The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1897-11-27


of the State, school officers will assist il
the prosecution.
---~Ab----
ZI-WIN.TA GETS MUDDLED.
: The Tribune, of Bismarck, mas of lat
/. date, sent out corps of e1cavators ant
reporters to the old Mandan village sit
, on the river at the head of Burnt Creel
b ottom. Bur)eigh County. The excava
tors did not find much but some buffal,
bones aud bits of pottery but the report
era Ia Joe Smith-dug NJ some of th
golden plates containing missing chapter
in Mrs. Slaughters new copyright book
"Fortress to Farm soon to be issued b!
the Tribune. We quote the following
passage, as coming from a seeress:
"Zi win-ta told me the story of thu
Mandans. The Minnetaress. or people
who came across the Great Water" who
are the decendents OF the original occu
pants of the land, etc."
Zi-wln-to mast have got ratified at this
point in her story or the Tribune report
or broke plate. The Minnetarees we're
our modern Gros Ventres or Big Pc les q
as they called themselves swell Dressed,
or "People of the Willows" They are to-
tally distinct from the Mandans in Ian
xuage and esrly tradition but are allied to
the Crow Indians, speaking same tongue,
with like manners and traditlons.
On November 2ott, 1s04-a. o 1t nil :
three years ago, Captain Lewis setting
at his office desk in Fort Mandan ne'
the lower end of Elm Point and close up
to Hunting Lodge-Capt. William Harris
present country residence much
painstaking inquiry among these Indians,
through good interpreters-wrotet the fol-
lowing:
9Th. accounts we received of the Min
netaries were contradictory. The Man
dams say that this people came out of the
wat or to the East. and setted near them
in their former establishment in nine viii
lagos: that they we're very numerous, and
fixed themselves in one village on the
southern side of the Missouri. A quarrel
about a buffalo divided the nation. of
which two bands went into the plains,
and we're known by the name of Grow
and Paunch Indians. aud the rest moved
to their present establishment, mouth of
Knife river The Minnetarees proper.
assert, on the contrary, that they grew
where they now live. and will never emf.
crate from the spot, the Great Spirit hav-
ing declared if they moved they would all
die. They also say that the Minnetarees
Metaharta, shat il, Minetarees Of the Will
lows. whose language, with very little var
iation. ia their own. came many years ago
from the plains and settled near them;
and perhaps the two traditions may tie
reconciled by the natural presumption
that these Miunetaries we're the tribe
known to the Mandans below, a, d that
they ascended the river for the purpose
of joining the Minnetarees proper. Thes
Minnetarees are part of the great nation
called Fall Indians who occupy the inter-
mediate country between the Missouri and
Saskatchewan"
Zl-wln- ta's last days of Pompeii des.
cription of the underground tunnel at
the Burnt creek village is good. and the
pitiful plight of the beseiked Mandans
from the overwhelming Sioux at least
partially correct-but the fish miricle
-"goea without saying" But We quote
Si-wln-ta at this point.
Gone day a miricle occurred. The fish
came forth from their own accord aud lay
along the low bank at the waters side.
That night the Mandans filled their boats
and crossed the river in the deep dark
ness. When morning dawned the Sioux
found the fort deserted. and supposing
that the Mardans had all drowned them
themselves. did not look for them again
and they made their way safely to the city
of the Aricarees. that stood on the west |
bank of the Missouri above the later site
of old Fort Clark and we're protected by
them The Mandans built their camp
little north of the Aricaree village. Here
they we're attacked by a strange diseases
and nearly all perish d. On the breaking |
out of the pestilencs. the Aricarees moved
their camp to the site of old sort Berthold (
where they were afterwa,d Joined by the !
remnants of the Mandan nation who had (,
escaped the pestilence by some
has been pronounced small pox |
but which Ziwin ia asserted was caused
by eating poisoned fiat"
With Lewis and Clark's journal and
Catlin's letters at our elbow; with Boiler,
G,rard and Bushamp lat, in ous memory;
with the record keepers of the Mandane
and Aricarees in MSS, We arc afraid III
win-ta had Eighty relapsss when cutting her
event notches on the broom handle. The
LEADER published short account some.
thing over two years ago Of the attack
bv Sioux and capture Of this village, and
flight Of the .Mandans after swimming
the river. This occurred fully $50 years
ago. The Aricaree came mp to Fort Clark |
after the small pox epidemic Of 1885,
which year the greater part Of the Man
dams we're destroyed. Tho Aricarrses had
come up as fusitives from
ncar Grand River, where their village was
destroyed BY Gen. Atkiuson's soldiers and
Monk alliAs 1919 The Aricafeo did not |