328 THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



war (who resides there), by riding by it at full gallop, and sacrificing their best arrow 

 by throwing it against the side of the ledge. 



473. Batiste, Bogard, and I, approaching Buffalo, on the Missouri (coming down). 



Painted in 1832. (Plate No. 125, page 13, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



We met immense numbers of bnfEiiloes in the early part of our voyage, and used 



to land our canoe almost every hour in the day, aud oftentimes all together approach 



Ihe unsuspecting herds, through some deep and hidden ravine within a few rods of 



(liem, and, at the word "pull ttigger," each of us bring down our victim. — G. C. 



474. "Wi-jun-jon, the Pigeon's Egg Head. An Assineboin chief, going to and re- 



turning from Washington. Painted in 1832, on Upper Missouri. 



(Plates Nos. 271, 272, page 196, vol.2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



(See also Ko. 179.) 



This man was taken to Washington City in 1831 in a beautiful Indian dress by Ma- 

 jor Sanford, the Indian agent, and returned to his country the next spring, 1833, in a 

 colonel's uniform. He lectured a while to his people on the customs of the whites, 

 when he was denounced by them for telling lies, which he had learned of the whites, 

 and was by his own people put to death at the mouth of the Yellowstone. Major 

 Sanford and his Indians, including Wi-jun- Jon, were fellow-passengers on the steamer 

 Yellowstone, in 1832, to the Upper Missouri. 



THE STORY OF WI-JUN- JON.* 



" Wi-jun-jon (the Pigeon's Egg Head) was a brave and a warrior of the Assine- 

 boincs, young, proud, handsome, valiant, and graceful. He had fought many a battle 

 and w-on many a laurel. The numerous scalps from his enemies' heads adorned his 

 dresp, and his claims were fair and just for the highest honors that his country comd 

 bestow upon him, for his father was chief of the nation. 



"'Lemdme! desame — mon fr^re—mon ami! Bien, I am compost; go on, monsieur.' 



"Well, this young Assineboin, the 'Pigeon's Egg Head,' was selected by Major 

 Sanford, the Indian agent, to represent his tribe in a delegation which visited Wash- 

 ington City under his charge in the winter of 1831-'32. With this gentleman, the 

 Assineboin, together with representatives from several others of those Northwestern 

 tribes, descended the Missouri Eiver several thousand miles on their way to Wash- 

 ington. 



" While descending the river in a Mackinaw boat from the mouth of Yellowstone, 

 Wi-jun-jon and another of his tribe who was with him, at the first approach to the 

 civilized settlements, commenced a register of the white men's houses (or cabins) by 

 cutting a notch for each on the side of a pipe-stem, in order to be able to show when 

 they got home how many white men's houses they saw on their journey. At first the 

 cabins were scarce; but continually as they advanced down the river more and more 

 rapidly increased in numbers, and they soon found their pipe-stem filled with marks, 

 and they determined to put the rest of them on the handle of a war-club, which they 

 soon got marked all over likewise ; and at length, while the boat was moored at the 

 shore for the purpose of cooking the dinner of the party, Wi-jun-jon and his com- 

 panion stepped into the bushes and cut a long stick, from which they peeled the bark ; 

 and when the boat was again under way they sat down and with much labor copied 

 the notches onto it from the pipe-stem and club, and also kept adding a notch for 

 every house they passed. This stick was soon filled, and in a day or two several oth- 

 ers, when at last they seemed much at a loss to know what to do with their trouble- 

 some records, until they came in sight of Saint Louis, which is a town of fifteen thou- 



* Told by the camp fire at Coteau des Prairies in 1836. — Pages 195-200, inclusive, vol. 2, Catlin'i 

 Eight Tears. (See also picture No. 170, herein.) 



