

THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 465 



The above facts, together with the other one which they repeatedly related to uie, 

 and which I have before alluded to, that they had often been to the hill of the red 

 pipestone, and that they once lived near it, carry conclusive evidence, I think, that 

 they have formerly occupied a country much farther to the south, and that they 

 have repeatedly changed their locations until they reached the spot of their last 

 residence, where they have met with their fioal misfortune. And as evidence in sup- 

 port of my opinion that they came from the banks of the Ohio, and have brought 

 with them some of the customs of the civilized people who erected those ancient 

 fortifications, I am able to say that the numerous specimens of pottery which have 

 been taken from the graves and tumuli about those ancient works (many of which 

 may be seen now in the Cincinnati Museum, and some of which, my own donations, 

 and which have so much surprised the inquiring world) were to be seen in great 

 numbers in the use of the Mandans ; and scarcely a day in the summer when the 

 visitor to their village would not see the women at work with their hands and fingers, 

 molding them from black clay into vases, cups, pitchers, and pots, and baking 

 them in their little kilns in the sides of the hill or under the bank of the river. 



In addition to this art, which I am sure belongs to no other tribe on the continent, 

 these people have also, as a secret with themselves, the extraordinary art of manu- 

 facturing a very beautiful and lasting kind of blue-glass beads, which they wear on 

 their necks in great quantities and decidedly value above all others that are brought 

 amongst them by the fur-traders. 



This secret is not only one that the traders did not introduce amongst them, but one 

 that they cannot learn from them ; and at the same time, beyond a doubt, an art that 

 has been introduced amongst them by some civilized people, as it is as \et unknown 

 to other Indian tribes in that vicinity or elsewhere. Of this interesting fact Lewis 

 and Clarke have given an account thirty-three years ago, at a time when no traders 

 or other white people had been amongst the Mandans to have taught them so curious 

 an art. 



The Mandan canoes, which are altogether different from those of all other tribes, 

 are exactly the Welsh coracle, made of raw-hides, the skins of buffaloes, stretched un- 

 derneath a frame made of willow or other boughs, and shaped nearly round like a 

 tub, which the woman carries on her head from her wigwam to the water's edge, and, 

 having stepped into it, stands in front and propels it by dipping her paddle forward 

 and drawing it to her, instead of paddling by the side. 



How far these extraordinary facts may go, in the estimation of the reader, with 

 numerous others which I have mentioned in volume 1, whilst speaking of the Man- 

 dans, of their various complexions, colors of hair, and blue and grey eyes, towards 

 establishing my opinion as a sound theory, I cannot say ; but this much I can safely 

 aver, that at the moment I first saw these people I was so struck with the peculiarity 

 of their appearance that I was under the instant conviction that they were an 

 amalgam of a native with some civilized race ; and from what I have seen of them, 

 and of the remains on the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, I feel fully convinced that these 

 people have emigrated from the latter stream ; and that they have, in the manner that I 

 have already stated, with many of their customs, been preserved from the almost total 

 destruction of the bold colonists of Madawc, who, I believe, settled upon and occupied 

 for a century or so the rich and fertile banks of the Ohio. In adducing the proof for the 

 support of this theory, if I have failed to complete it I have the satisfaction that I 

 have not taken up much of the reader's time, and I can therefore claim his attention 

 a few moments longer whilst I refer him to a brief vocabulary of the Mandan language 

 in the following pages, where he may compare it with that of the Welsh ; and better 

 perhaps, than I can, decide whether there is any affinity existing between the two ; 

 and if he finds it it will bring me a friendly aid in support of the position I have 

 taken. 



From the comparison that I have been able to make, I think I am authorized to 

 say that in the following list of words, which form a part of that vocabulary, there if.) 

 G744 30 



