Appearance of the Sauk, 1825

[Greg Carter]

As the prairie was already filled with the teepees of the earlier arrivals, these tribes encamped on the large island midsteam and on the opposite shore- the present site of McGregor. "They came to the treaty ground", said Schoolcraft, "armed and dressed as a war party." Many of the warriors had "a long tuft of red horsehair tied at their elbows, and wore a necklass of grizzly bear's claws." Their head-dress consisted of red dyed horsehair, "tied in such a manner to the scalp lock as to present the shape of the decoration of a Roman helmet." Except for the scalp lock their heads were shaved and painted. They were practically naked. The print of a hand in white clay commonly marked the back or shoulders. Some carried long iron-shod lances; others were armed with clubs, guns, and knives. They looked the very spirit of defiance.

MAHAN, BRUCE E. Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier. Prairie Du Chien: Howe Printing Company, Inc. 2000

[Larry Koschkee]

The Sauk in 1832.

Greg, how does this square with your post?

Henry Gratiot was at the Prophet's village on April 26th, 1832 and described the approach of the Sauk in a piece published in the Galenian, May 9th 1832.

On the 26th , Mr. G. saw, at a distance of about two miles down Rock river, the army of the celebrated Black Hawk, consisting of about 500 Sacs, well armed, and mounted on fine horses, moving in a line of battle. Their appearance was terrible in the extreme. Their bodies were painted with white clay, with now and then the impression of a hand about their bodies, colored black. About their ancles and bodies, they wore wreaths of straw, which always indicates a disposition for blood...

In addiiton, Juliette M. Kinzie offered a 1832 Sauk description in her book Wau-Bun

The performance commenced, and as the dancers proceeded, following each other round and roud in the progress of the dance, my sister, Mrs. Helm, remarked to me, "Look at that small, dark Indian, with the green boughs on his person -- that is A Sauk! They always mark themselves in this manner with white clay, and ornament themselves with leaves when they dance!" In truth, I had never seen this custom among our own Indians, and as I gazed at this one with green chaplets round his head and his legs, and even his gun wreathed in the same manner, while his body displayed no paint except the white transverse streaks with which it was covered, I saw that he was, indeed, a stranger....

[Greg Carter]

That makes three quite good descriptions of the Sauk warrior. Very nice. Some of the details here are better than existing details of the militia!

I don't have my copy of Wau-Bun here with me, but did not the Sauk at Portage frighten Mrs. Kinzie?

I will have to transcribe some more of the info from this book to an additional thread, as the book I qouted also has fantastic descriptions of the Sioux and the Winnebago as well. There is a brief description of a Chippewa but it is not very detailed.

It would seem the Sauk preferred to use white as a color of paint, while the Pottowotomi, Winnebago and several others used black almost exclusively.

GMC

[gorentz]

"I don't have my copy of Wau-Bun here with me, but did not the Sauk at Portage frighten Mrs. Kinzie?"

I believe there was a Winnebago man who tried to scare her during the war. I don't recall the details offhand, but it struck me as a parallel with an incident that took place in Marshall, MI, where a native man played a practical joke on a woman, scaring her into thinking he was a Sauk.

"It would seem the Sauk preferred to use white as a color of paint, while the Pottowotomi, Winnebago and several others used black almost exclusively."

I've been collecting information on this topic, and while I don't have it all organized and analyzed, it seems to me that it was difficult to draw any conclusion like that, much as I would have liked to. But I do have other examples of the use of white. I did NOT have the two examples you guys posted (other than the Juliette Kinzie one) so I am grateful for having those to add to my list.

It seems that the Fox and Sauk both seemed to create a stir wherever they went with their fierce appearance. (I've been collecting examples of accounts along those lines, too.) Seems to me one of the accounts about the Fox goes way back, perhaps even prior to the Fox wars, when the Fox created quite an impression, in part because they were dressed exclusively in skins when most of other native peoples wore at least some clothing of European manufacture. (I don't have my records handy, so am saying all of this from my very fallible memory.)

John Gorentz

[gorentz]

I found my reference to the Fox wearing skins. It was in 1718 when a Fox delegation went to Montreal. The Fox created a sensation (my words), being dressed almost entirely in skins and leather. So it may or may not be correct to say they created a fierce impression on this particular occasion. But it seems to me that the Fox and Sauk often created a sensation when Euro-Americans encountered them, often because of their fierce appearance.

I got this item from Edmunds and Peyser's book (1993) about the Fox Wars, which also had a reference to the Wisconsin Historical Collections, 16:346-49 I don't have a photocopy of the page in Edmunds & Peyser's book (page 90) on which this appeared.

But howcome there is no section about the Fox Wars on this board? That episode can be thought of as part of the Black Hawk war story, even though it occurred over a hundred years before.

John Gorentz

[Larry Koschkee]

In response to Greg's question: ...did not the Sauk at Portage frighten Mrs. Kinzie? Yes, she and her sister, Mrs. Helm were alarmed.

Continuing from where I left off on Kinzie's quote: ...Without owing anything to the exaggeration of fear, his countenance was truly ferocious. He held his gun in his hand, and every time the course of the dance brought him directly in front of where we sat, he would turn his gaze full upon us, and club his weapon before him with what we interpreted into an air of defiance. We sat as still as death, for we knew it would not be wise to exhibit any appearance of fear; but my my sister remarked, in a low tone, " I have always thought that I was to lose my life by the hands of the Indians. This is the third Indian war I have gone through, and now, I suppose, it will be the last."

I too can not say with absolute authority that the Sauk preferred a white body paint. The various color images of Sauk and Fox I have viewed show a variety of colors, but the question remains what colors were used for different ceremonies.

John, If and when you organize your information on body paint, please share with all of us.

Thanks

Larry K.

[DZucker]

Thomas Forsyth in his TEXTMemoirs of the Sauk and FoxTEXT, written 1827, writes

The Sauk and Fox shave their heads except a small patch on their crown, which they are very fond of dressing and painting, they suspend several ornaments to it of horse or deer's hair dyed red as also silver ornaments, feathers of birds, etc; they paint their faces red with vermillion, green with verdigrease, and black with charcoal, their prevailing color is red, except before or coming from war, after returning from war they divest themselves of all their ornaments, wear dirt on their heads, and refrain from using vermillion for one year.

Best description I could remember having seen...but I'll keep looking- interesting- Davd

[Cliff Krainik]

You wrote -

"I too can not say with absolute authority that the Sauk preferred a white body paint. The various color images of Sauk and Fox I have viewed show a variety of colors, but the question remains what colors were used for different ceremonies."
-------------------------------------------------

Larry,

Please refer to our posting "War Dance of the Sacs and Foxes" under the Forum Name - Native American Tribes of the Black Hawk War.

Note both black and white painted faces.

Cliff

[Cliff Krainik]

You wrote -


"It would seem the Sauk preferred to use white as a color of paint, while the Pottowotomi, Winnebago and several others used black almost exclusively."

------------------------------
John,

Please refer to our posting "War Dance of the Sacs and Foxes" under the Forum Name - Native American Tribes of the Black Hawk War.

Note both black and white painted faces.

Cliff

[Cliff Krainik]

Hi David,

Please refer to our postings - "GEORGE CATLIN SAC and FOX GALLERY" and "War Dance of the Sacs and Foxes"under Forum Name - Native American Tribes of the Black Hawk War.

Cliff