452 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. ANN. 40 



Private Right to Take Life. — Every Indian believes he has a 

 right to his own life and consequently to defend it. There being no 

 persons or body whose duty it is to punish crime, trespass, or insult, 

 each individual is taught when a boy, and by experience when a 

 man, to rely entirely on himself for redress or protecting his person, 

 family, and property. Every one is thus constituted his own judge, 

 jury, and executioner. Whether the person wronged is right in his 

 means of redress does not matter. He thinks he is right and risks the 

 consequences of retaliation. Every Indian being armed induces the 

 necessity of each using arms ; therefore when an Indian strikes, stabs, 

 shoots, or attempts to do these things it is always with an intent to 

 kill, knowing if he misses his aim or only wounds, the other revenges 

 either on the spot or after, as occasion requires or opportunity offers. 

 Therefore he can not act otherwise. This being the state of things, 

 quarrels are not so common as might be supposed. When it is uni- 

 versally known that a blow or a trespass would entail death as its 

 consequence they are avoided, or if unavoidable each endeavors to 

 gain an advantage over the other by acting treacherously or waiting 

 a favorable time when he least expects it to kill or strike him, stating 

 for his reason that if he had not killed him the other only waited 

 the same opportunity against himself. A fair chance to kill or strike 

 does not always present itself. The relations may be too numerous 

 on one side, and the object of contention (be it a horse or a woman) 

 is given up for the time by the weaker party, apparently willingly, 

 yet he only waits until their situations are reversed to seek redress. 

 When a man has killed another, if the relatives of the deceased are 

 more numerous than his own, he flies to a distant part of the country, 

 joins another band and seeks protection there, where he is not sought 

 by the next of kin at the time, but will be killed whenever they 

 meet. In the meantime the relatives of the offender pay much to 

 stop the quarrel. 



If the killed and the killer are both of the same band and equally 

 strong in relationship perhaps nothing would be done at the time as 

 the rest of camp would endeavor to stop a skirmish, and a good many 

 guns, horses, and other property would be raised and presented the 

 relatives of the deceased to stop further bloodshed. This generally 

 concludes an amnesty or respite for the time, but the revenge must 

 be accomplished at some time by the next of kin, otherwise it would 

 be a great disgrace to him or them. An opportunity to kill the 

 offender with comparative safety is then sought, perhaps for years, 

 or as long as any of that generation lives. Time and absence may 

 have the effect of giving the murderer a chance to die in some other 

 way or of diminishing the force of the revenge so that he does not 

 find himself in a position to act with any degree of safety when an 



