THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 93 



Agent D. B. Dyer, July 22, 188-5, makes an exhaustive report as to 

 the conditions of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. He favors their being 

 disarmed. He gives the following interesting data in the same report: 



THE CHEYENNES. 



On Mondays we issue rations. At the beef corral a large concourse of Indians as- 

 sembles for beef, and at the commissary for flour. When the cattle are issued they 

 have an exciting time; the frightened and desperate animals rush madly around pur- 

 sued by from one to a dozen savages, yelling, whooping, and firing their guns, remind- 

 ing one of the early days when buffalo-hunting was their chief sport. When the beef 

 is killed the voracious bucks and their families eat the raw entrails with great satis- 

 faction. The squaws take charge of the carcass, dry the meat, and the " buck" takes 

 the hide to the traders. Such an assembly would furnish a study for an artist — In- 

 dians, ponies, and dogs of all ages, sizes, and appearances. Nearly all wear blankets, 

 but many have on some single garment of civilization. 



These Indians are a religious people in their way, and do not seem to doubt the 

 immortality of man. I have never opposed their "medicine-making," only so far as 

 to try to protect those who donot longer believe in it from being compelled to attend, 

 and this I think should be done by all means. The " dog soldiers" round up all these 

 people and make them attend, or risk their property and lives in the attemj)t to resist 

 their mandates. They live in ''teepees" that one white man would feel cramped in, 

 but dozens of Indians crowd in and enjoy the social dance, keeping time to the mo- 

 notonous tom-tom by chanting and hoAvling. 



A strange sight is their " medicine-dance " — fascinating, weird scene, their bodies 

 naked from the waist up. A number of braves enter the "medicine lodge." They 

 gash their arms and legs, and j)ierce holes in their chests, pass ropes through the 

 holes and suspend themselves from the center of the lodge until their struggling tears 

 the flesh loose. Each one has a whistle, and keeping their eyes on the charm, they 

 dance night and day without food or water until exhausted. These "medicines" are 

 a record of terrible suffering, endured with indomitable heroism, which sometimes ends 

 in death. Such evidence of devotion in the xierformance of duty is worthy of a better 

 religion. 



The "dog soldiers" are a sort of military organization, or fighting band, which they 

 keep up, composed of the most daring, bloodthirsty young men of the tribe. For 

 years past they ha^e been very troublesome. They commit crimes constantly and de- 

 mand heavy tributes for the privilege of driving through their country. Many of the 

 Indians who commit such crimes are known to me, but I have thus far been power- 

 less to arrest or punish them. Some of the more intelligent Indians deprecate such a 

 state of affairs, but the restless, savage, and dishonest portion of them see only the 

 present gain, and cannot or do not care if the money for their deviltry is paid by the 

 Government, as in the Oburn case. To say that such a state of affairs is demoralizing 

 in the extreme is putting the case mildly, and the Department should have checked 

 their course soon after I made my first rex^ort, calling for five hundred troops. 



Congress passed a law last winter making any offense committed by an Indian a 

 crime, if the same would have been a, crime under the United States law, when com- 

 mitted by a white man. This is all right, but up to the present time there has never 

 been any power here sufficiently strong to enforce it. It is now greatly to be hoped, 

 not only for the future good of the Indian, but for the jjrotection of the property of 

 others, that the law Avill be enforced. — D. B. Dyer, 1885. 



The Eev. S. S. Haury, Mennonite missionary, July 31, 1885, at the 

 Cheyenne Eeservation, makes the following suggestion : 



I cannot leave this point without making a few remarks on the matter of medicine- 

 dances. I must repeat what I said in my report to you last year, viz : " Whilst I do 



