The war between different tribes is a natural result of their efforts to maintain _independent_ sovereignties. The motives that influence them are not very unlike those that operate upon the most highly favored _Christian nations_, except that religion, as a rule, has but little to answer for, as they are mostly of one religious faith. All believe in the influence of and communion with departed spirits. The limited support afforded by the game of a given territory, frequently compels encroachments that result in war. Ambition for fame and leadership prompts young aspirants for the honors awarded to successful warriors, and they bear an initiatory torture in order to prove their fortitude and bravery, that would almost seem beyond human endurance. After a reputation has been acquired as a successful leader, old feuds must be maintained and new wars originated to gratify and employ ambitious followers, or the glory and influence of the successful chieftain will soon depart or be given to some new aspirant for the leadership of the tribe. In their warlike movements, as in all their private affairs, their “medicine men” are important personages. They are supposed to have power to propitiate evil spirits or exorcise them. They assume the duties of physicians, orators and advisers in their councils, and perform the official duties of priests in their religious ceremonies. In my inquiries concerning their religious faith, I have sometimes been surprised, as well as amused, at the grotesque expressions used in explanations of their crude ideas of theology. With their mythology and traditions, would occasionally appear expressions evidently derived from the teachings of Christianity, the origin of which, no doubt, might have been traced to the old Missions. The fugitive converts from those Missions being the means of engrafting the Catholic element on to the original belief of the mountain tribes. Their recitations were a peculiar mixture, but they vehemently claimed them as original, and as revealed to them by the Great Spirit, through his mediums or prophets (their “medicine men”), in visions and trances. These “mediums,” in their character of priests, are held in great veneration. They are consulted upon all important occasions, let it be of war, of the chase, plunder or of marriage. They provide charms and amulets to protect the wearer from the evil influence of adverse spirits and the weapons of war, and receive for these mighty favors donations corresponding to the support afforded Christian priests and ministers. The sanctification of these relics is performed by an elaborate mysterious ceremony, the climax of which is performed in secret by the priestly magnate. The older the relic, the more sacred it becomes as an heirloom.