While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Indians are usually represented as being a silent,
sullen race, seldom speaking, and never laughing nor joking.
However true this may be in regard to some tribes, it certainly
was not the case with most of those who lived upon the Great
Plains. These people were generally talkative, merry, and
light-hearted; they delighted in fun, and were a race of jokers.
It is true that, in the presence of strangers, they were grave,
silent, and reserved, but this is nothing more than the shyness
and embarrassment felt by a child in the presence of strangers.
As the Indian becomes acquainted, this reserve wears off; he is
at his ease again and appears in his true colors, a
light-hearted child. Certainly the Blackfeet never were a
taciturn and gloomy people. Before the disappearance of the
buffalo, they were happy and cheerful. Why should they not have
been? Food and clothing were to be had for the killing and
tanning. All fur animals were abundant, and thus the people were
rich. Meat, really the only food they cared for, was plenty and
cost nothing. Their robes and furs were exchanged with the
traders for bright-colored blankets and finery. So they wanted
nothing.
It is but nine years since the buffalo disappeared from
the land. Only nine years have passed since these people gave up
that wild, free life which was natural to them, and ah, how
dear! Let us go back in memory to those happy days and see how
they passed the time.
The sun is just rising. Thin columns of smoke are
creeping from the smoke holes of the lodges, and ascending in
the still morning air. Everywhere the women are busy, carrying
water and wood, and preparing the simple meal. And now we see
the men come out, and start for the river. Some are followed by
their children; some are even carrying those too small to walk.
They have reached the water's edge. Off drop their blankets, and
with a plunge and a shivering ah-h-h they dash into the icy
waters. Winter and summer, storm or shine, this was their daily
custom. They said it made them tough and healthy, and enabled
them to endure the bitter cold while hunting on the bare bleak
prairie. By the time they have returned to the lodges, the women
have prepared the early meal. A dish of boiled meat some three
or four pounds is set before each man; the children are served
as much as they can eat, and the wives take the rest.
The horses are now seen coming in, hundreds and
thousands of them, driven by boys and young men who started out
after them at daylight. If buffalo are close at hand, and it has
been decided to make a run, each hunter catches his favorite
buffalo horse, and they all start out together; they are
followed by women, on the travois or pack horses, who will do
most of the butchering, and transport the meat and hides to
camp. If there is no band of buffalo near by, they go off,
singly or by twos and threes, to still-hunt scattering buffalo,
or deer, or elk, or such other game as may be found. The women
remaining in camp are not idle. All day long they tan robes, dry
meat, sew moccasins, and perform a thousand and one other tasks.
The young men who have stayed at home carefully comb and braid
their hair, paint their faces, and, if the weather is pleasant,
ride or walk around the camp so that the young women may look at
them and see how pretty they are.
Feasting began early in the morning, and will be
carried on far into the night. A man who gives a feast has his
wives cook the choicest food they have, and when all is ready,
he goes outside the lodge and shouts the invitation, calling out
each guest's name three times, saying that he is invited to eat,
and concludes by announcing that a certain number of pipes
generally three will be smoked. The guests having assembled,
each one is served with a dish of food. Be the quantity large or
small, it is all that he will get. If he does not eat it all, he
may carry home what remains. The host does not eat with his
guests. He cuts up some tobacco, and carefully mixes it with
l'herbe, and when all have finished eating, he fills and lights
a pipe, which is smoked and passed from one to another,
beginning with the first man on his left. When the last person
on the left of the host has smoked, the pipe is passed back
around the circle to the one on the right of the door, and
smoked to the left again. The guests do not all talk at once.
When a person begins to speak, he expects every one to listen,
and is never interrupted. During the day the topics for
conversation are about the hunting, war, stories of strange
adventures, besides a good deal of good-natured joking and
chaffing. When the third and last pipeful of tobacco has been
smoked, the host ostentatiously knocks out the ashes and says "Kyi"
whereupon all the guests rise and file out. Seldom a day passed
but each lodge-owner in camp gave from one to three feasts. In
fact almost all a man did, when in camp, was to go from one of
these gatherings to another.
A favorite pastime in the day was gambling with a small
wheel called it-se'-wah. This wheel was about four inches in
diameter, and had five spokes, on which were strung
different-colored beads, made of bone or horn. A level, smooth
piece of ground was selected, at each end of which was placed a
log. At each end of the course were two men, who gambled against
each other. A crowd always surrounded them, betting on the
sides. The wheel was rolled along the course, and each man at
the end whence it started, darted an arrow at it. The cast was
made just before the wheel reached the log at the opposite end
of the track, and points were counted according as the arrow
passed between the spokes, or when the wheel, stopped by the
log, was in contact with the arrow, the position and nearness of
the different beads to the arrow representing a certain number
of points. The player who first scored ten points won. It was a
very difficult game, and one had to be very skilful to win.
Another popular game was what with more southern tribes
is called "hands"; it is like "Button, button, who's got the
button?" Two small, oblong bones were used, one of which had a
black ring around it. Those who participated in this game,
numbering from two to a dozen, were divided into two equal
parties, ranged on either side of the lodge. Wagers were made,
each person betting with the one directly opposite him. Then a
man took the bones, and, by skillfully moving his hands and
changing the objects from one to the other, sought to make it
impossible for the person opposite him to decide which hand held
the marked one. Ten points were the game, counted by sticks, and
the side which first got the number took the stakes. A song
always accompanied this game, a weird, unearthly air, if it can
be so called, but when heard at a little distance, very pleasant
and soothing. At first a scarcely audible murmur, like the
gentle soughing of an evening breeze, it gradually increased in
volume and reached a very high pitch, sank quickly to a low bass
sound, rose and fell, and gradually died away, to be again
repeated. The person concealing the bones swayed his body, arms,
and hands in time to the air, and went through all manner of
graceful and intricate movements for the purpose of confusing
the guesser. The stakes were sometimes very high, two or three
horses or more, and men have been known to lose everything they
possessed, even to their clothing.
The children, at least the boys, played about and did
as they pleased. Not so with the girls. Their duties began at a
very early age. They carried wood and water for their mothers,
sewed moccasins, and as soon as they were strong enough, were
taught to tan robes and furs, make lodges, travois, and do all
other woman's and so menial work. The boys played at mimic
warfare, hunted around in the brush with their bows and arrows,
made mud images of animals, and in summer spent about half their
time in the water. In winter, they spun tops on the ice, slid
down hill on a contrivance made of buffalo ribs, and hunted
rabbits.
Shortly after noon, the hunters began to return,
bringing in deer, antelope, buffalo, elk, occasionally bear,
and, sometimes, beaver which they had trapped. The camp began to
be more lively. In all directions persons could be heard
shouting out invitations to feasts. Here a man was lying back on
his couch singing and drumming; there a group of young men were
holding a war dance; everywhere the people were eating, singing,
talking, and joking. As the light faded from the western sky and
darkness spread over the camp, the noise and laughter increased.
In many lodges, the people held social dances, the women,
dressed in their best gowns, ranged on one side, the men on the
other; all sung, and three or four drummers furnished an
accompaniment; the music was lively if somewhat jerky. At
intervals the people rose and danced, the "step" being a bending
of the knees and swinging of the body, the women holding their
arms and hands in various graceful positions.
With the night came the rehearsal of the wondrous
doings of the gods. These tales may not be told in the daytime.
Old Man would not like that, and would cause any one who
narrated them while it was light to become blind. All Indians
are natural orators, but some far exceed others in their powers
of expression. Their attitudes, gestures, and signs are so
suggestive that they alone would enable one to understand the
stories they relate. I have seen these story-tellers so much in
earnest, so entirely carried away by the tale they were
relating, that they fairly trembled with excitement. They held
their little audiences spell-bound. The women dropped their
half-sewn moccasin from their listless hands, and the men let
the pipe go out. These stories for the most part were about the
ancient gods and their miraculous doings. They were generally
related by the old men, warriors who had seen their best days.
Many of them are recorded in this book. They are the
explanations of the phenomena of life, and contain many a moral
for the instruction of youth.
The I-k[)u]n-[)u]h'-kah-tsi contributed
not a little to the entertainment of every-day life. Frequent
dances were held by the different bands of the society, and the
whole camp always turned out to see them. The animal-head masks,
brightly painted bodies, and queer performances were dear to the
Indian heart.
Such was the every-day life of the Blackfeet in the
buffalo days. When the camp moved, the women packed up their
possessions, tore down the lodges, and loaded everything on the
backs of the ponies or on the travois. Meantime the chiefs had
started on, and the soldiers the Brave band of the I-kun-uh'-kah-tsi
followed after them. After these leaders had gone a short
distance, a halt was made to allow the column to close up. The
women, children, horses, and dogs of the camp marched in a
disorderly, straggling fashion, often strung out in a line a
mile or two long. Many of the men rode at a considerable
distance ahead, and on each side of the marching column, hunting
for any game that might be found, or looking over the country
for signs of enemies.
Before the Blackfeet obtained horses in
the very first years of the present century, and when their only
beasts of burden were dogs, their possessions were transported
by these animals or on men's backs. We may imagine that in those
days the journeys made were short ones, the camp traveling but a
few miles.
In moving the camp in ancient days, the heaviest and
bulkiest things to be transported were the lodges. These were
sometimes very large, often consisting of thirty cow-skins, and,
when set up, containing two or three fires like this or in
ground plan like this. The skins of these large lodges were sewn
together in strips, of which there would be sometimes as many as
four; and, when the lodge was set up, these strips were pinned
together as the front of a common lodge is pinned today. The
dogs carried the provisions, tools, and utensils, sometimes the
lodge strips, if these were small enough, or anything that was
heavy, and yet could be packed in small compass; for since dogs
are small animals, and low standing, they cannot carry bulky
burdens. Still, some of the dogs were large enough to carry a
load of one hundred pounds. Dogs also hauled the travois, on
which were bundles and sometimes babies. This was not always a
safe means of transportation for infants, as is indicated by an
incident related by John Monroe's mother as having occurred in
her father's time. The camp, on foot of course, was crossing a
strip of open prairie lying between two pieces of timber, when a
herd of buffalo, stampeding, rushed through the marching column.
The loaded dogs rushed after the buffalo, dragging the travois
after them and scattering their loads over the prairie. Among
the lost chattels were two babies, dropped off somewhere in the
long grass, which were never found.
There were certain special customs and beliefs which
were a part of the every-day life of the people.
In passing the pipe when smoking, it goes from the
host, who takes the first smoke, to the left, passing from hand
to hand to the door. It may not be passed across the door to the
man on the other side, but must come back, no one smoking, pass
the host, and go round to the man across the door from the last
smoker. This man smokes and passes it to the one on his left,
and so it goes on until it reaches the host again. A person
entering a lodge where people are smoking must not pass in front
of them, that is, between the smokers and the fire.
A solemn form of affirmation, the equivalent of the
civilized oath, is connected with smoking, which, as is well
known, is with many tribes of Indians a sacred ceremony. If a
man sitting in a lodge tells his companions some very improbable
story, something that they find it very hard to believe, and
they want to test him, to see if he is really telling the truth,
the pipe is given to a medicine man, who paints the stem red and
prays over it, asking that if the man's story is true he may
have long life, but if it is false his life may end in a short
time. The pipe is then filled and lighted, and passed to the
man, who has seen and overheard what has been done and said. The
medicine man says to him: "Accept this pipe, but remember that,
if you smoke, your story must be as sure as that there is a hole
through this pipe, and as straight as the hole through this
stem. So your life shall be long and you shall survive, but if
you have spoken falsely your days are counted." The man may
refuse the pipe, saying, "I have told you the truth; it is
useless to smoke this pipe." If he declines to smoke, no one
believes what he has said; he is looked upon as having lied. If,
however, he takes the pipe and smokes, every one believes him.
It is the most solemn form of oath. The Blackfoot pipes are
usually made of black or green slate or sandstone.
The Blackfeet do not whip their children, but still
they are not without some training. Children must be taught, or
they will not know anything; if they do not know anything, they
will have no sense; and if they have no sense they will not know
how to act. They are instructed in manners, as well as in other
more general and more important matters.
If a number of boys were in a lodge where older people
were sitting, very likely the young people would be talking and
laughing about their own concerns, and making so much noise that
the elders could say nothing. If this continued too long, one of
the older men would be likely to get up and go out and get a
long stick and bring it in with him. When he had seated himself,
he would hold it up, so that the children could see it and would
repeat a cautionary formula, "I will give you gum!" This was a
warning to them to make less noise, and was always heeded for a
time. After a little, however, the boys might forget and begin
to chatter again, and presently the man, without further
warning, would reach over and rap one of them on the head with
the stick, when quiet would again be had for a time.
In the same way, in winter, when the lodge was full of
old and young people, and through lack of attention the fire
died down, some older person would call out, "Look out for the
skunk!" which would be a warning to the boys to put some sticks
on the fire. If this was not done at once, the man who had
called out might throw a stick of wood across the lodge into the
group of children, hitting and hurting one or more of them. It
was taught also that, if, when young and old were in the lodge
and the fire had burned low, an older person were to lay the
unburned ends of the sticks upon the fire, all the children in
the lodge would have the scab, or itch. So, at the call "Look
out for the scab!" some child would always jump to the fire, and
lay up the sticks.
There were various ways of teaching and training the
children. Men would make long speeches to groups of boys,
playing in the camps, telling them what they ought to do to be
successful in life. They would point out to them that to
accomplish anything they must be brave and untiring in war; that
long life was not desirable; that the old people always had a
hard time, were given the worst side of the lodge and generally
neglected; that when the camp was moved they suffered from cold;
that their sight was dim, so that they could not see far; that
their teeth were gone, so that they could not chew their food.
Only discomfort and misery await the old. Much better, while the
body is strong and in its prime, while the sight is clear, the
teeth sound, and the hair still black and long, to die in battle
fighting bravely. The example of successful warriors would be
held up to them, and the boys urged to emulate their brave
deeds. To such advice some boys would listen, while others would
not heed it.
The girls also were instructed. All Indians like to see
women more or less sober and serious-minded, not giggling all
the time, not silly. A Blackfoot man who had two or three girls
would, as they grew large, often talk to them and give them good
advice. After watching them, and taking the measure of their
characters, he would one day get a buffalo's front foot and
ornament it fantastically with feathers. When the time came, he
would call one of his daughters to him and say to her: "Now I
wish you to stand here in front of me and look me straight in
the eye without laughing. No matter what I may do, do not
laugh." Then he would sing a funny song, shaking the foot in the
girl's face in time to the song, and looking her steadily in the
eye. Very likely before he had finished, she would begin to
giggle. If she did this, the father would stop singing and tell
her to finish laughing; and when she was serious again, he would
again warn her not to laugh, and then would repeat his song.
This time perhaps she would not laugh while he was singing. He
would go through with this same performance before all his
daughters. To such as seemed to have the steadiest characters,
he would give good advice. He would talk to each girl of the
duties of a woman's life and warn her against the dangers which
she might expect to meet.
At the time of the Medicine Lodge, he would take her to
the lodge and point out to her the Medicine Lodge woman. He
would say: "There is a good woman. She has built this Medicine
Lodge, and is greatly honored and respected by all the people.
Once she was a girl just like you; and you, if you are good and
live a pure life, may some day be as great as she is now.
Remember this, and try to live a worthy life."
At the time of the Medicine Lodge, the boys in the camp
also gathered to see the young men count their coups. A man
would get up, holding in one hand a bundle of small sticks, and,
taking one stick from the bundle, he would recount some brave
deed, throwing away a stick as he completed the narrative of
each coup, until the sticks were all gone, when he sat down, and
another man stood up to begin his recital. As the boys saw and
heard all this, and saw how respected those men were who had
done the most and bravest things, they said to themselves, "That
man was once a boy like us, and we, if we have strong hearts,
may do as much as he has done." So even the very small boys used
often to steal off from the camp, and follow war parties. Often
they went without the knowledge of their parents, and poorly
provided, without food or extra moccasins. They would get to the
enemy's camp, watch the ways of the young men, and so learn
about going to war, how to act when on the war trail so as to be
successful. Also they came to know the country.
The Blackfeet men often went off by themselves to fast
and dream for power. By no means every one did this, and, of
those who attempted it, only a few endured to the end, that is,
fasted the whole four days, and obtained the help sought.
The attempt was not usually made by
young boys before they had gone on their first war journey. It
was often undertaken by men who were quite mature. Those who
underwent this suffering were obliged to abstain from food or
drink for four days and four nights, resting for two nights on
the right side, and for two nights on the left. It was deemed
essential that the place to which a man resorted for this
purpose should be unfrequented, where few or no persons had
walked; and it must also be a place that tried the nerve, where
there was some danger. Such situations were mountain peaks; or
narrow ledges on cut cliffs, where a careless movement might
cause a man to fall to his death on the rocks below; or islands
in lakes, which could only be reached by means of a raft, and
where there was danger that a person might be seized and carried
off by the S[=u]'-y[=e] t[)u]p'-pi, or Under Water People; or
places where the dead had been buried, and where there was much
danger from ghosts. Or a man might lie in a well-worn buffalo
trail, where the animals were frequently passing, and so he
might be trodden on by a traveling band of buffalo; or he might
choose a locality where bears were abundant and dangerous.
Wherever he went, the man built himself a little lodge of brush,
moss, and leaves, to keep off the rain; and, after making his
prayers to the sun and singing his sacred songs, he crept into
the hut and began his fast. He was not allowed to take any
covering with him, nor to roof over his shelter with skins. He
always had with him a pipe, and this lay by him, filled, so
that, when the spirit, or dream, came, it could smoke. They did
not appeal to any special class of helpers, but prayed to all
alike. Often by the end of the fourth day, a secret helper
usually, but by no means always, in the form of some animal
appeared to the man in a dream, and talked with him, advising
him, marking out his course through life, and giving him its
power. There were some, however, on whom the power would not
work, and a much greater number who gave up the fast,
discouraged, before the prescribed time had been completed,
either not being able to endure the lack of food and water, or
being frightened by the strangeness or loneliness of their
surroundings, or by something that they thought they saw or
heard. It was no disgrace to fail, nor was the failure
necessarily known, for the seeker after power did not always,
nor perhaps often, tell any one what he was going to do.
Three modes of burial were practiced by the Blackfeet.
They buried their dead on platforms placed in trees, on
platforms in lodges, and on the ground in lodges. If a man dies
in a lodge, it is never used again. The people would be afraid
of the man's ghost. The lodge is often used to wrap the body in,
or perhaps the man may be buried in it.
As soon as a person is dead, be it man, woman, or
child, the body is immediately prepared for burial, by the
nearest female relations. Until recently, the corpse was wrapped
in a number of robes, then in a lodge covering, laced with
rawhide ropes, and placed on a platform of lodge poles, arranged
on the branches of some convenient tree. Some times the outer
wrapping the lodge covering was omitted. If the deceased was a
man, his weapons, and often his medicine, were buried with him.
With women a few cooking utensils and implements for tanning
robes were placed on the scaffolds. When a man was buried on a
platform in a lodge, the platform was usually suspended from the
lodge poles.
Sometimes, when a great chief or noted warrior died,
his lodge would be moved some little distance from the camp, and
set up in a patch of brush. It would be carefully pegged down
all around, and stones piled on the edges to make it
additionally firm. For still greater security, a rope fastened
to the lodge poles, where they come together at the smoke hole,
came down, and was securely tied to a peg in the ground in the
centre of the lodge, where the fireplace would ordinarily be.
Then the beds were made up all around the lodge, and on one of
them was placed the corpse, lying as if asleep. The man's
weapons, pipe, war clothing, and medicine were placed near him,
and the door then closed. No one ever again entered such a
lodge. Outside the lodge, a number of his horses, often twenty
or more, were killed, so that he might have plenty to ride on
his journey to the Sand Hills, and to use after arriving there.
If a man had a favorite horse, he might order it to be killed at
his grave, and his order was always carried out. In ancient
times, it is said, dogs were killed at the grave.
Women mourn for deceased relations by cutting their
hair short. For the loss of a husband or son (but not a
daughter), they not only cut their hair, but often take off one
or more joints of their fingers, and always scarify the calves
of their legs. Besides this, for a month or so, they daily
repair to some place near camp, generally a hill or little rise
of ground, and there cry and lament, calling the name of the
deceased over and over again. This may be called a chant or
song, for there is a certain tune to it. It is in a minor key
and very doleful. Any one hearing it for the first time, even
though wholly unacquainted with Indian customs, would at once
know that it was a mourning song, or at least was the utterance
of one in deep distress. There is no fixed period for the length
of time one must mourn. Some keep up this daily lament for a few
weeks only, and others much longer. I once came across an old
wrinkled woman, who was crouched in the sage brush, crying and
lamenting for some one, as if her heart would break. On
inquiring if any one had lately died, I was told she was
mourning for a son she had lost more than twenty years before.
Men mourn by cutting a little of their hair, going
without leggings, and for the loss of a son, sometimes scarify
their legs. This last, however, is never done for the loss of a
wife, daughter, or any relative except a son.
Many Blackfeet change their names every season.
Whenever a Blackfoot counts a new coup, he is entitled to a new
name. A Blackfoot will never tell his name if he can avoid it.
He believes that if he should speak his name, he would be
unfortunate in all his undertakings. It was considered a gross
breach of propriety for a man to meet his mother-in-law, and if
by any mischance he did so, or what was worse, if he spoke to
her, she demanded a very heavy payment, which he was obliged to
make. The mother-in-law was equally anxious to avoid meeting or
speaking to her son-in-law.
