Plains Indian Rituals and Visons

While some of the rituals of the Plains Indians were celebrations somewhat reserved in our traditions such as the Mandan Indians' celebration of the harvest with the corn dance - symbolic cornstalks, ears of corn and food bowls - most of the rituals of these tribes was quite brutal to us.

Torture played a major role in many rituals of the Plains Indians.  The vision quest, common to all Plains tribes was particularly important.  It was through a regiment of self denial and torture that a young man made contact with his personal protector from the spirit world by calling him forth in a vision.

The spirit usually appeared in the form of an animal or a bird - the buffalo, elk, bear and eagle were common, but even mice and mosquitoes might appear.  Such conjuring was vital to the brave's success when he hunted buffalo, the primary staple of all Plains Indians.

Before the arrival of the horse in the 17th century, Plains Indians lived on corn and a few buffalo which they could kill on foot.  Warriors (and sometimes squaws) would stampede the buffalo, driving them over the cliffs.  Other times, covered in wolf skins, they would sneak up on the herds with bow and arrow range, and with luck kill a few before the herd stampeded off. 

Next time...The Movie Star Indians
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  On April 21, 1895, Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, demonstrate their “Panopticon,” the first movie projector developed in the United States.

Mary Rockwood Powers -Part 2

As we discovered in that last part, Mary Powers' husband, Americus, was a doctor unable to adapt to life on the trail.  His incompatibility with the other men in the wagon party was noted by Mary in her journal: "the company went on and left us to get on as best we could."  A very unusual course of action for a wagon company to take under any circumstance.  Mary says only that "a dissatisfaction among the company separated us.  I forebear giving the details."

Mary did write more to her mother that their horses could not carry them and their possession and were giving out.  She wrote that "the doctor told the other men it was his business.  He would not ask for help, nor would he buy a team of oxen.  I am in the hands of a maniac. Myself and my little ones at the mercy of a mad man." 

Somehow they reached Salt Lake City.  While there two men from the wagon company rode back to find them and talk with Mary.  The men made commitments to Mary and the children, not to her husband. 

In another letter to her mother, Mary says "for some days the doctor had been falling into his old sullen mood again, out of humor with everyone.  Mr. Curtis offered to take me and the children into their wagon and divide up the luggage.  But despite all their urging, the doctor would not give up his horses but hitched them up and drove off like he was Lord of all surveyed."

The next day Mr. Curtis and the other men came back and demanded to know if Americus was a "mad man or a confounded fool."  Seems Americus found public ridicule too much and bought some oxen and the family once again joined the wagon train. 

Before they left, Mary cooked the last of her dried strawberries, poured them over fresh made dumplings, and give them to Mr. Curtis and his friend who had tried to help her.  Did the doctor get any?  I hope not...

We'll conclude this story next time...

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Today in Pioneer History: On March 13, 1836, after less than a week after the disastrous defeat of Texas rebels at the Alamo, the newly commissioned Texan General Sam Houston begins a series of strategic retreats to buy time to train his ill-prepared army.

Preparing to "Go West Young Man (or Woman)

So why would a family leave their home for the arduous journey into the unknown? 
One of the main reasons is the economic depression of 1839 when wages for the common man took a 50% decrease, banks closed, and grain was worthless.  Another reason was farmers in the Mississippi Valley and the Plain states began to feel "crowded" when there was a mere 12 miles between neighbors.  To us today, that is wilderness living but to the early American farmer that was too close for comfort.

"Oregon Societies" were formed in towns along the Mississippi Valley.  Members pledged to make the westward journey together.  These societies relied on the journals of traders, trappers, missionaries, travelers, government reports and guidebooks of the early 1830's to make their decision.  One traveler who have gone to Oregon in 1834 wrote: "The soil...is rich beyond comparison...The epidemic of the Midwest country, fever and argue, is scarcely known here...the willament valley is a terrestrial paradise." 

As we have discovered, the westward migration was a family affair.  One young girl wrote: 

"One Saturday morning father said that he was going to hear Mr. Burnett talk about Oregon.  Mr. Burnett hauled a box out to the sidewalk, took his stand upon it and began to tell us about the land flowing with milk and honey on the shores of the Pacific.  He told of the great crops of wheat which it was possible to raise in Oregon and pictured in glowing terms the richness of the soil and the attractions of the climate, and then with a little twinkle in his eye he said  'they do say gentlemen, they do say, that out in Oregon the pigs are running about under the great acorn trees, round a fat, and already cooked with knives and forks sticking in them so you can cut off a slice whenever you are hungry'  Father was so moved by what he heard that he decided to join the company that was going west to Oregon.  Father was the first to sign his name." 

Once the decision was made to journey west, a wagon had to be built, supplies purchased, houses sold and possession secured. 

Next time...Let's build a wagon!

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Today in Pioneer History:  On June 4, 1876,  a mere 83 hours after leaving New York City, the Transcontinental Express train arrives in San Francisco.  That any human being could travel across the entire nation in less than four days was inconceivable to previous generations of Americans. when it had taken Thomas Jefferson 10 days to travel from his home to Philadelphia via carriage. 

Frontier Fridays: A Look at Dieting in the 1800s

Quoted from an 1800s domestic help book: "Very corpulent persons are not strong, vigorous, or beautiful. (editor's note: this was the view of heavy people back then, but most were heavy!) The causes of this condition are heredity, excess of sweets, fine flour, sugar, potatoes, pastry, fats or creams. Avoid all starchy and sweetened food as much as possible. Eat bread made from entire wheat flour, beef, mutton, tongue, all kinds of fish, oysters raw or cooked without fats and flour, lettuce, onions, asparagus, coleslaw, celery, stringbeans, sour apples, peaches, strawberries, without cream or sugar, coffee and tea, straight, in moderation. Eat slowly, in moderate quantities. Take no liquid at meals, only water in between meals. Oranges are the best of all fruits."

What Makes a Good Wife - Part 2

The white mountain man was attracted the Indians women because they made great housekeepers, home economists, and mothers, but also for maintaining supplies and equipment needed in the man's business - putting up lodges, tanning hides, cooking, protecting provisions.  Indians men took these skills for granted - white men saw them as blessings.

Beyond the sexual, Indian women cared for the mountain men's comforts - interpreters, guides as well as forging for herbs, making clothing, tending and moving camp.  Seems all the men did was procreate, eat, fight and smoke pipes!

The white man was able to marry well and regarded their Indian wives as far superior, prettier, cleaner, more stylish, seductive and far more useful than white women. Their biggest problem was not getting one, but choosing from the many offers received!

Next time...What makes a Good Husband!

The Manly Side of It

Since pioneer men were not as literary as their women folk, we don't have the journals or records like those of women.  Their records were direct and short like the one who recorded his daughter's birth and death:

Feb 25, 1868 Wife had a baby daughter at 6:30 AM
Mar 7th Went to Salem, paid Dr. Siveter $10, expected to pay $5.
May 3 Baby Died.

Men were strong providers, not expressing deep emotions.  They were more concerned about matters of survival which is why most of their records concerning the Indians were concerned about number and strength, types and number of weapons, and quantity and quality of their horses. 

Men told of Indian military techniques as "warlike and fight on horseback, drilling themselves and the horses on the prairie, the mode of fight is to form a circle around the enemy,  keep riding around like circus riders.  They draw their arrows and commence attack, still keeping their circular gallop."

Men's records were especially curious about the manner in which Indians treated their dead and where they extended the greatest respect.  Eventually their attitudes towards Indian marriage customs became more respectful as well.  

Indian housing, and housing of any kind were a common topic of men- how they were constructed, techniques used, materials used to build them. They noted the Sioux lodgings were well laid out in patterns with lances and shields in front of each home. 

Some men tried to reach out to Indians hoping to alleviate some of the bitterness that had grown between the cultures.  They exchanged gifts, smoked the pipe, discussed questions of trade, land ownership, and passage.  Often these conversations were rather stiff because most men had little motivation or opportunity to learn how an Indian thinks or sympathy to do so.

Frontier men remained rigid and inflexible in their views, while women's ideas altered considerably.  Men were convinced of their own strength, the right to the land inhabited by other people, and the inferiority of those people.  Not a good start to building relationships!

Next...the Government's intervention and conclusion.

Time Improves All Things...Almost

Time improved Indian-White relations.  How women acted in their dealings with Indians appears to be vastly different from the story told in the East.  When woman after woman notes in her journal, diary or memoirs  "no trouble with Indians", we have to wonder if there was another version to the story.

Yes there were isolated incidents recorded - the Indians had issues which they didn't always solve peacefully, especially the Comanches in the 1830s and 1840s.  Martha Simmons wrote in 1839 of a Comanche attack in which her father was killed and she, her brother and her mother were taken captive and tortured until their escape in 1840.

Comanches resisted all advances of the white man on the Western Plains and were reported to be cannibals.  In Texas one woman wrote "this country was made for wild Indians and buffalo. I desire to flee from it"

Yet another woman's family was able to live without incident near her Creek and Comanche neighbors in the late 1880s. As she put it "they left us alone and we left them alone".  Texas remained a hostile environment well into the 1870s and frontier Texas was characterized by warlike tribes who stubbornly resisted white invaders in their hunting grounds. 

The case of Minne Carrington illustrates the willingness of some women to understand their captors.  Taken prisioner in 1862, she later spoke with fondness of two Indian women who cared for her.  "It seems wrong to call them squaws, the were as lady-like as any white woman and I will never forget them."

Next time...Indians in Service