The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1903-07-30

gaily decorated with hundreds of bright
colored blankets and quilts, and along
the sides of which are hung great num-
bers of the skins of owls, eagles, hawks,
etc., all forming an astonishingly fest
i've and interesting picture.
"But the strangeness of it all! Here
gathered together for a summer resi-
dence by the lake shore, are approx
mately 400 Chippewas, who are neither
savage wild men of the forest, nor the
tame civilized Indians who have re-
ceived the full benefit of christian edu-
cation.'
Thus we find our brothers, the Chip
pewas, butting in at a grand outing at
Mile Laos lake.
The writer thus describes how young
Indian lads are made ready for the
happy hunting ground or White Earth
or some other abiding place:
"The most interesting spectacle was
the Initiation of boy of about four
teen which one Indian informed our
companion was a secret, but was to
prepare him for the HAPPY hunting
grounds at death. The boy, grace
full, refned-faced youth, with solemn
demeanor, and downcast eyes, had two
bright red spots of paint on the upper
part OF each cheek as had apparently
all OF his relatives and friends who
were reclining on blankets on each
side of the bower, assembled to witness
or take part in the ceremony. He was
arrayed in ordinary clothing with head
belt, high beaded moccasins and
black beaver hat, with many bright
ribbons in place of hat band with ends
hanging down as streamers. Two old
medicine men" in black clothing,
looking reverend enough to be priests,
stood beside him at one end of the
bower, and each spoke long solemn
piece and then holding up large rattle
boxes containing probably rice, they
slowly ratified these, while the three
took up a solemn procession to the
other end of the bower, where the per-
Torrance was repeated. Later the boy
was seated in the center of the bower
opposite a man with deep toned drum
in the shape of large key.
"Then relatives and friends both men
and women, each holding the dried
skin OF an eagle, took up the procession
headed by a stalwart man wearing a
beaver hat with red feather, low
moccaslns, gorgeous red stockings, and
glorious white bed quilt with red
patches to match, which he wore with
all the grace and dignity of Roman
emperor. No actor ever went through
his part with a frmer, more stately
tread than he! He, also, had a long
piece to speak before starting on the
procession, in which the words mean
ing INDIAN and death were oft
repeated, and as he waxed eloquent his
brethren in the line responded with
grunts and groans, somewhat as some
old-fashioned Methodist brethren are
wont to do in meeting.
'Then holding his eagle-skin by the
neck, advancing it to arms length and
then withdrawing it, he headed the
procession, and as each passed the CEN
ter, where were the boy and the drum,
he was served by one of the ''medicine
men, to spoonful of cooked wild rice,
while at each serving the drum re-
celved several solemn beats like the
drum in a funeral procession.
''After this round, the head man
solemnly marched to seat in the CEN
ter OF the bower, and another took his
place, and the ceremony went on de-
Gently and in ORDER" but with varia-
lions at each round.
"Once each helped himself to rice.
while only one beat of the drum was
given, and again all kneeled down as
they passed the center. Unquestion-
ably it was sacred ceremony"
The Journal writer saws that ont of
the whole lot of Indians there we're
only four boys and seven girls who had
ever gone to school. She says the In
dams cook dogs, beg dead horses for
food, and buy whisky from the whites,
but withal, ''they have a dignity and
kindliness which is surprising, and
here is an unsettled country where they
far outnumbered the whites thew are
civil and law-abiding so that very rarely
there are cases of thieving, and no caess
OF even passing incivility to women"