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!
The Blackfeet were a warlike people. How it may have been in
the old days, before the coming of the white men, we do not
know. Very likely, in early times, they were usually at peace
with neighboring tribes, or, if quarrels took place, battles
were fought, and men killed, this was only in angry dispute over
what each party considered its rights. Their wars were probably
not general, nor could they have been very bloody. When,
however, horses came into the possession of the Indians, all
this must have soon become changed. Hitherto there had really
been no incentive to war. From time to time expeditions may have
gone out to kill enemies, for glory, or to take revenge for some
injury, but war had not yet been made desirable by the hope of
plunder, for none of their neighbors any more than themselves
had property which was worth capturing and taking away.
Primitive arms, dogs, clothing, and dried meat were common to
all the tribes, and were their only possessions, and usually
each tribe had an abundance of all these. It was not worth any
man's while to make long journeys and to run into danger merely
to increase his store of such property, when his present
possessions were more than sufficient to meet all his wants.
Even if such things had seemed desirable plunder, the amount of
it which could be carried away was limited, since for a war
party the only means of transporting captured articles from
place to place was on men's backs, nor could men burdened with
loads either run or fight. But when horses became known, and the
Indians began to realize what a change the possession of these
animals was working in their mode of life, when they saw that,
by enormously increasing the transporting power of each family,
horses made far greater possessions practicable, that they
insured the food supply, rendered the moving of the camp easier
and more rapid, made possible long journeys with a minimum of
effort, and that they had a value for trading, the Blackfoot
mind received a new idea, the idea that it was desirable to
accumulate property. The Blackfoot saw that, since horses could
be exchanged for everything that was worth having, no one had as
many horses as he needed. A pretty wife, a handsome war bonnet,
a strong bow, a finely ornamented woman's dress, any or all of
these things a man might obtain, if he had horses to trade for
them. The gambler at "hands," or at the ring game, could bet
horses. The man who was devoted to his last married wife could
give her a horse as an evidence of his affection.
We can readily understand what a change the advent of the
horse must have worked in the minds of a people like the
Blackfeet, and how this changed mental attitude would react on
the Blackfoot way of living. At first, there were but few horses
among them, but they knew that their neighbors to the west and
south across the mountains and on the great plains beyond the
Missouri and the Yellowstone had plenty of them; that the
Kutenai, the
Kalispel, the
Snake, the
Crow, and the Sioux were well provided. They soon learned
that horses were easily driven off, and that, even if followed
by those whose property they had taken, the pursued had a great
advantage over the pursuers; and we may feel sure that it was
not long before the idea of capturing horses from the enemy
entered some Blackfoot head and was put into practice.
Now began a systematic sending forth of war parties against
neighboring tribes for the purpose of capturing horses, which
continued for about seventy-five or eighty years, and has only
been abandoned within the last six or seven, and since the
settlement of the country by the whites made it impossible for
the Blackfeet longer to pass backward and forward through it on
their raiding expeditions. Horse-taking at once became what
might be called an established industry among the Blackfeet.
Success brought wealth and fame, and there was a pleasing
excitement about the war journey. Except during the bitterest
weather of the winter, war parties of Blackfeet were constantly
out, searching for camps of their enemies, from whom they might
capture horses. Usually the only object of such an expedition
was to secure plunder, but often enemies were killed, and
sometimes the party set out with the distinct intention of
taking both scalps and horses.
Until some time after they had obtained guns, the
Blackfeet were on excellent terms with the northern Cree, but
later the Chippeway from the east made war on the Blackfeet, and
this brought about general hostilities against all Cree, which
have continued up to within a few years. If I recollect aright,
the last fight which occurred between the Pi-kun'-i and the Cree
took place in 1886. In this skirmish, which followed an attempt
by the Cree to capture some Piegan horses, my friend,
Tail-feathers-coming-in-sight-over-the-Hill, killed and counted
coup on a Cree whose scalp he afterward sent me, as an evidence
of his prowess.
The
Gros Ventre of the prairie, of Arapaho stock, known to the
Blackfeet as Atsena, or Gut People, had been friends and allies
of the Blackfeet from the time they first came into the country,
early in this century, up to about the year 1862, when,
according to Clark, peace was broken through a mistake.1
A war party of Snakes had gone to a Gros Ventre camp near the
Bear Paw Mountains and there killed two Gros Ventre and taken a
white pony, which they subsequently gave to a party of
Piegan whom they met, and with whom they made peace. The
Gros Ventres afterward saw this horse in the Piegan camp and
supposed that the latter had killed their tribesman, and this
led to a long war. In the year 1867, the Piegan defeated the
allied Crow and Gros Ventre in a great battle near the Cypress
Mountains, in which about 450 of the enemy are said to have been
killed.
An expression often used in these pages, and which is
so familiar to one who has lived much with Indians as to need no
explanation, is the phrase to count coup. Like many of the terms
common in the Northwest, this one comes down to us from the old
French trappers and traders, and a coup is, of course, a blow.
As commonly used, the expression is almost a direct translation
of the Indian phrase to strike the enemy, which is in ordinary
use among all tribes. This striking is the literal inflicting a
blow on an individual, and does not mean merely the attack on a
body of enemies.
The most creditable act that an Indian can
perform is to show that he is brave, to prove, by some daring
deed, his physical courage, his lack of fear. In practice, this
courage is shown by approaching near enough to an enemy to
strike or touch him with something that is held in the hand to
come up within arm's length of him. To kill an enemy is
praiseworthy, and the act of scalping him may be so under
certain circumstances, but neither of these approaches in
bravery the hitting or touching him with something held in the
hand. This is counting coup.
The man who does this shows himself without fear and is
respected accordingly. With certain tribes, as the Pawnees,
Cheyenne, and others,
it was not very uncommon for a warrior to dash up to an enemy
and strike him before making any attempt to injure him, the
effort to kill being secondary to the coup. The blow might be
struck with anything held in the hand, a whip, coup stick, club,
lance, the muzzle of a gun, a bow, or what not. It did not
necessarily follow that the person on whom the coup had been
counted would be injured. The act was performed in the case of a
woman, who might be captured, or even on a child, who was being
made prisoner.
Often the dealing the coup showed a very high degree of
courage. As already implied, it might be counted on a man who
was defending himself most desperately, and was trying his best
to kill the approaching enemy, or, even if the attempt was being
made on a foe who had fallen, it was never certain that he was
beyond the power of inflicting injury. He might be only wounded,
and, just when the enemy had come close to him, and was about to
strike, he might have strength enough left to raise himself up
and shoot him dead. In their old wars, the Indians rarely took
men captive. The warrior never expected quarter nor gave it, and
usually men fought to the death, and died mute, defending
themselves to the last to the last, striving to inflict some
injury on the enemy.
The striking the blow was an important event in a man's
life, and he who performed this feat remembered it. He counted
it. It was a proud day for the young warrior when he counted his
first coup, and each subsequent one was remembered and numbered
in the warrior's mind, just as an American of today remembers
the number of times he has been elected to Congress. At certain
dances and religious ceremonies, like that of the Medicine
Lodge, the warriors counted or rather re-counted their coups.
While the coup was primarily, and usually, a blow
with something held in the hand, other acts in warfare which
involved great danger to him who performed them were also
reckoned coups by some tribes. Thus, for a horseman to ride over
and knock down an enemy, who was on foot, was regarded among the
Blackfeet as a coup, for the horseman might be shot at close
quarters, or might receive a lance thrust. It was the same to
ride one's horse violently against a mounted foe. An old Pawnee
told me of a coup that he had counted by running up to a fallen
enemy and jumping on him with both feet. Sometimes the taking of
horses counted a coup, but this was not always the case.
As suggested by what has been already stated, each
tribe of the Plains Indians held its own view as to what
constituted a coup. The
Pawnee were very strict in their interpretation of the term,
and with them an act of daring was not in itself deemed a coup.
This was counted only when the person of an enemy was actually
touched. One or two incidents which have occurred among the
Pawnee will serve to illustrate their notions on this point.
In the year 1867, the Pawnee scouts had been sent up to
Ogallalla, Nebraska, to guard the graders who were working on
the Union Pacific railroad. While they were there, some Sioux
came down from the hills and ran off a few mules, taking them
across the North Platte. Major North took twenty men and started
after them. Crossing the river, and following it up on the north
bank, he headed them off, and before long came in sight of them.
The six Sioux,
when they found that they were pursued, left the mules that they
had taken, and ran; and the Pawnee, after chasing them eight or
ten miles, caught up with one of them, a brother of the
well-known chief Spotted Tail. Baptiste Bahele, a half-breed
Skidi, had a very fast horse, and was riding ahead of the other
Pawnee, and shooting arrows at the Sioux, who was shooting back
at him. At length Baptiste shot the enemy's horse in the hip,
and the Indian dismounted and ran on foot toward a ravine.
Baptiste shot at him again, and this time sent an arrow nearly
through his body, so that the point projected in front. The
Sioux caught the arrow by the point, pulled it through his body,
and shot it back at his pursuer, and came very near hitting him.
About that time, a ball from a carbine hit the Sioux and knocked
him down.
Then there was a race between Baptiste and the Pawnee
next behind him, to see which should count coup on the fallen
man. Baptiste was nearest to him and reached him first, but just
as he got to him, and was leaning over from his horse, to strike
the dead man, the animal shied at the body, swerving to one
side, and he failed to touch it. The horse ridden by the other
Pawnee ran right over the Sioux, and his rider leaned down and
touched him.
Baptiste claimed the coup although acknowledging
that he had not actually touched the man on the ground that he
had exposed himself to all the danger, and would have hit the
man if his horse had not swerved as it did from the body; but
the Pawnees would not allow it, and all gave the credit of the
coup to the other boy, because he had actually touched the
enemy.
On another occasion three or four young men started on
the warpath from the Pawnee village. When they came near to
Spotted Tail's camp on the Platte River, they crossed the
stream, took some horses, and got them safely across the river.
Then one of the boys re-crossed, went back to the camp, and cut
loose another horse. He had almost got this one out of the camp,
when an Indian came out of a lodge near by, and sat down. The
Pawnee shot the Sioux, counted coup on him, scalped him, and
then hurried across the river with the whole Sioux camp in
pursuit. When the party returned to the Pawnee village, this boy
was the only one who received credit for a coup.
Among the Blackfeet the capture of a shield, bow, gun,
war bonnet, war shirt, or medicine pipe was deemed a coup.
Nothing gave a man a higher place in the estimation of
the people than the counting of coups, for, I repeat, personal
bravery is of all qualities the most highly respected by
Indians. On special occasions, as has been said, men counted
over again in public their coups. This served to gratify
personal vanity, and also to incite the young men to the
performance of similar brave deeds. Besides this, they often
made a more enduring record of these acts, by reproducing them
pictographically on robes, cow skins, and other hides. There is
now in my possession an illuminated cow skin, presented to me by
Mr. J. Kipp, which contains the record of the coups and the most
striking events in the life of Red Crane, a Blackfoot warrior,
painted by himself. These pictographs are very rude and are
drawn after the style common among Plains Indians, but no doubt
they were sufficiently lifelike to call up to the mind of the
artist each detail of the stirring events which they record.
The Indian warrior who stood up to relate some brave
deed which he had performed was almost always in a position to
prove the truth of his statements. Either he had the enemy's
scalp, or some trophy captured from him, to produce as evidence,
or else he had a witness of his feat in some companion. A man
seldom boasted of any deed unless he was able to prove his
story, and false statements about exploits against the enemy
were most unusual. Temporary peace was often made between tribes
usually at war, and, at the friendly meetings which took place
during such times of peace, former battles were talked over, the
performances of various individuals discussed, and the acts of
particular men in the different rights commented on. In this
way, if any man had falsely claimed to have done brave deeds, he
would be detected.
An example of this occurred many years ago among the
Cheyenne. At that time, there was a celebrated chief of the
Skidi tribe of the Pawnee Nation whose name was Big Eagle. He
was very brave, and the Cheyenne greatly feared him, and it was
agreed among them that the man who could count coup on Big Eagle
should be made war-chief of the Cheyenne. After a fight on the
Loup River, a Cheyenne warrior claimed to have counted coup on
Big Eagle by thrusting a lance through his buttocks. On the
strength of the claim, this man was made war chief of the
Cheyenne. Some years later, during a friendly visit made by the
Pawnees to the Cheyenne, this incident was mentioned. Big Eagle
was present at the time, and, after inquiring into the matter,
he rose in council, denied that he had ever been struck as
claimed, and, throwing aside his robe, called on the Cheyenne
present to examine his body and to point out the scars left by
the lance. None were found. It was seen that Big Eagle spoke the
truth; and the lying Cheyenne, from the proud position of war
chief, sank to a point where he was an object of contempt to the
meanest Indian in his tribe.
Among the Blackfeet a war party usually, or often, had
its origin in a dream. Some man who has a dream, after he awakes
tells of it. Perhaps he may say: "I dreamed that on a certain
stream is a herd of horses that have been given to me, and that
I am going away to get. I am going to war. I shall go to that
place and get my band of horses." Then the men who know him, who
believe that his medicine is strong and that he will have good
luck, make up their minds to follow him. As soon as he has
stated what he intends to do, his women and his female relations
begin to make moccasins for him, and the old men among his
relations begin to give him arrows and powder and ball to fit
him out for war. The relations of those who are going with him
do the same for them.
The leader notifies the young men who are going with
him on what day and at what hour he intends to start. He
determines the time for himself, but does not let the whole camp
know it in advance. Of late years, large war parties have not
been desirable. They have preferred to go out in small bodies.
Just before a war party sets out, its members get together and
sing the "peeling a stick song," which is a wolf song. Then they
build a sweat lodge and go into it, and with them goes in an old
man, a medicine-pipe man, who has been a good warrior. They fill
the pipe and ask him to pray for them, that they may have good
luck, and may accomplish what they desire. The medicine-pipe man
prays and sings and pours water on the hot stones, and the
warriors with their knives slice bits of skin and flesh from
their bodies, their arms and breasts and sometimes from the tip
of the tongue, which they offer to the Sun. Then, after the
ceremony is over, all dripping with perspiration from their
vapor bath, the men go down to the river and plunge in.
In starting out, a war party often marches in the
daytime, but sometimes they travel at night from the beginning.
Often they may make an all night march across a wide prairie, in
passing over which they might be seen if they traveled in the
day. They journey on foot, always. The older men carry their
arms, while the boys bear the moccasins, the ropes, and the
food, which usually consists of dried meat or pemmican. They
carry also coats and blankets and their war bonnets and otter
skin medicine. The leader has but little physical labor to
perform. His mind is occupied in planning the movements of his
party. He is treated with the greatest respect. The others mend
his moccasins, and give him the best of the food which they
carry.
After they get away from the main camp, the leader
selects the strongest of the young men, and sends him ahead to
some designated butte, saying, "Go to that place, and look
carefully over the country, and if you see nothing, make signals
to us to come on." This scout goes on ahead, traveling in the
ravines and coulees, and keeps himself well hidden. After he has
reconnoitered and made signs that he sees nothing, the party
proceeds straight toward him.
The party usually starts early in the morning and
travels all day, making camp at sundown. During the day, if they
happen to come upon an antelope or a buffalo, they kill it, if
possible, and take some of the meat with them. They try in every
way to economize their pemmican. They always endeavor to make
camp in the thick timber, where they cannot be seen; and here,
when it is necessary, on account of bad weather or for other
reasons, they build a war lodge. Taking four young cotton-woods
or aspens, on which the leaves are left, and lashing them
together like lodge poles, but with the butts up, about these
they place other similar trees, also butts up and untrimmed. The
leaves keep the rain off, and prevent the light of the fire
which is built in the lodge from showing through. Sometimes,
when on the prairie, where there is no wood, in stormy weather
they will build a shelter of rocks. When the party has come
close to the enemy, or into a country where the enemy are likely
to be found, they build no more fires, but eat their food
uncooked.
When they see fresh tracks of people, or signs that
enemies are in the country, they stop traveling in the daytime
and move altogether by night, until they come to some good place
for hiding, and here they stop and sleep. When day comes, the
leader sends out young men to the different buttes, to look over
the country and see if they can discover the enemy. If some one
of the scouts reports that he has seen a camp, and that the
enemy have been found, the leader directs his men to paint
themselves and put on their war bonnets. This last is a figure
of speech, since the war bonnets, having of late years been
usually ornamented with brass bells, could not be worn in a
secret attack, on account of the noise they would make. Before
painting themselves, therefore, they untie their war bonnets,
and spread them out on the ground, as if they were about to be
worn, and then when they have finished painting themselves, tie
them up again. When it begins to get dark, they start on the run
for the enemy's camp. They leave their food in camp, but carry
their ropes slung over the shoulder and under the arm, whips
stuck in belts, guns and blankets.
After they have crept up close to the lodges, the
leader chooses certain men that have strong hearts, and takes
them with him into the camp to cut loose the horses. The rest of
the party remain outside the camp, and look about its outskirts,
driving in any horses that may be feeding about, not tied up. Of
those who have gone into the camp, some cut loose one horse,
while others cut all that may be tied about a lodge. Some go
only once into the camp, and some go twice to get the horses.
When they have secured the horses, they drive them off a little
way from the camp, at first going slowly, and then mount and
ride off fast. Generally, they travel two nights and one day
before sleeping.
This is the usual method of procedure
of an ordinary expedition to capture horses, and I have given it
very nearly in the language of the men who explained it to me.
In their hostile encounters, the Blackfeet have much
that is common to many Plains tribes, and also some customs that
are peculiar to themselves. Like most Indians, they are subject
to sudden, apparently causeless, panics, while at other times
they display a courage that is heroic. They are firm believers
in luck, and will follow a leader who is fortunate in his
expeditions into almost any danger. On the other hand, if the
leader of a war party loses his young men, or any of them, the
people in the camp think that he is unlucky, and does not know
how to lead a war party. Young men will not follow him as a
leader, and he is obliged to go as a servant or scout under
another leader. He is likely never again to lead a war party,
having learned to distrust his luck.
If a war party meets the enemy, and kills several of
them, losing in the battle one of its own number, it is likely,
as the phrase is, to "cover" the slain Blackfoot with all the
dead enemies save one, and to have a scalp dance over that
remaining one. If a party had killed six of the enemy and lost a
man, it might "cover" the slain Blackfoot with five of the
enemy. In other words, the five dead enemies would pay for the
one which the war party had lost. So far, matters would be even,
and they would feel at liberty to rejoice over the victory
gained over the one that is left.
The Blackfeet sometimes cut to pieces an enemy
killed in battle. If a Blackfoot had a relation killed by a
member of another tribe, and afterward killed one of this tribe,
he was likely to cut him all to pieces "to get even," that is,
to gratify his spite to obtain revenge. Sometimes, after they
had killed an enemy, they dragged his body into camp, so as to
give the children an opportunity to count coup on it. Often they
cut the feet and hands off the dead, and took them away and
danced over them for a long time. Sometimes they cut off an arm
or a leg, and often the head, and danced and rejoiced over this
trophy.
Women and children of hostile tribes were often
captured, and adopted into the Blackfoot tribes with all the
rights and privileges of indigenous members. Men were rarely
captured. When they were taken, they were sometimes killed in
cold blood, especially if they had made a desperate resistance
before being captured. At other times, the captive would be kept
for a time, and then the chief would take him off away from the
camp, and give him provisions, clothing, arms, and a horse, and
let him go. The captive man always had a hard time at first.
When he was brought into the camp, the women and children threw
dirt on him and counted coups on him, pounding him with sticks
and clubs. He was rarely tied, but was always watched. Often the
man who had taken him prisoner had great trouble to keep his
tribesmen from killing him.
In the very early days of this century, war parties
used commonly to start out in the spring, going south to the
land where horses were abundant, being absent all summer and the
next winter, and returning the following summer or autumn, with
great bands of horses. Sometimes they were gone two years. They
say that on such journeys they used to go to Spai'yu ksah'ku,
which means the Spanish lands Spai'yu being a recently made
word, no doubt from the French espagnol. That they did get as
far as Mexico, or at least New Mexico, is indicated by the fact
that they brought back branded horses and a few branded mules;
for in these early days there was no stock upon the Plains, and
animals bearing brands were found only in the Spanish American
settlements. The Blackfeet did not know what these marks meant.
From their raids into these distant lands, they sometimes
brought back arms of strange make, lances, axes, and swords, of
a form unlike any that they had seen. The lances had broad
heads; some of the axes, as described, were evidently the old
"T. Gray" trade axes of the southwest. A sword, described as
having a long, slender, straight blade, inlaid with a flower
pattern of yellow metal along the back, was probably an old
Spanish rapier.
In telling of these journeys to Spanish lands, they say
of the very long reeds which grow there, that they are very
large at the butt, are jointed, very hard, and very tall; they
grow in marshy places; and the water there has a strange, moldy
smell.
It is said, too, that there have been war parties who
have crossed the mountains and gone so far to the west that they
have seen the big salt water which lies beyond, or west of, the
Great Salt Lake. Journeys as far south as Salt Lake were not
uncommon, and Hugh Monroe has told me of a war party he
accompanied which went as far as this.
