An Indian village is subject to continual agitations and excitements.
The next day arrived a deputation of braves from the Cheyenne or Shienne
nation; a broken tribe, cut up, like the Arickaras, by wars with the
Sioux, and driven to take refuge among the Black Hills, near the sources
of the Cheyenne River, from which they derive their name. One of these
deputies was magnificently arrayed in a buffalo robe, on which various
figures were fancifully embroidered with split quills dyed red and
yellow; and the whole was fringed with the slender hoofs of young fawns,
that rattled as he walked.
The arrival of this deputation was the signal for another of those
ceremonials which occupy so much of Indian life; for no being is more
courtly and punctilious, and more observing of etiquette and formality
than an American savage.
The object of the deputation was to give notice of an intended visit of
the Shienne (or Cheyenne) tribe to the Arickara village in the course
of fifteen days. To this visit Mr. Hunt looked forward to procure
additional horses for his journey; all his bargaining being ineffectual
in obtaining a sufficient supply from the Arickaras. Indeed, nothing
could prevail upon the latter to part with their prime horses, which had
been trained to buffalo hunting.
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