THE GE011GE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 83 



MR. CATLINGS NOTES ON TIIE MANDAN INDIANS. 



Their woinou are beautiful and modest, and amongst the respectable families vir- 

 tue is as highly cherished and as inapproachable as in any society whatever; yet, at 

 the same time, a chief may marry a dozen wives if ho pleases, and so may a white 

 man ; and if either wishes to marry the most beautiful and modest girl in the tribe, 

 she is valued only equal, perhaps, to two horses, a gun, with powder and ball for a 

 year, live or six pounds of beads, a couple of gallons of whisky, and a handfnl of awls. 



The girls of this tribe, like those of most of these northwestern tribes, marry at the 

 age of twelve or fourteen, and some at the age of eleven years ; and their beauty, from 

 this fact, as well as from the slavish life they lead, soon after marriage vanishes. 

 Their occupations are almost continual, and they seem to go industriously at them, 

 as if from choice or inclination, without a murmur. 



The principal occupations of the women in this village consist in procuring wood 

 and water, in cooking, dressing robes and other skins, in drying meat and wild fruit, 

 and raising corn (maize). The Mandans are somewhat of agriculturists, as they raise 

 a great deal of corn and some pumpkins and squashes. This is all done by the women, 

 who make their hoes of the shoulder-blade of the buffalo or the elk, and dig the 

 ground over instead of plowing it, which is consequently done with a vast deal of 

 labor. They raise a very small sort of corn, the ears of which are not longer than a 

 man's thumb. This variety is well adapted to their climate, as it ripens sooner than 

 other varieties, which would not mature in so cold a latitude. The green-corn season 

 is one of great festivity with them, and one of much importance. The greater part 

 of their crop is eaten during these festivals, and the remainder is gathered and dried 

 on the cob, before it has ripened, and packed away in caches (as the French call 

 them), holes dug in the ground some six or seven feet deep, the insides of which are 

 somewhat in the form of a jug, and tightly closed at the top. The corn, and even 

 dried meat and pemican, are placed in these caches, being packed tight around the 

 sides with prairie grass, and effectually preserved through the severest winters. 



Corn and dried meat are generally laid in in the fall, in sufficient quantities to sup- 

 port them through the winter. These are the principal articles of food during that 

 long and inclement season ; and in addition to them, they oftentimes have in store 

 great quantities of dried squashes and dried pommes blanches, a kind of turnip which 

 grows in great abundance in these regions, and of which I have before spoken. 

 These are dried in great quantities, and pounded into a sort of meal, and cooked with 

 the dried meat and corn. Great quantities also of wild fruit of different kinds are 

 dried and laid away in store for the winter season, such as buffalo-berries, service- 

 berries, strawberries, and wild plums. 



The buffalo meat, however, is the great staple and "staff of life" in this country, 

 and seldom, if ever, fails to afford them an abundant and wholesome means of sub- 

 sistence. There are, from a fair computation, something like 250,000 Indians in these 

 western regions, who live almost exclusively on the flesh of these animals, through 

 every part of the year. During the summer and fall months they use the meat fresh, 

 and cook it in a great variety of ways, by roasting, broiling, boiling, stewing, smok- 

 ing, &c; and by boiling the ribs and joints with the marrow in them, make a de- 

 licious soup, which is universally used, and in vast quantities. The Mandans, I find, 

 have no regular or stated times for their meals, but generally eat about twice in the 

 twenty-four hours. The pot is always boiling over the fire, and any one who is 

 hungry (either of the household or from any part of the village) has a right to order 

 it taken off, and to fall to eating as he pleases. Such is an unvarying custom amongst 

 the North American Indians, and I very much doubt whether the civilized world have 

 in their institutions any system which can properly be called more humane and char- 

 itable. Every man, woman, or child in Indian communities is allowed to enter any 

 one's lodge, and even that of the chief of the nation, and eat when they are hungry, 

 provided misfortune or necessity has driven them to it. Even so can the poorest and 

 most worthless drone of the nation ; if he is too lazy to hunt or to supply himself, he 



