This last-named chief could not come to the
council, but was represented by Caltahcota, or Cherry on a Bush. The
palaver being over, presents were distributed. The account says:--
"One chief of each town was acknowledged by a gift of a flag, a medal
with the likeness of the President of the United States, a uniform coat,
hat and feather. To the second chiefs we gave a medal representing some
domestic animals and a loom for weaving; to the third chiefs, medals
with the impressions of a farmer sowing grain. A variety of other
presents were distributed, but none seemed to give them more
satisfaction than an iron corn-mill which we gave to the Mandans. . . .
"In the evening the prairie took fire, either by accident or design, and
burned with great fury, the whole plain being enveloped in flames.
So rapid was its progress that a man and a woman were burned to death
before they could reach a place of safety; another man, with his wife
and child, were much burned, and several other persons narrowly escaped
destruction. Among the rest, a boy of the half white breed escaped
unhurt in the midst of the flames; his safety was ascribed to the great
medicine spirit, who had preserved him on account of his being white.
But a much more natural cause was the presence of mind of his mother,
who, seeing no hopes of carrying off her son, threw him on the ground,
and, covering him with the fresh hide of a buffalo, escaped herself from
the flames. As soon as the fire had passed, she returned and found him
untouched, the skin having prevented the flame from reaching the grass
on which he lay.
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