This festival concluded with a grand dance,
which at midnight wound up the affair.
As the description of these Tetons, given by Lewis and Clark, will give
the reader a good idea of the manners, customs, and personal appearance
of most of the Sioux nation, we will copy the journal in full. It is as
follows:
"The tribe which we this day saw are a part of the great Sioux nation,
and are known by the name of the Teton Okandandas: they are about two
hundred men in number, and their chief residence is on both sides of the
Missouri, between the Chayenne and Teton Rivers. In their persons they
are rather ugly and ill-made, their legs and arms being too small, their
cheek-bones high, and their eyes projecting. The females, with the same
character of form, are more handsome; and both sexes appear cheerful and
sprightly; but in our intercourse with them we discovered that they were
cunning and vicious.
"The men shave the hair off their heads, except a small tuft on the top,
which they suffer to grow, and wear in plaits over the shoulders; to
this they seem much attached, as the loss of it is the usual sacrifice
at the death of near relations. In full dress, the men of consideration
wear a hawk's feather, or calumet feather worked with porcupine quills,
and fastened to the top of the head, from which it falls back. The face
and body are generally painted with a mixture of grease and coal. Over
the shoulders is a loose robe or mantle of buffalo skin dressed white,
adorned with porcupine quills, loosely fixed, so as to make a jingling
noise when in motion, and painted with various uncouth figures,
unintelligible to us, but to them emblematic of military exploits or
any other incident: the hair of the robe is worn next the skin in fair
weather, but when it rains the hair is put outside, and the robe is
either thrown over the arm or wrapped round the body, all of which it
may cover.
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