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04 - The Dog And The Root Digger · Blackfeet Native American Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section four 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 go to LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Reading by Mary Roadie Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell.
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  Speaker 1: The Dog and the Root Digger. This happened long ago.
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  Speaker 1: In those days, the people were hungry. No buffalo could
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  Speaker 1: be found, No antelope were seen. On the prairie. Grass grew,
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  Speaker 1: and the trails where the elk and the deer used
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  Speaker 1: to travel, there was not even a rabbit in the brush.
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  Speaker 1: Then the people prayed, Oh, Notppy, help us now, or
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  Speaker 1: we must die. The buffalo and the deer are gone.
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  Speaker 1: It is useless to kindle the morning fires. Our arrows
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  Speaker 1: are useless to us. Our knives remain in theirs. Then
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  Speaker 1: Knappy set out to find where the game was, and
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  Speaker 1: with him went a young man, the son of a chief.
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  Speaker 1: For many days they traveled over the prairies, they could
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  Speaker 1: see no game. Roots and berries were their only food.
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  Speaker 1: One day they climbed to the crest of a high ridge,
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  Speaker 1: and as they looked off over the country, they saw
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  Speaker 1: far away by a stream, a lonely lodge. Who can
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  Speaker 1: it be? Asked the young man who camps there alone,
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  Speaker 1: far from friends. That said Napi, is he who has
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  Speaker 1: hidden all the animals from the people. He has a
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  Speaker 1: wife and a little son. Then they went down near
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  Speaker 1: to the lodge, and Nappy told the young man what
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  Speaker 1: to do. Nappy changed himself into a little dog, and
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  Speaker 1: he said, this is I. The young man changed himself
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  Speaker 1: into a root digger, and he said this is I.
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  Speaker 1: Pretty soon the little boy, who was playing about near
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  Speaker 1: the lodge, found the dog and carried it to his father, saying,
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  Speaker 1: see what a pretty little dog I have found. The
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  Speaker 1: father said, that is not a dog. Throw it away.
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  Speaker 1: The little boy cried, but his father made him take
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  Speaker 1: the dog out to the lodge. Then the boy found
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  Speaker 1: the root digger, and again picking up the dog, he
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  Speaker 1: carried both into the lodge, saying, look, mother, see what
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  Speaker 1: a pretty root digger I have found. Throw them away,
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  Speaker 1: said his father. Throw them both away. That is not
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  Speaker 1: a root digger. That is not a dog. I want
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  Speaker 1: that root digger, said the woman. Let our son have
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  Speaker 1: the little dog. Let it be so, then replied the husband,
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  Speaker 1: But remember that if trouble comes, it is you you
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  Speaker 1: who have brought it on yourself and on our son.
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  Speaker 1: Soon after this, the woman and her son went off
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  Speaker 1: to pick berries, and when they were out of sight,
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  Speaker 1: the man went out and killed a buffalo cow and
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  Speaker 1: brought the meat into the lodge and covered it up.
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  Speaker 1: He took the bones and the skin and threw them
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  Speaker 1: in the water. When his wife came back, he gave
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  Speaker 1: her some of the meat to roast, and while they
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  Speaker 1: were eating, the little boy fed the dog three times,
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  Speaker 1: and when he offered it more, the father took the
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  Speaker 1: meat away. In the night, when all were sleeping, Nappi
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  Speaker 1: and the young man arose in their right shapes and
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  Speaker 1: ate some of the meat. You were right, said the
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  Speaker 1: young man. This is surely the person who has hidden
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  Speaker 1: the buffalo. Wait, said Nappi, And when they had finished eating,
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  Speaker 1: they changed themselves again into the root digger and the dog.
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  Speaker 1: Next morning, the wife and the boy went out to
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  Speaker 1: dig roots, and the woman took the root digger with her,
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  Speaker 1: while the dog followed the little boy. As they traveled
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  Speaker 1: along looking for roots, they passed near a cave and
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  Speaker 1: at its mouth stood a buffalo cow. The dog ran
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  Speaker 1: into the cave and the root digger slipping from the
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  Speaker 1: woman's hand, followed gliding along over the ground like a snake.
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  Speaker 1: In this cave were found all the buffalo and the
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  Speaker 1: other game. They began to drive them out, and soon
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  Speaker 1: the prairie was covered with buffalo, antelope, and deer. Never
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  Speaker 1: before so many scene. Soon the man came running up,
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  Speaker 1: and he said to his wife, who is driving out
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  Speaker 1: my animals? The woman replied, the dog and the root
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  Speaker 1: digger are in there? Now? Did I not tell you?
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  Speaker 1: Said her husband that those were not what they looked like.
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  Speaker 1: See now the trouble that you have brought upon. He
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  Speaker 1: put an arrow on his string and waited for them
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  Speaker 1: to come out. But they were cunning, and when the
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  Speaker 1: last animal, a big bull, was starting out, the stick
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  Speaker 1: grasped him by the long hair under the neck and
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  Speaker 1: coiled up in it, and the dog held on by
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  Speaker 1: the hair underneath until they were far out on the prairie,
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  Speaker 1: when they changed into their true shapes and drove the
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  Speaker 1: buffalo toward the camp. When the people saw the buffalo coming,
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  Speaker 1: they led a big band of them to the piscin,
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  Speaker 1: But just as the leaders were about to jump over
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  Speaker 1: the cliff, a raven came and flapped its wings in
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  Speaker 1: front of them and croaked, and they turned off and
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  Speaker 1: ran down another way. Every time a herd of buffalo
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  Speaker 1: was brought near to the Piscan, this raven frightened them away.
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  Speaker 1: Then Napy knew that the raven was the person who
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  Speaker 1: had kept the buffalo hidden. Nappy went down to the
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  Speaker 1: river and changed himself into a beaver and lay stretched
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  Speaker 1: out on a sandbar as if dead. The raven was
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  Speaker 1: very hungry and flew down and began to pick at
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  Speaker 1: the beaver. Then Napi caught it by the legs and
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  Speaker 1: ran with it to the camp, and all the chiefs
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  Speaker 1: were called together to decide what should be done with
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  Speaker 1: the bird. Some said let us kill it, but Napi
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  Speaker 1: said no, I will punish it, and he tied it
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  Speaker 1: up over the lodge, right in the smoke hole. As
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  Speaker 1: the days went by, the raven grew thin and weak,
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  Speaker 1: and its eyes were blinded by the thick smoke, and
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  Speaker 1: it cried continually to Napi, asking him to pity it.
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  Speaker 1: One day Nappy untied the bird and told it to
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  Speaker 1: take its right shape, and then said, why have you
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  Speaker 1: tried to fool KNAPPI Look at me, I cannot die.
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  Speaker 1: Look at me, of all people and tribes, I am
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  Speaker 1: the chief. I cannot die. I made the mountains they
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  Speaker 1: are standing. Yet I made the prairies and the rocks.
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  Speaker 1: You see them. Yet. Go home now to your wife
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  Speaker 1: and your child. And when you are hungry, hunt like
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  Speaker 1: any one else. If you do not, you shall die.
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  Speaker 1: And of the dog and the root digger.