Dahcotah | Page 8

Knob, on
whose top the Indians bury their dead, with the small hills rising
gradually around it--all were dear to the Sioux and to me. They
believed that the rocks, and hills, and waters were peopled with fairies
and spirits, whose power and anger they had ever been taught to fear. I
knew that God, whose presence fills all nature, was there. In fancy they
beheld their deities in the blackened cloud and fearful storm; I saw
mine in the brightness of nature, the type of the unchanging light of
Heaven.
They evinced the warmest gratitude to any who had ever displayed kind
feelings towards them. When our little children were ill with scarlet
fever, how grieved they were to witness their sufferings; especially as
we watched Virginia, waiting, as we expected, to receive her parting
breath. How strongly they were contrasted! that fair child, unconscious
even of the presence of the many kind friends who had watched and
wept beside her--and the aged Sioux women, who had crept noiselessly
into the chamber. I remember them well, as they leaned over the foot of
the bed; their expressive and subdued countenances full of sorrow. That
small white hand, that lay so powerless, had ever been outstretched to
welcome them when they came weary and hungry.
They told me afterwards, that "much water fell from their eyes day and
night, while they thought she would die;" that the servants made them
leave the sick room, and then turned them out of the house--but that
they would not go home, waiting outside to hear of her.
During her convalescence, I found that they could "rejoice with those

that rejoice" as well as "weep with those that wept." The fearful disease
was abating in our family, and "Old Harper," as she is called in the Fort,
offered to sit up and attend to the fire. We allowed her to do so, for the
many who had so kindly assisted us were exhausted with fatigue. Joy
had taken from me all inclination to sleep, and I lay down near my little
girl, watching the old Sioux woman. She seemed to be reviewing the
history of her life, so intently did she gaze at the bright coals on the
hearth. Many strange thoughts apparently engaged her. She was, of her
own accord, an inmate of the white man's house, waiting to do good to
his sick child. She had wept bitterly for days, lest the child should be
lost to her--and now she was full of happiness, at the prospect of her
recovery.
How shall we reconcile this with the fact that Harper, or Harpstinah,
was one of the Sioux women, who wore, as long as she could endure it,
a necklace made of the hands and feet of Chippeway children? Here, in
the silence of night, she turned often towards the bed, when the restless
sleep of the child broke in on her meditation. She fancied I slept, but
my mind was busy too. I was far away from the home of my childhood,
and a Sioux woman, with her knife in her belt, was assisting me in the
care of my only daughter. She thought Dr. T. was a "wonderful
medicine man" to cure her; in which opinion we all cordially coincided.
I always listened with pleasure to the women, when allusion was made
to their religion; but when they spoke of their tradition, I felt as a miser
would, had he discovered a mine of gold. I had read the legends of the
Maiden's Rock, and of St. Anthony's Falls. I asked Checkered Cloud to
tell them to me. She did so--and how differently they were told! With
my knowledge of the language, and the aid of my kind and excellent
friend Mr. Prescott, all the dark passages in her narration were made
clear. I thought the Indian tone of feeling was not rightly
appreciated--their customs not clearly stated, perhaps not fairly
estimated. The red man, considered generally as a creature to be carried
about and exhibited for money, was, in very truth, a being immortally
endowed, though under a dispensation obscure to the more
highly-favored white race. As they affirmed a belief in the traditions of
their tribe, with what strength and beauty of diction they clothed their
thoughts--how energetic in gesture! Alas! for the people who had no
higher creed, no surer trust, for this and for another world.

However they may have been improved, no one could have had better
opportunities than I, to acquire all information of interest respecting
these Indians. I lived among them seven years. The chiefs from far and
near were constantly visiting the Fort, and were always at our house.
Not a sentiment is in the Legends that I did not hear from the lips of