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12 - The Buffalo-Painted Lodges · Blackfeet Native American Stories

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of Blackfeet Indian Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Blackfeet
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  Speaker 1: Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell, Chapter twelve, The Buffalo
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  Speaker 1: Painted Lodges, read by Melissa Bassel Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: The Buffalo Painted Lodges the old lodges of the Peagans
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  Speaker 1: were made of buffalo skin and were painted with pictures
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  Speaker 1: of different kinds, birds or animals, or trees or mountains.
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  Speaker 1: It is believed that in most cases the first painter
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  Speaker 1: of any lodge was taught how he should paint it
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  Speaker 1: in a dream, but this was not always the case.
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  Speaker 1: Two of the most important lodges in the Blackfeet camp
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  Speaker 1: are known as the Inniskim lodges. Both are painted with
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  Speaker 1: figures of buffalo, one with black buffalo and the other
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  Speaker 1: with yellow bus. Certain of the Inniskim are kept in
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  Speaker 1: these lodges and can be kept in no others. This
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  Speaker 1: story tells her these two lodges came to be made
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  Speaker 1: the painters were told what to do long long ago,
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  Speaker 1: in about the second generation after the first people. In
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  Speaker 1: those days, the old Pagans lived in the north close
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  Speaker 1: to the Red Deer River. The camp moved and the
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  Speaker 1: lodges were pitched on the river. One day, two old
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  Speaker 1: men who were close friends, had gone out from the
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  Speaker 1: camp to find some straight cherry chutes with which to
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  Speaker 1: make arrows. After they had gathered their shafts, they sat
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  Speaker 1: down on a high bank by the river and began
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  Speaker 1: to peel the bark from the chutes. The river was high.
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  Speaker 1: One of these men was named Weaselhart, and the other Fisher.
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  Speaker 1: As they sat there, Weaselhart chanced to look down into
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  Speaker 1: the water and saw something. He said to his comrade friend,
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  Speaker 1: do not see something down there where the water goes around?
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  Speaker 1: Fisher said, no, I see nothing except buffalo, For he
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  Speaker 1: was looking across the river to the other side, and
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  Speaker 1: not down into the water. No, said Weaselhart, I do
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  Speaker 1: not mean over there on the prairie. Look down into
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  Speaker 1: that deep hole in the river, and you will see
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  Speaker 1: a lodge there. Fisher looked at he has been told
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  Speaker 1: and saw the lodge. Weaselhart said, there is a lodge
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  Speaker 1: painted with black buffalo. As he spoke thus, Fisher said,
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  Speaker 1: I see another lodge standing in front of it. Weaselhart
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  Speaker 1: saw that lodge too, the yellow painted buffalo lodge. The
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  Speaker 1: two men wondered at this and could not understand how
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  Speaker 1: it could be. But they were both men of strong hearts,
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  Speaker 1: and presently Weaselhart said, friend, I shall go down to
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  Speaker 1: enter that lodge. Do you sit here and tell me
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  Speaker 1: when I get to the place. Then Weaselhart went up
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  Speaker 1: the river and found a drift log to support him,
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  Speaker 1: and pushed it out into the water and floated down
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  Speaker 1: toward the cut bank. When he had reached the place
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  Speaker 1: where the lodge stood, Fisher told him, and he let
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  Speaker 1: go the log and dived down into the water and
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  Speaker 1: entered the lodge. In it, he found two persons who
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  Speaker 1: owned the lodge, a man and his wife. The man
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  Speaker 1: said to him, you are welcome, and Weaselhart sat down.
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  Speaker 1: Then spoke the owner of the lodge, saying, my son,
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  Speaker 1: this is my lodge, and I give it to you.
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  Speaker 1: Look well at it inside and outside, and make your
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  Speaker 1: lodge like this. If you do that, it may be
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  Speaker 1: a help to you. Fisher sat a long time waiting
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  Speaker 1: for his friend, but at last he looked down the
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  Speaker 1: stream and saw a man on the shore walking toward him.
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  Speaker 1: He came along the bank until he had reached his friend.
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  Speaker 1: It was Weaselhart. Fisher said to him, I've been waiting
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  Speaker 1: a long time, and I was afraid that something bad
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  Speaker 1: had happened to you. Weaselhart asked him, did you see me?
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  Speaker 1: I saw you, said Fisher, when you went into that lodge.
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  Speaker 1: Did you when you came out of the lodge, see
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  Speaker 1: there in the water another lodge painted with yellow buffalo?
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  Speaker 1: Is it still there? Weaselhart said, I saw it. It
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  Speaker 1: is there. Go you into the water as I did.
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  Speaker 1: Then Fisher went up the stream as his friend had gone,
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  Speaker 1: and entered the water at the same place and swam
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  Speaker 1: down as Weaselhart had done. And when Weaselhart showed him
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  Speaker 1: the place, he dived down and disappeared as Weaselhart had disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: He entered the yellow painted buffalo lodge, and his friend
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  Speaker 1: saw him go into it. In the lodge were two persons,
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  Speaker 1: a man and his wife. The man said to him,
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  Speaker 1: you are welcome. Sit there. He spoke further, saying, my son,
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  Speaker 1: you have seen this lodge of mine. I give it
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  Speaker 1: to you. Look carefully at it inside and outside, and
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  Speaker 1: fix up your lodge in that way, it may be
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  Speaker 1: a help to you Hereafter then Fisher went out. Weaselhart
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  Speaker 1: waited for his friend as long as Fisher had waited
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  Speaker 1: for him. And when Fisher came out of the water,
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  Speaker 1: it was at the place where Weaselhart had come out.
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  Speaker 1: Then the two friends went home to the camp. When
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  Speaker 1: the two had come to a hill near the camp,
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  Speaker 1: they met a young man and by him sent word
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  Speaker 1: that the people should make a sweat house for them.
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  Speaker 1: After the sweat house had been made, word was sent
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  Speaker 1: to them, and they entered the camp and went into
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  Speaker 1: the sweat house and took a sweat, And all the
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  Speaker 1: time while they were sweating, sand was falling from their bodies.
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  Speaker 1: Some time after that, the people moved camp and went
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  Speaker 1: out and killed buffalo. And these two men made two
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  Speaker 1: lodges and painted them just as the lodges were painted
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  Speaker 1: that they had seen in the river. These two men
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  Speaker 1: had strong power which came to them from the underwater people.
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  Speaker 1: Once the people wished to cross the river, but the
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  Speaker 1: stream was deep and it was always hard for them
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  Speaker 1: to get across. Often the dogs and the travois were
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  Speaker 1: swept away, and the people lost many of their things.
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  Speaker 1: At this time the tribe wished to cross, and Fisher
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  Speaker 1: and Weaselhart said to each other, the people want to
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  Speaker 1: cross the river, but it is high and they cannot
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  Speaker 1: do so. Let us try to make a crossing so
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  Speaker 1: that it will be easier for them. So Weaselhart alone
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  Speaker 1: crossed the river and sat on the bank on the
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  Speaker 1: other side, and Fisher sat opposite to him on the
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  Speaker 1: bank where the camp was. Then Fisher said to the people,
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  Speaker 1: pack up your things now and get ready to cross.
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  Speaker 1: I will make a place where you can cross easily.
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  Speaker 1: Weaselhart and Fisher filled their pipes and smoked, and then
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  Speaker 1: each started to cross the river. As each stepped into
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  Speaker 1: the water, the river began to go down, and the
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  Speaker 1: crossing grew more and more shallow. The people, with all
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  Speaker 1: their dogs, followed close behind Fisher as he had told
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  Speaker 1: them to do. Fisher and Weaselhart met in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the river, and when they met, stepped to one
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  Speaker 1: side up the stream and let the people pass them.
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  Speaker 1: Ever since that day this has been a shallow crossing.
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  Speaker 1: These lodges came from the underwater people, so yet Tuppi.
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  Speaker 1: They were those who had owned them and who had
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  Speaker 1: been kind to Weaselhart and Fisher End of the Buffalo.
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  Speaker 1: Painted lodges by George Bird Grinnell