Missionary Work Among the Ojebway IndiansWilson, Edward Francis
History
Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians
Wilson, Edward Francis
Indians of North America -- Missions; Ojibwa Indians
We got our tents pitched--the Bishop's and our own--and then went out
to survey the scene. A most novel and interesting one indeed it was,
wigwams on all sides of us, some of them containing perhaps forty
people, others conical, in which were two or three families with a fire
common to them all in the middle. In the water near the dock were
several boys bathing and diving, as though perfectly in their element.
Here and there stalked a stately chief in his scarlet coat, leggings,
mocassins, and feathers in his head. The councillors, of which there
were three to each band, wore dark coats with scarlet trimmings. But
there were more outlandish personages than these to be seen; tall, lank
men, with nothing on them but a scarlet blanket wound around the naked
body, at times covering the shoulders, at times drawn only around the
waist. Nearly all had plaited hair and silver earrings, and many had
feathers in their heads, or head-dresses of beads and ribbons. The
squaws were dressed much the same as our own Indians in bodices and
skirts, though not quite so tidily. Some of the bead-work worn by the
men was very handsome; it consisted mostly of garters below the knee,
waistbands and tobacco-pouches worn round the neck and covering the
front of the body. They also had their curiously-carved pipes, some of
them with stems a yard long, tomahawks, knives, and other appendages.
Soon men and squaws were seen wending their way to their wigwams,
bending under the weight of a side of bacon or a bag of flour. Now was
a high time of joviality for them all--even the dogs licked their lips
and prepared for the feast.
A crowd collected in rear of the Government buildings; and squatting
upon mats on the ground were the musicians, three or four in number,
beating away vigorously at their very unmusical drums--just the size
and shape of a flat cheese, their drumsticks being shaped like a crook.
Soon the war-dancers appeared upon the scene, each with a whoop and a
flourish of his knife or tomahawk. Conspicuous among them was
Blackstone--no longer in European dress, but with legs bare on either
side to his hips--a white shirt almost hidden by massive beadwork
ornaments, long braided hair, feathers in his head, and his right hand
flourishing a bayonet. The dancing consisted in the actors leaping
suddenly to their feet with a whoop, and working the whole body
convulsively up and down while standing on their toes, without moving
from their position, a monotonous whirring sound being kept up all the
time, in which the squaws sitting around assisted. This was kept up
long enough for me to sketch one man, when with another whoop and a
flourish they sank into a squatting position, the drums still going on
unceasingly. After a little rest up they got again, and so it kept on
for a couple of hours. The proceedings, however, were broken in the
middle by a speech from Blackstone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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