370 ETHNOLOGY. 



Sisseton and Walipeton bands of Dakotas have resided ; almost as rude 

 and ignorant as tlie lowest branch of the Athabascan stock, yet they 

 are tractable and show a desire for bettering their condition. Their 

 manners, customs, and language do not differ essentially from the other 

 bands of the great Dakota Nation, save from the aberrant branches, the 

 Yanktonais and Tetous ; neither can those bands understand the Wah- 

 kautans, Wahpetons, Wahpecutas, the Wabashaw band, the Black-Dog 

 band, the Eed Wing band, &c. The language used by them is con- 

 structed on the well known polysynthetic plan, and is so well known 

 that one or two dictionaries have been published of the language. 



Polygamy is common among them, each brave having as many wives 

 as he chooses and can support, but lately some of them have embraced 

 the Christian religion and have " put away" all their wives but one. 

 Their Christian system, ingrafted upon their former fetichism, has resulted 

 in a curious mongrel theology, which would puzzle even Buddha to under- 

 stand. They have the same cruel instincts that always characterize a 

 race of hunters ; hardly one has come under my observation that has 

 not more or less of small scars upon the body, purj^osely made with 

 fife or cutting instruments, to show they have " brave hearts," yet my 

 experience with them in sickness has been that they bear necessary 

 pain quite as badly as even negroes. Their tribal government is a rude 

 democracy, if that can be called a government whose most binding 

 law is the lex talionis ; nor do they recognize any head or chief save him 

 who is bravest in war and most persuasive in council. Their legends 

 and traditions are too well known to require only passing comment. 

 Some of them are pleasing and instructive; but the most of them are 

 puerile beyond description, and it is very hard to tell what purpose of 

 national or social economy they could possibly subserve. The most of 

 them are detailed at length in " Mrs. Eastman's Legends of the Sioux." 



Of the arts of life they are almost entirely ignorant ; even the ceramic 

 art, with which most of savage tribes are necessarily acquainted, they 

 are now ignorant of, though it would seem that before their communi- 

 cation with the whites they know something of this art and used pottery 

 made by themselves to cook their food in. After communication with 

 the whites, and a knowledge of metallic vessels for the purpose of cook- 

 ing, the art of making pottery was gradually neglected until it has now 

 been lost. At all events the Indians of these bands know of no Avay of 

 boiling their raw food now save by digging a hole in the ground and 

 covering it with the skin of an animal recently killed, into which are 

 poured the water and the food to be cooked ; stones are then heated in 

 an adjacent fire and held in this novel pot until the meat is done. As 

 to their cooking. Professor Soyer, Monsieur Blot, or the most wonder- 

 ful clicf de cuisine that ever raised a pot lid, would stand amazed to see 

 the wonderful heterogeneous mass combined to make one of their alias — 

 beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes, berries, herbs, and roots, thrown 

 together into the pot all in purus naturalibus, and stewed into a disgust- 



