the various tribes of the crees.—their conquests and subsequent defeat.—their wars with the blackfeet.—their character.—tattooing.—their dress.—fondness for their children.—the cree cradle.—vapor baths.—games.—their religious ideas.—the cree tartarus and elysium.
the various tribes of the crees, or eythinyuwuk, range from the rocky mountains and the plains of the saskatchewan to the swampy shores of hudson’s bay. towards the west and north they border on the tinné, towards the east and south, on the ojibbeway or sauteurs, who belong like them to the great family of the lenni-lenape indians, and inhabit the lands between lake winipeg and lake superior.
about sixty years since, at the time when napoleon was deluging europe with blood, the crees likewise played the part of conquerors, and subdued even more extensive, though less valuable domains.
provided with fire-arms, which at that time were unknown to their northern and western neighbors, they advanced as far as the arctic circle, imposing tribute on the various tribes of the tinné. but their triumphs were not more durable than those of the great european conqueror.
the small-pox broke out among them and swept them away by thousands. meanwhile the tinné tribes had remained untouched by this terrible scourge; and as the agents of the hudson’s bay company, advancing farther and farther to the west and north, had likewise made them acquainted with the use of fire-arms, they in their turn became the aggressors, and drove the crees before them.320 their former conquerors now partly migrated to the south, and leaving the forest region, where they had hunted the reindeer and the elk, spread over the prairies of the saskatchewan, where they now pursued the herds of bison, sometimes driving them over a precipice, or chasing them on foot through the snow. but in their new abodes they became engaged in constant feuds with their new neighbors the assiniboins and blackfeet, who of course resented their intrusion.
the romance in which the manners and character of the indians are portrayed might lead us to attribute to these people a loftiness of soul for which it would be vain to look in the present day, and which without much skepticism we may assert they never really possessed. actions prompted only by the caprice of a barbarous people have been considered as the results of refined sentiment; and savage cunning, seen through the false medium of prejudice, assumed the nobler proportions of a far-sighted policy. but though the history of the wars of the indians among themselves and with the europeans affords but few instances of heroism, it abounds in traits of revolting cruelty, and in pictures of indescribable wretchedness.
118. a herd of bison.
a large party of blackfeet once made a successful foray in the territory of the crees. but meanwhile the latter surprised the camp where the aggressors had left their wives and children; and thus, when the blackfeet returned to their tents, they found desolation and death where they looked for a joyful welcome. in their despair they cast away their arms and their booty, and retired to the mountains, where for three days and nights they wailed and mourned.
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119. driving bison over a precipice.
in the year 1840 a bloody war broke out between the crees and the blackfeet, arising as in general from a very trifling cause. peace was at length concluded, but while the two nations were celebrating this fortunate event with games and races, a cree stole a ragged blanket, and a new fight immediately began. returning home, the blackfeet met a cree chieftain, with two of his warriors, and killed them after a short altercation. soon after the crees surprised and murdered some of the blackfeet, and thus the war raged more furiously than ever. sir george simpson, who was travelling through the country at the time, visited the hut of a cree who had been wounded in the conflict at the peace meeting. as in his flight he bent over his horse’s neck, a ball had struck him on the right side, and remained sticking near the articulation of the left shoulder. in this condition he had already lain for three-and-thirty days, his left arm frightfully swollen, and the rest of his body emaciated to a skeleton. near the dying savage, whose glassy eye and contracted features spoke of the dreadful pain of which he disdained to speak, lay his child, reduced to skin and bones, and expressing by a perpetual moaning the pangs of illness and hunger, while most to be pitied perhaps of this wretched family was the wife and mother, who seemed to be sinking under the double load of care and fatigue. during the night the “medicine-man” was busy beating his magic drum and driving away the evil spirits from the hut.
although the crees show great fortitude in enduring hunger and the other evils incident to a hunter’s life, yet any unusual accident dispirits them at once, and they seldom venture to meet their enemies in open warfare, or even to surprise them, unless they have a great advantage in point of numbers. instances of personal bravery like that of the esquimaux are rare indeed among them. superior in personal appearance to the tinné, they are less honest, and though perhaps not so much given to falsehood as the tinné, are more turbulent and more prompt to invade the rights of their countrymen, as well as of neighboring nations.
322 tattooing is almost universal among them. the women are in general content with having one or two lines drawn from the corners of the mouth towards the angles of the lower jaw, but some of the men have their bodies covered with lines and figures. it seems to be considered by most rather as a proof of323 courage than an ornament, as the operation is both painful and tedious. the lines on the face are formed by dexterously running an awl under the cuticle, and then drawing a cord, dipped in charcoal and water, through the canal thus formed. the punctures on the body are made by needles of various sizes, set in a frame. a number of hawk-bells attached to this frame serve, by their noise, to cover the groans of the sufferer, and probably for the same reason the process is accompanied with singing. an indelible stain is produced by rubbing a little finely-powdered willow-charcoal into the puncture. a half-breed, whose arm was amputated by sir john richardson, declared that tatooing was not only the more painful operation of the two, but rendered infinitely more difficult to bear by its tediousness, having lasted, in his case, three days.
the crees are also fond of painting their faces with vermilion and charcoal. in general the dress of the male consists of a blanket thrown over the shoulders, a leathern shirt or jacket, and a piece of cloth tied round the middle. the women have in addition a long petticoat, and both sexes wear a kind of wide hose, which, reaching from the ankle to the middle of the thigh, are suspended by strings to the girdle. these hose, or “indian stockings,” are commonly ornamented with beads or ribands, and from their convenience have been universally adopted by the white residents, as an essential part of their winter-clothing. their shoes, or rather soft boots (for they tie round the ankle), are made of dressed moose-skins; and during the winter they wrap several pieces of blanket round their feet. they are fond of european articles of dress, such as great-coats, shawls, and calicoes, which, however showy they may be at first, are soon reduced to a very filthy condition by their custom of greasing the face and hair with soft fat or marrow. this practice they say preserves the skin soft, and protects it from cold in the winter and the mosquitoes in summer; but it renders their presence disagreeable to europeans who may chance to be seated near them in a close tent and near a hot fire.
120. watching for crees.
the cree women are not in general treated harshly by their husbands: a great part of the labor, however, falls to the lot of the wife. she makes the hut, cooks, dresses the skins, and for the most part carries the heaviest load; but when she is unable to perform her task, the husband does not consider it beneath his dignity to assist her.
the crees are extremely indulgent to their children. the father never chastises them; and the mother, though more hasty in her temper, seldom bestows a blow on a troublesome child.
the cradle in use among them is well adapted to their mode of life, and is one of their neatest articles of furniture, being generally ornamented with beads and bits of scarlet cloth, but it bears a very strong resemblance in its form to a mummy-case. the infant is placed in this bag, having its lower extremities wrapped up in soft sphagnum, or bog-moss, and may be hung up in the tent or to the branch of a tree, without the least danger of tumbling out; or, in a journey may be suspended on the mother’s back by a band which crosses the forehead so as to leave her hands free. the sphagnum forms a soft elastic bed, which absorbs moisture very readily, and affords such a protection from the winter cold that its place would be ill supplied by any other material.
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121. a cree village.
the ordinary wigwams, skin tents, or “lodges” of the tinné and crees are exactly alike in form, being extended on poles set up in a conical manner; but as a general rule the tents of the latter are more commodious and more frequently supplied with a fresh lining of the spray of the balsam-fir. they also occasionally erect a larger dwelling of lattice-work, covered with birch-bark, in which forty men or more can assemble for feasting, debating, or performing some of their religious ceremonies. the entire nation of the eythinyuwuk cultivate oratory more than their northern neighbors, who express themselves more simply and far less fluently.
vapor baths are in common use with the crees, and form one of the chief remedies of their medicine-men. the operator shuts himself up with his patient in the small sweating-house—in which red-hot stones besprinkled with water, and having a few leaves of a species of prunus strewed around them, produce a damp atmosphere of a stifling heat—and shampoos him, singing all the time a kind of hymn. as long as the medicine-man can hold out, so long must the patient endure the intense heat of the bath, and then, if the invalid be able to move, they both plunge into the river. if the patient does not recover, he is at least more speedily released from his sufferings by this powerful remedy.
the crees are a vain, fickle, improvident, indolent, and ludicrously boastful race. they are also great gamblers, but, instead of cards or dice, they play with the stones of a species of prunus. the difficulty lies in guessing the number of stones which are tossed out of a small wooden dish, and the hunters will spend whole nights at this destructive sport, staking their most valuable325 articles. they have, however, a much more manly amusement, termed the “cross,” although they do not engage even in it without depositing considerable stakes. an extensive meadow is chosen for this sport, and the articles staked are tied to a post, or deposited in the custody of two old men. the combatants being stripped and painted, and each provided with a kind of racket, in shape resembling the letter p, with a handle about two feet long, and a head loosely wrought with net-work, so as to form a shallow bag, range themselves on different sides. a ball being now tossed up in the middle, each party endeavors to drive it to their respective goals, and much dexterity and agility is displayed in the contest. when a nimble runner gets the ball in his cross, he sets off towards the goal with the utmost speed, and is followed by the rest, who endeavor to jostle him and shake it out, but, if hard pressed, he discharges it with a jerk, to be forwarded by his own party or bandied back by their opponents until the victory is decided by its passing the goal.
neither the esquimaux nor the tinné have any visible objects of worship, but the crees carry with them small wooden figures rudely carved, or merely the tops of a few willow-bushes tied together, as the representatives of a malicious, or at least capricious being, called kepoochikann. their most common petition to this being is for plenty of food, but as they do not trust entirely to his favor, they endeavor at the same time to propitiate the animal, an imaginary representative of the whole race of larger quadrupeds that are objects of the chase.
though often referring to the kitche-manito, the “great spirit,” or “master of life,” they do not believe that he cares for his creatures, and consequently never think of praying to him. they have no legend about the creation, but they speak of a deluge caused by an attempt of the fish to drown woesack-ootchacht, a kind of demi-god, with whom they had quarrelled. having constructed a raft, this being embarked with his family and all kinds of birds and beasts. after the flood had continued for some time, he ordered several waterfowl to dive to the bottom. they were all drowned; but a musk-rat, dispatched on the same errand, returned with a mouthful of mud, out of which woesack-ootchacht, imitating the mode in which the rats construct their houses, formed a new earth. first a small conical hill of mud appeared above the water; by-and-by, its base gradually spreading out, it became an extensive bank, which the rays of the sun at length hardened into firm land. notwithstanding the power that woesack-ootchacht here displayed, his person is held in very little reverence by the indians, who do not think it worth while to make any effort to avert his wrath.
like the tinné, the crees also have a tartarus and an elysium. the souls of the departed are obliged to scramble with great labor up the sides of a steep mountain, upon attaining the summit of which they are rewarded with the prospect of an extensive plain abounding in all sorts of game, and interspersed here and there with new tents pitched in pleasant situations. while they are absorbed in the contemplation of this delightful scene, they are descried by the inhabitants of the happy land, who, clothed in new skin dresses, approach and welcome, with every demonstration of kindness, those indians who have led326 good lives, but the bad indians are told to return from whence they came, and without more ceremony are hurled down the precipice.
as yet christianity has made but little progress among the indians of british north america, its benefits being hitherto confined to the ojibbeways of lake huron, and to a small number of the crees of the hudson’s bay territory. the well-fed sauteurs of the winipeg are as disinclined to be converted as the buffalo-hunters of the prairies.
