hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression and excessive modesty of demeanor, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful.  Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor can they themselves account for it.  Their traditions, so far as I can learn them, afford us no information of their having had any knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, made to their village thirty-three years ago.  Since that time until now (1835) there have been very few visits of white men to this place, and surely not enough to have changed the complexions and customs of a nation.  And I recollect perfectly well that Governor Clarke told me, before I started for this place, that I would find the Mandans a strange people and half white.

“Among the females may be seen every shade and color of hair that can be seen in our own country except red or auburn, which is not to be found. . . .  There are very many of both sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair of a bright silvery-gray, and in some instances almost perfectly white.  This unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of disease or habit, but it is unquestionably an hereditary characteristic which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or intellect.  And by passing this hair through my hands I have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse’s mane, differing materially from the hair of other colors, which, among the Mandans, is generally as fine and soft as silk.

“The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of man, with beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful suppleness and elasticity.”

Catlin gives a group (54) showing this great diversity in complexion:  one of the figures is painted almost pure white, and with light hair.  The faces are European.

  Governor and other Indians of the pueblo of San Domingo, new Mexico.

Major James W. Lynd, who lived among the Dakota Indians for nine years, and was killed by them in the great outbreak of 1862, says (Ms.  “Hist. of Dakotas,” Library, Historical Society, Minnesota, p. 47), after calling attention to the fact that the different tribes of the Sioux nation represent several different degrees of darkness of color: 

“The Dakota child is of lighter complexion than the young brave; this one lighter than the middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man lighter than the superannuated homo, who, by smoke, paint, dirt, and a drying up of the vital juices, appears to be the true copper-colored Dakota.  The color of the Dakotas varies with the nation, and also with the age and condition of the individual.  It may be set down, however, as a shade lighter than olive; yet it becomes still lighter by change of condition or mode of life, and nearly vanishes, even in the child, under constant ablutions