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Show INDIAN LIFE. Miss Josephine, daughter of the late Indian agent in the White river country, is lecturing in Colorado, describing the massacre, her captivity and release. Her recent lecture in Denver City is reported in the Tribune of that city, from whose synopsis we take the following interesting extract: <br><br> ---- The first thing the Ute squaw does when she rises in the morning the Utes all rise at daybreak is to go off into the woods to bring fuel for the fire, carrying on her back any quantity less than half a cord. Then comes the kindling of the fires. They are very awkward in striking matches. Persune's? squaw proved especially so, and for some reason conceived the idea that the bottom of Miss Josephine's moccasin was the very best match scratcher obtainable. Miss Josephine slept with her moccasins on her feet and she was generally awakened in the morning by the squaw reaching for her moccasin that she might ignite the match after her favorite manner. <br><br> ---- By all odds the most entertaining bit of Miss Meeker's discourse is her description of the manner of cooking among the Indians. This is all done, of course, by the women. The Utes live principally upon bread and meat. When they can't get bread they live on meat, and when they can't get meat they live on bread. When they have a great quantity of provisions on hand they eat it all up before getting any more. The same is true when they have a small quantity on hand. They are dirty. They are even very dirty. Their meat is generally permitted to lie about on the ground or any place. Indian families possess any number of dogs from eight to fifteen, and these animals help themselves to the meat. After they have satisfied themselves, and when the Indians become hungry, they cut off this same piece on which the dogs feed. They generally boil their meat, but sometimes they broil it. They put it in water and let it remain only for a few moments, just long enough to heat it, when they take it out and begin to eat. They use the same water and the same pail for boiling over and over again until the water becomes a perfect slime of filth. Miss Meeker relates one instance in which she fried meat and made gravy. They gravy was particularly pleasing to the Ute palate, and they could not be satisfied. They continued to call for more until the entire supply was exhausted, and when it was, they all left the dining-board and betook themselves to the pot which, as did Jack and Jill, they licked clean, like so many dogs. <br><br> ---- Talking of pots, it is not believed the Utes have any plural for this word. They are a one ideal? set. One pot generally does service for the entire family. This particular pot is a frying-pan. When the Utes get out of bed they wash their faces and bathe the baby in it, after which they bake the bread and boil the meat. Then they eat out of the vessel and then the dogs lick up the leavings. ---- Miss Josephine attempted to teach the Indians a few things about cooking. She made slap-jacks for them, using equal quantities of flour and dirt, besides a few other simple ingredients. But she was not allowed to use a knife in turning these cakes. The Indians have a superstition about knives that if they are dropped in the fire sickness will follow. Hence she was compelled to sharpen a stick when she desired to make slap-jacks. <br><br> ---- The Indians are not particular about the time or frequency of their meals, and seem to have wonderful and equal capacity for eating or for long fasting. She has frequently seen them eat heartily four or five times inside of an hour, and has as often seen them go all day without a bite, enduring all kinds of hardship, and yet remaining as cheerful as if they had been feasted. <br><br> ---- They clothe themselves with skins of animals or with blankets. They generally take a blanket or a skin and cut a hole in the middle of it and throw it over their heads, cutting arm holes and fastening the garment at the waist with a wide belt, while they close up the neck with a buckskin string. When the garment wears out they cut the string and let it drop but not before. Sometimes the Indian will wear as many as five of these garments at a time, always keeping the cleanest one on the outside. <br><br> ---- The Utes generally glace [place] their dead under stones so as to keep the wild animals away from the remains. One woman died when she was at White river and was buried with great ceremony. Her body was placed in a box and put in the ground, and her tent and all her effects were burned over the mound. A pony and ten dogs were killed. <br><br> ---- Miss Meeker related one anecdote which is worthy of repetition at this time when we hear so much of the hostile demonstrations of the Utah Utes. She says that she was sitting in her tent one night when a strange Indian came in and asked her what her name was. She told him, and he asked her numerous other questions, all of which she answered. He then told her that he was a Uintah Ute who had been sent by the agent among that tribe to ascertain the whereabouts and conditions of the captives. He professed great friendliness for the white women and told them to be brave. He asked Miss Josephine to write a letter to the agent and have it ready by the next morning. She obtained a stub of a pencil from squaw Susan and wrote the note on the back of an old bill, which she sent to the agent. Miss Meeker did not recite the note, but it is given in "The Ute War," the new book just out, and we copy it from that source: GRAND RIVER, 10 or 30 miles from Agency. October 10, 1879. TO UINTAH AGENT. I send this by one of your Indians. If you get it, do all in your power to liberate us as soon as possible. I do not think they will let us go of their own accord. You will do me a great service to inform Mary Meeker, at Greeley, Colorado, that we are well and may get home some time. Yours, etc., Josephine Meeker, United States Indian Agent's Daughter. |
