My husband was Indian
agent at Devils Lake Agency, and in 1881 was transferred to
Standing Rock, on the Missouri River, then a very important agency,
to take charge of the Sioux who had then but recently surrendered
to the military authorities, and been brought by steamboat from
various points on the upper Missouri, to be permanently located on
the Standing Rock reservation.
Having been born and reared in an Indian community, I at an early
age acquired a thorough knowledge of the Sioux language, and having
lived on Indian reservations for the past forty years in a position
which brought me very near to the Indians, whose confidence I
possessed, I have, therefore, had exceptional opportunities of
learning the legends and folk-lore of the Sioux.
The stories contained in this little volume were told me by the
older men and women of the Sioux, of which I made careful notes as
related, knowing that, if not recorded, these fairy tales would be
lost to posterity by the passing of the primitive Indian.
The notes of a song or a strain of music coming to us through the
night not only give us pleasure by the melody they bring, but also
give us knowledge of the character of the singer or of the
instrument from which they proceed. There is something in the
music which unerringly tells us of its source. I believe musicians
call it the "timbre" of the sound.
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