y the Menonnomies, to be drunk by all parties
over the grave of the deceased. The squaws of the Menonnomie tribe had
to dig the grave, as is the custom,--a task of no little labour, as the
ground was frozen hard several feet below the surface.

The body was laid in the grave; the mother of the deceased, with the
rest of the Winnebago squaws, howling over it, and denouncing vengeance
against the murderer; but in a short time the whisky made its
appearance, and they all set to, to drink. In an hour they were all the
best friends in the world, and all very drunk. The old squaw mother was
hugging the murderer of her son; and it was a scene of intoxication
which, in the end, left the majority of the parties assembled, for a
time, quite as dead as the man in the grave. Such are the effects of
whisky upon these people, who have been destroyed much more rapidly by
spirituous liquors than by all the wars which they have engaged in
against the whites.

The Sioux are a large band, and are divided into six or seven different
tribes; they are said to amount to from 27,000 to 30,000. They are, or
have been, constantly at war with the Chippeways to the north of them,
and with Saucs and Foxes, a small but very warlike band, residing to the
south of them, abreast of Des Moines River. The Sioux have fixed
habitations as well as tents; their tents are large and commodious, made
of buffalo skins dressed without the hair, and very often handsomely
painted on the outside. I went out about nine miles to visit a Sioux
village on the borders of a small lake. Their lodges were built
cottage-fashion, of small fir-poles, erected stockade-wise, and covered
inside and out with bark; the roof also of bark with a hole in the
centre for the smoke to escape through. I entered one of these lodges:
the interior was surrounded by a continued bed-place round three of the
sides, about three feet from the floor, and on the platform was a
quantity of buffalo skins and pillows; the fire was in the centre, and
their luggage was stowed away under the bed-places. It was very neat
and clean; the Sioux generally are, indeed, particularly so, compared
with the other tribes of Indians. A missionary resides at this village
and has paid great attention to the small band under his care. Their
patches of Indian corn were clean and well tilled; and although, from
demi-civilisation, the people have lost much of their native grandeur,
still they are a fine race,