I
A long time ago the Blackfeet were camped on Backfat Creek. There was in
the camp a man who had but one wife, and he thought a great deal of her. He
never wanted to have two wives. As time passed they had a child, a little
girl. Along toward the end of the summer, this man's wife wanted to get
some berries, and she asked her husband to take her to a certain place
where berries grew, so that she could get some. The man said to his wife:
"At this time of the year, I do not like to go to that place to pick
berries. There are always Snake or Crow war parties travelling about
there." The woman wanted very much to go, and she coaxed her husband about
it a great deal; and at last he said he would go, and they started, and
many women followed them.
When they came to where the berries grew, the man said to his wife: "There
are the berries down in that ravine. You may go down there and pick them,
and I will go up on this hill and stand guard. If I see any one coming, I
will call out to you, and you must all get on your horses and run." So the
women went down to pick berries.
The man went up on the hill and sat down and looked over the country. After
a little time, he looked down into another ravine not far off, and saw that
it was full of horsemen coming. They started to gallop up towards him, and
he called out in a loud voice, "Run, run, the enemy is rushing on us." The
women started to run, and he jumped on his horse and followed them. The
enemy rushed after them, and he drew his bow and arrows, and got ready to
fight and defend the women. After they had gone a little way, the enemy had
gained so much that they were shooting at the Blackfeet with their arrows,
and the man was riding back and forth behind the women, and whipping up the
horses, now of one, now of another, to make them go faster. The enemy kept
getting closer, and at last they were so near that they were beginning to
thrust at him with their lances, and he was dodging them and throwing
himself down, now on one side of his horse, and then on the other.
At length he found that he could no longer defend all the women, so he made
up his mind to leave those that had the slowest horses to the mercy of the
enemy, while he would go on with those that had the faster ones. When he
found that he must leave the women, he was excited and rode on ahead; but
as he passed, he heard some one call out to him, "Don't leave me," and he
looked to one side, and saw that he was leaving his wife. When he heard his
wife call out thus to him, he said to her: "There is no life for me
here. You are a fine-looking woman. They will not kill you, but there is no
life for me." She answered: "No, take pity on me. Do not leave me. My horse
is giving out. Let us both get on one horse and then, if we are caught, we
will die together." When he heard this, his heart was touched and he said:
"No, wife, I will not leave you. Run up beside my horse and jump on behind
me." The enemy were now so near that they had killed or captured some of
the women, and they had come up close enough to the man so that they got
ready to hit at him with their war clubs. His horse was now wounded in
places with arrows, but it was a good, strong, fast horse.
His wife rode up close to him, and jumped on his horse behind him. When he
started to run with her, the enemy had come up on either side of him, and
some were behind him, but they were afraid to shoot their arrows for fear
of hitting their own people, so they struck at the man with their war
clubs. But they did not want to kill the woman, and they did not hurt
him. They reached out with their hands to try to pull the woman off the
horse; but she had put her arms around her husband and held on tight, and
they could not get her off, but they tore her clothing off her. As she held
her husband, he could not use his arrows, and could not fight to defend
himself. His horse was now going very slowly, and all the enemy had caught
up to them, and were all around them.
The man said to his wife: "Never mind, let them take you: they will not
kill you. You are too handsome a woman for them to kill you." His wife
said, "No, it is no harm for us both to die together." When he saw that his
wife would not get off the horse and that he could not fight, he said to
her: "Here, look out! You are crowding me on to the neck of the horse. Sit
further back." He began to edge himself back, and at last, when he got his
wife pretty far back on the horse, he gave a great push and shoved her off
behind. When she fell off, his horse had more speed and began to run away
from the enemy, and he would shoot back his arrows; and now, when they
would ride up to strike him with their hatchets, he would shoot them and
kill them, and they began to be afraid of him, and to edge away from
him. His horse was very long-winded; and now, as he was drawing away from
the enemy, there were only two who were yet able to keep up with him. The
rest were being left behind, and they stopped, and went back to where the
others had killed or captured the women; and now only two men were
pursuing.
After a little while, the Blackfoot jumped off his horse to fight on foot,
and the two enemies rode up on either side of him, but a long way off, and
jumped off their horses. When he saw the two on either side of him, he took
a sheaf of arrows in his hand and began to rush, first toward the one on
the right, and then toward the one on the left. As he did this, he saw that
one of the men, when he ran toward him and threatened to shoot, would draw
away from him, while the other would stand still. Then he knew that one of
them was a coward and the other a brave man. But all the time they were
closing in on him. When he saw that they were closing in on him, he made a
rush at the brave man. This one was shooting arrows all the time; but the
Blackfoot did not shoot until he got close to him, and then he shot an
arrow into him and ran up to him and hit him with his stone axe and killed
him. Then he turned to the cowardly one and ran at him. The man turned to
run, but the Blackfoot caught him and hit him with his axe and killed him.
After he had killed them, he scalped them and took their arrows, their
horses, and the stone knives that they had. Then he went home, and when he
rode into the camp he was crying over the loss of his wife. When he came to
his lodge and got off his horse, his friends went up to him and asked what
was the matter. He told them how all the women had been killed, and how he
had been pursued by two enemies, and had fought with them and killed them
both, and he showed them the arrows and the horses and the scalps. He told
the women's relations that they had all been killed; and all were in great
sorrow, and crying over the loss of their friends.
The next morning they held a council, and it was decided that a party
should go out and see where the battle had been, and find out what had
become of the women. When they got to the place, they found all the women
there dead, except this man's wife. Her they could not find. They also
found the two Indians that the man had said that he had killed, and,
besides, many others that he had killed when he was running away.