ome ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
preferred locating at a distance from each other, that their hunts might be better carried 
on; and their domestic arrangements and tribal government conducted by the chiefs and 
soldiers appointed to these positions by the general consent of each band. When two 
camps are joined, each having its own head, opinions and interests clash, quarrels follow, 
and separation, with angry feelings toward each other is the result, often extending to the 
stealing of each other’s horses. But by each band confining its hunting operations as 
nearly as practicable to a certain tract of country, accustomed to the rule of its own chief, 
and its own domestic associations, differences that arise when several bands who are com- 
parative strangers are thrown together, are prevented. Partly with this view, and partly 
to occupy their entire country where game is found, but mainly on account of the hunting 
advantages, the following sections were agreed upon as the residence of the different bands 
mentioned, which arrangement has been continued, with little deviation, up to the present 
time. 
The portion of the country inhabited by the Si-¢ay’-éos, or Burnt Thighs, is on the 
head waters of the White and Niobrara Rivers, extending down these rivers about half 
their length. The Teton River formed the northern limit. For many years, this band 
was headed by a chief named Ma-ka’-to-4a’-za, or the Clear Blue Earth, who governed 
them wisely and well. He was very friendly to the white man, and few Indians have 
had the power, dignity, and influence which he held over this band. Though some have 
been more feared, others more brave, yet by his constant and uniformly good management 
and just government, he kept his people in order, regulated their hunts, and usually 
avoided placing them in the starving situations incident to other bands, led by less judi- 
cious rulers. They were good hunters, usually well clothed and supplied with meat, had 
comfortable lodges, and a large number of horses. They varied their occupations by 
hunting buffalo, catching wild horses, and making war expeditions against the Arikaras, 
then stationed on the Platte, or the Pawnees, lower down on that river. Every summer, 
excursions were made by the young men into the Platte and Arkansas country, in quest 
of wild horses, which abounded there at that time in large numbers. ‘Their mode of 
catching them was by surrounding them, and running them down on their own horses. 
‘Taking their positions at different points, they pursued them from one to the other, until 
they became so fatigued as to be lassoed, after which they were thrown down, bridled, 
and packed or rode by these fearless cavaliers. Often forty to sixty of these wild horses 
were brought home as the results of a single expedition. 
In their wars with the Pawnees and Arikaras, the Brulees were usually victorious, and 
seldom a summer passed that they did not secure many of the scalps of their enemies. 
Indeed, the periods of time at all seasons were short that the scalp-dance was not going 
on, and the monotonous war-song heard through the village, accompanied by the lamen- 
tations of the friends of those who had fallen in battle. Their foes did not remain idle. 
