ONE of the earliest recollections of my adventurous childhood is the
ride I had on a pony’s side. I was passive in the whole matter. A little
girl cousin of mine was put in a bag and suspended from the horn of an
Indian saddle; but her weight must be balanced or the saddle would not
remain on the animal’s back. Accordingly, I was put into another sack
and made to keep the saddle and the girl in position! I did not object
at all, for I had a very pleasant game of peek-aboo with the little
girl, until we came to a big snow-drift, where the poor beast was stuck
fast and began to lie down. Then it was not so nice!
This was the convenient and primitive way in which some mothers packed
their children for winter journeys. However cold the weather might be,
the inmate of the fur-lined sack was usually very comfortable--at least
I used to think so. I believe I was accustomed to all the precarious
Indian conveyances, and, as a boy, I enjoyed the dog-travaux ride as
much as any. The travaux consisted of a set of rawhide strips securely
lashed to the tent-poles, which were harnessed to the sides of the
animal as if he stood between shafts, while the free ends were allowed
to drag on the ground. Both ponies and large dogs were used as beasts of
burden, and they carried in this way the smaller children as well as the
baggage.
This mode of travelling for children was possible only in the summer,
and as the dogs were sometimes unreliable, the little ones were exposed
to a certain amount of danger. For instance, whenever a train of dogs
had been travelling for a long time, almost perishing with the heat and
their heavy loads, a glimpse of water would cause them to forget all
their responsibilities. Some of them, in spite of the screams of the
women, would swim with their burdens into the cooling stream, and I was
thus, on more than one occasion, made to partake of an unwilling bath.
I was a little over four years old at the time of the “Sioux massacre”
in Minnesota. In the general turmoil, we took flight into British
Columbia, and the journey is still vividly remembered by all our family.
A yoke of oxen and a lumber-wagon were taken from some white farmer and
brought home for our conveyance.
How delighted I was when I learned that we were to ride behind those
wise-looking animals and in that gorgeously painted wagon! It seemed
almost like a living creature to me, this new vehicle with four legs,
and the more so when we got out of axle-grease and the wheels went along
squealing like pigs!
The boys found a great deal of innocent fun in jumping from the high
wagon while the oxen were leisurely moving along. My elder brothers soon
became experts. At last, I mustered up courage enough to join them in
this sport. I was sure they stepped on the wheel, so I cautiously
placed my moccasined foot upon it. Alas! before I could realize what had
happened, I was under the wheels, and had it not been for the neighbor
immediately behind us, I might have been run over by the next team as
well.
This was my first experience with a civilized vehicle. I cried out
all possible reproaches on the white man’s team and concluded that a
dog-travaux was good enough for me. I was really rejoiced that we were
moving away from the people who made the wagon that had almost ended my
life, and it did not occur to me that I alone was to blame. I could not
be persuaded to ride in that wagon again and was glad when we finally
left it beside the Missouri river.
The summer after the “Minnesota massacre,” General Sibley pursued our
people across this river. Now the Missouri is considered one of the most
treacherous rivers in the world. Even a good modern boat is not safe
upon its uncertain current. We were forced to cross in buffalo-skin
boats--as round as tubs!
The Washechu (white men) were coming in great numbers with their big
guns, and while most of our men were fighting them to gain time, the
women and the old men made and equipped the temporary boats, braced with
ribs of willow. Some of these were towed by two or three women or men
swimming in the water and some by ponies. It was not an easy matter to
keep them right side up, with their helpless freight of little children
and such goods as we possessed.
In our flight, we little folks were strapped in the saddles or held in
front of an older person, and in the long night marches to get away from
the soldiers, we suffered from loss of sleep and insufficient food. Our
meals were eaten hastily, and sometimes in the saddle. Water was not
always to be found. The people carried it with them in bags formed of
tripe or the dried pericardium of animals.
Now we were compelled to trespass upon the country of hostile tribes
and were harassed by them almost daily and nightly. Only the strictest
vigilance saved us.
One day we met with another enemy near the British lines. It was a
prairie fire. We were surrounded. Another fire was quickly made, which
saved our lives.
One of the most thrilling experiences of the following winter was a
blizzard, which overtook us in our wanderings. Here and there, a family
lay down in the snow, selecting a place where it was not likely to drift
much. For a day and a night we lay under the snow. Uncle stuck a long
pole beside us to tell us when the storm was over. We had plenty of
buffalo robes and the snow kept us warm, but we found it heavy. After
a time, it became packed and hollowed out around our bodies, so that we
were as comfortable as one can be under those circumstances.
The next day the storm ceased, and we discovered a large herd of
buffaloes almost upon us. We dug our way out, shot some of the
buffaloes, made a fire and enjoyed a good dinner.
I was now an exile as well as motherless; yet I was not unhappy. Our
wanderings from place to place afforded us many pleasant experiences and
quite as many hardships and misfortunes. There were times of plenty
and times of scarcity, and we had several narrow escapes from death. In
savage life, the early spring is the most trying time and almost all the
famines occurred at this period of the year.
The Indians are a patient and a clannish people; their love for one
another is stronger than that of any civilized people I know. If this
were not so, I believe there would have been tribes of cannibals among
them. White people have been known to kill and eat their companions in
preference to starving; but Indians--never!
In times of famine, the adults often denied themselves in order to make
the food last as long as possible for the children, who were not able to
bear hunger as well as the old. As a people, they can live without food
much longer than any other nation.
I once passed through one of these hard springs when we had nothing
to eat for several days. I well remember the six small birds which
constituted the breakfast for six families one morning; and then we had
no dinner or supper to follow! What a relief that was to me--although I
had only a small wing of a small bird for my share! Soon after this, we
came into a region where buffaloes were plenty, and hunger and scarcity
were forgotten.
Such was the Indian’s wild life! When game was to be had and the sun
shone, they easily forgot the bitter experiences of the winter before.
Little preparation was made for the future. They are children of Nature,
and occasionally she whips them with the lashes of experience, yet they
are forgetful and careless. Much of their suffering might have been
prevented by a little calculation.
During the summer, when Nature is at her best, and provides abundantly
for the savage, it seems to me that no life is happier than his! Food is
free--lodging free--everything free! All were alike rich in the summer,
and, again, all were alike poor in the winter and early spring. However,
their diseases were fewer and not so destructive as now, and the
Indian’s health was generally good. The Indian boy enjoyed such a life
as almost all boys dream of and would choose for themselves if they were
permitted to do so.
The raids made upon our people by other tribes were frequent, and we had
to be constantly on the watch. I remember at one time a night attack was
made upon our camp and all our ponies stampeded. Only a few of them were
recovered, and our journeys after this misfortune were effected mostly
by means of the dog-travaux.
The second winter after the massacre, my father and my two older
brothers, with several others, were betrayed by a half-breed at Winnipeg
to the United States authorities. As I was then living with my uncle in
another part of the country, I became separated from them for ten
years. During all this time we believed that they had been killed by the
whites, and I was taught that I must avenge their deaths as soon as I
was able to go upon the war-path.
I must say a word in regard to the character of this uncle, my father’s
brother, who was my adviser and teacher for many years. He was a man
about six feet two inches in height, very erect and broad-shouldered. He
was known at that time as one of the best hunters and bravest warriors
among the Sioux in British America, where he still lives, for to this
day we have failed to persuade him to return to the United States.
He is a typical Indian--not handsome, but truthful and brave. He had a
few simple principles from which he hardly ever departed. Some of these
I shall describe when I speak of my early training.
It is wonderful that any children grew up through all the exposures
and hardships that we suffered in those days! The frail teepee pitched
anywhere, in the winter as well as in the summer, was all the protection
that we had against cold and storms. I can recall times when we were
snowed in and it was very difficult to get fuel. We were once three
days without much fire and all of this time it stormed violently. There
seemed to be no special anxiety on the part of our people; they rather
looked upon all this as a matter of course, knowing that the storm would
cease when the time came.
I could once endure as much cold and hunger as any of them; but now if I
miss one meal or accidentally wet my feet, I feel it as much as if I
had never lived in the manner I have described, when it was a matter of
course to get myself soaking wet many a time. Even if there was plenty
to eat, it was thought better for us to practice fasting sometimes; and
hard exercise was kept up continually, both for the sake of health and
to prepare the body for the extraordinary exertions that it might, at
any moment, be required to undergo. In my own remembrance, my uncle used
often to bring home a deer on his shoulder. The distance was sometimes
considerable; yet he did not consider it any sort of a feat.
The usual custom with us was to eat only two meals a day and these were
served at each end of the day. This rule was not invariable, however,
for if there should be any callers, it was Indian etiquette to offer
either tobacco or food, or both. The rule of two meals a day was more
closely observed by the men--especially the younger men--than by the
women and children. This was when the Indians recognized that a true
manhood, one of physical activity and endurance, depends upon dieting
and regular exercise. No such system is practised by the reservation
Indians of to-day.