A MEDICINE PIPE CEREMONY
Toward the middle of the afternoon a wagon drove up to the store and
Bruce’s wife, carrying a baby, came out and got in and said a few words
to her husband. He rose and walked toward the wagon and then turned and
said, “I’m just going over with the woman to Red Eagle’s camp; the
baby’s been sick and she wants to have him doctor it. He’s going to
unwrap his medicine pipe. Do you men want to go along? I don’t know if
Jack has ever seen a medicine pipe unwrapped.”
“No,” said Hugh, “I reckon he hasn’t. What do you say, son? Do you want
to go?”
“You bet, Hugh,” said Jack. “I’d be mighty glad to go. We won’t be in
the way, will we, Mr. Bruce?”
“No,” said Bruce, “not a bit. Come along.”
It was not a long drive over to Two Medicine Lodge Creek. Red Eagle was
camped not far from the old piskun, where in old times the Blackfeet
used to drive the buffalo over the cliff, where the fall from the great
height killed or crippled many of the herd and gave the people food. As
the wagon drove up to Red Eagle’s lodge, it was surrounded by a pack of
dogs which, with furious barkings and snappings, threatened the
visitors, but when no attention was paid to them they quieted down at
once, and stood about with welcoming waggings of their tails. Mrs. Bruce
climbed out of the wagon and carrying her baby, some food and tobacco
and a large sack of dried sarvis berries, entered the old man’s lodge,
while the men drove the wagon off a little distance, unhitched the
horses and tied them to the wagon wheels. Returning to the lodge, Bruce
looked in and said, “The old man hasn’t begun to get ready yet. We may
as well stop outside until he is ready to begin.”
“Let’s go up to the cliff, son,” said Hugh, “and see where the people
used to kill buffalo.”
The three walked over to the almost vertical bluffs which rose sixty or
eighty feet above the valley. Here the ground was strewn with weathered
bones of which the soil itself seemed partly composed, for it was filled
with minute fragments of the bones and teeth of buffalo.
“Now, son,” said Hugh, “this is a sacred place to the Indians. They used
to make medicine here and perform ceremonies to bring the buffalo up on
the prairie near here, so that they could lead them over the cliff. You
see that pile of horns over there?” and he pointed to a great heap of
horn sheaths of the buffalo, as big as a hay-cock. There must have been
more than a thousand horn sheaths in it.
Jack looked at it in astonishment, for it was something the like of
which he had never seen.
“Although they have not used this place now for many years, the Indians
still try to keep up that pile of horns, and whenever it is blown down
or knocked over by the horses they heap it up again. In old times there
were arranged in certain places on the ground a lot of horns all
directed the same way, that is, with the points of the horns pointing
the way they wanted the buffalo to run. Some of the horns were those of
bulls and some of cows. That meant that they wanted bulls as well as
cows to fall over the cliff. They used to lead the buffalo up to the
cliff, and fix things so that they would be running fast when they got
to the edge of the cliff. The leaders might perhaps try to stop, but
they could not stop because those behind pushed them along and shoved
them over. Those that were behind could not see what was in front of the
leaders and kept running until they got to the edge of the cliff and
then they went over. The fall killed some of the buffalo and crippled
others. Besides that, there was a big pen built about the place where
the buffalo fell down; a fence made of stones and logs and brush, and
women and children and men were hidden all about it. As soon as the
buffalo came tumbling down, these people showed themselves all around
the fence, frightening the buffalo, so that those that were still able
to travel, instead of trying to run on, simply ran around in a circle
inside the fence. Then the men killed them with arrows, and after all
were dead the women went into the pen and skinned the buffalo and took
away the meat, and then the skulls and most of the big bones were
carried off to a distance and the pen cleaned up for the next drive.”
“Well,” said Jack, “I’ve heard about this jumping the buffalo over the
cut bank and catching them in pens, but I never supposed that I would
see the place where it had been done.”
“Well,” said Mr. Bruce, “this is sure one of the places and you don’t
need anybody to tell you so, because you can look around and see the
bones of the buffalo all about you.”
“Yes,” said Jack, “that’s so; the place speaks for itself.”
“There are lots of old-time things hidden in this ground that we are
standing on,” said Bruce; “old arrow points and knives and fleshers, and
maybe other tools. Once in a while some of these things are found, but
most of them are covered up by the wash that comes down from the cliff.
Old Black Coming In Sight Over The Hill, who lives right above here, has
found lots of arrow points. A couple of years ago he showed me a double
handful that he had picked up, and also a bone flesher made from the
cannon bone of a buffalo. There are a good many other places like this.
One of them is up on Sun River, and from that Louis Pambrun got a knife
made of that black rock that looks like glass, and a stone ax and a lot
of stone flesher points and, oh, a whole mess of stuff.”
“My,” said Jack, “wouldn’t I like to see some of those things that have
come from one of these places. It surely seems as if it would make the
whole business of killing buffalo in the old-time fashion mighty real to
one.”
“Well,” said Bruce, “we’ll try and look around and see if we can’t get
hold of something of that kind for you before you go.”
After a little more examination of the bluffs, the three returned to Red
Eagle’s lodge. The preparations for the ceremony were not yet completed
and all sat down near the lodge, and while the two elder men smoked,
Jack looked about him and tried to make friends with the little children
who were racing about playing their games. One little fellow only about
two years of age quite won Jack’s heart by his friendly smile and
evident lack of fear. His clothing consisted of several strings of
beads, a buckskin string about his neck, to which was attached a stone
charm, and a very short shirt which came down to his lower ribs. He had
been playing in the stream or in some half-dried puddle, and the lower
part of his person was covered by a thick coating of mud. The little
fellow marched up to Jack in a confident way, shook hands with him in a
matter-of-fact fashion and clambered up on his knee, and after looking
at Jack’s clothing and buttons and listening to the ticking of his
watch, sat perfectly still watching the doings of his fellows. The
children were amusing themselves by making miserable the lives of the
dogs. When they found a dog sleeping somewhere or playing near them,
they would creep up to it and beat it with long twigs and pieces of wood
until the dog ran away into the brush with melancholy howlings, which
seemed to delight the young Indians.
At length a woman’s voice called from the lodge, and Bruce and Hugh rose
and passed in, Jack following. A number of Indians were seated around
the fire, but Red Eagle, the principal personage, sat at the back of the
lodge with the fire between himself and the door. At his left was an
unoccupied space, to which the three newcomers were motioned. To the
left of the doorway, in the women’s place, sat several women, some of
whom had babies either on their backs or between their knees. To the
right of Red Eagle was his wife and assistant, the Bear Woman.
Red Eagle was a large, fine-looking man of majestic presence. His
massive face, kindly and benignant in expression, was framed in long
gray hair which hung down over his broad shoulders. He was one of the
oldest men in the tribe, and was blind.
After Hugh and the others had seated themselves, there was a little
pause, and then the Bear Woman took up a dried willow branch, which had
two parallel twigs close together, serving for a pair of tongs, and
lifted from the fire a live coal, which she placed on the ground before
the Bear Man, who then began to sing a low, monotonous chant in a minor
key, in which all the other Indians soon joined. While singing, the old
man interrupted himself at intervals to exclaim _ni-ai_, (my shelter or
covering), the other Indians keeping up the singing. After a few moments
he reached his hand under the robe on which he was sitting and drew out
a small pouch, which he passed to the Bear Woman. She slowly untied it
and took from it a pinch of the dried needles of the sweet pine, which
she held over the coal. Then the Bear Man sang four times, and as the
music rose and fell the Bear Woman’s hand rose and fell over the coal.
At the end of the fourth song Red Eagle stretched out his hand and made
a downward gesture, and the Bear Woman let fall the incense on the coal,
and immediately the fragrant perfume of the burning pine needles filled
the lodge. The singing continued a little longer and then stopped. Then
both Red Eagle and his assistant stretched out their hands over the
smoke of the burning sweet pine, rubbed them together, and then, seeming
to grasp some of the smoke in their hands, rubbed it over their heads
and forearms, and reaching out and grasping more of it, passed it over
their heads, shoulders, and upper arms. They also seemed to take
handfuls of the smoke and eat it or breathe it in, the idea being that
they were purifying themselves without and within. Then presently the
Bear Man turned his face toward the sun and began to pray. Some portion
of what he said Jack could understand, but afterward he asked Bruce to
interpret the prayer, and this is what it was:
“Hear Above People, hear Thunder, those Animals [meaning his secret
helpers or medicine animals], hear. Pity us, pity us. Let us live, let
us live. Give us full life. Let us grow to be old. Listen. Crow Arrow,
let him live. In his wandering about let no danger befall him from bad
beasts or dangers that are on the trail. Let his wife and his boy, this
child with the shining hair, live to be very old and let them have
plenty of everything. Let White Bull live, keep him when he is
traveling, protect him from all dangers, from perils from animals, and
from all dangers on the trail. Let his relations live and have
abundance, and White Warrior, let him live, care for him and keep him
safe from dangers, wherever he may be. All people let live. O Creator,
have pity on the people so that they may live well, free from danger!”
Then he turned his face and appeared to address the bundle hung on the
lodge poles behind him containing the pipe: “Oh, tell them to have pity
on us. Let the young people grow, increase their flesh. Let all men,
women, and children have full life. Harden the bodies of old people so
that they may reach great age.”
The prayer ended and all the people gave a long-drawn _ah-h-h-h_,
meaning yes, about the equivalent of our amen.
Jack sat spellbound as he watched the old man while he prayed. Here,
indeed, was a priest who really wished for what he was asking. Here was
one who threw himself on the mercy of his God and would not let Him go.
He implored, he urged, he insisted, and would not be denied, and as Jack
saw the great beads of sweat stand out on the old man’s brow his memory
went back to one of his Sunday-school lessons of long ago, and he
thought of a struggle told of in the Bible, when at the ford Jabbock,
another patriarch, wrestled through the long night with his God and
prevailed.
But Jack had little time to think about this, for now the singing was
resumed; Red Eagle starting it as before, the others after a little time
joining in the plaintive refrain. Again the Bear Woman sprinkled sweet
pine on the coal, and again the priest and priestess purified themselves
by passing the smoke over their arms, heads, and bodies. Then they
seemed again to take handfuls of it and to hold the smoke under the
large package tied to the lodge poles above them. Presently, as the
singing continued, the Bear Woman rose to her knees and very slowly and
reverently untied the package from the poles and placed it on the robe
between the Bear Man and herself.
Now Red Eagle began a new song, and after he and the woman had again
passed their hands through the smoke, they moved them over the bundle,
raising them alternately in time to the music. At first the hands were
closed, except the forefinger, which pointed straight out, and the
up-and-down motions were quick and sharp, representing the dainty rise
and fall of the feet of the antelope as it walks. Then, at a change in
the air, the fingers were all bent, but the hand not closed, and the
up-and-down motions became deliberate and heavy, representing the slow
tread of a walking bear. At another change the old man raised his hands,
partly closed, the forefinger extended, pointing upward and slightly
bent inward, to the side of his head, and moving his face this way and
that, as if looking about him, called out in a shrill voice, _Hoo_. The
hand sign meant buffalo and the motion of the head signified looking or
watching. This sign, as Bruce afterward explained to Jack, was related
to the word _ni-ai_, so often used in the songs, meaning my shelter, my
covering, my robe; for the shelter, covering, or robe of these Indians
is made from the buffalo.
Again the air of the song changed, and the priest and his wife holding
their hands palm downward, all the fingers extended forward, moved them
up and down, making the sign for walking, which represented going to
war, and the sign for danger or watchfulness, the forefingers pointed
straight up and held at the side of the head, like a pricked ear, with a
startled expression of countenance and a watchful look.
After this song was ended, Red Eagle began slowly and carefully to
remove the wrappings from the package at his side, but he still sang,
though the air was again changed to a slower, more monotonous chant.
After the strings had been untied from the double-mouthed red cloth sack
which formed the outer covering of the package, he drew from it a long
bundle, wrapped in cloths of various colors. One by one he took off
these cloths, until, after many had been removed, the medicine pipe was
revealed. It was a handsome pipe stem about four feet long, wrapped for
a part of its length with large showy beads and profusely ornamented
with ermine skins and tails and with the feathers of eagles and other
birds, which hung from it in thick bunches. Near the lower or pipe end
of the stem was a separate plume made of twelve tail feathers of the war
eagle, each having its extremity wrapped with red or yellow horse hair,
which hung down in a long tuft. The whole stem was handsome and heavy.
After the covering had been removed, the old man bent for a moment in
silence over the pipe, and then raised it slowly and tenderly to his
face, making a soft, cooing, caressing sound. He pressed it to his lips
and whispered to it, while he raised his sightless eyes toward the sun,
as if he could look through their veil and through the lodge covering
and see some being invisible to others. After a few moments’ silence he
again spoke to the pipe in a low voice, and passed it over his arms,
shoulders, and both sides of his head. Then he began the song again,
shaking the pipe in time to the music. When he had finished he again
prayed, and said, “O Sun, O Moon and Stars, pity us, pity us. Look
down.” Then followed again the substance of the first prayer, and he
ended with the petition for men who were now away on the warpath,
saying, “Little Plume, let him survive. Tearing Lodge and Double Rider,
let them survive and return, bringing the heads.” Then turning, he
passed the pipe to Hugh, who held it before his face and bent his head.
Then it went to Jack, who imitated Hugh. Then Bruce took it and made a
prayer, and from him it passed to an old blind warrior, who prayed long
and fervently, and so it went around the circle, each one who received
it making a prayer. Jack listened hard to try to hear what the
different people said, but they spoke in low tones, and only now and
then could he catch a word: _Kĭm´-o-kĭt_ (have pity); _nā´pi_
(old man), or _na-tōs´_ (sun). When the pipe went back around the
circle to the other side of the lodge, where were the women and their
little babies, the women prayed as they took it and then passed the pipe
stem over the bodies and heads of their little ones, believing that the
sacred influence would benefit the children.
Meanwhile, Red Eagle had taken up a medicine rattle and again began to
sing, shaking the rattle in time to the music. When at length the pipe
returned to him he put down his rattle, took the stem and repeated
rapidly a number of times the words, “Pity us, pity us, pity us.” Then,
putting the stem on the robe between himself and his wife, he rose,
began a new song and began to dance, first to the east, and then turning
about toward the west. The people sitting in the lodge accompanied him
in a melodious but plaintive minor chant. Presently he stopped dancing,
faced about, and, sitting down, prayed again, concluding with these
words, “Let the Sun shine upon us and our lives be without shadows.”
Then he made a sign that the ceremony was over, and all rose and filed
out of the lodge.
Jack was mightily impressed by the ceremony that he had just witnessed,
yet, though he was anxious to ask many questions, he hardly felt like
doing so of Bruce, especially in the presence of his wife, whose faith
in the religion of which the old man was the priest he supposed to be
strong. It was not until after they had got back to the Agency,
therefore, that he said very much about it.
Before supper, however, he had an opportunity to speak to Hugh, and to
ask him some questions about the religion of these Indians.
“That is one of the most solemn things I ever saw, Hugh,” he said, “and
I want to ask some questions about it. I don’t know if I ever told you
how I felt that time when Last Bull gave me my name and prayed over me.
Of course that was two or three years ago, and I was a good deal younger
then than I am now; but I never before had had anything make me feel as
solemn as that prayer did, and that’s just the way I felt to-day when
Red Eagle was praying. It seems to me that when these Indians pray, they
pray as if they meant what they were saying. They seem to be in earnest
about it. Now, when I hear a white man praying,--that is, most white
men, I don’t mean to say it’s the same with all,--they don’t seem to be
in earnest; they seem to be going through a sort of form. Did you notice
how the sweat stood out on that old man’s face when he was making his
prayer; how solemn he was, and how he acted just as if he were begging
somebody for something?”
“Yes,” said Hugh, “I noticed that, and it’s so that when these Indians
pray they are surely in earnest. They are not getting off something that
they’ve learned by heart and just saying it because they have to; they
mean all that they say and they are really asking favors. People say
that they’re nothing but poor savages and that they’re pagans, and all
that, but I tell you when they’re talking to their God they could give
points to a whole lot of white folks.”
“Well,” said Jack, “I’ve seen some Indians pray, and I’ve been present
at some ceremonies, like the medicine lodge and like opening the beaver
bundle, but I never saw anything that seemed to me as real as this that
we’ve seen to-day.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “I am right glad we went, and I’m glad that you saw
it. These Indians and all the other Indians that I know anything about
are changing mighty fast. They’re losing their old ways and picking up
new ones that are not half so good. They’re changing all the time, and
before you are many years older you won’t be able to see any of these
old-time ways. There are three or four railroads now running across
through the country that used to belong all to the Indians, and now that
the buffalo are about gone they’ve got to come on to their reservations
and learn to work to earn a living, and just as soon as they do that
you’ll see all the old customs go, and when they once go they’ll very
soon be forgotten.”
“But what a pity it is, Hugh,” said Jack, “that they’ve got to change!
Why can’t they be left out here to live their life in the old way?”
“Why, son,” said Hugh, “you are talking now without thinking, talking
just as I have felt a great many times; but you know and I know from
what we’ve both seen that before very long these people are all going to
be crowded out of the most of this country by the white folks. Don’t you
remember a couple of years ago when we came back from the coast, how the
little towns were springing up all along the new railroad that they were
building, and now that the railroad has been finished, all along it,
east and west, there are growing up settlements of people that will soon
be towns. The white people are coming in crowds, and as soon as they’ve
taken all the best locations along the railroad they’ll begin to spread
out and take up other locations, and I believe that I’ll live long
enough to see this Montana Territory full of people. It’ll be here just
as I’ve seen it happen in the South. First the cattle will come into the
country, lots of them, and for a while it will be all cows and cowboys;
and then, little by little, the ranchers will come in, and they’ll
settle first on one creek bottom and then on another, and then maybe
mines will be found in the mountains, and new railroads will be built,
and at last there won’t be room in the country for anybody but white
folks that are working hard to make money out of the prairie and the
river bottoms, and even out of the mountains. A few years ago I wouldn’t
have believed it, but I have seen it happen now in lots of different
parts of the country, and I reckon it will happen here, just as it has
in so many other places.”
“Well, Hugh,” said Jack, “I suppose that’s so. I remember, as you say,
the way the settlements were springing up along the new railroad when we
came back from British Columbia, and this time, coming out, I could see
the little towns starting all along the Northern Pacific, back in
Minnesota and west of there, but it does seem awfully rough that these
Indians should all be driven from their own land and should have to be
penned up on a little reservation. And I don’t see what in the world
they’re going to do to live unless the Government feeds them.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “I don’t either. I suppose maybe some time they’ll
have to turn into cattlemen. I always had an idea they’d make good cow
hands, if they could be taught to look after cattle. Certainly the
Indians used to take awful good care of their ponies, and if they could
be taught to take good care of cows, they could make a good living just
as long as they’ve got the range that most any reservation will furnish.
You know the Navahoes down South and some others of those Southern
Indians have big herds of sheep and take pretty good care of them, but
of course sheep and cattle are different things.”
That evening in the store Hugh asked Bruce what he thought of the
probability of the Indians taking to cattle-raising.
“Why,” said Bruce, “they could make good cowmen if they’d look after the
stock. This is one of the greatest cattle ranges in the whole country,
and the few cattle that I own have done mighty well. I have had two
Indians, my brothers-in-law, looking after the stock, and they are
getting to understand how to handle cattle well. But the trouble is that
the average Indian hasn’t much feeling of responsibility, and instead of
spending the day on his horse looking after the cattle, he’s likely to
get off and lie down in the sun and sleep for half a day and let the
stock get away from him. They haven’t yet got any idea of the importance
of staying with a job. They’ll work hard until they get tired of it, and
then they’ll stop, and you can’t start them up again. You see, they’ve
never been used to working steadily. They’d work as long as they felt
like it, and then stop. That’s what they’ve got to learn before they can
accomplish anything toward making a living. They’ve got to learn the
lesson of steady, continued effort, and it’s going to be mighty hard to
teach them that.”
Late in the evening Hugh said to Jack, “Well, son, we’ve seen about all
we need to around here, haven’t we? What do you say to our starting out
to the mountains to make our trip?”
“Why,” said Jack, “I’m ready, and I don’t see why we can’t go off right
away.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “the sooner we get off the better it will suit me,
and if you feel like it, we’ll get hold of Joe to-morrow and pack up our
stuff and start. I reckon we can have a good time up at the lakes
hunting around there. You see, nobody’s ever been up to the heads of any
of those rivers, and I’d like to go up there and see what there is, and
I reckon you would, too.”
“Sure, I would,” said Jack.
“All right,” said Hugh, “let’s get hold of Joe to-morrow, and maybe
we’ll start the next day. I don’t think there’s anything to keep us
here.”