The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, June 1885, No. 9Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Philosophy
The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, June 1885, No. 9
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
Turn now away from this dreadful scene and take a look at the funny side
of Indian life. Here is a fellow whose eager haste after a buffalo ends
in being thrown on the monster’s back and taking a bison ride over the
prairie. There the clans contend nip and tuck for mastery in the ball
play. On this canvas a celebrated archer is showing how many arrows he
can shoot before the first one falls. Perhaps your delicate sensibility
will not enjoy the dog dance, where the Sioux braves are dancing up
grotesquely and biting off pieces of a heart taken raw and bleeding
from a dog. Well, here is a sham battle of Mandan boys, their school of
practice every morning at sunrise, and just there a prairie-dog village.
This picture, No. 337, is the celebrated Pipestone quarry on the Couteau
des Prairies, 300 miles northwest of the Falls of St. Anthony, on the
divide between the St. Peters and the Missouri. Here is where from time
immemorial the Indians have obtained for making pipes that beautiful red
steatite, which the mineralogists now call _catlinite_, after our hero.
There are many more just as strange and interesting stories hanging about
this dear old Smithsonian, and some day THE CHAUTAUQUAN may let you into
the secret. You notice here and there that the fatal pointer has gone
quite through the noble brave, and that accounts for solicitude about
your cane and umbrella at the beginning. You will find them at the door,
and don’t fail to reclaim them with your check.
GEORGE BANCROFT.
BY PROF. W. W. GIST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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