The Chippewayans, being the same as the Chippewas in the United States, are divided into many tribes. They differ from the Crees as to hospitality, for they never give or receive with a good grace. Their disputes are generally settled by wrestling, and the victor of the match may carry off the wife of the vanquished as his prize.
The powerful nation of the Sioux, or Dahcotahs, occupy in part the region west of the Mississippi, near the Falls of St. Anthony, though the main body of them are found on the Upper Missouri. These are the same Indians whom Carver calls the Naudowessies, and have always been great warriors. They are divided into numerous bands, each called after the name of its chief, as the Black Dog’s band, the Red Wing’s band, &c. They have ever been at war with the Chippewas, and are the mortal foes of the Osages, whom they have greatly reduced, and who hold them in great dread. They occupy a wide extent of country, and the main object of their contention with the Chippewas, for two hundred years, is stated to have been the territory from Rum River to the Rivière de Corbeau, both parties claiming it as their own. They have conquered and destroyed vast numbers of their red brethren, and have swept the whole region extending from the banks of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Great Platte, together with the plains that lie to the north, between the Mississippi and the Black Hills. They form six distinct tribes, comprising about 28,000 souls, subsisting chiefly on buffalo’s meat and the wild fruits of the forest. They also use the native rice, of which they gather many thousand bushels. A revolted band of this nation, called the Osinpoilles, said to consist of 8,000 persons, live near the Rocky Mountains.
Catlin divides the Sioux nation into the Mississippi Sioux and the Missouri Sioux. He says that they are separated into forty-two bands, or families, each having a chief; these acknowledge a head chief, to whom they are subordinate.
The Mississippi branch, being near to the white settlements, are somewhat advanced in civilization, yet form but an imperfect sample of the nobler warriors who live on the banks of the Missouri, and roam over the plains between that river and the Rocky Mountains. At the time Catlin visited them, the head chief of the Sioux was Hawanjetah, greatly renowned for his prowess in war and the chase. Of him we are furnished with the following story.