IN THE YELLOW RIVER COUNTRY
On the following evening we camped upon a small stream flowing into the
Musselshell through a wide valley lying between the Moccasin Mountains,
and another outlying shoot from the Rockies, named Kwun-is-tuk-ists
(Snow Mountains). Not so named because they were more snowy than other
mountains, but for their white rock formation. From a distance large
bare areas of this on the dark, timbered slopes have all the appearance
of snow banks.
The two great camps of us were certainly lively enough that evening. In
the early part of it there was much dancing and feasting, many
gatherings in the lodges of the medicine men for prayers, and sacrifices
for success on the morrow, and later on the men laid out their war suits
and war bonnets ready to put on in the morning. A big fire was lighted
soon after dark to call in the watchers from the high points along the
Moccasins, and the Snow Mountains, all of them excepting those upon the
trail in the gap of the latter, from which they kept watch upon the camp
of the enemy.
Late in the evening, nearly midnight it was, one of these last came in
and told Lone Walker that the Crows seemed to be unaware of our
approach, and at sundown their camp must still have been in the river
valley, for they had not been seen trailing out from there. During the
day movements of the buffaloes had shown that their hunters had been out
from both sides of the valley for meat.
On the following morning we were all up before daylight, eating hurried
meals that the women set before us, looking over our weapons, and
anxious to be on our way. And the women were just as anxious that we
start, for they wanted to pack up and follow as fast as they could; they
were expecting to become rich with Crow property that day. Soon after
daylight we mounted our best horses and were off, the Pi-kun-i and
Kai-na chiefs, and the Ut-se-na, or Gros Ventre, chief with them in the
lead, we following, band after band of the All Friends Society. All the
Blackfeet tribes had this Society.
At mid-forenoon, when we topped the pass in the Snow Mountains, we found
there our watchers awaiting us with somewhat disturbing news; they had
not that morning seen any movement of the Crows out on the plain from
their camp. Other mornings they had appeared on the plains on both sides
of the river, rounding up their horses, riding out to hunt.
"Maybe they have discovered what we are up to, and have struck out for
their country off there across Elk River," Lone Walker said to Eagle
Ribs.
"Ai! One of their war parties may have seen us. If they did, they had
plenty of time to get in with the news; we did not travel fast," said
the Kai-na chief.
"Well, let us hurry on!" Lone Walker cried, and away we went down the
pass and out upon the plain.
"It is just as I thought," I said to myself. "If we could keep a watch
upon their camp, they could upon ours. They saw the Kai-na joining us,
and have fled!"
It was a long way from the foot of the mountains out across the plain to
the river; all of twenty miles, I should say. We made the length of it
at a killing pace, and when, at last, we arrived at the rim of the
valley our horses were covered with sweat, gasping for breath and about
done for. Here and there in the big, long bottom under us a number of
scattered lodges and hundreds of standing pole sets, told of the hurried
flight of the Crows. We went down to the camp and examined it, and
learned by raking out the fireplaces that it had been abandoned the
previous evening. In the hurry of their going, they had left about all
of their heavy property, all of their lodge pole sets, many lodges
complete, and no end of _parflèches_ and pack pouches filled with dried
meat and tongues, pemmican, and dried berries. There was also much other
stuff scattered about: rolls of leather; tanned and partly tanned
buffalo robes for winter use; moccasins, used, and new, and beautifully
embroidered; and many pack saddles and ropes.
"Well, brothers, all this will make our women happy," said Eagle Ribs,
with a wave of his hand around.
"Ai! Some of them. It will not lighten the hearts of those who mourn!"
said Lone Walker.
"And we cannot now lighten them! The Crows have a night's start of us,
and our horses are so tired that we cannot overtake them," said Mad
Plume.
"Before night they will cross Elk River and fortify themselves so
strongly in timber, or on hill, that it will be impossible for us to
carry the position!" another exclaimed.
All the chiefs agreed to that, and then Lone Walker said: "All that we
can do is to keep parties out after their horses as long as we remain
in this south part of our country. That, and the great loss of their
property here, will teach them to remain upon their own hunting-ground."
The whole party then dismounted, some gathering in groups for a smoke,
others scattering out to wander in the deserted camp and gather up for
their women whatever took their fancy. Red Crow and I rode to the upper
camp and had great fun going from lodge to lodge and examining the heaps
of stuff that the Crows had abandoned. My quest was for fur, and I
collected nine beaver and two otter skins.
That evening the chiefs held another council. Some were for giving the
Crows time to get over their scare, and then going down into their
country--all the warriors of both our tribes, and taking them by
surprise and wiping them out. Lone Walker said that to do that we would
have to lose a great many men; that he thought his plan, to keep them
poor in horses, was the best. Finally, I was asked to give my opinion on
the matter. I had been thinking a lot about it, and in signs, and with
what words I could command, spoke right out:
"When I saw the women killed by the Crows, I was so angry that I wanted
to help you fight until all the Crows were dead, but I do not feel so
now," I told them. "You have done great wrongs to the Crows; back there
on Arrow River they did only what you have done to them. Here is a
great, rich country, large enough for all. I would like to see you make
peace with the Crows, they agreeing to remain on their side of Elk
River, and you on your side of it."
"Ha! Your white son has a gentle heart!" a Kai-na chief told Lone
Walker.
"If you mean that he has an afraid heart, you are mistaken. In the fight
the other day, he killed an enemy who was about to kill my son, Red
Crow," Lone Walker answered, and at that the chief clapped a hand to his
mouth in surprise and approval, and his manner quickly changed to one of
great friendliness to me.
Said Lone Walker to me then: "My son, what you propose cannot be done.
We have twice made peace with the Crows, the last time right here on
this river, and both times they broke it within a moon. It was five
summers back that we made the last peace with them. It was agreed that
we should remain on the north side of Elk River, they on the south side,
and neither tribe should raid the other's horse herds. The two tribes of
us camped here side by side for many days, making friends with one
another. We gave feasts for the Crows, they gave feasts for us. Every
day there was a big dance in their camp, or in ours. A young Crow and
one of our girls fell in love with one another, and we let him have her.
Well, at last we parted from the Crows and started north, and had gone
no farther than Yellow River when one of their war parties, following
us, fell upon some of our hunters and killed four, one escaping wounded.
So you see how it is: the Crows will not keep their word; it is useless
to make peace with them."
On the next evening a mixed party of our and Kai-na warriors, about a
hundred men, set out on foot to raid the Crow horse herds. They were
going to take no chances; their plan was to travel nights, to find the
Crows and watch for an opportunity to run off a large number of their
stock.
The two tribes of us were too many people to camp together, so many
hunters scattering the game, so that after a few days we were obliged to
go a long way from camp to get meat. Another council was held and the
chiefs decided that we, the Pi-kun-i, should winter in the upper Yellow
River country, and the Kai-na on the Missouri, between the mouth of
Yellow River and the mouth of the stream upon which we were then
camping. Two days later we broke camp and went our way.
We struck Yellow River higher up than where we had crossed it coming
out, and went into camp in a big, timbered bottom through which flowed a
small stream named Hot Spring Water. On the following day Red Crow took
me to the head of it, only a few miles from its junction with Yellow
River, and there I saw my first hot spring. It was very large, and deep,
and the water so hot that I could not put my hand in it.
Our camp here was at the foot, and east end of the Yellow Mountains. In
the gap between them and the Moccasin Mountains, rose the hot spring in
a beautiful, well grassed valley. Never in all my wanderings have I seen
quite so good a game country as that was, and for that matter continued
to be for no less than sixty years from that time.
As soon as we went into camp the chiefs put the hunting law into effect:
from that time no one was allowed to hunt buffaloes when and where he
willed. A watch was kept upon the herds, and when one came close to camp
the chiefs' crier went all among the lodges calling out that the herd
was near, and that all who wished to join in the chase should catch up
their runners and gather at a certain place. From there the hunters
would go out under the lead of some chief, approach the herd under
cover, and then dash into it and make a big run, generally killing a
large number of the animals. The strict observance of this law meant
plenty of buffalo meat for all the people all the time, secured close to
camp instead of far out on the winter plains. There was no law regarding
the hunting of the mountain game, the elk, deer, and bighorns. They were
not killed in any great number, for they became poor in winter, whereas
the buffaloes retained their thick layer of fat until spring. And
buffalo meat was by far the best, the most nutritious, the most easily
digested. One never tired of it, as he did of the meat of other game.
When the leaves began to fall the real work of the winter was started,
the taking of beavers for trade at our Mountain Fort. The streams were
alive with them, and so tame were they that numbers were killed with bow
and arrow. I myself killed several in that way, lying in wait for them
at dams they were building, or on their trails to their wood cutting and
dragging operations. But when winter came, and the ponds and streams
froze over and they retired to their snug houses in the ponds, and dens
in the stream banks, the one way then to get them was by setting traps,
through the ice, at the entrances to their homes; they came out daily to
their sunken piles of food sticks, dragged back what they wanted and ate
the bark, and then took the stripped sticks out into the water, where
they drifted off with the current.
By the time real winter set in, about all the beavers for miles around
had been caught, and then most of the trappers rested. Red Crow,
however, was so anxious to obtain pelts enough for the purchase of one
of our company guns that he would not stop, and finally persuaded his
father to allow us to go over on the head of Arrow River and trap there
for a time. Red Crow's mother, Sis-tsa-ki, wanted to go with us, but
Lone Walker said that he couldn't possibly spare his sits-beside-him
wife, but another one, named Ah-wun-a-ki (Rattle Woman), and Red Crow's
sister, Mink Woman, were allowed to go along to look after our comfort.
A small lodge, lining and all, was borrowed for our use, and we started
out in fine shape, taking five pack and travois horses to carry our
outfit, and each riding a good horse. We made Arrow River that day, and
camped pretty well on the head of it before noon the next day.
"Now, then, mother, and brother, and sister," said Red Crow after we had
unpacked the horses, "we shall eat only the very best food here, and to
begin, we will have stuffed entrail for our evening meal. Put up the
lodge, you two, and get plenty of wood for the night, and Rising Wolf
and I will go kill a fat buffalo cow."
There were a number of small bands of buffaloes in the breaks of the
valley, and approaching the nearest one of them, I shot a fine young
cow. We butchered it, took what meat we wanted, and a certain entrail
that was streaked its whole length with threads of soft, snow-white
fat. When we got to camp with our load, Rattle Woman took this entrail
from us, washed it thoroughly in the stream, and brought it back to the
lodge. She then cut some loin meat, or, as the whites call it,
porterhouse steak, into small pieces about as large as hazel nuts and
stuffed the entrail with it, the entrail being turned inside out in the
process. Both ends of the entrail were then tied fast with sinew thread,
and she placed it on the coals to broil, frequently turning it to keep
it from burning. It was broiled for about fifteen minutes, shrinking
considerably in that time, and was then thrown into a kettle of water
and boiled for about fifteen minutes, and then we each took a fourth of
its length and had our feast. Those who have never had meat cooked in
this manner know not what good meat is! The threads of white fat on the
entrail, it was turned inside out, you remember, gave it the required
richness, and the tying of the ends kept in all the rich juices of the
meat, something that cannot be done by any other method of cooking. The
Blackfoot name for this was is-sap-wot-sists (put-inside-entrail). Their
name for the Crows was Sap-wo, an abbreviation of the word, and I have
often wondered if they did not learn this method of meat cooking from
them during some time of peace between the two tribes.
There were so many of us in Lone Walker's family that we never had
enough is-sap-wot-sists, the highest achievement of the meat cooker's
art. But here on Arrow River the four of us in our snug lodge, with game
all about us, had it every day, with good portions of dried berries that
we had taken from the abandoned Crow camp. We certainly lived high! Red
Crow had four traps, I had five. We set them carefully in ponds and
along the stream, and each morning made the round of them, skinned what
beavers we caught, and took the hides to the woman and girl to flesh and
stretch upon rude hoops to dry. We had success beyond my wildest dreams,
our traps averaging six beavers a night. It was virgin ground; traps
had never been set there, the beavers were very unsuspicious and tame,
and very numerous. The days flew by; our eagerness for our work
increased rather than diminished. I was to be no gainer by it in pounds,
shillings, and pence; whatever fur I caught was the property of the
Company, but that made no difference; my ambition was to become an
expert trapper and plainsman, and in that way get a good standing with
the Company.
At the end of a month there we had a visit from Lone Walker's nephew.
The chief had become uneasy about us, and had sent him to tell us to
return. We were doing too well to go back then, and answered that we
would trail in before the end of another month. We were really in no
danger; the weather was cold, except for an occasional Chinook wind,
there was considerable snow on the ground, and even in mild winters war
parties were seldom abroad. So we trapped on and on, killed what meat we
wanted,--oh, it was a happy time to me. Nor were our evenings around
the lodge fire the least of it. My companions night after night told
stories of the gods; stories of the adventures and the bravery of heroic
Blackfeet men and women, all very interesting and instructive to me. At
last came a second summons from Lone Walker for us to return, and this
time we heeded it; we had anyhow pretty well cleaned out the beavers,
getting only one or two a night for some time back. But Red Crow had to
go in for more horses before we could move, the horses we had with us
not being enough to pack our catch, and the lodge and other things. We
took in with us, in ten skin bales, two hundred and forty beaver skins
and nine otter skins, of which a few more than half were mine! Our big
catch was the talk of the camp for several days.
Several evenings after our return to camp an old medicine man told me
that, according to a vision he had had, he was collecting enough wolf
skins for a big, wolf robe couch cover, and that I could go with him
the next morning if I would like to see how he caught the animals. He
had completed his trap the day before, and thought that there were
already in it all the wolves that he needed.
Of course, I wanted to learn all I could about trapping, and so rode
down the valley with him the next morning. About three miles below camp
we entered a big, open bottom and he pointed to his trap, away out in
the center of it. In the distance it appeared to be a round corral, and
so it was, a corral of heavy eight-or nine-foot posts set closely
together in the ground, and slanting inward at an angle of thirty or
forty degrees. At the base the corral was about twelve feet in diameter.
In one place a pile of rocks and earth was heaped against it, and when I
saw that I did not need the old man's explanation of how he caught the
wolves; they jumped into the corral from the earth slant to the top of
it, enticed there by a pile of meat, and, once in, they could not jump
high enough to get out.
Several wolves that were hanging about the corral ran away at our
approach, and as we came close we could see that there were wolves in
the corral. We dismounted, climbed the earth slope and looked in, and I
could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that it held thirteen big wolves
and a dead coyote. The latter had undoubtedly been the first to jump
down for the bait, and the wolves had come later, and killed him. The
wolves pretended to pay no attention to us, as we looked down upon them,
milling around and sticking their noses into the interstices of the
posts, but they had wary eyes upon us all the same. The old man got out
his bow, and some all-wood arrows, the sharp tips fire hardened, and
shot the wolves one by one without a miss, each shaft striking at one
side of the backbone just back of the ribs and ranging down and forward
into heart and lungs. Some of the animals struggled a bit, but all died
without a whimper. When the last one fell he removed two posts that had
simply been tied to those set firmly in the ground, and dragged the
animals out through the opening one by one. I helped him skin them.
"There! I wanted eight, I have thirteen skins. My work is done; it is
now for my woman to tan them and make the robe," he exclaimed.
"You will not replace the two posts, and put in fresh bait for more
wolves?" I asked.
"No, I have all that I need," he answered. "Eight are enough for a big
robe. I shall lie upon it, sleep upon it, and the strength that is in
the wolves will become my strength, so my vision told me. I am well
satisfied."
"And I am glad to have learned how to catch wolves," I told him, and we
packed the skins upon our horses and went home. Years afterward, along
in the 60's and 70's, when wolf skins went up to five dollars each, I
somewhat improved upon the old man's corral trap, making mine of logs
laid up to form a hollow pyramid about ten by sixteen feet at the base,
and four by ten feet at the top. This was much more quickly and easily
built than the stake corral, which involved the digging of a deep trench
in which to set the stakes, and the building of an incline to the top.
The wolves did not hesitate to step up from one to another of the
inslanting logs and jump down upon the quantities of meat I placed
inside, and there I had them. During one winter at St. Mary's Lakes, the
winter of 1872-73, my sons and I caught more than seven hundred wolves
in our pyramid log trap!
Although we saw nothing more of the Crows after their attack upon us, I
kept thinking about them all the time. The big war party that had gone
to raid their herds returned after a month or so without a single horse.
They reported that the enemy was encamped some distance up the Bighorn
River, and that their horses were under so heavy a guard both night and
day that they had not dared attempt to stampede them. Before real winter
set in another party of our warriors went out, and had no better
success. The Crows were still close herding their horses in the
daytime, and keeping them in well guarded corrals at night.
It was in our lone camp on Arrow River that this thought came to me: If
the Blackfeet would only make peace with the Crows, the latter might
then accompany us north and trade at our post. I asked myself if it was
in any way possible for me to accomplish this. Well I knew what a grand
coup it would be for me if I could ride into the post and say to the
factor: "Here I am, returned with a good knowledge of the Blackfoot
language. I have been far, and seen much. I have had the Pi-kun-i and
the Crows, after a desperate fight, make peace with one another, and
have induced that far tribe to come and trade with us. They are here!"
Well, when I thought that, I became so excited that it was long before I
could sleep. I thought about it all the next day, and determined to
speak to Red Crow about it. When evening came, and we had eaten our fill
of is-sap-wot-sists, and were resting on our soft couches, I said to
him: "Brother, how is peace made with an enemy tribe? Tell me all about
it!"
"Ai! You shall know," he answered. "If there is much talk of peace, the
chiefs get together and council about it, and if they decide that it
will be good to make peace with the enemy, they send messengers with
presents of pipes and tobacco to the enemy chiefs, asking that they
smoke the pipe. If the enemy chiefs accept the pipe, and smoke the
tobacco with it, then their answer is that they will be glad to make
peace, and they tell the messengers where they and their people will
meet our chiefs and our people, and make the peace."
"If your father and the other chiefs will make peace with the Crows,
will you go with me to their camp?" I asked.
"I don't know that I want peace with them! It is good to have enemies to
fight and count coup upon; that is what makes us men, brave warriors!"
he exclaimed.
"Yes! And oh, how many poor and unhappy widows and fatherless
children!" Mink Woman put in, much to my surprise.
"Brother, you shall know my heart!" I went on. "I want this peace to be
made for two reasons. First, for the sake of the women and children, and
all the old, dependent upon the hunters for their food and shelter.
Second, I want the Crows to go north with us and trade at our post. I
want all this very much. Now, say that you will help me; that you will
do all that you can toward making the peace!"
"Oh, Brother! As you love me, say yes!" Mink Woman cried.
"We all want peace, we women! Peace with all tribes!" said Rattle Woman.
"Well, I say yes. I will do what I can. Not that I want peace, but
because you ask me to help you!" he answered.
So it was that, upon our return to camp, we began to urge Lone Walker to
make peace with the Crows. At first he just laughed at us. Then got
cross whenever we mentioned the subject, and went off visiting to be
rid of us. But we kept at him, with a larger and larger following of
women, and even men, and at last he called the council, and after long
argument the chiefs decided to send peace messengers to the Crow camp as
soon as the first geese arrived in the spring. Mad Plume was to be the
lead messenger, because it was his sister who had married into the Crow
tribe. Another was Ancient Otter (Mis-sum-am-un-is) and Red Crow and I
the other two. Lone Walker at first declared that we should not go; that
the mission was too dangerous for boys to undertake; far more dangerous
than going on a raid. But in that, too, we had our way. On a sunny,
although cold day in March, a flock of geese was seen flying north over
the camp, and the next day we started, well mounted, with an extra robe
each, and the peace pipe and tobacco in a roll upon Mad Plume's back,
beside his bow and arrow case.
Yes! You shall know all: As we rode out of camp, and I looked back at my
comfortable lodge home, my heart went way, way down! On the previous
evening I had been told the tale of some peace messengers to the Snakes
some years before. Upon entering the enemy camp and stating their
mission, they had been set upon and all killed but one, he being told to
go straight home and tell the Pi-kun-i chiefs that that was the Snakes'
answer to their offer. That might be, I thought, the kind of answer that
the Crows would give us!