The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-10-18

The Chicago Hospital, 81 Il. 10th St..
! Chicago, III.
from place to place. This mode is dis
continued when the child gets big
|enough to walk and run.
On one of their hunting, trapping
and begging expeditions to the Des
Moines river they camped in the north
part of Douglas township in this
county. 1t was midwinter and the
snow was deep. After selecting the
spot in which to pitch their wigwams
the squaws went to work, for they had
Everything to do. First they set the
boards to which the papooses were
strapped against the various trees.
The little fellows were wrapped in
blankets with no part of them expos
ed to the winter air but their faces.
There they stood in the deep snow,
while their mothers cleaned off var
ious spots of ground, set up poles and
threw the mantle of the wigwam
around them. The little fellows were
silent for about an hour but finally one
of them set up cry and was joined
by all the rest of the little black eyed
fellows. There was sound that re-
verberated among the hills of the lit
tie creek when the voices of these
fifteen Indian babies united in one
plaintive wall, for the attention of
their mothers. But their mothers
paid no attention to them until they
had their wigwams ready for occup-
!ancy and fire made in the center of
each of them. Then the little fellows
were taken in and unstrapped.
1t is said that this strapping process
is the cause of the Indians being so
erect.
At another time these same Indians
were encamped on the Des MOines
river near where the Jones ford bridge
now spans the stream. After secur-
ing all the game in that region the men
went over on the Beaver for few
days hunt. 1t so happened that they
did not return at the time set, and
this caused much trouble among the
squaws and children. They did not
sleep much that night and the next
morning their eyes were set in the
direction that their husbands and
fathers would return. Sometime dur
ing the day they espied some uncouth
citizen walking along the west side
bluff with red blanket thrown around
him. Instantly they came to the con-
clusion that this was Sioux Indian
and that a band of that blood thirsty
tribe had come down from the north
and had tomahawked the absent
hunters and were then preparing to
cross the river and capture them.
There were cries and lamentations in
the camp. All of them left the wig
vans to seek a hiding place but one
big faced squaw. She seemed to have
the courage of true soldier. She
took charge of the only gun left in the
camp and taking position behind
log waited for them to come in the
direction her gun was pointed, for she
kept jabbering kill one, two, three"
Toward sunset, however, the hunters
returned safe and sound and loaded
with game. The squaws and children
came forth from their hiding places
with shouts of joy. The fires were re-
kindled in the wigwams, feast was
spread and great was the joy in that
camp that night.
One of the amusements of the Ind
ians was throwing the Ratchet or the
"tomahawk" as they called it. They
would stand off ten or fifteen yards
from a tree and throw the tomahawk
so the bit would penetrate the surface
of the tree and hold it there. An ex-
pert thrower could place three toma-
hawks one above the other in the sur
face of tree and do it nicely. A
white man named River practiced the
art of throwing until he was the equal
of any of the Indians. River was
very large man and as before stated
the Sac and Fox name for river is
"Sepo" for this reason they called the
big white man big sepo." When he