The Siouan Indians | Page 7

and gesture
and expression of the male adult seems to have been affected or
controlled with the view of impressing spectators and auditors, and
through constant schooling the warriors became most consummate
actors. To the casual observer, they were stoics or stupids according to
the conditions of observation; to many observers, they were cheats or
charlatans; to scientific students, their eccentrically developed volition
and the thaumaturgy by which it was normally accompanied suggests
early stages in that curious development which, in the Orient,
culminates in necromancy and occultism. Unfortunately this phase of
the Indian character (which was shared by various tribes) was little
appreciated by the early travelers, and little record of it remains; yet
there is enough to indicate the importance of constantly studied
ceremony, or symbolic conduct, among them. The development of
affectation and self-control among the Siouan tribesmen was
undoubtedly shaped by warlike disposition, and their stoicism was
displayed largely in war--as when the captured warrior went exultingly
to the torture, taunting and tempting his captors to multiply their
atrocities even until his tongue was torn from its roots, in order that his
fortitude might be proved; but the habit was firmly fixed and found

constant expression in commonplace as well as in more dramatic
actions.
INDUSTRIAL AND ESTHETIC ARTS
Since the arts of primitive people reflect environmental conditions with
close fidelity, and since the Siouan Indians were distributed over a vast
territory varying in climate, hydrography, geology, fauna, and flora,
their industrial and esthetic arts can hardly be regarded as distinctive,
and were indeed shared by other tribes of all neighboring stocks.
The best developed industries were hunting and warfare, though all of
the tribes subsisted in part on fruits, nuts, berries, tubers, grains, and
other vegetal products, largely wild, though sometimes planted and
even cultivated in rude fashion. The southwestern tribes, and to some
extent all of the prairie denizens and probably the eastern remnant,
grew maize, beans, pumpkins, melons, squashes, sunflowers, and
tobacco, though their agriculture seems always to have been
subordinated to the chase. Aboriginally, they appear to have had no
domestic animals except dogs, which, according to Carver--one of the
first white men seen by the prairie tribes,--were kept for their flesh,
which was eaten ceremonially,(23) and for use in the chase.(24)
According to Lewis and Clark (1804-1806), they were used for burden
and draft;(25) according to the naturalists accompanying Long's
expedition (1819-20), for flesh (eaten ceremonially and on ordinary
occasions), draft, burden, and the chase,(26) and according to Prince
Maximilian, for food and draft,(27) all these functions indicating long
familiarity with the canines. Catlin, too, found "dog's meat ... the most
honorable food that can be presented to a stranger;" it was eaten
ceremonially and on important occasions.(28) Moreover, the terms
used for the dog and his harness are ancient and even archaic, and some
of the most important ceremonials were connected with this animal,(29)
implying long-continued association. Casual references indicate that
some of the tribes lived in mutual tolerance with several birds(30) and
mammals not yet domesticated (indeed the buffalo may be said to have
been in this condition), so that the people were at the threshold of
zooculture.

The chief implements and weapons were of stone, wood, bone, horn,
and antler. According to Carver, the "Nadowessie" were skillful
bowmen, using also the "casse-tête"(31) or warclub, and a flint
scalping-knife. Catlin was impressed with the shortness of the bows
used by the prairie tribes, though among the southwestern tribes they
were longer. Many of the Siouan Indians used the lance, javelin, or
spear. The domestic utensils were scant and simple, as became
wanderers and fighters, wood being the common material, though crude
pottery and basketry were manufactured, together with bags and bottles
of skins or animal intestines. Ceremonial objects were common, the
most conspicuous being the calumet, carved out of the sacred pipestone
or catlinite quarried for many generations in the midst of the Siouan
territory. Frequently the pipes were fashioned in the form of
tomahawks, when they carried a double symbolic significance, standing
alike for peace and war, and thus expressing well the dominant idea of
the Siouan mind. Tobacco and kinnikinic (a mixture of tobacco with
shredded bark, leaves, etc(32)) were smoked.
Aboriginally the Siouan apparel was scanty, commonly comprising
breechclout, moccasins, leggings, and robe, and consisted chiefly of
dressed skins, though several of the tribes made simple fabrics of bast,
rushes, and other vegetal substances. Fur robes and rush mats
commonly served for bedding, some of the tribes using rude bedsteads.
The buffalo-hunting prairie tribes depended largely for apparel,
bedding, and habitations, as well as for food, on the great beast to
whose comings and goings their movements were adjusted. Like other
Indians, the Siouan hunters and their consorts quickly availed
themselves of the white man's stuffs, as well