BULL. 30] 



SAUK 



479 



nito by means of fasting and vigil to se- 

 cure his tutelary or genius. The uianitos 

 of Sauk mythology and reUgious worship 

 are represented in all nature. They 

 are human beings, animals, birds, fishes, 

 reptiles, insects, plants, fire, water, and 

 all the elements personified. The my- 

 thology of the Sauk is rich with fables of 

 anthropomorphic beasts and beings. The 

 principal myth is concerned with the god 

 of life, called Nanabozho by cognate tribes, 

 with the flood, and with the restoration 

 of the earth. 



The Sauk had numerous ceremonies, 

 social and religious. Some of these they 

 still retain. The chief two religious cere- 

 monies still in existence are the gens fes- 

 tivals and the secret rite of the Midewi- 

 win, or Grand Medicine Society. The 

 gens festival is held twice a year — in 

 the spring, when thanksgiving is offered 

 to the manitos for the new season, and 

 in the summer after the fields ripen. 

 The meeting of the Midewiwin is gener- 

 ally held but once a year, during the 

 spring, when a ceremony is conducted by 

 a group composed of men and women 

 bound together by vows of secrecy. 

 This society is entered by initiation and 

 the payment of a fee, and the ceremony 

 is conducted with an elaborate ritual on 

 the occasion of the admittance of a new 

 member, who takes the place of one who 

 has died during the preceding year. 

 Next in importance to these are the rites 

 connected with death and adoption. To 

 express grief for dead kindred , they black- 

 ened their faces with charcoal, fasted, and 

 abstained from the use of vermilion and 

 of ornaments in dress. The Sauk prac- 

 tised four different methods of burial: (1) 

 the corpse was laid away in the branches 

 of a tree or upon a scaffold; (2) it was 

 placed in a sitting posture, with the back 

 supported, out on the open ground; (3) 

 it was seated in a shallow grave with all 

 but the face buried and a shelter was 

 placed over the grave; (4) there was com- 

 plete burial in the ground. The ghost 

 world is said to be in the W. beyond the 

 setting sun, and thither it is said the 

 people go after death. The breather of 

 the culture-hero is master of the ghost 

 world, while the culture-hero himself is 

 said to be at the N., in the region of snow 

 and ice. The Sauk are looking for his 

 return, when they believe the world will 

 come to an end, and they and the culture- 

 hero will go to join his brother. 



The close relations of the Sauk with 

 the Foxes in historical times make it 

 difficult to form more than an approxi- 

 mate estimate of their numliers in the 

 past, but it is probable that the population 

 of the tribe never exceeded 3,500 souls. 

 When first known to history, i. e. in 

 1650, the Sauk and Foxes together num- 



bered probably 6,500 (Sauk 3,500, Foxes 

 3,000). Perrot, writing in the first quar- 

 ter of the 18th century, says that the 

 Potawatomi, the Sauk, and the Foxes 

 composed a body of more than 1,000 war- 

 riors. The principal estimates of the 

 Sauk alone are: 750 persons in 1736; 1,000 

 (1759); 2,000 (1766); 2,250(1783); 2,850 

 (1810); 4,800 (Beltrami, 1825); and 2,500 

 (1834). The two tribes together have 

 been estimated at 3,000 (1820); 6,400 

 (1825); 5,300 (1834); 5,000 (1837). The 

 estimates of the combined tribes indicate 

 that the Foxes (q. v.) were the more nu- 

 merous, but these appear to be incorrect. 

 In 1885 the two tribes had a total popu- 

 lation of about 930, of whom 457 were 

 in Indian Ter., 380 (who claimed to be 

 Foxes only) were at Tama, Iowa, and 87 

 in s. E. Nebraska; in addition there were a 

 few at the various Indian schools. The 

 Report of the Commissioner of Indian 

 Affairs for 1909 gives 352 persons (almost 

 all Foxes) at the Sauk and Fox agency, 

 Iowa, 536 (chiefiy Sauk) at the Sauk and 

 Fox agency in Oklahoma, and 87 Sauk 

 and Foxes (chiefly Sauk) in Kansas, a 

 total Sank and Fox population of 975. 



The Sauk made or were parties to the 

 following treaties with the United States: 

 Treaty of Ft Harmar, Jan. 9, 1789; St 

 Louis, Mo. (Sauk and Fox), Nov. 3, 1804; 

 Portage des Sioux, INIo. (Sauk of Mis- 

 souri), Sept. 13, 1815; St Louis, Mo., May 

 13, 1816; Ft Armstrong, 111. (Sauk and 

 Fox), Sept. 3, 1822; Washington, D. C. 

 (Sauk and Fox), Aug. 4, 1824; Prairie 

 du Chien, Wis. (Sauk and Fox), Aug. 

 19, 1825, and July 15, 1830; Ft Arm- 

 strong, 111. (Sauk and Fox), Sept. 21, 1832; 

 Ft Leavenworth, Mo. (Sauk and Fox), 

 Sept. 17, 1836; near Dubuque, Iowa (Sauk 

 and Fox), Sept. 27 and 28, 1836; Wash- 

 ington, D. C. (Sauk and Fox), Oct. 21, 

 1837; ditto (Sauk and Fox of Missouri), 

 same date and place; Sauk and Fox 

 agency, la. (Sauk and Fox), Oct. 11, 1847; 

 Washington, D. C. (Sauk and Fox of 

 Missouri), May 18, 1854; Sauk and Fox 

 agency, Kan. (Sauk and Fox), Oct. 1, 

 1859; Nemaha agencv, Nebr. (Sauk and 

 Fox), Mar. 6, 1861 ; and Washington, D. C. 

 (Sauk and Fox), Feb. 18, 1867. 



For more detailed information con- 

 cerning the many petty wars, alliances, 

 and migrations of the Sauk and their in- 

 terrelations with the French and neigh- 

 boring Indian tribes, consult Bacqueville 

 de la Potherie, Histoire de L'Amerique 

 Septentrionale, 1753; Perrot, Memoire sur 

 les Mceurs, Coustumes et Relligion des 

 Sauvages de I'Amerique Septentrionale, 

 1864; Jesuit Relations, i-iii, 1858, also 

 Thwaites edition, i-lxxiii, 1896-1901; the 

 Collections of the State Historical Society 

 of Wisconsin; Laverdiere, Gi^uvres de 

 Champlain, 1870; Sagard Theodat, Hig- 



