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| Pawnee Scouts gather beside a Union Pacific train in 1866. |
The last to retire were Apaches, but the first and most famous were the Pawnee. Fully 800 joined the US Army in 1864 and were formed into their own battalion. They protected the Union Pacific railroad as it was constructed from attack by the Sioux. Perhaps the next most famous Indian Scouts were the northern Cheyenne who fought the Sioux at Wounded Knee.
It's a shame that the Army's Indian allies are now forgotten and a false history, full of lies and distortions, is promoted -- if it is promoted at all. Indians are the ignored minority.
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| Northern Cheyenne Scouts, Dec., 1890, during the Ghost Dance troubles. |
The Pohjola's daughter legend is related in the eighth poem of the
Kalevala. The old hero Väinämöinen is traveling south when he catches sight of the beautiful daughter of
Pohjola (Northland) sitting at the edge of a rainbow. Smitten, he stops his horse and says, "Come, maid, into my sleigh, step down into my
sledge!" Before she will agree to do that, the girl gives him three tasks to perform. Two of them he
accomplishes. Then she says, "I'd marry one who could carve a
boat out of bits of my spindle." Väinämöinen sets about carving a boat,
but on the third day an accident happens. The axe blade strikes a stone
and the axe bounces off the rock
and hits Väinämöinen, cutting him badly, and he had to abandon the third task and leave Pohjola's daughter. There's a connection between this story and the Indian Scouts. Can you guess what it is?
