738 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



braska, where tbey roamed in bands, were the product of the unloosed 

 horse which came with Pizzaro, Cortez, and Hernando DeSoto — became 

 the aid of exploration. The interior of the country could thus have be- 

 come explored, and the various tribes, intermingling by reason of this 

 aid to development, might partially account for the long intervals at 

 which Indian languages are found. 



The horse must have marked an epoch in the warfare of the Indian. 

 His graphic art, as shown in the older rude paintings on rocks, does not 

 indicate a horse ; but on robes or otherwise as we now have them, the 

 horse seems to have been an indispensable part of the Indian and the 

 Indian of the horse. 



The fierce Comanche resisted the northern Sioux as he came to the 

 wild-horse plains to get his horses. The Sioux fought the Pawnee 

 and the Cheyenne for the buffalo grounds. With most of these vari- 

 ous Indian tribes war seems to have been a normal condition, if their 

 traditions are to be believed. 



The workers in tribes were few, the male bread-winners less. The 

 squaw was the stay of the household, and war, and celebrations of its 

 victories or defeats, with the triumphs to the victors, seems to have 

 occupied the major iDortion of the male Indians' lives. Peace seems to 

 have had but few advocates. 



The battle for the necessities of life was an easy one. Game was 

 plenty, for man was not yet in great numbers. Skins and furs were 

 plenty, and almost all of the larger fur-bearing animals used for domestic 

 purposes were edible. The streams swam abundance of fish, and the sea- 

 son's as ever were the harbingers of nature's moods, bringing crops of 

 roots and nuts. 



With no permanent homes they moved with the seasons, and could 

 have perpetual summer or endless winter. Still, with all of his shift- 

 lessness, the Indian had an idea of economy, and game preserves or 

 buffalo fields were only invaded in season. In the shade of great 

 trees, in the fastness of mountain, along the side of fern-lined valleys, 

 where trickling streams leaped to the music of the children's laughter, 

 warriors planned murder and 'attacks on rich and distant foes. The 

 women and children were left behind, and long wary marches by night 

 and halts by day preceded attacks upon neighboring villages, and the 

 acquirement of new honors and station. From the line of Canada on 

 the north, along the genial streams of Montana, over the valley of the 

 Snake and past the Humboldt trail, circling the waters of Timpanogos, 

 now Great Salt Lake, to the valley of the Colorado and thence to the 

 sea, looking from an elevation like a thread of silver in a garment of 

 brown serge, can yet be clearly seen the old Lemhi trail. Along this the 

 almost constant stream of Indian life has passed for hundreds of years. 

 Pierce Crows and Sioux have crossed arms thereon in deadly embrace, 

 and here also the Comanche and ]S'ez Percys met in bloody strife, for 

 these fierce wild men were constantly at war. 



