The hunters and the [Native Americans] speak of [Yellowstone] with a superstitious fear, and consider it the abode of evil spirits, that is to say, a kind of hell. [Native Americans] seldom approach it without offering some sacrifice, or, at least, without presenting the calumet of peace to the turbulent spirits, that they may be propitious. They declare that the subterranean noises proceed from the forging of warlike weapons: each eruption of earth is, in their eyes, the result of a combat between the infernal spirits, and becomes the monument of a new victory or calamity. Pierre-Jean de Smet. Western Missions And Missionaries: a Series of Letters. 1859
