_17th_. It is customary with the Chippewas at this place, when an
inmate of the lodge is sick, to procure a thin sapling some twenty to
thirty feet long, from which, after it has been trimmed, the bark is
peeled. Native paints are then smeared over it as caprice dictates. To
the slender top are then tied bits of scarlet, blue cloth, beads, or
some other objects which are deemed acceptable to the manito or spirit,
who has, it is believed, sent sickness to the lodge as a mark of his
displeasure. The pole is then raised in front of the lodge and firmly
adjusted in the ground. The sight of these manito poles gives quite a
peculiar air to an Indian encampment. Not knowing, however, the value
attached to them, one of the officers, a few days after our arrival,
having occasion for tent poles, sent one of his men for one of these
poles of sacrifice; but its loss was soon observed by the Indians, who
promptly reclaimed it, and restored it to the exact position which it
occupied before. There is, in fact, such a subtle and universal belief
in the doctrine and agency of minor spirits of malign or benignant
influence among the Indians who surround the cantonment, or visit the
agency, and who are encamped at this season in great numbers in the open
spaces of the village or its vicinity, that we are in constant danger of
trespassing against some Indian custom, and of giving offence where it
was least intended.
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