260 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



rising elevation on the prairie, they pointed to their village at several miles' distance, 

 in the midst of one of the most enchanting valleys that human eyes ever looked upon. 

 The general course of the valley is from northwest to southeast, of several miles in 

 width, with a magnificent range of mountains rising in distance beyond ; it being, 

 without doubt, a huge "spur" of the Rocky Mountains, composed entirely of a red- 

 dish granite or gneiss corresponding with the other links of this stupendous chain. 

 In the midst of this lovely valley we could just discern, amongst the scattering 

 shrubbery that lined the banks of the water-courses, the tops of the Camanchee wig- 

 wams and the smoke curling above them. The valley for a mile distant about the 

 village seemed sp Q ckled with horses and mules that were grazing in it. The chiefs 

 of the war party requested the regiment to halt until they could ride in and inform 

 their people who were coming. We then dismounted for an hour or so, when we 

 could see them busily running and catching their horses, and at length several hun- 

 dred of their braves and warriors came out at full speed to welcome us, and forming 

 in a line in front of us, as we were again mounted, presented a formidable and pleas- 

 ing appearance. As they wheeled their horses, they very rapidly formed in a line, 

 and "dressed" like well-disciplined cavalry. The regiment was drawn up in three 

 columns with a line formed in front, by Colonel Dodge and his staff, in which rank 

 my friend Chadwiek and I were also paraded ; when we had a fine view of the whole 

 maneuver, which was picturesque and thrilling in the extreme. 



In the center of our advance was stationed a white flag, and the Indians answered 

 to it with one which they sent forward and planted by the side of it.* 



The two lines were thus drawn up face to face, within twenty or thirty yards of 

 each other, as inveterate foes that never had met ; and to the everlasting credit of the 

 Camanchees, whom the world has always looked upon as murderous and hostile, they 

 all came out in this manner, with their heads uncovered, and without a weapon of 

 any kind, to meet a war party bristling with arms, and trespassing to the middle of 

 their country. They had every reason to look upon us as their natural enemy, as they 

 have been in the habit of estimating all pale faces; and yet, instead of arms or de- 

 fenses, or even of frowns, they galloped out and looked us in our faces without an 

 expression of fear or dismay, and evidently with expressions of joy and impatient 

 pleasure to shake us by the hand on the bare assertion of Colonel Dodge, which had 

 been made to the chiefs, that " we came to see them on a friendly visit." 



After we had sat and gazed at each other in this way for some half an hour or so, 

 the head chief of the band came galloping up to Colonel Dodge, and having shaken 

 him by the hand, he passed on to the other officers in turn, and then rode alongside 

 of the different columns, shaking hands with every dragoon in the regiment. He was 

 followed in this by his principal chiefs and braves, which altogether took up nearly 

 an hour longer, when the Indians retreated slowly towards their village, escorting 

 us to the banks of a fine clear stream and a good spring of fresh water half a mile 

 from their village, which they designated as a suitable place for our encampment, 

 and we were soon bivouacked. 



354. "White sand bluffs, on Santa Rosa Island ; and Seminoles drying fish, near 

 Pensacola, on the Gulf of Florida. Painted in 1834. (See No. 349 for de- 

 scription.) 



(Plate No. 148, page 34, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



* It is a fact which I deem to be worth noting here, that amongst all Indian tribes that I have yet 

 visited in their primitive, as well as improved, state, the white flag is used as a flag of truce, as it is in 

 the civilized parts of the world, and held to be sacred and inviolable. The chief going to war always 

 carries it in some form or other, generally of a piece of white skin or bark rolled on a small stick, and 

 carried under his dress or otherwise, and also a red flag ; either to be unfurled when occasion requires, 

 the white flag as a truce and the red one for battle, or, as they say, " for blood."— G. C. 



