398 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. asn. -16 



Before the trade was opened with them by the whites they say they 

 used knives made of the hump rib of the buffalo, hatchets made of 

 flint stone, mallets of the same, cooking utensils of clay and wood, 

 bones for awls, and sinew for thread, all of which articles can yet be 

 found among them. They made with these rude tools their bows and 

 arrows, pointing the latter with stone, and, as game was abundant, 

 hunted them on foot or threw them into pens built for the purpose, 

 which method they continue to use to this day. In this way they 

 had no difficulty in supporting themselves, and so contend that they 

 have gained nothing by intimacy with the whites but diseases which 

 kill them off in numbers and wants which they are unable at all 

 times to gratify. They have never sold lands by treaty, and the only 

 treaty (with the exception of that at Laramie, 1851) was made by 

 them through an Indian agent of the United States named Wilson, 

 at the Mandan village in 1825. But this was merely an amicable 

 alliance for the protection of American traders and an inducement 

 held out to the Indians to leave off trading at the Hudson Bay Co.'s 

 posts and establish themselves on the Missouri, without, however, 

 any remuneration on the part of the United States. 



Vestiges of Early Tradition. — They have no creditable tradition 

 of the Mosaic account of the creation or deluge, neither of their 

 ancestors having lived in other lands nor knowledge of foreign 

 quadrupeds nor any idea of whites or other races occupying the 

 country before the Indians. It is easy to perceive in converse with 

 them that whites have from time to time endeavored to explain the 

 Mosaic account of the creation and deluge, together with other 

 scriptural records, but instead of comprehending the same they have 

 mixed with their own superstitions and childish notions in so many 

 various and nonsensical forms that none is worthy of record. 



They have no name for America, neither do they know of its 

 extent, for the most part believing that the lands occupied by them- 

 selves and the surrounding tribes compose the greatest part of the 

 world, and certainly contain the greatest reputed number of people. 

 It vexes and grieves them to be told of large tracts of land elsewhere, 

 and they do not or will not believe the whites to be as human as 

 they are. 



There is nothing in this subject any Assiniboin could either com- 

 prehend or answer, except that there is a mound about 50 miles 

 above the mouth of the Yellowstone on the west side and near the 

 Missouri consisting of an immense pile of elk horns, covering an 

 area of about an acre of ground, and in height about 30 feet. We 

 have frequently inquired of these and the surrounding nations as 

 to its origin, but it was raised previous to the knowledge or even 

 tradition of any tribe now living in these parts. From the state of 

 decay the horns are in it must be very ancient. 



