James Pierson Beckwourth

“ If you had killed him, our nation would have mourned in blood.
"Listen, As-ne-boines! If you had killed our chief, our whole nation would have made war on you, and we would have put out your last fire, and have killed the last man of your nation. We would have taken possession of your hunting-grounds; our women would have become warriors against you; we would have hunted you as we hunt the wild beasts. Now go! we will not harm you. Go! We will sleep to-night; but we will not make peace until we sleep, and our hearts have considered upon it. ”

“ The snow had blown from the level prairie, and the wind had drifted it in deep masses over the margins of the small hills, through which the buffalo had made trails just wide enough to admit one at a time. These snow-trails had become quite deep—like all snow-trails in the spring of the year—thus affording us a fine opportunity for lurking in one trail, and shooting a buffalo in another. The general had wounded a bull, which, smarting with pain, made a furious plunge at his assailant, burying him in the snow with a thrust from his savage-looking head and horns. ”

“ No domestic thunder-storms, no curtain-lectures ever disturbed the serenity of our connubial lodge. I speedily formed acquaintance with all my immediate neighbours, and the Morning Star (which was the name conferred upon me on my recognition as the lost son) was soon a companion to all the young warriors in the village. No power on earth could have shaken their faith in my positive identity with the lost son. Nature seemed to prompt the old woman to recognize me as her missing child, and all my new relatives placed implicit faith in the genuineness of her discovery. ”

“ I thought of my Indian home, and of the unsophisticated hearts I had left behind me. Their lives were savage, and their perpetual animosities repulsive, but with this dark background there was much vivid colouring in relief. If the Indian was unrelenting, and murdered with his lance, his battle-axe, and his knife, his white brother was equally unfeeling, and had ways of torturing his victim, if less violent, not the less certain. The savage is artless, and when you win his admiration there is no envious reservation to prompt him to do injustice to your name. You live among them honoured ”

“ I went to Big Rain's lodge, dressed and painted in the extreme of the fashion, and saw the lady reclining, half asleep, upon her couch, and several of her female relatives asleep about the room. Nothing daunted, I strode to the couch of Mrs. Big Rain, and laid my hand gently on her brow.
She started up, saying, "Who is here?"
"Hush!" I replied; "it is I."
"What do you want here?"
"I have come to see you, because I love you."
"Don't you know that I am the chief's wife?"
"Yes, I know it; but he does not love you as I do. He never goes to war, but stays idly in the village. ”

“ I must have been a curious looking object for an affectionate sister to recognize. All my clothing consisted of dressed antelope, deer, and the skins of mountain sheep, highly ornamented by my Indian wives. My long hair, as black as the raven's wing, descended to my hips, and I presented more the appearance of a Crow than that of a civilized being.
She gazed at me for a moment with a searching look, and then exclaiming, "My God, it is my brother!" ”

“ On gaining the village, I rode up to my father's lodge, and said, "How is this? You allow white men to be robbed in the village, directly under your eyes! Do you wish to call down the vengeance of the great white chief upon the Crows? Do you wish them to be made poor and miserable, like the other tribes? Have I not often told you of the immense number of white warriors; that they were like the sand of the prairie—as the leaves of the forest?" ”

“ The Western Indians have no hummocks or everglades to fight among, but they have their boundless prairies to weary an army in, and the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains to retreat to. Should a majority of those powerful nations coalesce in defence against one common enemy, it would be the worst Indian war—the most costly in blood and treasure that the national government has ever entered into. The coalition tribes could bring two hundred and fifty thousand warriors against any hostile force, and I know I am greatly within the limits of truth in assigning that number to them. ”

“ You would not be so cowardly as to spill the blood of the pretty Red Cherry because she loves our chief. If you should fight him, he will kill you; and if you should assassinate him, we would avenge his death. No, no! Big Rain must not hurt our chief. But we will buy your claim to the Red Cherry, and give her to Red Arm for his own. You, a great chief, should despise to want a woman who loves another warrior better than you! ”

“ It is the greatest wonder in the world that every one of the trapper party did not lose their scalps on the spot. If the Indians had had any prominent leader among them, they infallibly would have been all killed, and have paid the penalty of their mischievous lying. Unfortunately for the Crows, they believe all the words of a white man, thinking that his tongue is always straight. These trappers, by their idle invention, had jeopardized the lives of all the white men in the mountains. ”

“ I have fought my last battle, and hurled my last lance; I am a warrior no more.
"To-day the Medicine Calf has returned. He has returned angry at the follies of his people, and they fear that he will again leave them. They believe that he loves me, and that my devotion to him will attach him to the nation. I therefore bestow myself upon him; perhaps he will be contented with me, and will leave us no more. Warriors, farewell!"
She then entered the fort, and said, "Sparrowhawks, one who has followed you for many winters is about to leave your war-path forever. ”

“ I come to you and say, 'My friend, I am going to die yonder; I want you to be a kind friend to my children, and protect them after I depart for the land of the Great Spirit.' I go out and die. My wives come to you with their fingers cut off, their hair gone, and the warm blood pouring from their bodies, They are crying mournfully, and your heart pities them. Among the children is a son in whom you behold the image of your friend who is no more. ”

“ He would be proud to lose his horses if his son could get a wife as handsome as you are. You can go to war with me, and carry my shield. With you by my side, I could kill a great many enemies, and bring home many scalps. Then we could often dance, and our hearts would be made merry and glad."
"Go now," she pleaded; "for if my husband should return, and find you here, he would be very angry, and I fear he would kill you. Go! go! for your own sake, and for mine, and for the love you have for the Crows, go!" ”

“ If we get killed, our friends who love us here will mourn our loss, while those in the spirit land will sing and rejoice to welcome us there, if we ascend to them dying like braves. The Great Spirit has sent these enemies here for us to slay; if we do not slay them, he will be angry with us, and will never suffer us to conquer our enemies again. He will drive off all our buffaloes, and will wither the grass on the prairies. No, warriors! we will fight as long as one of them survives. Come, follow me, and I will show you how the braves of the great white chief fight their enemies! ”

“ The Indian did his best, frequently turning his head, like a negro with an alligator at his heels. Seeing that his pursuer must overtake him, and not relishing the idea of having her lance tranfix his body—for she was preparing to hurl it—he suddenly stopped and faced about, at the same time throwing his bow down and holding up both hands to beg for his life. She did what no other warrior in our party would have done—her woman's heart took pity on the poor fellow's pitiable condition—she spared his life, and marched him back captive. ”

“ I could kill you as easily as I could kill a squaw, but you know that you have a host of warriors here, while I am alone. They would kill me after I had killed you. But if I should come in sight of your village with twenty of my Crow warriors, you would all run and leave your lodges, women, and children. Go away; I want nothing to do with you. Your tongue is strong, but you are no brave."
I had told the Cheyennes but a few moments previously that I had been among all the nations in the country, and that it had ever been my invariable rule, when struck by a Red Man, to kill him. ”

“ It is he who has made us great and powerful; it is he who has rendered us the terror of other nations; it is he who, by living with his white friends for many winters, and knowing them all, has brought us guns and ammunition, and taught our young men how to use them. It is he who has built us a fort, where we can at all times go and buy everything we require. He loves the white man, and has made all the whites to love us. We fight for the whites, and kill their enemies, because they are friends of our chief. ”

“ The village was aroused, and men, women, and children came running from all directions to learn the cause of the disturbance. We displayed our nineteen scalps, and I took to myself full credit for the force of my medicine in divining where to find the foe, and cognizance was taken of the fact in the medicine lodge. We had five days' dancing to do full justice to this brilliant achievement, and I had become so tired of their continual mourning that their savage yells of delight seemed quite a luxury. ”

“ Where one man would be spared, as I have been, to pass through the perils of fasting, the encounters with the savage, and the fury of the wild beasts, and still preserve his life, and attain an age of near threescore, it is not too much to say that five hundred would perish, with not a single loved one near to catch his last whispered accent, would die in the wilderness, either in solitude, or with the fiendish savage shrieking in revolting triumph in his ear. ”

“ After this rescue, the general remarked to Fitzpatrick, "That Beckwourth is surely one of the most singular men I ever met. I do not know what to think of him; he never speaks to me except when absolutely unavoidable: still, he is the first and only man to encounter peril on my behalf. Three times he has now saved my life when not another man attempted to succour me. He is a problem I cannot possibly solve." ”