or
portions of tribes have been admitted into the confederacy; These are the
Sircies, on the north, a branch, or offshoot from the Chipwayans of the
Athabasca; and the Gros Ventres, or Atsinas, on the southeast, a branch
from the Arrapahoe nation who dwelt along the sources of the Platte. How
these branches became detached from the parent stocks has never been
determined, but to this day they speak the languages of their original
tribe in addition to that of the adopted one. The parent tongue of the
Sircies is harsh and guttural, that of the Blackfeet is rich and musical;
and while the Sircies always speak Blackfeet in addition to their own
tongue, the Blackfeet rarely master the language of the Sircies.

War, as we have already said, is the sole toil and thought of the red
man's life. He has three great causes of fight: to steal a horse, take a
scalp, or get a wife. I regret to have to write that the possession of a
horse is valued before that of a wife-and this has been the case for many
years. "A horse," writes McKenzie, "is valued at ten guns, a woman is
only worth one gun;" but at that time horses were scarcer than at
present. Horses have been a late importation, comparatively speaking,
into the Indian country. They travelled rapidly north from Mexico, and
the prairies soon became covered with the Spanish mustang, for whose
possession the red man killed his brother with singular pertinacity. The
Indian to-day believes that the horse has ever dwelt with him on the
Western deserts, but that such is not the case his own language
undoubtedly tells. It is curious to compare the different names which the
wild men gave the new-comer who was destined to work such evil among
them. In Cree, a dog is called "Atim," and a horse, "Mistatim," or the
"Big Dog." In the Assineboine tongue the horse is called "Sho-a-th-in-ga,"
"Thongatch shonga," a great dog. In Blackfeet, "Po-no-ka-mi-taa" signifies
the horse; and "Po-no-ko" means red deer, and "Emita," a dog--the "Red-deer
Dog." But the Sircies made the best name of all for the new-comer; they
called him the "Chistli" "Chis," seven, "Li," dogs "Seven Dogs." Thus
we have him called the big dog, the great dog, the red-deer dog, the
seven dogs, and the red dog, or "It-shou-ma-shungu," by the Gros Ventres.
The dog was their universal beast of burthen, and so they multiplied the
name in many ways to enable it to define the Superior powers of the
new beast.

But a far more formidable e