Texts of the North American Indian

Writings of E.S. Curtis
Excerpts from "The North American Indian" Set #254, Vol. 3

Having decided upon a girl whom he would make his wife, he places himself by some secluded path where she is likely to pass at nightfall. As she glides with soft fall of moccasined feet along the shadowy trail, the young man slips from his concealment to meet her, shrouded in a sombre blanket, his dark eyes peering out from its folds. The girl may not fancy his attentions and soon pass on, perhaps to meet other suitors. If she be a proud and haughty maiden, several summers may pass with their evenings of courtship ere her heart finally goes out to some favored youth. With her consent to marry, the lovers exchange the marriage-token -- a ball of sweet-grass wrapped in deerskin with long fringes to be tied in the hair at the ends of the braids. She then names the time when her lover is to come for her. At this appointed hour he goes to her tipi, cautiously raises the cover at the place where she is sleeping, touches her to apprise her of his presence, when she rises quietly and the two steal forth. The young man then takes his sweetheart at once to his parents' tipi. In the morning the youth's father summons the village crier, bidding him announce that his son has taken a wife, and at the same time a horse is given to some poor person whom the herald publicly names. Thus the two are married. It was never the Teton custom for a young man to take the girl away from the village and live apart with her for a time as a form of honeymoon. Such has occurred in modern times, but only when there was parental opposition to the marraige.

At other times the marriage was of a more conventional nature. The courtship was the same, but the suitor having been accepted and the alliance proving satisfactory to his parents, they sent many presents to the parents of the girl, who, after the family in council had agreed on the fitness of the suitor and the adequacy of the gifts, would signify their consent by making many gifts to the youth's family in turn. If these consisted of horses, the girl was placed upon the finest and was thus borne to the tipi of her lover, where she was received by the women of the family, who spread a large buffalo robe on the ground for her to step upon in dismounting. Both forms of marriage existed side by side until within recent times. It is, however, self-evident that the latter method was the one followed by the daughters of the more important families.

Polygyny was common, the number of wives being limited only by the man's ability to obtain and support them; and the more wives he had the richer he became, as there were that many more workers to prepare skins, which among the Sioux constituted a large part of the wealth. With the consent of his wives a man often married a younger sister of one of them, and usually presents were given for the girl. All lived together in the same tipi, and if a deposed favorite should create discord by reason of her jealousy she was soon sent away. The divorced wife, returning to her parents, married again when opportunity offered. A runaway wife was more than apt to be killed by the husband, and a meeting between the woman's husband and her new consort was likely to result in a fight with fatal consequences.

In the mortuary rites of the Lakota the relatives immediately after death combed the hair of the deceased, dressed the body in fine cloathing, and painted the face red. Then occurred the first day's performance of the Ghost Keeper ceremony, itself an elaborate mortuary service. After removing a lock of hair, the laid the body on a buffalo-robe, wrapped it tightly in several skins, and tied it securely with thongs. For the preparation of the burial-platform, the relatives selected a poor person of the same sex as the deceased, who erected the scaffold in a tree by fastening poles from branch to branch. The same person who prepared the resting-place carried the body out and lashed it securely to the platform. Relatives and friends followed, giving vent to their grief in true primitive fashion by loud wailing and crying. Food was left with the body, and the favorite horse was killed, that the spirit might travel in a fitting manner to the after-world in the south.

An instance of the disposal of the remains of a Sioux warrior killed in battle is related by the Apsaroke. During a clash between war-parties of the two tribes in the Wolf mountains, the Apsaroke were certain that a Lakota, who had ridden a noticeably large sorrel horse, had been killed. They followed the trail of the retreating war-party, and within a few miles of the scene of the fight found the body laid on its tree-scaffold. There, with painted shield and feather-decked coup-stick proudly hanging above, the warrior lay fastened in the tree, beneath it the body of his favorite horse, which had carried its master to the end of his train and there been shot that their spirits might journey together. Burial tipis were sometimes used, a notable instance being the tipi of the dead in the valley of the Little Bighorn, in which, after the Custer fight, were laid side by side, as if asleep, the bodies of some of the fallen Sioux.

The entire culture of the Sioux is based primarily on two concepts, first, that his "medicine", or supernatural occult power, is derived from the mysterious forces of nature, and secondly, his creed of a brave heart. The conduct and the effort of every Sioux throughout life were so to strengthen his supernatural power that he could not only resist any harm threatening him from ordinary sources, but could become possessed of invulnerability to those imbued with like power. He desired this mystery-power to be stronger than any he was to encounter. Many a brave warrior has cried out to his people that his "medicine" was so great that no arrow or bullet from the enemy could harm him, and, singing his medicine-songs, has charged recklessly into the camp of the enemy and struck them right and left, and, strangely enough, they seem often to have proved their pretension to supernatural strength in that while they were shot at repeatedly at close range they escaped unharmed.

In spite of this strong belief in the tutelary spirit of the Sioux was a fatalist, a firm believer in predestination, convinced that if it were so decreed he would lose his life; no subtle power, however strong, no care on his part, could save him. It was his belief further that the spirt or mystery-strength of the animal that appeared to him in vision entered his body and became a part of his waka strength. He might fast many times and have many such tutelary spirits within his body.

Notwithstanding the mystery-power residing within him, the Sioux warrior prepared his war-shield for utility, after which it was consecrated and made waka by painting on it, literally or symbolically, the animals or objects that constituted his "medicine." If it was a bird that appeared to him, feathers of that bird were fastened around the edge of the shield, and as a further protection he wore about his person a portion of the bird; or if an animal, some portion of it, as, for instance, a necklace of bear-claws, was used as a part of the warrior's personal adornment. Ordinarily such objects would be classed as fetishes or talismans, but as used by the Indian they are more than that. Consecrated weapons also formed a part of his war equipment.

Coups, or honors, claimed by warriors show to what extent braveness of heart entered into every thought of their life. In camp the chiefs and warriors would meet around the council-fire and recount stories of the war-path, and as each deed was related without challenge, a stick from the bundle was kept by the chief would be laid before him. The French-Canadian word coup, of such common usage in speaking of Indian deeds of valor, has not been adopted by the Sioux; their term is toka-kte ("kill enemy").

A coup could be won by actually killing an enemy, by striking the body of an enemy whether dead or alive, by capturing a horse or a band of horses, or by taking a scalp. Honors were counted on each hostile warrior by the first four who struck him, the first in each case winning the greatest renown, an honor called taya-kte ("kill right"). Thus, if twenty men were struck or even touched in an encounter, twenty honors of the first grade were won by the victors. But the greatest exploit of all was to ride into the midst of the enemy and strike a warrior in action without attempting to wound him. When a man had led four war-parties, and in each achieved a first honor, he was eligible to chieftainship. If in addition to the recognized coups a man had been wounded, or had had his horse killed or wounded, or had been sent out with a scouting party, he was considered an accomplished warrior and was entitled to wear a scalp-shirt, on which his exploits were indicated by various insignia: a wound was represented by a breast-feather of the eagle, dyed red; a white one signified that the wearer had been a member of a scouting party, while a yellow one denoted a captured horse; and each tuft of the human h air that gave the shirt its name indicated a coup. An eagle's tail-feather was usually worn in the hair for each honor counted. Wounds to man or horse were indicated by marks painted on the body over the injured spot. A man who had killed the first enemy in a battle also painted his face black.

Captives were adopted into the tribe. Chief Minihuha never heard of a case in which the Sioux had tortured one of their captives by burning though he had once been told that the Pawnee burned at the stake the Sioux, Paints His Face Red, after having killed hi entire family. Discussing the treatment of captives, Minihuha related the following incident:

"When I was a young man my father was with a small party that happened to come upon a single tipi of the Shoshoni. The occupants were killed, all except one little girl, who was captured alive by my father and brought home. My sister had died a short time before, and the little Shoshoni girl was adopted in her place and given the name Zitkala-washte-wi, Pretty Bird Woman. She was about twelve years of age and lived with us more than a year. Then through the Arapaho, who were friendly with the Shoshoni, we heard that her father was alive and was searching for his daughter. My father thought the matter over; then he came to me and said:

"'My son, are you willing that your sister should be sent back to her people?'

EDWARD S. CURTIS