"Long-chin," the leader, and the other murderers, when given up by the tribe, were carried to Washington, D. C., where—with the ultra-philanthropy which has of modern days distinguished the "Great Father's" government of his "Poor Children of the Plains"—the villains were liberally rewarded and restored to their homes.[1] To cut off a bend of the Platte we once more left the valley, ascended sundry slopes of sand and clay deeply cut by dry creeks, and from the summit enjoyed a pretty view. A little to the left rose the aerial blue cone of that noble landmark, Laramie Peak, based like a mass of solidified air upon a dark wall, the Black Hills, and lit up with the roseate hues of the morning. The distance was about sixty miles; you would have guessed twenty. On the right lay a broad valley, bounded by brown rocks and a plain-colored distance, with the stream winding through it like a thread of quicksilver; in places it was hidden from sight by thickets of red willow, cypress clumps, and dense cool cotton-woods. All was not still life; close below us rose the white lodges of the Ogalala tribe.
These Indian villages are very picturesque from afar when dimly seen dotting the verdure of the valleys, and when their tall white cones, half hidden by willow clumps, lie against a blue background. The river side is the savages' favorite site; next to it the hill foot, where little groups of three or four tents are often seen from the road, clustering mysteriously near a spring. Almost every prairie-band has its own way of constructing lodges, encamping and building fires, and the experienced mountaineer easily distinguishes them.
The Osages make their lodges in the shape of a wagon-tilt, somewhat like our gipsies' tents, with a frame-work of bent willow rods planted in the ground, and supporting their blankets, skins, or tree-basts.
The Kickapoos build dwarf hay-stack huts, like some tribes of Africans, setting poles in the earth, binding them over and lashing them together at the top; they are generally covered with clothes or bark.
The Witchetaws, Wakoes, Towakamis, and Tonkowas are described by the "Prairie Traveler" as erecting their hunting lodges of sticks put up in the form of the frustrum of a cone, and bushed over like "boweries."
All these tribes leave the frame-work of their lodges standing when they shift ground, and thus the particular band is readily recognized.
- ↑ A United States official, fresh from Columbia, informed me that the Indians there think twice before they murder a King George's man (Briton), while they hardly hesitate to kill a Boston man or American citizen. He attributed this peculiarity principally to the over lenity of his own government, and its want of persistency in ferreting out and punishing the criminal. Under these circumstances, it is hardly to be wondered at if the trader and traveler in Indian countries take the law in their own hands. This excessive clemency has acted evilly in "either Ind." We may hope that its day is now gone by.
