Ohio History Journal

BUFFALO CHILD LONG LANCE VISITS OHIO

 

The visit of Buffalo Child Long Lance to Ohio and

his address before the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society will long be remembered by those

who were so fortunate as to hear and greet him. He

had been invited to speak on Ohio History Day at Lo-

gan Elm Park. It was found, however, that by com-

ing a few days earlier he could be present at the an-

nual meeting of the Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Society to deliver the principal address. While

in Columbus he was generous of his time. He spoke

before the Chamber of Commerce and the Exchange

Club while in the city and greatly pleased the members

of both these bodies who were out in large numbers to

hear him. Before the Society his personality and bear-

ing brought his auditors at once into hearty sympathy.

In all his addresses he spoke freely and distinctly in

good English. His observance of the proprieties, his

native modesty, his dignified and pleasing address and

his keen appreciation of humor, in which he himself

sparingly indulged, left an impression that did honor to

himself and his people.

Before leaving the city he spent the day following

the great meeting at Logan Elm Park chiefly in the

Museum and Library Building of the Society. He fre-

quently expressed appreciation of his generous recep-

tion while in the city. "Tell the good people who were

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Buffalo Child Long Lance Visits Ohio  517 present at the Logan Elm meeting," said he, "that I would have been glad to shake the hand of each and every one of them had that been physically possible." And later he added, "If ever my work brings me within

a hundred miles of Columbus I shall certainly make a detour to visit the city. I have enjoyed every moment I have been here." Before leaving he autographed for us his name and motto. The former will be found with his portrait in

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518      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications native costume on page 337 of this issue; the latter with its translation is as follows:

Following is the address in part that he delivered be- fore the Society on the afternoon of October 2, 1924. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen -- I thank you very much for this reception. I am sure I have never been talked about in such manner before, or had such a reception -- I do not de- serve it. I think I know what you would like to hear me talk about this afternoon. Sitting here I made a few notes for use in my talk. As you know I came a long distance to Columbus. Three nights ago I was in a snow storm and zero weather in northwestern Ontario. I was surprised to find it so warm here. I will try to explain some things about the Indian languages -- they are always spoken of as "Indian dialects". There is no such thing as an Indian dialect; they are all distinct languages. Dr. Boas of the Smithsonian Institute has said that they are more elaborate than Sanskrit. Blackfoot has nine verb conjugations. To conjugate one Blackfoot verb would take you all night. This is practically impossible to explain in English. The Blackfoot language has three third persons -- for every third person three words. There are twelve different words for snow, each mean- ing a different condition of snow. There are, however, no "curse" words in the language, and never have I seen a "curse" word in any Indian language. The worst word means, in English, "bad dog" and if you call an Indian that he will fight. When he hits his finger with a hammer he cannot curse; he has no way of get- ting rid of his passion except by fighting or silence. We have no "how-do-you-do" or "goodbye." We never say "how-do-you- you" when we enter another's home, we just grunt and sit down; we take it for granted. When we leave we just "huh" -- that is all. This does not mean that our language is not complete. The Indian never found the necessity for these words and so he never invented an equivalent.

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The Algonquin language, which includes the Piegan and

other languages, is glutinative -- you take a syllable from each of

a number of words and make one word, which explains why so

much can be expressed in a word or two.

I played a little trick on your Chairman when he asked me

for my Indian name. I gave him my name in Sioux, because it

is too difficult to pronounce in Blackfoot, but is easy to pronounce

in Sioux. In Blackfoot they take different syllables from the dif-

ferent words entering into my name -- "Young Buffalo" and "A

Lance thrown a long distance" -- and put them into one word.

They extract a syllable from each word and keep down the num-

ber of words used.

Since the coming of the white man we have had to add some

words to our language. The Creeks called the white man "A

person with little experience." They called a white man that be.

cause he had to take so many things with him when he hunted or

camped, things that seemed unnecessary to the Indian, such as a

comb and a brush. The Indian, by experience knows better; he

will go out with a blanket and live for months; and he thought

the white man had to have all these things, because he had not

learned to do without them.

The Indian calls a looking glass "He peeped into the water

and saw himself." That comes from the old days when they

would bend over water and see themselves. The Indian's words

are descriptive -- a pencil would be "a thing to write with."

At the present time the Indians over thirty up our way can-

not speak English; they speak their own language. The Indians

who have gone to school the past twenty years speak some Eng-

lish, but in my country there is no Indian school higher than the

fifth grade.

Speaking of the Indian languages, the Algonquin and Sioux

are divided into different tribes -- each may include fifteen tribes

that will have fifteen different languages, but having the same

grammatical structure, with different vocabularies. The Cree

and Blackfoot tribes belong to the Algonquin family. This will

give you an idea of the difference in the languages. The Sioux

language has a different grammatical structure, and a different

vocabulary. There is more difference between Cree and Black-

foot than between German and French; more between Black-

foot and Sioux than between English and Danish. In fact it is

said some of the languages differ so much that they could not

have come from the same source. There are supposed to be two

hundred languages north of Mexico. We have seven of them

in Canada, and you have the rest in the United States.

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We have some Sioux up there; and some of the Iroquois who

fought against your country in the days of the Revolution settled

there. I talked with one old Sioux who told me about his third

father -- great-grandfather -- who fought against your people and

was given guns to fight with. He told me details of battles as

given to him. The Sioux were southeastern Indians; they came

from the Carolinas. After they settled in the West, the Canadians

told them if they wanted anything to come to the land of the Red

Sun.

All of that western country --  Minnesota, Dakota, Montana,

Saskatchewan -- went to the side the Indians were friendly with.

Wherever the Indians were friendly with the Hudson Bay Com-

pany, that land went to Canada. In Montana the Indians were

friendly with the Baker Company. Whichever side made friends

with the Indians secured possession of the country. In the end it

was the friendship of the Indians that settled the boundary

question.

The Indian of today is not what he was fifty years ago. Be-

fore your people came into his country the Indian was strong and

healthy. Today the young people are not straight as the old people

were; they don't have the vitality of the old people, cannot resist

disease like the old people born in the tepees. The old Indian had

great capacity of lungs; ours have not; the young people slouch

over when they walk. The old people living today tell me that in

the early days nobody died of disease. Their teeth never came out.

"But," they say "When we eat bread they come out." The teeth

of the old people when they die are as good as they ever were --

they ate only meat. The Indians living in the Rocky mountains

tell me that they never had colds until about one hundred years

ago when they traded with the whites for some blankets, and as

soon as they smelt of these blankets they started to cough and got

colds. All the old Indians tell me that they couldn't endure the

cow when cattle were brought there; the smell of the cow poisoned

them. One old Indian told me that when he first visited a white

man he passed the stable, smelt the cow, put his hand over his nose

and went into the house; they gave him something to eat, but he

couldn't eat because everything smelt like that cow. He went and

killed a buffalo and ate its kidneys, the only thing he could eat

that day. Another old man told me he couldn't eat the white man's

food for several years; that when he first saw a white man he

smelt him and he smelt different -- I think he meant he smelt of

cow, because the white men had a lot to do with cows in those days

-- he said at first he couldn't keep the white man's food on his

stomach, and added, "Now I like it, but I know it is not good for

me." All the old Indians point to the food as the cause of their

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physical decline, but I suppose the real cause is lack of exercise. A

lot of diseases the old Indians never had are now prevalent. Con-

sumption takes the Indian off like that (snapping his fingers),

whereas your people can live with it for years. The greatest num-

ber of deaths we have had in recent years resulted from the flu;

some tribes were almost wiped out by the epidemic of 1918. Years

ago there was a big smallpox epidemic that came from blankets

sent by the Baker Company from New Orleans.

As far as the Indian dances are concerned we have sun dances

every summer. We do not worship the sun, but the spirit behind

the sun. Remember that, the Indian does not worship the sun, the

sun is the image of the Great Spirit which keeps him alive, makes

the grass and seeds grow. If he gets in a tight place he will make

a vow, if some event happens he will do a sun dance.

 

Here he described how the Indians used to cut their

breasts, put a rope through the slashes under a portion

of the muscles, attached the rope to a pole and danced

for hours until the rope pulled through the flesh and re-

leased the devotee. He stated that he had known an

Indian who had gone through this ordeal seven times.

This was considered an exhibition of bravery, as it cer-

tainly was a test of physical endurance. This feature

of the sun dance has not been permitted for a number

of years. He then continued:

How do the Indians get their names? An Indian always has

more than one name. The first name is given when he is born.

Some circumstance will be noted and that determines his name.

A man is born in Alberta, the woman assisting the mother goes out

to get some water; she comes back and says that a coyote is

howling and they say that will be his name, "Howling in the

Night." When he gets to be about six years old his playmates will

give him another name, a weak point being picked out if possible;

they will call him Crazy Horse, Lazy Dog or something like that,

or if they cannot find a weak point will call him Running Buffalo,

which is a good name, or something similar. That name will stick

until he is eighteen and then he has to do something to earn a real

name. A few years ago when they were still fighting he had to

go out on an exploit and do some brave act; then they would change

his name, perhaps to "Sheet Lightning," or "Uses-Both-Arms."

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As he grows older he may perform a more daring act and be given

another name. These names are like medals in the army; that is

what they represent, decorations in the army, and that is why an

old Indian will never tell you his name; if you ask him his name

he will turn to some third person to answer, because he does not

want to brag.

I might point out that there are no Indian nations in which

the two sexes dance together.   The men will dance while

the women are sitting around, or the women will dance while the

men sit around. The Indians of the plains at the present time raise

horses and cattle, and for the past six or eight years have raised

grain. They keep up their old customs and believe in their old

religion -- the old people will never be able to get that out of their

heads. They have their dances at the usual times, and their mar-

riage customs are never changed unless the young people have

gone to school. The marriage can be sanctioned by the Chief,

and that is all that is needed. Some presents are given, not for the

purpose of enriching any one but so that no one can say, "She is

not your wife." If any one should say that he can reply, "I gave

ten horses for her." That takes the place of a written record.

After an Indian marries a girl he never speaks to or looks at his

father-in-law or mother-in-law again. If he should meet his

father-in-law on the trail he will walk off the trail and let him

pass; if the Indian is sitting in his house and his father-in-law

comes in he will pull his blanket over his face and sit for two or

three hours, until he goes away.

I agree with others that the Indian will soon pass away. I

give him one hundred and fifty to two hundred years. It is natural.

Take your country, where there is a remnant of full bloods left.

White men are coming in more and more. It won't take that long

to wipe us out. Some will be assimilated, but the Indian blood does

not return, which causes the scientists to suggest that the Indian

was originally of white stock.

You may be interested in knowing what the Indian ate. The

principal food was buffalo, eaten abouthalf raw, bark, wild roots,

wild potatoes and turnips. We have a lot of such roots in the

Rocky Mountains. A favorite dish used to be mice nests -- not

the nests themselves, but what the mice put in them. The Indian

would tap the ground with a stick and feel a hollow space; he

would find a bucketful of wild turnips and roots, perfectly clean,

the things the Indian liked. He would take that out and eat it.

The best part of the buffalo was the raw kidneys. When the buf-

falo were plentiful the Indian would often kill one and take out

the kidneys, pour some blood over it, eat it, and leave the rest. The

winter food was dried meat. They would cut it very thin and in

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long strips, mix it with berries and put it in the bladder of a buf-

falo and keep it dry. It would be good ten years afterwards.

I shall be glad to answer questions if I can.

 

Asked the question, "Did I understand you to say

Indian turnips were part of the diet?" the speaker re-

plied:

Wild turnips, I do not know what you mean by Indian

turnips.

 

In response to other questions the Chief said:

We keep time on sticks. Take a long stick, a certain sort of

notch represents a year, another a moon or month which was kept

by the moon, and another a day which was kept by the sun. We

had no week until the white man came and told us about the Sab-

bath, and then the Indian cut another sort of notch for the Sabbath.

The years were kept by the chief event of the year -- the year the

buffalo didn't come early, the year the chief was killed.

Marriages are usually within the tribe, but the Indian is kept

from marrying relatives through clans. You belong to the Wolf

Clan, the Dog Clan, or some other clan. If a woman is of the

Wolf Clan and her husband of the Dog Clan her children will be

Wolf Clan.

There is no such thing as leaving the tribe in Canada. You

can get your citizenship if you can show you can assume the re-

sponsibilities that go with citizenship, and once you get your citi-

zenship you are not an Indian. There is no formal list of the tribe

and no formality to striking you off the roll; you would be auto-

matically stricken off the list, but there is no ceremony, no

formal way of doing that. I have voted in every election since

1917. If you are intelligent you can vote; nobody asks any ques-

tions.

Up to forty years ago we lived a healthy life. When we were

not hunting we were fighting. This in a way took the place of

your amusements. We whould steal each other's horses for the

fun of it and that would start fighting. Some one would organize

a war party and go and fight; then come back after killing two or

three and taking their scalps. Then we would have a ceremony

-- if we lost we would have another kind of ceremony, not very

nice, for the women would wail and cut themselves; if a woman

lost her husband she would cut off a little finger; the women

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would paint their faces black if the Sioux should kill, say fifty

Blackfeet and only have a few killed. Then it was for some

young fellow to go out and kill other Sioux. That was called

"Washing the women's faces," because then they would wash the

black paint off. We also had sports, principally riding, trick

horse riding, and running. One of our favorite races was a dis-

tance of 225 miles. We would start in the afternoon and come

back the next day. We had foot races at least once a week when

there was no hunting.

In the morning every Indian has to be up at sunrise, and the

men most punctually up are the most distinguished about the camp,

are given the honor seats on all occasions. Those who persistently

lie in bed a few minutes after the sun comes up are considered

laggards, and are given back seats. For instance, if one camp

invites another to come and have a smoke the visitors would sit in

the seats of honor, then the fellows who get up early sit next,

and seats near the door are reserved for the laggards. An old

Indian said that nature provides a place for its own, the place for

a lazy Indian is near the door as they would be late anyhow and

all the other seats would be taken. An old man walks around the

camp every morning when the sun is about to rise, invites every-

body to be up when the sun rises and not to sleep, not to eat too

much, not to eat fats which make his stomach bad, not to stand

too near the fire, to take baths when the rain comes. The old men

arrange among themselves every day who shall have the honor of

performing this duty. The Indian will go to a brook and break

the ice and take a swim to make him strong.

Property rights are inviolate, there is no such thing as steal-

ing. You can go and leave your property, go sixty miles away,

come back in two weeks and it will be there even if you left it in

the road.

In the old days every man had five or six wives. Men were

frequently killed, and this gave them a home, a tepee for every

woman, a little camp. Each woman had her own tepee, the chil-

dren were common. Every one of the women were the children's

mother, with one blood-mother. Half of the time they did not

know which was their mother. There was no jealousy, each

treated the children as their own. The bigger a man's camp the

more powerful he became. Some of them became chiefs and would

soon go on the warpath. The fighting was done away with twenty

years ago. The chief maintains his position, but there is not much

obedience to be given. The Indians are the easiest people on earth

to handle, and that was true in the war. They know what should

be done and they do it. If any trouble comes up the Chief straight-

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ens it out, but that does not happen often. In the old days

obedience meant the survival of the race.

"Are the Indians as a rule eloquent?" was asked. To

this the speaker replied:

"Yes, but you wouldn't think so by listening to me. The old

people are very fine talkers, the greatest on earth. Their language

is figurative, they have something to talk about. The young people

are not so able speakers, they have not the character the old Indians

have, those who went through the sun dance rites, those old Indians

have a lot of character behind what they say. The young people

have not the achievements the old have.

"Are you willing to tell us what influenced you to go

to college?"

To this the Chief replied:

"I made a trip that put me in contact with white people. I

saw them read and write, and I thought I would like to become

like that, be able to read and to write. Canada has no school like

Carlisle.

Our tribal history is kept verbally. Certain men keep the his-

tory -- the Indian has a wonderful memory; there is nothing to

interfere with its development. Facts are preserved by the wo-

men teaching them to the children as soon as they are able to bab-

ble. Any one who cannot speak the Indian language correctly is

relegated to a low position. The first duty of an Indian mother is

to teach her children to speak correctly. The Indian frequently can

speak perfectly in his own language but will not talk in English

with white people because he knows he cannot speak English cor-

rectly, and he will not be laughed at for his mistakes. The old

Indians do not like to have the young people go away to school.

They honor them when they return, but the fear of the old is that

the young man will get out and become a white man, will live as

a white man, will not be his son. The Indians love their children,

they do not show it, but they love them more than most other

races, and do not want to lose them. I wear the old costume when

they have dances. I like the dances as well as I ever did. When

I hear the tom-tom I want to get out and dance.

The Indian women never ask questions. The Indian woman

has nothing to say as to whom she will marry. I may go to a girl's

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father and say, "I want your daughter, here are forty horses." If

he agrees I take her, she is born to expect that, she does not mind,

she comes along quite satisfied. Indian women are the best wives

on earth, as any white man who has married one will tell you.

A Scotch missionary at an agency in Saskatchewan received

a letter inquiring about the character of the half-breed; he wrote

back, "He is a poor specimen of the Indian, but quite an improve-

ment on the Scotch." (Applause.)

While in Columbus the Chief received a letter from

the Prince of Wales, who was touring Canada, request-

ing him to join the Prince's party in its progress

through the northwestern provinces. The two met and

became friends in the World War. The Chief left the

city a little earlier than he had intended, to join the

party of the Prince.

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