M. R. HARRINGTON — SACRED BUNDLES OF THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS. 133

forgotten by the rising generation, that the Indians have begun to let the bundles pass out of their hands.
The Sac and Fox visited by the Expedition denied that they had ever used shields such as were common among the .plains tribes, asserting that the protective powers of the bundles were better than those of a shield. They affected to pity the tribes whose “medicine was so poor that they had to protect themselves with shields.” Nevertheless, Catlin pictures the old Sac chief Keokuk carrying a shield, also the chief Pashepaho is similarly shown, and the use of shields is shown in his pictures of several Sac and Fox dances . 1
1 Catlin, Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians, London 1841. Vol. II, Plates 280, 289.
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134 UNIVERSITY MUSEUM — ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS VOL. IV.
HISTORICAL REFERENCES.
The earliest mention I have thus far encountered, regard- ing the sacred bundles of the Sac and Fox, is in Catlin, 1 where a short account is furnished, of the “Dance to the medicine of the Brave” as an explanation of the plate here reproduced (PI. XXII).
“In the plate is reproduced,” says Mr. Catlin, “a party of Sac warriors who have returned victorious from battle with the scalps they have taken from their enemies: but having lost one of their party, they appear and dance in front of his wigwam fifteen days in succession, about an hour every day, when the widow hangs his medicine bag on a green bush which she erects before her door, under which she sits and cries while the warriors brandish the scalps they have taken, and at the same time recount the deeds of bravery of their deceased com- rade in arms, whilst they are throwing presents to the widow to heal her grief and afford her the means of a living.” The picture shows a war bundle (PI. XXV) with a gourd rattle (PI. XXIX, D) attached, hanging in front of a mat lodge, while a company of shaven-headed warriors dance in a circle to the sound of two drums and a deer-hoof rattle. (See PI. XXIX, A.) The three persons brandishing the scalps in the center of the circle have long hair and seem to be women. 2
The next reference that I discovered, in point of time, is a quotation from the report of the Indian Agent at Tama City, Iowa, dated August 10, 1885. 3 In speaking of the Sac and Fox religion he says: “Feasts are held before their crops are planted, and another series of prayers and thanksgivings
'Ibid., Vol. II, p. 215.
* Another and much fuller account written about this time has been brought to my attention by Mr. Alanson Skinner, of the American Museum of Natural History, and is reproduced as an appendix to this paper.
1 Smithsonian Report, 1885, p. 39.
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