University of Virginia Library

2. CHAPTER II.

The Dahcotahs believe in the existence of a Great Spirit,
but they have very confused ideas of his attributes. Those
who have lived near the missionaries, say that the Great
Spirit lived forever, but their own minds would never have
conceived such an idea. Some say that the Great Spirit
has a wife.

They say that this being created all things but thunder
and wild rice; and that he gave the earth and all animals
to them, and that their feasts and customs were the laws by
which they are to be governed. But they do not fear the
anger of this deity after death.

Thunder is said to be a large bird; the name that they
give to thunder is the generic term for all animals that
fly. Near the source of the St. Peters is a place called
Thunder-tracks—where the footpsrint of the thunder-bird
are seen in the rocks, twenty-five miles apart.

The Dahcotahs believe in an evil spirit as well as a good,
but they do not consider these spirits as opposed to each
other; they do not think that they are tempted to do wrong
by this evil spirit; their own hearts are bad. It would be
impossible to put any limit to the number of spirits in
whom the Dahcotahs believe; every object in nature is full
of them. They attribute death as much to the power of
these subordinate spirits as to the Great Spirit, but most
frequently they suppose death to have been occasioned by
a spell having been cast upon them by some enemy.

The sun and moon are worshipped as emblems of their
deity.

Sacrifice is a religous ceremony among them; but no
missionary has yet been able to find any reference to the
one great Atonement made for sin; none of their customs
or traditions authorize any such connection. They sacrifice
to all the spirits; but they have a stone, painted red,
which they call Grandfather, and on or near this, they
place their most valuable articles, their buffalo robes, dogs,
and even horses; and on one occasion a father killed a
child as a kind of sacrifice. They frequently inflict severe
bruises or cuts upon their bodies, thinking thus to propitiate
their gods.

The belief in an evil spirit is said by some not to be a
part of the religion of the Dahcotahs. They perhaps obtained
this idea from the whites. They have a far greater
fear of the spirits of the dead, especially those whom they
have offended, than of Wahkon-tun-kah, the Great Spirit.

One of the punishments they most dread is that of the
body of an animal entering theirs to make them sick. Some
of the medicine men, the priests, and the doctors of the
Dahcotahs, seem to have an idea of the immortality of the
soul but intercourse with the whites may have originated
this. They know nothing of the resurrection.

They have no custom among them that indicates the
belief that man's heart should be holy. The faith in spirits,
dreams, and charms, the fear that some enemy, earthly or
spiritual, may be secretly working their destruction by a
spell, is as much a part of their creed, as the existence of
the Great Spirit.

A good dream will raise their hopes of success in whatever
they may be undertaking to the highest pitch; a bad
one will make them despair of accomplishing it. Their religion
is a superstition, including as few elements of truth
and reason as perhaps any other of which the particulars are
known. They worship they “know not what,” and this
from the lowest motives.

When they go out to hunt, or on a war party, they pray
to the Great Spirit—“Father, help us to kill the buffalo.”
“Let us soon see deer”—or, “Great Spirit help us to kill
our enemies.”

They have no hymns of praise to their Deity; they fast
occasionally at the time of their dances. When they
dance in honor of the sun, they refrain from eating for two
days.

The Dahcotahs do not worship the work of their hands;
but they consider every object that the Great Spirit has
made, from the highest mountain to the smallest stone, as
worthy of their idolatry.

They have a vague idea of a future state; many have
dreamed of it. Some of their medicine men pretend to
have had revelations from bears and other animals; and
they thus learned that their future existence would be
but a continuation of this. They will go on long hunts
and kill many buffalo; bright fires will burn in their wigwams
as they talk through the long winter's night of the
traditions of their ancients; their women are to tan deer-skin
for their mocassins, while their young children learn
to be brave warriors by attacking and destroying wasps' or
hornets' nests; they will celebrate the dog feast to show
how brave they are, and sing in triumph as they dance

round the scalps of their enemies. Such is the Heaven of
the Dahcotahs! Almost every Indian has the image of an
animal or bird tattooed on his breast or arm, which can
charm away an evil spirit, or prevent his enemy from bringing
trouble or death upon him by a secret shot. The power
of life rests with mortals, especially with their medicine
men; they believe that if an enemy be shooting secretly at
them, a spell or charm must be put in requisition to counteract
their power.

The medicine men or women, who are initiated into the
secrets of their wonderful medicines, (which secret is as
sacred with them as free-masonry is to its members) give the
feast which they call the medicine feast.

Their medicine men, who profess to administer to the
affairs of soul and body are nothing more than jugglers,
and are the worst men of the tribe: yet from fear alone
they claim the entire respect of the community.

There are numerous clans among the Dahcotahs each
using a different medicine, and no one knows what this
medicine is but those who are initiated into the mysteries
of the medicine dance, whose celebration is attended with
the utmost ceremony.

A Dahcotah would die before he would divulge the secret
of his clan. All the different clans unite at the great medicine
feast.

And from such errors as these must the Dahcotah turn
if he would be a Christian! And the heart of the missionary
would faint within him at the work which is before
him, did he not remember who has said “Lo, I am with you
always!”

And it was long before the Indian woman could give up the

creed of her nation. The marks of the wounds in her face
and arms will to the grave bear witness of her belief in the
faith of her fathers, which influenced her in youth. Yet
the subduing of her passions, the quiet performance of her
duties, the neatness of her person, and the order of her
house, tell of the influence of a better faith, which sanctifies
the sorrows of this life, and rejoices her with the hope of
another and a better state of existence.

But such instances are rare. These people have resisted
as encroachments upon their rights the efforts that have
been made for their instruction. Kindness and patience,
however, have accomplished much, and during the last year
they have, in several instances, expressed a desire for the
aid and instructions of missionaries. They seem to wish
them to live among them; though formerly the lives of
those who felt it their duty to remain were in constant
peril.

They depend more, too, upon what the ground yields
them for food, and have sought for assistance in ploughing
it.

There are four schools sustained by the Dahcotah mission;
in all there are about one hundred and seventy children;
the average attendance about sixty.

The missionaries feel that they have accomplished something,
and they are encouraged to hope for still more. They
have induced many of the Dahcotahs to be more temperate;
and although few, comparatively, attend worship at
the several stations, yet of those few some exhibit hopeful
signs of conversion.

There are five mission stations among the Dahcotahs; at
“Lac qui parle,” on the St. Peter's river, in sight of the

beautiful lake from which the station takes its name; at
“Travers des Sioux” about eighty miles from Fort Snelling;
at Xapedun, Oak-grove, and Kapoja, the last three
being within a few miles of Fort Snelling.

There are many who think that the efforts of those
engaged in instructing the Dahcotahs are thrown away.
They cannot conceive why men of education, talent, and
piety, should waste their time and attainments upon a people
who cannot appreciate their efforts. If the missionaries
reasoned on worldly principles, they would doubtless
think so too; but they devote the energies of soul and body
to Him who made them for His own service.

They are pioneers in religion; they show the path that
others will walk in far more easily at some future day;
they undertake what others will carry on,—what God himself
will accomplish. They have willingly given up the
advantages of this life, to preach the gospel to the degraded
Dahcotahs. They are translating the Bible into Sioux;
many of the books are translated, and to their exertions it
is owing that the praise of God has been sung by the children
of the forest in their own language.