LETTER--No 54.(last portion only)

Amongst the Sioux of the Mississippi, and who live in the region of the Red Pipe Stone quarry, I found the following and not less strange tradition on the same subject. Many ages after the red men were made, when all the different tribes were at war, the Great Spirit sent runners and called them all together at the 'Red Pipe.' -- He stood on the top of the rocks, and the red people were assembled in infinite numbers on the plains below. He took out of the rock a piece of the red stone, and made a large pipe; he smoked it over them all; told them that it was part of their flesh; that though they were at war, they must meet at this place as friends; that it belonged to them all; that they must make their calumets from it and smoke them to him whenever they wished to appease him or get his good-will -- the smoke from his big pipe rolled over them all, and he disappeared in its cloud; at the last whiff of his pipe a blaze of fire rolled over the rocks, and melted their surface -- at that moment two squaws went in a blaze of fire under the two medicine rocks, where they remain to this day, and must be consulted and propitiated whenever the pipe stone is to be taken away."


The following speech of a Mandan, which was made to me in the Mandan village four years since (1832), after I had painted his picture, I have copied from my note-book as corroborative of the same facts :



"My brother -- You have made my picture and I like it much. My friends tell me they can see the eyes move, and it must be very good -- it must be partly alive. I am glad it is done-though many of my people are afraid. I am a young man, but my heart is strong. I have jumped on to the medicine-rock I have placed my arrow on it and no Mandan can take it away.**** [NOTE]



The red stone is slippery, but my foot was true--it did not slip. My brother, this pipe which I give to you, I brought from a high mountain, it is toward the rising sun -- many were the pipes that we brought from there -- and we brought them away in peace. We left our totems or marks on the rocks-we cut them deep in the stones, and they are there now. The Great Spirit told all nations to meet there in peace, and all nations hid the war-club and the tomahawk. The Dah-co-tahs, who are our enemies, are very strong-they have taken up the tomahawk, and the blood of our warriors has run on the rocks. My friend, we want to visit our medicines -- our pipes are old and worn out. My friend, I wish you to speak to our Great Father about this." The chief of the Puncahs, on the Upper Missouri, also made the following allusion to this place, in a speech which he made to me on the occasion of presenting me a very handsome pipe about four years since:--



"My friend, this pipe, which I wish you to accept, was dug from the ground, and cut and polished as you now see It, by my hands. I wish you to keep it, and when you smoke through it, recollect that this red stone is a part of our flesh. This is one of the last things we can ever give away. Our enemies the Sioux, have raised the red flag of blood over the Pipe Stone Quarry, and our medicines there are trodden under foot by them. The Sioux are many, and we cannot go to the mountain of the red pipe. We hare seen all nations smoking together at that place--but, my brother, it is not so now."-

On my return from the Pipe Stone Quarry, one of the old chiefs of the Sacs, on seeing some specimens of the stone which I brought with me from that place, observed as follows :-
"My friend, when I was young, I used to go with our Young men to the mountain of the Red Pipe, and dig out pieces for our pipes. We do not go now ; and our led pipes as you see, are few. The Dah-co-tah's have spilled the blood of red men on that place, and the Great Spirit is offended. The white traders have told them to draw their bows upon us when we go there; and they have offered us many of the pipes for sale, but Re do not want to smoke them, for we know that the Great Spirit is offended. My mark is on the rocks in many places, but I shall never see them again. They lie where the Great Spirit sees them, for his eye is over that place, and La sees everything that is here."
Ke-o-kuck chief of the Sacs and Foxes, when I asked him whether he had ever been there, replied--
"No, I have never seen it; it is in our enemies' country,--I wish it was in ours-I would sell it to the whites for a great many boxes of money."****]]]

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