages, and at a
big summer hotel. These peoples
ancestors for years have worn "boil-
ed shirts,' lived in houses and slept
in beds, but they all came here to get
out Of doors, unbend from social for
malities and get close TO nature.
Eight miles across the lake, to the
west, is Fort Totten and the Indian
reservation; here was another sum-
mer assembly. In ring of tepees
about three miles in circumfere nee
were gathered about three thousand
Sioux. Chippewa, White Earth, Sisse-
ton, Turtle Mountain and Cree In
dams. Men, women and children all
gathered from their respective reser-
vations and living the life Of their an
cestors; getting away from the farm,
the school, the shop, and unbending
from civilized forms and customs,
thrust upon them by law. Inside the
ring of tepees another ring was made
OF farm wagons placed end to end.
In the center Of this was pole deco
rated with eagle feathers, bits of fur,
bead work and bright strips of cloth.
just inside the ring Of wagons sat the
dancers. The squaws by themselves
in brilliant red, blue, yellow, green
and other bright cotton dresses, with
bright plaid shawls over their should
ed close to their heads, and their
faces smeared with paints of all the
prismatic colors. The first dance |
saw was the Chippewa squaw dance.
Surrounding a big drum, five or six
Enthusiastically dressed and painted In
dams squatted on the ground, hold
ing in their hands flexible sticks with
rawhide covered knobs at the tips.
Two old crones took their stations on
opposite sides of the center pole with
feather decorated wands in their
hands, and began a monotonous
chant, to which those about the drum
beat time upon the drum head. No
sooner did the chant begin than the
squaws on the ground began taking
their places midway between the
drums and the two old women. They
thus formed circle and taking up
the chant began curious courtesy and
almost imperceptible side step. So
that as we looked, this gorgeous ring
of color slowly undulated and re-
volved before us. The chant seemed
to be humorous, as frequent pauses
were made, and at each pause there
was laughter and what seemed good
natured chatting. After the squaws
were seated, the musicians, or those
about the drums, began a different
chant with drum accomplishments and
from the Sioux dancers young fell
low shot into the ring. Imagine him,
twenty years old, six feet tall, not
pound of fat on him, muscles hard as
iron, not the perfect mechanical pro
duct of a gymnasium, but a wild In
dian, quick as thought and as grace
full as fawn; on his head a tuft of
eagle feathers, his face painted red
with stripes of yellow across his
cheeks, his body naked to the waist,
painted blue, a breech clout, a solid
mass of red, blue and yellow bead
work, his legs painted yellow with
strings of sleigh bells about the
calves and beaded moccasins on his
feet. The step was a peculiar hop
from the right foot with double pat
upon the ground with the left, his
body swayed and writhed and turned