Rituals of the Great Plains Indians

The Plains Indians were a different world from that of the forest tribes back East.  Iowa, Omaha, Arikara, Mandan, Otto and Hidatsa tribes were semi-sedentary people who led a fairly settled life, growing corn, weaving and making pottery.  In the summer they took their horses for expeditions to track down buffalo.  They traded with nomadic tribes from further west.

These Plains Indians admired physical courage, reflected in their ceremonies.  For example, in the
sun dance of the Hidatsa, warriors reenacted their victorious battles.  In the Mandan tribe, the most sacred religious ritual was the Okipa, dramatization of the creation of the Earth and history of the tribe.  The ritual was performed to modify the spirits to ensure the welfare of the Mandan tribe, and it was a test of courage and endurance for young braves.

To begin the Okipa was fasting and ceremony dances. 
The initiates crawled to the medicine man who used a knife to pass through and under the skin on each arm above and below the knee.  Through these  wounds the medicine man passed splints, then a cord of raw hide was lowered down through the top of the wigwam and fastened to the splints on the breasts or shoulders.  The person then hung, raised and suspended, from the top of the lodge.  They quietly endured the pain until the pain rendered them unconscious.

All I can say is Ouch!....

Next time...More Ritual and Visions
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On this Day in Pioneer History: On April 18, 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and resulting fire started.  The first of two vicious tremors shook San Francisco at 5:13 a.m., and a second followed not long after. The quake was powerful enough to be recorded thousands of miles away in Cape Town, South Africa, and its effect on San Francisco was cataclysmic. Thousands of structures collapsed as a result of the quake itself. However, the greatest devastation resulted from the fires that followed the quake. The initial tremors destroyed the city’s water mains, leaving overwhelmed firefighters with no means of combating the growing inferno. The blaze burned for four days and engulfed the vast majority of the city.

Myths and Mysteries of the Western Frontier: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

What really happened to the outlaws? Were they killed in a San Vicente shoot-out in Bolivia? Or did they live to an old age somewhere in the United States?  The movie said they died in Bolivia...let's go back.

1901, February, the West was getting just a bit too crowded and civilized for one Butch Cassidy and his sidekick,  the Sundance Kid. The Pinkerton Agency was "just too acquainted with our business" Butch told associates.  So Butch, Sundance, and Etta Place boarded a ship for South America to start another life.  They bought a large ranch in Patagonia at the foothills of the Andes Mountains and lived quite well for a few years. 

In 1904 they sold the ranch and went to work for the Concordia Tin Mines at Tres Cruces in Bolivia.  Their honest, hard work attitude won the bosses and even had them guarding the payroll for a time.  But they were not company men and by 1908 they had returned to their former profession - robbing banks. 

Evidently, two robbers (and no one is really sure this was Butch and Sundance), took a large payroll from a mining company and hid in mountains for 2 days before coming into San Vicente, Bolivia.
If this was indeed Butch and gang, he got very careless very fast.  Butch was meticulous about details...how long to hid out, how to approach the unknown.  But according to locals, the outlaws got hungry and needed rest so came to town, asking a local policemen where to stay.  The policemen recognized the mules they were riding from the mining company and set up the stake-out.

From here the story gets crazier - either the battle lasted for an hour, a few hours or the whole night.
The outlaws had left their rifles outside the cantina (?)  and some say Butch was shot going to get them.  Others claim he shot Sundance and then himself so they couldn't get them alive.

The two men in this shoot-out did indeed die and were buried in an Indian cemetery.  Tradition holds that at least one of the men is a Chilean, rather than white.  No one really took much notice - the payroll was returned to the mining company and the robbers were dead.  End of story....

But as late as the 1920s the Pinkerton Detective Agency still listed the outlaws as an open and active case with no mention of their deaths.  Credible sightings of Butch and Sundance were recorded by family and old gang members as late as the 1940, with correspondence arriving just before WWII.  In 1970 Lulu Parker (Butch's sister) wrote about it in her book, Butch Cassidy, My Brother.  

Lastly, an attempt was made to match the DNA from the bodies to that of the immediate family.  The bodies were dug up, identified as the ones shot during the San Vicente shoot-out, transported to the USA, analyzed and...you guessed it.  NOT A MATCH! 

So you decide...Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, one of the most well-known outlaws in the history of the United States West...did they die in Bolivia?  or did they survive and live out their days in ambiguity in the USA?

Next the Mysterious Etta Place...


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On this Day in History:  On February 13, 1822, Missouri Lieutenant Governor William Ashley places an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette and Public Advisor seeking 100 "enterprising young men" to engage in fur trading on the Upper Missouri.

What Makes a Good Husband?

Indian women saw white men as safer, more considerate, less demanding and less disciplinary.  To them, white men were rich, valiant,  warriors, energetic hunters, and shrewd traders.  Who could ask for more?

It was the ultimate status symbol to attract, keep and support a good white man - like a Coach bag on your arm!
Joe Meek, when he married a Shoshoni - Mountain Lamb - is said to have spent his entire year's profit on his bride - $300 horse, $150 saddle, $50 bridle, $200 worth of blankets, boots, beads and a blue broadcloth skirt, scarlet blouse, and leggings. Mountain Lamb was one of the great beauties of the frontier west and Meek was very much smitten.

Next Time - The Mysterious Joe Walker