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25 - The Ancient Blackfeet · Blackfeet Native American Stories

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five of Blackfeet Indian Stories. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Lucy LaFaro, New South Wales, Australia. Blackfeet Indian
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Speaker 1: Stories by George B. Grennell, Chapter twenty five, Old Man's
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Speaker 1: Stories the ancient Blackfeet, long long ago, before our fathers
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Speaker 1: or grandfathers were born, before the white people knew anything
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Speaker 1: about the western half of North America. The Indians who
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Speaker 1: told their stories lived on the western plains. To the
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Speaker 1: west of their home rose high mountains, black with pine
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Speaker 1: trees on their lower slopes and capped with snow. But
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Speaker 1: their tents were pitched on the rolling. For a little
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Speaker 1: while in spring, this prairie was green and dotted with flowers,
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Speaker 1: but for most of the year it stretched away, brown
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Speaker 1: and bare, north east and south. Farther than one could see.
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Speaker 1: On these plains were many kinds of wild animals. Sometimes
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Speaker 1: the prairie was crowded with herds of black buffalo running
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Speaker 1: in fear, or again, the herds, unfrightened, fed scattered out,
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Speaker 1: so that the hills far and near were dotted with
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Speaker 1: their dark forms. Among the buffalo were yellow and white antelope,
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Speaker 1: many of them graceful and swift of foot, feeding on
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Speaker 1: the high prairie or going down into the wooded river
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Speaker 1: valleys to drink. Were herds of elk, while the willow thickets,
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Speaker 1: the brushy ravines, and the lower timbered foothills sheltered deer.
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Speaker 1: The naked bad lands, the rocky slopes of the mountains,
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Speaker 1: and the tall buttes that often rise above the level
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Speaker 1: prairie were the refuge of the mountain sheep, which in
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Speaker 1: those days, like all the other grass eaters of the region,
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Speaker 1: grazed on the prairie and sought the more broken higher
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Speaker 1: country only when alarmed or when they wished to rest.
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Speaker 1: These were the animals which the Blackfeet killed for food
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Speaker 1: before the white men came, and of these the buffalo
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Speaker 1: was the chief. Buffalo more than any animals could be
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Speaker 1: captured in numbers, and the black Feet, like the other
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Speaker 1: Indians of the plains, had devised a method for taking them,
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Speaker 1: so that when the buffalo were near, the Blackfeet never
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Speaker 1: suffered from hunger. Yet sometimes it happened that the buffalo
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Speaker 1: went away, and that the lonely far traveling scouts sent
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Speaker 1: out by the tribe could not find them. Then the
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Speaker 1: people had to turn to the smaller animals, the elk, deer, antelope,
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Speaker 1: and wild sheep. In those old days, before they had horses,
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Speaker 1: they did not make long marches when they moved. Their
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Speaker 1: only domestic animal was the dog, which was used chiefly
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Speaker 1: as a beast of burden, either carrying loads on its
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Speaker 1: back or hauling The trevoi formed by two long sticks
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Speaker 1: crossing above the shoulders and dragging on the ground behind
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Speaker 1: behind the dog. These two sticks were united by a
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Speaker 1: little platform on which was lashed some small burden, sometimes
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Speaker 1: a little baby. In those days, when the people moved
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Speaker 1: from one place to another, all who were large enough
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Speaker 1: to walk and strong enough to carry a burden on
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Speaker 1: the shoulders were laden. Usually men, women, and children alike
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Speaker 1: bore loads suited to their strength. Yet sometimes the men
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Speaker 1: carried no loads at all, For if journeying through a
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Speaker 1: country where they feared that some enemy might attack them,
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Speaker 1: the men must be ready to fight and to defend
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Speaker 1: their wives and children. A man cannot fight well if
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Speaker 1: he is carrying a burden. He cannot use his arms readily,
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Speaker 1: nor run about lightly forward to attack backward in retreat.
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Speaker 1: If he is not free to fight well, his family
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Speaker 1: will be in danger. White men who have seen Indians
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Speaker 1: journeying in this way, and who have not understood why
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Speaker 1: some women carried heavy loads and the men carried nothing,
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Speaker 1: have said that Indian men were idle and lazy and
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Speaker 1: forced their women to do all the work. Those who
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Speaker 1: wrote those things were mistaken in what they said. They
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Speaker 1: did not understand what they saw. The truth is that
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Speaker 1: these men were prepared for danger of attacks by enemies,
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Speaker 1: and were ready to do their best to save their
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Speaker 1: families from harm. Carrying on their backs or their property
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Speaker 1: except the little which the dogs might pack, it is
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Speaker 1: evident that the Indians in those days could not make
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Speaker 1: long journeys. In those days, they had no buckets of
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Speaker 1: wood or tin in which to carry water. Instead, they
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Speaker 1: used a vessel like a bag or sack made from
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Speaker 1: the soft membrane of one of the stomachs of the buffalo. This,
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Speaker 1: after it had been cleansed and all the openings from
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Speaker 1: it save one, had been tied up, The women filled
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Speaker 1: at the stream with a spoon made of buffalo horn,
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Speaker 1: or with a larger ladle of the horn of the
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Speaker 1: wild sheep. Because this water skin was soft and flexible,
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Speaker 1: it could not stand on the ground, and they hung
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Speaker 1: it up, sometimes on the limb of a tree, more
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Speaker 1: often on one of the poles of the lodge, or
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Speaker 1: sometimes on a tripod three sticks coming together at the
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Speaker 1: top and stacking spread out at the ground. Most of
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Speaker 1: the meat cooked for the family was roasted, yet much
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Speaker 1: of it was boiled, sometimes in a bowl of stone,
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Speaker 1: sometimes in a kettle made of a fresh hide or
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Speaker 1: of the paunch of the buffalo. Sometimes these skin or
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Speaker 1: paunched kettles were supported at the sides by stakes stuck
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Speaker 1: in the ground, and sometimes a hole dug in the
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Speaker 1: ground was lined with the hide, which was so arranged
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Speaker 1: as to be water tight. They were not, as may
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Speaker 1: be imagined, put over a fire, but when filled with
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Speaker 1: cold water, this water was heated in quite another way. Nearby,
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Speaker 1: a fire was built in which were thrown large stones,
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Speaker 1: and on top of the stones more wood was piled,
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Speaker 1: so that after a time, when the wood had burnt down,
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Speaker 1: the stones were very hot, sometimes red hot. With two
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Speaker 1: rather short handled forked sticks, the women took from the
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Speaker 1: fire one of the hot stones and put it in
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Speaker 1: the water in the hide kettle, and as it cooled,
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Speaker 1: took it out and put in another hot stone. Thus
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Speaker 1: the water was soon heated and boiled and cooked whatever
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Speaker 1: was in the kettle. To be sure, there were some
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Speaker 1: ashes and a little dirt in the soup, but that
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Speaker 1: was not regarded as important. This was long before the
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Speaker 1: Indians knew of matches or even a flint and steel.
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Speaker 1: In those days, to make a fire was not easy,
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Speaker 1: and it took a long time. By his knees or feet.
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Speaker 1: A man held in position on the ground a piece
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Speaker 1: of soft dry wood in which two or three little
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Speaker 1: hollows had been dug out, and taking another slender stick
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Speaker 1: of hard wood, and pressing the point in one of
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Speaker 1: the little hollows in the stick of soft wood, he
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Speaker 1: twirled the stick rapidly between the palms of his hands,
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Speaker 1: so fast and so long that presently the dust ground
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Speaker 1: from the softer stick, falling to one side in a
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Speaker 1: little pile, began to smoke, and at last a faint
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Speaker 1: spark was seen at the top of the pile, which
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Speaker 1: began to glow, and spreading became constantly larger. He or
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Speaker 1: his companion, for often two men told the stick one
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Speaker 1: relieving the other caught this spark in a bit of tinder,
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Speaker 1: perhaps some dry punk or a little fine grass, and
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Speaker 1: by blowing coaxed it into flame, and there was the fire.
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Speaker 1: This fire making was hard work, and the people tried
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Speaker 1: to escape this work by keeping a spark of fire
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Speaker 1: always alive. To do this, men sometimes carried by a
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Speaker 1: thong slung over the shoulder the hollow tip of a
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Speaker 1: buffalo horn, the opening of which was by a wooden plug.
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Speaker 1: When going on a journey, the man lighted a piece
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Speaker 1: of punk, and, placing it in this horn, plugged up
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Speaker 1: the open end so that no air could get into
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Speaker 1: the horn. There the punk smoldered for a long time,
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Speaker 1: and neither went out nor was wholly consumed. Once in
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Speaker 1: a while during the day the man looked at this punk,
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Speaker 1: and if he saw that it was almost consumed, he
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Speaker 1: lighted another piece and put it in the horn and
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Speaker 1: replaced the plug. So at night, when he reached camp,
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Speaker 1: the fire was still in his horn, and he could
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Speaker 1: readily kindle a blaze, and from this blaze other fires
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Speaker 1: were kindled. Often, if the camp was large, the first
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Speaker 1: young man who reached it gathered wood and perhaps kindled
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Speaker 1: four fires, and after the women had reached the camp,
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Speaker 1: unpacked their dogs and put up their lodgers. Each woman
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Speaker 1: would go to one of these fires to get a
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Speaker 1: brand awesome coals with which to start her own lodge fire.
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Speaker 1: In warm weather, men and boys wore little clothing, they
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Speaker 1: went almost naked. Yet in cold weather, each man or
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Speaker 1: woman was most of the time wrapped in a warm
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Speaker 1: robe of tanned buffalo skin. Even the little children wore robes,
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Speaker 1: the smallest ones those taken from the little buffalo calves.
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Speaker 1: All their clothing, like their beds and their homes, was
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Speaker 1: made of the skins of animals. Shirts, women's dresses, leggings,
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Speaker 1: and moccasins were made from the tanned skins of buffalo, deer, antelope,
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Speaker 1: and mountain sheep. Often the moccasins were made from the
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Speaker 1: smoked skin cut from the top of an old lodge,
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Speaker 1: for this skin had been smoked so much that it
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Speaker 1: never dried hard and stiff after it had been wet.
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Speaker 1: The moccasins had a stiff sole of buffalo raw hide,
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Speaker 1: and in the bottom of this sole were cut one
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Speaker 1: or two holes in order that the water might run
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Speaker 1: out if a man had to wade through a stream.
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Speaker 1: The homes of these Indians were lodges, tents made of
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Speaker 1: tanned buffalo skin supported on a cone of long, straight,
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Speaker 1: slender poles. At the top, where the poles crossed was
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Speaker 1: an opening for the smoke from the fire built in
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Speaker 1: the center of the circular lodge floor, while about the
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Speaker 1: fire and close under the lodge covering were the beds
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Speaker 1: where the people slept or ate during the day. These
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Speaker 1: homes were warm and comfortable. The border of the lodge
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Speaker 1: covering did not come down quite to the ground, but
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Speaker 1: inside the lodge poles and tied to them was a
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Speaker 1: long white strip of tanned buffalo skin four or five
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Speaker 1: feet high and long enough to reach around the inside
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Speaker 1: of the lodge, almost from one side of the door
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Speaker 1: to the other. This strip of tanned skin, made up
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Speaker 1: of several pieces, was so wide that one edge rested
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Speaker 1: on the floor and reached inward under the beds and seats.
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Speaker 1: Through the open space between the lodge covering and the
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Speaker 1: lodge lining, fresh air kept passing into the lodge close
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Speaker 1: to the ground and up over the lining and down
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Speaker 1: toward the center of the lodge, and so furnished draft
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Speaker 1: for the fire. The lodge lining kept this cold air
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Speaker 1: from blowing directly on the occupants of the lodge who
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Speaker 1: sat around the fire. Often the lodge lining was finally
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Speaker 1: painted with pictures of animals, people, and figures of mysterious
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Speaker 1: beings of which one might not speak. The seats and
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Speaker 1: beds in this home were covered with soft, tanned buffalo robes,
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Speaker 1: and at the head and foot of each bed was
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Speaker 1: an inclined backrest of straight willow twigs strung together on
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Speaker 1: long lines of sinew and supported in an inclined position
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Speaker 1: by a tripod. Buffalo robes often hung over these backrests.
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Speaker 1: In the spaces between the backrests, which though they came
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Speaker 1: together at the top, were separated at the ground, were
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Speaker 1: kept many of the possessions of the family, the pipe,
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Speaker 1: sacks of tobacco, of paint, possible sacks, puffletches of clothing
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Speaker 1: or food, and many smaller articles. The outside of the
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Speaker 1: lodge was often painted with mysterious figures which the lodge
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Speaker 1: owner believed to have power to bring good luck to
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Speaker 1: him and to his family. Sometimes these figures represented animals, buffalo,
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Speaker 1: deer and elk or rocks, mountains, trees, or the puff
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Speaker 1: balls that grow on the prairie. Sometimes a procession of
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Speaker 1: ravens marked one after the other, was painted around the
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Speaker 1: circumference of the lodge. The painting might show the tracks
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Speaker 1: of animals or a number of water animals, apparently chasing
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Speaker 1: each other around the lodge. On either side of the
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Speaker 1: smoke hole at the top were two flaps or wings,
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Speaker 1: each one supported by a single pole. These were to
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Speaker 1: regulate the draft of the fire in case of a
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Speaker 1: change of wind, and the poles were moved from side
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Speaker 1: to side, changing as the direction of the wind changed.
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Speaker 1: On such wings were often painted groups of white disks
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Speaker 1: which represented some group of stars. At the back of
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Speaker 1: the lodge, high up, just below the place where the
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Speaker 1: lodge poles cross, was often a large round disc representing
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Speaker 1: the sun, and above that a cross which was the
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Speaker 1: sign of the butterfly, the power that they believed brings sleep.
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Speaker 1: From the ends of the wings, or tied to the
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Speaker 1: tips of the poles which supported them, hung buffalo tails,
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Speaker 1: and sometimes running down from one of these poles to
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Speaker 1: the ground Near the door, was a string of the
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Speaker 1: sheaths of buffalo hooflets, which rattled as it swung to
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Speaker 1: and fro in the breeze. Their arms were the bow
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Speaker 1: and arrow and short spear or lance with a head
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Speaker 1: of sharpened stone or bone, stone, hammers with wooden handles,
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Speaker 1: and knives made of bone or stone, and, if of stone,
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Speaker 1: lashed by rawhide or signew to a split wooden handle.
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Speaker 1: The hammers were of two sorts, one quite heavy, almost
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Speaker 1: like a sledge hammer or more and with a short handle,
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Speaker 1: the other much lighter and with a longer, more limber handle.
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Speaker 1: This last was used by men in war as a
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Speaker 1: mace or war club, while the heavier hammer was used
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Speaker 1: by women as an axe to break up fallen trees
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Speaker 1: for firewood, as a hammer to drive tent pins into
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Speaker 1: the ground to kill disabled animals, or to break up
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Speaker 1: heavy bones for the marrow they contained. These mauls and
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Speaker 1: hammers were usually made by choosing an oval stone and
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Speaker 1: pecking a groove about its shortest diameter. The handles were
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Speaker 1: made by green sticks fitted as closely as possible into
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Speaker 1: the groove, brought together and lashed in position by signew,
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Speaker 1: the whole being then covered with wet raw hide, tightly
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Speaker 1: fitted and sewed. As the raw hide dried, it shrunk
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Speaker 1: and strongly bound together the parts of the weapon. The
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Speaker 1: black feet bow was about four feet long. Its string
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Speaker 1: was of twisted signew, and it was backed with signew.
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Speaker 1: This gave the bow great power, so that the arrow
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Speaker 1: went with much force. The arrows were straight shoots of
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Speaker 1: the service berry or cherry, and the manufacture of arrows
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Speaker 1: was the chief employment of many of the men of
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Speaker 1: middle life. Each arrow, by the same maker was precisely
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Speaker 1: like every other arrow he made. Each arrow maker tried
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Speaker 1: hard to make good arrows. It was a fine thing
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Speaker 1: to be known as a maker of good arrows. The
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Speaker 1: shoots for the arrow shafts were brought into the lodge, peeled, smoothed, roughly,
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Speaker 1: tied up in bundles, and hung up to dry. After
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Speaker 1: they were dried, the bundles were taken down and each
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Speaker 1: shaft was smoothed and reduced to a proper thickness by
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Speaker 1: the use of a grooved piece of sandstone, which acted
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Speaker 1: on the arrow like sandpaper. After they were of the
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Speaker 1: right thickness, they were straightened by bending with the hands
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Speaker 1: and sometimes with the teeth, and were then passed through
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Speaker 1: a circular hole drilled in a rib or in a
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Speaker 1: mountain sheep's horn, which acted in part as a gauge
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Speaker 1: of the size, and also as a smoother, for if
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Speaker 1: in passing through the hole the arrow fitted tightly, the
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Speaker 1: shaft received a good polish. The three grooves which always
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Speaker 1: were found in the blackfeet arrows, were made by pushing
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Speaker 1: the shaft through the round hole drilled in a rib,
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Speaker 1: which however, had one or more projections left on the inside.
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Speaker 1: These projections pressed into the soft wood and made the
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Speaker 1: grooves which were in every arrow. The feathers were three
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Speaker 1: in number. They were put on with a glue made
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Speaker 1: by boiling scraps of dried raw hide, and were held
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Speaker 1: in place by wrappings of sinew. The heads of the
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Speaker 1: arrow were made of stone or bone or horn. The
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Speaker 1: flint points were often highly worked and very beautiful, being
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Speaker 1: broken from larger flints by sharp blows of a stone hammer,
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Speaker 1: and after they had been shaped, the edges were worked
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Speaker 1: sharp by flaking with an implement of bone or horn.
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Speaker 1: The points made of horn or bone were ground sharp
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Speaker 1: by rubbing on a stone. A notch was cut in
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Speaker 1: the end of the narrow shaft, and the shank of
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Speaker 1: the arrow points set in that The arrowheads were firmly
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Speaker 1: fixed to the shaft by glue and by signew wrapping.
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Speaker 1: Although the black Feet lived almost altogether on the flesh
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Speaker 1: of birds or animals, yet they had some vegetable food.
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Speaker 1: This was chiefly berries, of which in some other women
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Speaker 1: collected great quantities and dried them for winter use, and roots,
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Speaker 1: the gathering of which at the proper season of the
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Speaker 1: year occupied much of the time of women and young girls.
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Speaker 1: These roots were unearthed by a long, sharp pointed stick
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Speaker 1: called a root digger. Some of the roots were eaten
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Speaker 1: as soon as collected, while others were dried and stored
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Speaker 1: for use in winter. After they reached the plains. The
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Speaker 1: main food of the Blackfeet was the buffalo, which they
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Speaker 1: killed in large numbers when everything went right. Many of
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Speaker 1: the streams in the Blackfeet country run through wide, deep
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Speaker 1: valleys bordered on either side by cliffs or broken precipices
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Speaker 1: falling sharply from the high prairie above. Long ago the
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Speaker 1: Blackfeet must have learned that it was possible to make
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Speaker 1: the buffalo jump over these cliffs, and that in the
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Speaker 1: four on the rocks below, numbers would be killed or crippled.
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Speaker 1: No doubt. After this had been practiced for a time,
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Speaker 1: there came to someone the idea of building at the
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Speaker 1: foot of such a cliff, where the buffalo will run
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Speaker 1: over a fence which would form a corral or pound,
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Speaker 1: and which would hold all the buffalo that were jumped
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Speaker 1: over the cliff. This corral they called pisk It is
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Speaker 1: often said that the buffalo were driven over these precipices,
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Speaker 1: but this is true only in part. Like most wild animals,
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Speaker 1: buffalo are inquisitive. It was not difficult to excite their curiosity,
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Speaker 1: and when they saw something they did not recognize, they
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Speaker 1: were anxious to find out what it was. When running
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Speaker 1: to the piskin, the buffalo were really drawn by curiosity
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Speaker 1: almost to the jumping point, and between two long, diverging
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Speaker 1: lines of people, who kept hidden until after the buffalo
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Speaker 1: had passed them, and then rose and showed themselves and
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Speaker 1: tried to frighten the animals. Now, to be sure, for
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Speaker 1: the short distance that remained between the place where they
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Speaker 1: were alarmed and the place where they jumped, the buffalo
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Speaker 1: were driven. Any attempt on the open prairie to drive
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Speaker 1: buffalo in one direction or another would be certain to fail.
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Speaker 1: The animals would go where they wished to. They would
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Speaker 1: not be driven, though often they might be led to
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Speaker 1: the people. The capture of food was the most important
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Speaker 1: thing in life, and they put forth every effort to
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Speaker 1: accomplish it. For this reason, it came about that the
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Speaker 1: effort to capture buffalo was preceded, usually by religious ceremonies,
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Speaker 1: in which many prayers were offered to the powers of
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Speaker 1: the earth, the sky, and the waters. Many sacrifices made,
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Speaker 1: and sacred objects like the buffalo stone were displayed. When
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Speaker 1: the day for the hunt came, the man who was
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Speaker 1: to bring the buffalo left the camp early in the morning,
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Speaker 1: climbed the rocky bluffs to the high prairie, and journeyed
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Speaker 1: towards some nearby herd of buffalo that had been located
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Speaker 1: the day before by himself or by other young men.
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Speaker 1: He approached the buffalo as nearly as he could without
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Speaker 1: frightening them, and then attracting the attention of some of
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Speaker 1: the animals by uttering certain calls, tossed into the air
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Speaker 1: his buffalo robe or some smaller object. As soon as
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Speaker 1: the buffalo began to look at him, he retreated slowly
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Speaker 1: in the direction of the piskun, but continued to call
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Speaker 1: and to attract their attention by showing himself and then
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Speaker 1: disappearing Soon some of the buffalo began to walk toward him,
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Speaker 1: and others began to look and to follow those that
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Speaker 1: had first started, so that before long the whole herd
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Speaker 1: of fifty or a hundred animals might be walking or
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Speaker 1: sometimes trotting, after him. The more rapidly the buffalo came on,
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Speaker 1: the faster the man ran, and sometimes it was a
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Speaker 1: hard matter for him to keep ahead of the herd
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Speaker 1: until he had got far within the wings and near
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Speaker 1: to the cliff. If there seemed danger that he would
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Speaker 1: be overtaken, he watched his chance, and either at some
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Speaker 1: low place quickly dodged out of the line in which
23:45
Speaker 1: the buffalo were running, or hid behind one of the
23:48
Speaker 1: piles of stones of which the wings were formed, or
23:51
Speaker 1: if he had time, slipped over the rocky wall at
23:54
Speaker 1: the valley's edge so as to get out of the
23:57
Speaker 1: way of the approaching herd. As soon as the buffalo
24:01
Speaker 1: had come well within the diverging lines of people who
24:04
Speaker 1: were hidden behind the piles of stones called wings, those
24:07
Speaker 1: whom the buffalo passed rose up from their places of concealment, and,
24:12
Speaker 1: by yells and shouts and the waving of their robes,
24:15
Speaker 1: frightened the buffalo, so that they quite forgot their curiosity
24:18
Speaker 1: in the terror that now replaced it. When the leaders
24:22
Speaker 1: reached the brink of the cliff, they could not stop.
24:25
Speaker 1: They were pushed over by those behind, and most of
24:28
Speaker 1: the buffalo jumped over the cliff. Many were crippled or
24:31
Speaker 1: injured by the foe, and all were kept within the
24:34
Speaker 1: fence of the pisken below. About this fence, the people
24:38
Speaker 1: were collected. The buffalo raced round and round within the pen,
24:42
Speaker 1: the young and weak being injured or killed in the crowding,
24:46
Speaker 1: while above the fence men were shooting them with arrows,
24:49
Speaker 1: until presently all in the pen were dead or so
24:52
Speaker 1: hurt that the women could go into the pen and
24:54
Speaker 1: kill them. The people entered and took the flesh and hides. Deer, elk,
25:01
Speaker 1: and antelope were shot with arrows, and antelope were often
25:05
Speaker 1: captured in pitfalls roofed with slender poles and covered with
25:08
Speaker 1: grass and earth. Such pitfalls were dug in a region
25:12
Speaker 1: where antelope were plenty, and a long shaped pair of
25:16
Speaker 1: wings made of poles or brushes or even rock piles
25:22
Speaker 1: led to the pit. The antelope is very inquisitive and
25:27
Speaker 1: was easily led within the shute, and there frightened, as
25:31
Speaker 1: were the buffalo, by people who had been concealed, and
25:34
Speaker 1: who rose up and showed themselves after the antelope had passed.
25:38
Speaker 1: This was done more in order to secure antelope skins
25:41
Speaker 1: for clothing than their flesh for food. Fish and reptiles
25:45
Speaker 1: were not eaten by the Blackfeet, nor were dogs, or
25:49
Speaker 1: they dogs, wolves and coyotes are eaten by many tribes
25:53
Speaker 1: of Plains Indians. Most small animals, and practically all birds
25:58
Speaker 1: were eaten in case of need in summer, when the
26:01
Speaker 1: wind fowl which bred on so many of the blakes
26:04
Speaker 1: of the Blackfeet country lost their flight feathers during the malt,
26:09
Speaker 1: and again in the late summer when the young ducks
26:12
Speaker 1: and geese were almost full grown but could not yet fly.
26:16
Speaker 1: The Indians often went in large parties to the shadow lakes,
26:20
Speaker 1: which here and there dotted the prairie, and driving the
26:23
Speaker 1: birds to shore killed them in large numbers. Earlier in
26:27
Speaker 1: the season, when the fowl had begun to lay their eggs,
26:30
Speaker 1: these were collected in great quantities for food. Sometimes they
26:34
Speaker 1: were roasted in the hot ashes, but a more common
26:37
Speaker 1: way was to dig a deep, narrow hole in the
26:39
Speaker 1: ground in which the eggs were to be cooked. Several
26:43
Speaker 1: little platforms of small sticks or twigs were built in
26:46
Speaker 1: this hole, one above another, and on these platforms they
26:50
Speaker 1: put the eggs. Another much smaller hole was dug to
26:54
Speaker 1: one side of the large hole, slanting down into it.
26:58
Speaker 1: The large hole was partly filled with water and was
27:01
Speaker 1: then roofed over by small sticks, on which was placed
27:05
Speaker 1: grass covered with earth stones were heated in a fire
27:09
Speaker 1: built near at hand, and then were rolled down the
27:12
Speaker 1: side hole into the larger hole, heating the water, which
27:16
Speaker 1: at last boiled and steamed the steam cooking the eggs.
27:21
Speaker 1: When the Americans first met them on the prairie, the
27:24
Speaker 1: black Feet were known as great warriors, but up to
27:28
Speaker 1: the time when they got from the Hudson Bay traders
27:31
Speaker 1: better weapons than they had before known. Whether these were
27:35
Speaker 1: metal knives, steel arrow points, or guns, it is probable
27:40
Speaker 1: that they did not do much fighting. There seems to
27:44
Speaker 1: have been no reason why they should have fought, unless
27:47
Speaker 1: they quarreled about small matters with other tribes. It became
27:51
Speaker 1: quite different when the Indians procured better arms, and above
27:55
Speaker 1: all when they got horses, a means of swiftly getting
27:59
Speaker 1: at over the country. Something that all people wanted to have,
28:04
Speaker 1: and which all were so eager to obtain that they
28:07
Speaker 1: would go into danger for them. In the old days
28:12
Speaker 1: of stone arrowheads, when they had to travel on foot
28:16
Speaker 1: and to carry heavy loads on their backs, the whole
28:19
Speaker 1: thought and effort of the tribe must have been devoted
28:23
Speaker 1: to the work of procuring a supply of food. The
28:27
Speaker 1: tribal and family life of the people were simple and friendly.
28:31
Speaker 1: The man and his wives loved each other and loved
28:34
Speaker 1: their children. Relationship counted for much in an Indian camp,
28:39
Speaker 1: and cousins of remote degree were called brother and sister.
28:44
Speaker 1: Children were not punished. They were trained by persuasion and advice.
28:49
Speaker 1: They were told by older people how they ought to
28:52
Speaker 1: act in order to make their lives happy and successful,
28:56
Speaker 1: and to be well thought of by their fellows. Young
28:59
Speaker 1: people had much respect for their elders, listened to what
29:03
Speaker 1: they said, and strove more or less successfully to follow
29:07
Speaker 1: their teachings. The Blackfeet were very religious. They feared many
29:12
Speaker 1: natural powers and influencers whose workings they did not understand,
29:18
Speaker 1: and they were constantly praying to the Sun, regarded as
29:21
Speaker 1: the ruler of the universe, as well as to those
29:25
Speaker 1: other powers which they believe live in the stars, the earth,
29:29
Speaker 1: the mountains, the animals, and the trees. The Blackfoot was
29:35
Speaker 1: constantly afraid that some evil thing might happen to him,
29:39
Speaker 1: and he therefore prayed to all the powers for help,
29:42
Speaker 1: for good fortune in his undertakings, for health, plenty, and
29:47
Speaker 1: long life for himself and all his family. Among these
29:51
Speaker 1: tribes there are a number of secret societies, known as
29:54
Speaker 1: the all Comrades or all Friends, groups of men of
29:58
Speaker 1: different ages, which been alluded to in the stories. Originally
30:04
Speaker 1: there were about twelve of these societies, but a number
30:08
Speaker 1: have been abandoned of recent years. The tribe was divided
30:12
Speaker 1: into a number of clans, all the members of which
30:15
Speaker 1: were believed to be related, and in old times, no
30:19
Speaker 1: member of a clan was permitted to marry another member
30:22
Speaker 1: of the clan relations might not marry. In olden times,
30:27
Speaker 1: when large numbers of people were together, the lodges of
30:30
Speaker 1: the camp were pitched in a great circle, the opening
30:34
Speaker 1: toward the southeast. In this circle, each clan camped in
30:39
Speaker 1: its own particular place with relation to the other clans.
30:44
Speaker 1: Within the circle was often a smaller circle of lodges,
30:48
Speaker 1: each occupied by one or more of the societies of
30:51
Speaker 1: the all comrades. Sometimes it happened that great numbers of
30:56
Speaker 1: the Blackfeet came together, perhaps even all the three bribes Blackfeet, Bloods,
31:02
Speaker 1: and Pagans. When this was the case, each tribe camped
31:07
Speaker 1: by itself with its own circle, no matter how near
31:11
Speaker 1: it might be to one or other of the tribal circles.
31:16
Speaker 1: We're read of some tribes of Indians which believe that
31:20
Speaker 1: after death, the spirits of the departed went to a
31:23
Speaker 1: happy hunting ground where game was always plenty and life
31:27
Speaker 1: was full of joy. The Blackfeet newn no such place
31:31
Speaker 1: as this. When they died, their spirits were believed to
31:34
Speaker 1: go to a barren sandy region south of the Saskatchewan,
31:40
Speaker 1: which they called the sand Hills. Here, as shadows, the
31:45
Speaker 1: ghosts lived a life much like their existence before death,
31:49
Speaker 1: but all was unreal, unsubstantial. Riding on shadow horses, they
31:55
Speaker 1: hunted shadow buffalo. They lived in shadow camps, and when
32:00
Speaker 1: they moved, shadow dogs hauled their trevoi. There are stories
32:04
Speaker 1: which tell that living people have seen these hunters, their
32:08
Speaker 1: houses and their implements of the camp. But when the
32:13
Speaker 1: people got close, they found that what they thought they
32:16
Speaker 1: had seen was something different. It reminds us a little
32:22
Speaker 1: of the old Ballad of Alice Brand, where Ergon tells
32:25
Speaker 1: of the things seen in fairyland and gayly shines the
32:30
Speaker 1: fairy land. But all is glistening show like the idle
32:35
Speaker 1: gleam that December's beam can dart on ice and snow,
32:41
Speaker 1: and fading like that varied gleam is our inconstant shape,
32:46
Speaker 1: who now like Knight and Lady seem, and now like
32:50
Speaker 1: dwarf and ape. Books have been written about the Blackfeet
32:55
Speaker 1: Indian which tell much more about how they lived than
33:00
Speaker 1: be given here. End of Chapter twenty five, end of
33:06
Speaker 1: Blackfeet Indian Stories by George B. Grennell