PART VII.
THE INDIANS.
Their manners and customs, traditions, religious notions, and relations to the whites. Except where otherwise noted the letters have not been published.
CHAPTER I.
RELIGIOUS OPINIONS OF THE ASSINIBOINS.1
Need of more missionaries - Letter from Crazy Bear - The Great Spirit - Sacrifices - The spring Medicine Lodge - Dances - The Sun-Bears-Ghosts and the dead-Future existence-Murder and revenge - Theft - Adultery - Oaths - Thunder birds.
Cincinnati, College of St. Xavier, July 16, 1854.
Reverend and Dear Father:
OCATIONS, alas! are still extremely rare; we must have ecclesiastics from Europe to go to the aid of the benighted Indians, who are without guide or pastor, and always desirous and anxious for them. I annually receive letters and most pressing invitations from the chiefs of the Indian tribes on the Upper Missouri and among the Rocky Mountains.
The following is a faithful translation of a letter I received from a great chief of the Assiniboins. They occupy the plains of the Yellowstone and of the Missouri: they number about 1,500 lodges and speak the Sioux language. My correspondent and petitioner is the great chief, " Crazy
Bear." He was one of the deputation of chiefs who accompanied me to the Great Council in 1851:
1 Letters IX and X, Second Series, Western Missions and Missionaries. Addressed to the editor of the Precis Historiques. Letters IX and X, Cinquante Nouvelles Letters. The English text is followed.