Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/46

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SOUTH DAKOTA

with a robe highly decorated, and were carried in state, on these robes, to a large council house, where they were placed on dressed buffalo skins by the side of the grand chief.

The hall or council room was in the shape of three quarters of a circle, covered at the top and sides with

A Modern Camp of the Sioux

skins well dressed and sewed together. Under this shelter sat about seventy men, forming a circle about the chiefs, before whom were placed a Spanish and a United States flag. There was left a vacant circle about six feet in diameter in which the pipe of peace was raised on two forked sticks about six or eight inches from the ground and under it the down of the swan was scattered. Near by was a large fire on which provisions were cooking.