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015 - The Elk Medicine Ceremony · Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park

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  Speaker 1: Section fifteen of black Feet Tales of Glacier National Park
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  Speaker 1: by James Willard Schultz. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Section fifteen The Elk Medicine Ceremony, August eighteen.
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  Speaker 1: Not in many, many years have I been so affected
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  Speaker 1: as I was this morning. For some days I have
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  Speaker 1: had a high fever and have slept but little at night.
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  Speaker 1: In Simachi Growth, Woman yellow Wolf's wife had been doctoring
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  Speaker 1: me with the good old remedy for fevers, sweet sage tea,
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  Speaker 1: but it seemed to have no effect. So Tail Feathers,
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  Speaker 1: coming over the hill, announced that he would have his
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  Speaker 1: Elk medicine ceremony for my benefit, and that he was
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  Speaker 1: sure that it would cure me of my illness. We
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  Speaker 1: had it this morning, and to night I have a
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  Speaker 1: normal pulse and the fever has left me. I will
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  Speaker 1: not go so far as to say that it was
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  Speaker 1: his prayers that cured me, prayers far better, far more earnest,
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  Speaker 1: than those of any Christian preacher I ever heard. But
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  Speaker 1: yet I am well. To me, all religions are nothing
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  Speaker 1: more than the codified superstitions of the ages, but of
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  Speaker 1: them all Christian and Pagan. I like best the faith
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  Speaker 1: of these my people, faith that the Sun is the
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  Speaker 1: conservator of all life and the orderly ruler of this
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  Speaker 1: our earth. And what absolute faith they have in their
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  Speaker 1: son religion. Should Christians live as closely to their beliefs
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  Speaker 1: as the Blackfeet do to the laws of conduct given
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  Speaker 1: them by their son God, What a different, what a
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  Speaker 1: happy world, this would be. Before I relate the details
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  Speaker 1: of the ceremony, I must tell something of the medicine itself.
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  Speaker 1: The Blackfeet believe that when they lie down in sleep,
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  Speaker 1: their shadows, or as we would say, their souls, their spiritualities,
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  Speaker 1: leave them body and go on far adventure. Their name
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  Speaker 1: for this is nipupa Khan my dream, my vision. And
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  Speaker 1: when they awake, they really believe that they have experienced
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  Speaker 1: all the incidents of their dream and relate them as
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  Speaker 1: having been of actual fact. When men and animals were
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  Speaker 1: first created, they had a common language, and the latter
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  Speaker 1: had the power to change themselves at will into the
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  Speaker 1: form of man. It was in that long ago time
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  Speaker 1: that a man, seeking knowledge and praying earnestly, for it
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  Speaker 1: was in his vision, visited by an elk in the
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  Speaker 1: form of a man whose name was Pono kai ut
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  Speaker 1: sin Anna elk tongue chief. I have heard you praying
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  Speaker 1: asking for help. What is it you want? Perhaps I
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  Speaker 1: can help you, the elkman said. The man answered, I
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  Speaker 1: seek some way to relieve my people from sickness, some
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  Speaker 1: way to give them long life and happiness. Help me
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  Speaker 1: if you can do so, The elkman answered, I can
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  Speaker 1: help you. I will help you through what was given me.
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  Speaker 1: In my vision. I am in great favor with the
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  Speaker 1: Sun and all the gods of the earth, the deep waters,
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  Speaker 1: and the blue above. That medicine you shall have, I
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  Speaker 1: give it to you now. And having said that, he
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  Speaker 1: gave the man a painted lodge, a medicine pipe stem,
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  Speaker 1: beautifully decorated with a down hanging set of tail feathers
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  Speaker 1: of the sage hen and wound with strips of the
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  Speaker 1: fur of the bear and various water animals. And with
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  Speaker 1: it wrapped in clean buckskins, were the skins of birds
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  Speaker 1: and animals, all those that live upon the water and
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  Speaker 1: in the water, and feed upon the life of the
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  Speaker 1: water fish, and all the various water insects. And having
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  Speaker 1: given the man all this, he taught him how to
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  Speaker 1: use it with all the prayers and ceremonies that go
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  Speaker 1: with with it. The man took all this to his
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  Speaker 1: home and used it and found that it was great medicine.
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  Speaker 1: And ever since that time, the Elk Medicine Lodge and
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  Speaker 1: the things that go with it have been handed down
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  Speaker 1: from generation to generation to this day. So now we
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  Speaker 1: come to the ceremony that was given to day for
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  Speaker 1: the curing of my illness. It was my lucky day.
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  Speaker 1: Early in the morning, mister Hereford T. Cowling, chief photographer
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  Speaker 1: for the United States Reclamation Service, arrived at the Great
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  Speaker 1: Northern Railway Company's Saint Mary's camp, and I went to
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  Speaker 1: him and asked if he would take moving pictures of
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  Speaker 1: the ceremony, provided the Indians were willing to have him
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  Speaker 1: do it. He enthusiastically replied that he would be very
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  Speaker 1: glad to take it all in with his crank machine.
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  Speaker 1: So I went to my people to ask if they
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  Speaker 1: would permit it to be done. They objected, saying that
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  Speaker 1: the ceremony was so sacred that even the presence of
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  Speaker 1: white people, antagonistic all of them to their religion, would
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  Speaker 1: profane it. They did not count me. I was one
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  Speaker 1: of them, said I listen my relatives and brothers. All,
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  Speaker 1: we are all soon to die, and as we pass away,
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  Speaker 1: the whole of the old life goes with us. Your children,
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  Speaker 1: taken away from you by the Whites, put in school
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  Speaker 1: and taught the white man's religion and manner of living,
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  Speaker 1: will know nothing about the way their fathers lived unless
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  Speaker 1: I put it all down in writing for all time
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  Speaker 1: to come. That I am doing, and how much more
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  Speaker 1: interesting it will be if I can have pictures to
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  Speaker 1: go with it. Say yes, let us have with this
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  Speaker 1: that you are to do to day, the living pictures
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  Speaker 1: of it all. There followed a long silence, all considering
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  Speaker 1: my request. Finally, my best of friends, Tail Feathers, coming
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  Speaker 1: over the hill, wiped tears from his eyes and said, brokenly,
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  Speaker 1: Apaticuni is right. The Whites take our children from us
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  Speaker 1: and teach them false beliefs, but they teach them to read.
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  Speaker 1: And it may be that after we have all gone
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  Speaker 1: on to the sand hills, they will read our brother's
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  Speaker 1: writings and see us as we were making our prayers
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  Speaker 1: to the gods, and having read and seen the pictures
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  Speaker 1: of it all, return to the one true faith. I say,
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  Speaker 1: Let the picture man come, Ay, Ay, let him come.
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  Speaker 1: All cried and I sent a messenger for him. During
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  Speaker 1: the ceremony, he took six hundred feet of it, and
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  Speaker 1: so for all time to come is preserved the interesting
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  Speaker 1: ceremony of the Elk Medicine. The ceremony is always given
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  Speaker 1: in a closed lodge, but this time we threw the
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  Speaker 1: front of it wide open, so that the lens of
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  Speaker 1: that moving picture machine could take it all in. As
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  Speaker 1: I have said, Tail Feathers coming over the hill is old, feeble,
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  Speaker 1: half blind, and is himself unable to go through parts
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  Speaker 1: of the ceremony. So on the evening before this came off,
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  Speaker 1: he sent for Chief Crow and his wife living near,
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  Speaker 1: to help him out. Chief Crow is also a medicine man.
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  Speaker 1: His wife, of course a medicine woman, and he owns
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  Speaker 1: the Seitzer's medicine pipe. Four other medicine men were there,
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  Speaker 1: all of them taking part in the ceremony. In each
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  Speaker 1: of the three tribes of the Blackfeet, there is a
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  Speaker 1: secret society of the medicine men, and the members help
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  Speaker 1: one another in all their ceremonies, and they and only
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  Speaker 1: they can dance with the sacred symbols of their rights.
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  Speaker 1: When I went to the lodge, the sacred medicines were
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  Speaker 1: hanging directly over the owner's couch opposite the doorway. They
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  Speaker 1: were the sacred pipe stem and many skins of water
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  Speaker 1: animals and birds enclosed in various rappings, and a buffalo
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  Speaker 1: rawhide painted pouch containing sacks of various colored sacred paints
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  Speaker 1: on tail feathers. Coming over the hills. Left sat his
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  Speaker 1: medicine wife. I took my seat close to him on
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  Speaker 1: his right back of me, and all around the right
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  Speaker 1: side of the lodge from me were a number of women.
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  Speaker 1: On the other side opposite them were the men and
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  Speaker 1: Chief Crow's medicine wife. The ceremony opened with a prayer
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  Speaker 1: by tail feathers coming over the hill, beseeching the gods
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  Speaker 1: to look with favor upon what was to be done.
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  Speaker 1: Then his wife arose and undid the fastenings of the
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  Speaker 1: medicines and slowly, reverently laid them on the couch between
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  Speaker 1: her and her husband. The opening song then began, the
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  Speaker 1: song of ponokwati unsinna Elk tongue. Chief Oh, how I
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  Speaker 1: would like to inscribe that song here? A plus Fletcher says,
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  Speaker 1: and I know that she is right that all Indian
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  Speaker 1: music is classical, but their tonal scale is far different
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  Speaker 1: from ours. We have not one musical instrument that can
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  Speaker 1: reproduce it. Never never lived a white man who could
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  Speaker 1: sing these Blackfeet songs. As a boy, year after year
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  Speaker 1: I tried to sing them, and always failed. One has
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  Speaker 1: to take them in with his mother's milk in order
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  Speaker 1: to sing them correctly. The song ended. The medicine woman,
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  Speaker 1: with a pair of sacred red painted willow tongs, took
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  Speaker 1: a coal from the fire, placed it just in front
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  Speaker 1: of the sacred medicines, and dropped upon it a pinch
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  Speaker 1: of sweet grass. It burned, and as the perfumed smoke arose,
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  Speaker 1: she and her man grasped handfuls of it and stroked
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  Speaker 1: their bodies, thus purifying themselves, before handling the medicines. Then
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  Speaker 1: all present joining in, they sang the song of the
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  Speaker 1: real Bear, the Grizzly, while the medicine woman unfastened the
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  Speaker 1: outer rapping of the medicine pipe stem roll, which was
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  Speaker 1: bound with a strip of fur from a grizzly's back,
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  Speaker 1: And at the same time, in keeping with the time
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  Speaker 1: of the song, they made the sign for the bear,
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  Speaker 1: closed hands held upon each side of the head, representing
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  Speaker 1: its wide rounding ears. That song finished, the Song of
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  Speaker 1: the Buffalo began, the medicine man and the medicine woman
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  Speaker 1: clenching their hands and alternately putting one out before the other,
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  Speaker 1: representing the deliberate, ponderous tread of the animals as they
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  Speaker 1: traveled to and from the water. When that song was finished,
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  Speaker 1: and it was one to stir one's inmost soul, another rapping,
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  Speaker 1: bound with buffalo fur was undone, and all present besought
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  Speaker 1: the gods to have pity upon them. Next came the
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  Speaker 1: fourth and last song, the song of the Beaver, chief
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  Speaker 1: of water animals. And while it was being sung, the
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  Speaker 1: medicine woman unrolled the fourth and last rapping, and the
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  Speaker 1: sacred medicine pipe stem lay in sight of us. All
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  Speaker 1: at that all the women gave shrill cries of triumph
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  Speaker 1: of victory, and all the medicine men beginning a solemn
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  Speaker 1: chant to the sun. Chief Crow advanced, received from the
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  Speaker 1: medicine wife of my old friend the sacred stem, and,
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  Speaker 1: extending the fan of feathers drooping from it, held it
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  Speaker 1: aloft and danced in time with the song to the
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  Speaker 1: doorway of the lodge, and back again, and returned the
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  Speaker 1: stem to my friend, who reverently took and embraced it,
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  Speaker 1: and made a short prayer to the gods for the
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  Speaker 1: long life, good health, and happiness of us all, especially
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  Speaker 1: the little children of the tribe. Next came my part
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  Speaker 1: of the ceremony. Me, my old relative and friend felt
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  Speaker 1: around in his medicine pouch, and got out a small
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  Speaker 1: sack of osan, the sacred red paint, and painted my
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  Speaker 1: face with it, at the same time beseeching the gods
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  Speaker 1: to give me his brother a picuny, long life, good health,
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  Speaker 1: and prosperity in all things. Then, having finished the painting
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  Speaker 1: and the prayer, he had his wife hand chief Crow
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  Speaker 1: his helper, the long red painted wooden flute that goes
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  Speaker 1: with the medicine, and the latter, holding it aloft, danced
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  Speaker 1: with it almost to the doorway of the lodge, where
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  Speaker 1: he blew several soft clear notes to the four corners
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, and then returned the flute to the woman.
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  Speaker 1: This was the Elk medicine whistle for imitating the weird
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  Speaker 1: call of that animal, and was used just now to
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  Speaker 1: call him the ancient Elk god, to give me his favor,
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  Speaker 1: his pity, my friend, And then facing me upon his knees,
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  Speaker 1: began the thunder song, in which all joined, and, spreading
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  Speaker 1: his blanket clad arms wide to represent the thunder bird
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  Speaker 1: wings hovered before me, fanned me with his wings, the
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  Speaker 1: intent being to waft to me from him the sacred
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  Speaker 1: power that over all arose. And, passing in line from
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  Speaker 1: the lodge, Chief Crow leading danced through the camp and
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  Speaker 1: back again, and the ceremony ended. I cannot begin to
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  Speaker 1: express how I felt. All through the ceremony. I honored
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  Speaker 1: my people for their sincere faith, their reverence for their gods,
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  Speaker 1: and my thoughts went back to the time when they
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  Speaker 1: were the lords of these plains and mountains and knew
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  Speaker 1: not want, and not so very long ago. They were
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  Speaker 1: a tribe of three thousand members, and now they number
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  Speaker 1: only eight or nine hundred, And those who have gone
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  Speaker 1: have mostly gone from want, from their susceptibility to disease
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  Speaker 1: because of lack of proper nourishment. Do you wonder that
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  Speaker 1: they feel bitterly toward the whites who have taken from
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  Speaker 1: them everything that made their life worth living. August twenty seven,
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  Speaker 1: Because we were today to embark upon the deep dark
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  Speaker 1: waters of this lake, we yesterday made a little ceremony
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  Speaker 1: on the shore, beseeching the dread underwater people to have
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  Speaker 1: pity upon us and allow us to pass in safety
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  Speaker 1: over their domain. We had a little fire close to
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  Speaker 1: the water's edge, and having filled and lighted his pipe
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  Speaker 1: with a coal taken from it, with his sacred red
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  Speaker 1: tongs old tail feathers, coming over the hill, smoked and
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  Speaker 1: made his prayers, at the same time casting into the
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  Speaker 1: water a little sack of his medicines as a sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: to the gods. It was a short ceremony, but satisfied
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  Speaker 1: even the most timid of the women that all would
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  Speaker 1: be well with them during their voyage upon the lake.
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  Speaker 1: And so where we once had rude rafts of logs
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  Speaker 1: lashed together with raw hide ropes, we this morning embarked
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  Speaker 1: in good boats and went all up the beautiful lake,
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  Speaker 1: past red Eagle and little Chief, and almost a dog
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  Speaker 1: mountains to the head of the lake, and looking back
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  Speaker 1: at the slope of Milk River ridge, saw the far
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  Speaker 1: apart enormous footprints of heavy runner, keeper of the buffalo
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  Speaker 1: away back in ancient times, after old man had made
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  Speaker 1: buffalo and they had increased and covered the plains, they
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  Speaker 1: had great desire to wander westward and see what might
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  Speaker 1: be on the other side of the great mountains. The people,
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  Speaker 1: the Blackfeet, learning of this, were greatly distressed. The far
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  Speaker 1: side of the mountains, away west and still westward to
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  Speaker 1: the shores of the everywhere water was the country of
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  Speaker 1: their enemies, many tribes of them, and should they get
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  Speaker 1: possession of the buffalo herds, they would never let them return.
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  Speaker 1: What to do about it, they had no idea, So
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  Speaker 1: they called upon old Man for help, said he, I
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  Speaker 1: made the buffalo to be plains animals, and here upon
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  Speaker 1: these plains they shall remain, and other side tribes shall
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  Speaker 1: come to you and ask permission to kill a few
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  Speaker 1: of them now and then. So don't worry, go home
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  Speaker 1: and attend to your affairs. All shall be well with you.
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  Speaker 1: The people went home, they saw that the buffalo remained
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  Speaker 1: upon the plains in apparently as great numbers as ever.
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  Speaker 1: But some of the hunters, to learn for sure if
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  Speaker 1: they were all there, ascended the different passes of the
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  Speaker 1: mountains and went down the other side for some distance.
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  Speaker 1: There were no buffalo, not even a few straggling bulls
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  Speaker 1: on the other side, and they wondered how Old Man
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  Speaker 1: was keeping them back. They soon learned in a vision,
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  Speaker 1: it was revealed to old medicine man that a huge god,
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  Speaker 1: a man of enormous stature, was patrolling the mountains from
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  Speaker 1: the far south to the everlasting snow of the north,
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  Speaker 1: and with a club, driving the buffalo back eastward as
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  Speaker 1: fast as they came anywhere near the summit of the range.
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  Speaker 1: And so it was that the other tribes, those of
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  Speaker 1: the west, never got the buffalo. On our way down
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  Speaker 1: the lake, we passed the beautiful Sun Camp, and the
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  Speaker 1: chalets of the Great Northern perched upon the very spot
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  Speaker 1: where tail feathers coming over the hill, and I killed
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  Speaker 1: many a big horn and goat. In times gone by
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  Speaker 1: it was a favorite wintering place of the animals, for
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  Speaker 1: the winds kept the steep mountain slope practically bare from snow.
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  Speaker 1: And passing the mouth of the creek just above the camp,
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  Speaker 1: I remembered that I had named it after Thomas and
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Robert, and the honorable Cecil Bearing of London, with
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  Speaker 1: whom I often hunted back in the eighties. In those
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  Speaker 1: days there were many big horn and goats, and not
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  Speaker 1: a few grizzlies back in the basin at the head
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  Speaker 1: of the creek, and what amusing and sometimes exciting adventures
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  Speaker 1: we had with them. One morning we espied a big
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  Speaker 1: billygoat on a ledge, and just as we saw him,
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  Speaker 1: he moved to the back side of it and lay down,
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  Speaker 1: showing only an inch or two of the top of
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  Speaker 1: his back. Who will go up and rout him out
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  Speaker 1: so that I can get a shot, said Colonel Baring,
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  Speaker 1: and John Bean of Yellowstone Fame volunteered. It was to
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  Speaker 1: be a steep, almost straight up climb, so Jack laid
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  Speaker 1: down his rifle and started without encumbrance of any kind.
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  Speaker 1: At last he reached the shelf and stood up on it,
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  Speaker 1: and that billy came for him, head down, and Jack
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  Speaker 1: never had I seen a man come down a dangerous
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  Speaker 1: cliff so fast as he did. And he kept coming, falling, sliding, rolling,
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  Speaker 1: And then Colonel Bearing fired and dropped the goat, and
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  Speaker 1: man and animal came the rest of the way to
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  Speaker 1: the foot of the place together. We had been too
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  Speaker 1: much concerned for the safety of our friend to laugh,
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  Speaker 1: But when he at last stood up and faced us bloody,
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  Speaker 1: half naked, but not seriously hurt, we roared. But Jack
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  Speaker 1: never even smiled. Who would have thought that a blankety
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  Speaker 1: blank goat would go for a fella, he exclaimed, and
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  Speaker 1: went to the creek to repair the damages to his person.
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  Speaker 1: On this day, halting here and there along the lake,
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  Speaker 1: we took some views of the scenery and of our people,
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  Speaker 1: and at sunset were back in our lodges. For some
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  Speaker 1: of us it is a last trip over the old
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  Speaker 1: familiar ground. My two old friends, tail Feathers coming over
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  Speaker 1: the hill and yellow Wolf must soon go on to
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  Speaker 1: their shadow land. We were not too tired to night
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  Speaker 1: for story telling, so after the children had been put
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  Speaker 1: to bed and all was quiet, takes Gun Ahead gave
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  Speaker 1: us the following the story of Tobacco, which is called Nawakosis.
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  Speaker 1: End of section fifteen.