II

E-k[=u]s'-kini started on his last war trail from the Black-foot crossing

_(Su-yoh-pah'-wah-ku)_. He led a party of six Sarcees. He was the seventh

man.

On the second day out, they came to the Red Deer's River. When they reached

this river, they found it very high, so they built a raft to cross on. They

camped on the other side. In crossing, most of their powder got wet. The

next morning, when they awoke, E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "Well, trouble is

coming for us. We had better go back from here. We started on a wrong

day. I saw in my sleep our bodies lying on the prairie, dead." Some of the

young men said: "Oh well, we have started, we had better go on. Perhaps it

is only a mistake. Let us go on and try to take some horses anyhow."

E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "Yes, that is very true. To go home is all

foolishness; but remember that it is by your wish that we are going on."

He wanted to go back, not on his own account, but for the sake of his young

men--to save his followers.

From there they went on and made another camp, and the next morning he said

to his young men: "Now I am sure. I have seen it for certain. Trouble is

before us." They camped two nights at this place and dried some of their

powder, but most of it was caked and spoilt. He said to his young men:

"Here, let us use some sense about this. We have no ammunition. We cannot

defend ourselves. Let us turn back from here." So they started across the

country for their camp.

They crossed the Red Deer's River, and there camped again. The next morning

E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "I feel very uneasy to-day. Two of you go ahead on the

trail and keep a close lookout. I am afraid that to-day we are going to see

our enemy." Two of the young men went ahead, and when they had climbed to

the top of a ridge and looked over it on to Sarvis Berry (Saskatoon) Creek,

they came back and told E-k[=u]s'-kini that they had seen a large camp of

people over there, and that they thought it was the Piegans, Bloods,

Blackfeet, and Sarcees, who had all moved over there together. Saskatoon

Creek was about twenty miles from the Blackfoot camp. He said: "No, it

cannot be our people. They said nothing about moving over here; it must be

a war party. It is only a few days since we left, and there was then no

talk of their leaving that camp. It cannot be they." The two young men

said: "Yes, they are our people. There are too many of them for a war

party. We think that the whole camp is there." They discussed this for some

little time, E-k[=u]s'-kini insisting that it could not be the Blackfoot

camp, while the young men felt sure that it was. These two men said, "Well,

we are going on into the camp now." Low Horn said: "Well, you may go. Tell

my father that I will come into the camp to-night. I do not like to go in

in the daytime, when I am not bringing back anything with me."

It was now late in the afternoon, and the two young men went ahead toward

the camp, travelling on slowly. A little after sundown, they came down the

hill on to the flat of the river, and saw there the camp. They walked down

toward it, to the edge of the stream, and there met two women, who had come

down after water. The men spoke to them in Sarcee, and said, "Where is the

Sarcee camp?" The women did not understand them, so they spoke again, and

asked the same question in Blackfoot. Then these two women called out in

the Cree language, "Here are two Blackfeet, who have come here and are

talking to us." When these men heard the women talk Cree, and saw what a

mistake they had made, they turned and ran away up the creek. They ran up

above camp a short distance, to a place where a few willow bushes were

hanging over the stream, and pushing through these, they hid under the

bank, and the willows above concealed them. The people in the camp came

rushing out, and men ran up the creek, and down, and looked everywhere for

the two enemies, but could find nothing of them.

Now when these people were running in all directions, hunting for these two

men, E-k[=u]s'-kini was coming down the valley slowly with the four other

Sarcees. He saw some Indians coming toward him, and supposed that they were

some of his own people, coming to meet him, with horses for him to ride. At

length, when they were close to him, and E-k[=u]s'-kini could see that they

were the enemy, and were taking the covers off their guns, he jumped to one

side and stood alone and began to sing his war song. He called out,

"Children of the Crees, if you have come to try my manhood, do your best."

In a moment or two he was surrounded, and they were shooting at him from

all directions. He called out again, "People, you can't kill me here, but

I will take my body to your camp, and there you shall kill me." So he

advanced, fighting his way toward the Cree camp, but before he started, he

killed two of the Crees there. His enemies kept coming up and clustering

about him: some were on foot and some on horseback. They were thick about

him on all sides, and they could not shoot much at him, for fear of killing

their own people on the other side.

One of the Sarcees fell. E-k[=u]s'-kini said to his men, "_A-wah-heh'_"

(Take courage). "These people cannot kill us here. Where that patch of

choke-cherry brush is, in the very centre of their camp, we will go and

take our stand." Another Sarcee fell, and now there were only three of

them. E-k[=u]s'-kini said to his remaining men: "Go straight to that patch

of brush, and I will fight the enemy off in front and at the sides, and so

will keep the way open for you. These people cannot kill us here. There are

too many of their own people. If we can get to that brush, we will hurt

them badly." All this time they were killing enemies, fighting bravely, and

singing their war songs. At last they gained the patch of brush, and then

with their knives they began to dig holes in the ground, and to throw up a

shelter.

In the Cree camp was K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s (Round), the chief of the

Crees, who could talk Blackfoot well. He called out: "E-k[=u]s'-kini, there

is a little ravine running out of that brush patch, which puts into the

hills. Crawl out through that, and try to get away. It is not guarded."

E-k[=u]s'-kini replied: "No, Children of the Crees, I will not go. You must

remember that it is E-k[=u]s'-kini that you are fighting with--a man who

has done much harm to your people. I am glad that I am here. I am sorry for

only one thing; that is, that my ammunition is going to run out. To-morrow

you may kill me."

All night long the fight was kept up, the enemy shooting all the time, and

all night long E-k[=u]s'-kini sang his death song. K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s

called to him several times: "E-k[=u]s'-kini, you had better do what I tell

you. Try to get away." But he shouted back, "No," and laughed at them. He

said: "You have killed all my men. I am here alone, but you cannot kill

me." K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, the chief, said: "Well, if you are there at

daylight in the morning, I will go into that brush and will catch you with

my hands. I will be the man who will put an end to you." E-k[=u]s'-kini

said: "K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, do not try to do that. If you do, you shall

surely die." The patch of brush in which he had hidden had now been all

shot away, cut off by the bullets of the enemy.

When day came, E-k[=u]s'-kini called out: "Eh, K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, it

is broad daylight now. I have run out of ammunition. I have not another

grain of powder in my horn. Now come and take me in your hands, as you

said you would." K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s answered: "Yes, I said that I was

the one who was going to catch you this morning. Now I am coming."

He took off all his clothes, and alone rushed for the

breastworks. E-k[=u]s'-kini's ammunition was all gone, but he still had one

load in his gun, and his dagger. K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s came on with his

gun at his shoulder, and E-k[=u]s'-kini sat there with his gun in his hand,

looking at the man who was coming toward him with the cocked gun pointed at

him. He was singing his death song. As K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s got up close,

and just as he was about to fire, E-k[=u]s'-kini threw up his gun and

fired, and the ball knocked off the Cree chiefs forefinger, and going on,

entered his right eye and came out at the temple, knocking the eye

out. K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s went down, and his gun flew a long way.

When K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s fell, the whole camp shouted the war whoop, and

cried out, "This is his last shot," and they all charged on him. They knew

that he had no more ammunition.

The head warrior of the Crees was named Bunch of Lodges. He was the first

man to jump inside the breastworks. As he sprang inside, E-k[=u]s'-kini

met him, and thrust his dagger through him, and killed him on the spot.

Then, as the enemy threw themselves on him, and he began to feel the knives

stuck into him from all sides, he gave a war whoop and laughed, and said,

"Only now I begin to think that I am fighting." All the time he was cutting

and stabbing, jumping backward and forward, and all the time laughing. When

he was dead, there were fifteen dead Crees lying about the

earthworks. E-k[=u]s'-kini body was cut into small pieces and scattered all

over the country, so that he might not come to life again.