DENIQ] THE ASSINIBOIN 401 



The old chief, a? usual, escaped, though his day of power was over. 

 Shortly afterwards he predicted the day and hour of his own death 

 at the fort — days beforehand, without any appearance of disease 

 or approaching dissolution, and the writer with other gentlemen at 

 the fort .saw f he same fulfilled to the letter. The conclusion was that 

 he took poison, which he was long supposed to have received from 

 the white.- in the north and kept a dose for the fullness of time. 



This man had more renown than any other leader spoken of, al- 

 though several have done gallant actions. His success may be attrib- 

 uted to great cunning and the large force he always headed, together 

 with the power his fetishes gave him over his fellows, who blindly 

 followed his instructions and fought desperately under his prophecies, 

 though his life shows the anomaly of a great leader being entirely 

 destitute of every particle of personal intrepidity. Many other 

 events have happened which form data in their history ; indeed it is 

 composed of reference to certain remarkable occurrences, such as the 

 year of the smallpox, year of the deep snow, year of massacre of 30 

 lodges of Blackfeet, year of great rise of waters, and other natural 

 phenomena. 



Present Rulers and Condition. — Their present ruling chief is 

 Man-to-was-ko, or the Crazy Bear, made chief by Colonel Mitchell, 

 Commissioner of the United States, at the Laramie treaty in 1851. 

 The choice could not have been better. The Crazy Bear has always 

 been a respectable and brave man, greatly elevated above all the rest 

 in intelligence but not ranking with some in military exploits, having 

 never been a great warrior, though on some small occasions he has 

 shown an utter contempt of death before his enemies. He is a mild, 

 politic man, looking after his people's interest, and viewing with a 

 jealous eye anything inconsistent with them. Even when a very 

 young man his opinions were always honored with a hearing in 

 council, and he now bears his honors with great credit to himself 

 and service to his people, endeavoring to carry out to the letter the 

 stipulations of the treaty to which he is a party. 



Among the principal soldiers and war captains may be mentioned 

 To-ka'-ke-a-na. or the " First Who Flies." This man is a son of the 

 old chief, Wah-he Muzza, or "Iron Arrowpoint," mentioned before. 

 The whole of that old man's numerous family have been, and those 

 living still are, desperate men, proud and overbearing with their 

 people, though good to the whites. From the eldest, named " The 

 Sight,'" who visited Washington City by General Jackson's orders, to 

 the one now mentioned, five in number have been killed by their own 

 people in personal quarrels. 



The one now spoken of has frequently led parties to battle and 

 showed such a recklessness of danger that his name stands high as a 



