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But to me, the greatest objects of interest and curiosity were the original owners of the country, whose teepees could be seen in every direction. One could soon know all that was to be known about Pilot Knob or St. Anthony's falls; but one is puzzled completely to comprehend the character of an Indian man, woman, or child.
During the progress of the fight among the teepees the squaws and young boys seized the weapons of slain warriors, and from their hiding places in the brush fought with the desperation of fiends.
Then the crier, praising her brave deed in heroic verse, led her around the camp, inside of the circle of teepees. All the people stood outside their lodges and listened respectfully, for the Dakota loves well to honor the faithful and the brave. During the next day, riders came in from the ill-fated party, bringing the sad news of the fight and heavy loss.
Every autumn with the hunters came the unhappy parents of the lost baby to search again for him. Toward the latter part of the tenth season when, one by one, the teepees were folded and the families went away from the lake region, the mother walked again along the lake shore weeping.
In a moment she came running out again, crying, "My son! My little son is gone!" Her keen eyes swept east and west and all around her. There was nowhere any sign of the child. Running with clinched fists to the nearest teepees, she called: "Has any one seen my baby? He is gone! My little son is gone!" "Hinnu! Hinnu!" exclaimed the women, rising to their feet and rushing out of their wigwams.
They become moody, fanciful. In the face of the silence they have little to say. At Port Rae were old Jock Wilson, the Chief Trader; Father Bonat, the priest; Andrew Levoy, the metis clerk; four Dog Rib teepees; Galen Albret and his bride; and Graehme Stewart. Jock Wilson was sixty-five; Father Bonat had no age; Andrew Levoy possessed the years of dour silence.
It was well known that the counsel of the aged brings luck to the youth in warfare and love. Antelope arose early the next morning, and without speaking to any one he made a ceremonious toilet. He put on his finest buckskin shirt and a handsome robe, threw a beaded quiver over his shoulder, and walked directly away from the teepees and into the forest he did not know why nor whither.
Men slipped away to the teepees and returned with their guns. Ambrose looked anxiously for Watusk. He could not reach the people except through the man he distrusted. He found him by himself in a kind of retreat among some poplars a little way off, where he could see without being seen. Ambrose dragged him back willy-nilly, adjuring him by the way. "The people are working themselves into a rage.
Colina, keeping her eyes on the Indians, said to them: "Go ahead. Walk your horses. I'll follow." She swung herself into her own saddle. Cora and Nesis started slowly out of the square. Colina followed, swinging sidewise in her saddle and watching the Indians behind. None offered to follow directly, but Colina observed that those who had disappeared around the teepees were catching horses beyond.
After a few hours' rest they got in motion again, and all afternoon were engaged in ferrying their baggage across the river in dugouts and in swimming their horses over. On the following morning, with the exception of Watusk's lodge and half a dozen others, all the teepees were struck, and the whole body of the people crossed the river and disappeared behind the hill.
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