312 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



MANDAN HUNTERS SURPRISED BY SIOUX AND KILLED. 



After this general indulgence was over, and the dogs had licked the dishes, their 

 usual games and amusements ensued, and hilarity and mirth and joy took possession 

 of and reigned in every nook and corner of the village ; and, in the midst of this, 

 screams and shrieks were heard, and echoed everywhere. Women and children 

 scrambled to the tops of their wigwams, with their eyes and their hands stretched in 

 agonizing earnestness to the prairie, whilst blackened warriors ran furiously through 

 every winding maze of the village, and issuing their jarring gutturals of vengeance, 

 as they snatched their deadly weapons from their lodges, and struck the reddened 

 post as they furiously passed it by. Two of their hunters were bending their course 

 down the sides of the bluff toward the village, and another broke suddenly out of a 

 deep ravine, and yet another was seen dashing over and down the green hills, and all 

 were goading on their horses at full speed ; and then came another and another, and 

 all entered the village amid shouts and groans of the villagers who crowded around 

 them ; the story was told in their looks, for one was bleeding, and the blood that 

 flowed from his naked breast had crimsoned his milk-white steed as it had dripped 

 over him ; another grasped in his left hand a scalp that was reeking in blood, and in 

 the other his whip ; another grasped nothing save the reins in one hand and the 

 mane of the horse in the other, having thrown his bow and his arrows away and 

 trusted to the fleetness of his horse for his safety ; yet the story was audibly told, and 

 the fatal tragedy recited in irregular and almost suffocating ejaculations — the names 

 of the dead were in turns pronounced and screams and shrieks burst forth at their 

 recital — murmurs and groans ran through the village, and this happy little commu- 

 nity were in a moment smitten with sorrow and distraction. 



Their proud band of hunters who had started full of glee and mirth in the morning 

 had been surrounded by their enemy, the Sioux, and eight of them killed. The 

 Sioux, who had probably reconnoitered their village during the night, and ascer- 

 tained that they were dancing for buffaloes, laid a strategem to entrap them, in the 

 following manner : Some six or eight of them appeared the next morning (on a dis- 

 tant bluff, in sight of their sentinel) under the skins of buffaloes, imitating the move- 

 ments of those animals whilst grazing ; and being discovered by the sentinel, the in- 

 telligence was telegraphed to the village, which brought out their hunters as I have 

 described. The masked buffaloes were seen grazing on the top of a high bluff, and 

 when the hunters had approached within half a mile or so of them they suddenly 

 disappeared over the hill. Louison Fre'nie', who was leading the little band of hunt- 

 ers, became at that moment suspicious of so strange a movement, and came to a halt 

 * * * " Look ! " said a Mandan, pointing to a little ravine to the right and at the 

 foot of the hill, from which suddenly broke some forty or fifty furious Sioux, on fleet 

 horses and under full whip, who were rushing upon them ; they wheeled and in front 

 of them came another band more furious from the otht-r side of the hill. They started 

 for home, poor fellows, and strained every nerve, but the Sioux were too fleet for 

 them ; and every now and then the whizzing arrow and the lance were heard to rip 

 the flesh of their naked backs, and a grunt and a groan as they tumbled from their 

 horses. Several miles were run in this desperate race, and Fr^nie" got home, and 

 several of the Mandans, though eight of them were killed and scalped by the way. 



So ended that day and the hunt: but many a day and sad will last the grief of 

 those whose hearts were broken on that unlucky occasion. 



This day, though, my readers, has been one of a more joyful kind, for the Great 

 Spirit, who was indignant at so flagrant an injustice, has sent the Mandans an abun- 

 dance of buffaloes ; and all hearts have joined in a general thanksgiving to Him for 

 His goodness and justice.— Pages 126-130, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. 



441. Ball-play Dance, Choctaws. 



(Plate No. 224, page 125, vol. 2, Catling Eight Years.) 



(See No. 427— for description.) 



