Indians are usually represented as being a silent, sullen race, seldom
speaking, and never laughing nor joking. However true this may be in regard
to some tribes, it certainly was not the case with most of those who lived
upon the great Plains. These people were generally talkative, merry, and
light-hearted; they delighted in fun, and were a race of jokers. It is true
that, in the presence of strangers, they were grave, silent, and reserved,
but this is nothing more than the shyness and embarrassment felt by a child
in the presence of strangers. As the Indian becomes acquainted, this
reserve wears off; he is at his ease again and appears in his true colors,
a light-hearted child. Certainly the Blackfeet never were a taciturn and
gloomy people. Before the disappearance of the buffalo, they were happy and
cheerful. Why should they not have been? Food and clothing were to be had
for the killing and tanning. All fur animals were abundant, and thus the
people were rich. Meat, really the only food they cared for, was plenty and
cost nothing. Their robes and furs were exchanged with the traders for
bright-colored blankets and finery. So they wanted nothing.
It is but nine years since the buffalo disappeared from the land. Only nine
years have passed since these people gave up that wild, free life which was
natural to them, and ah! how dear! Let us go back in memory to those happy
days and see how they passed the time.
The sun is just rising. Thin columns of smoke are creeping from the smoke
holes of the lodges, and ascending in the still morning air. Everywhere the
women are busy, carrying water and wood, and preparing the simple meal.
And now we see the men come out, and start for the river. Some are
followed by their children; some are even carrying those too small to
walk. They have reached the water's edge. Off drop their blankets, and with
a plunge and a shivering _ah-h-h_ they dash into the icy waters. Winter and
summer, storm or shine, this was their daily custom. They said it made them
tough and healthy, and enabled them to endure the bitter cold while hunting
on the bare bleak prairie. By the time they have returned to the lodges,
the women have prepared the early meal. A dish of boiled meat--some three
or four pounds--is set before each man; the children are served as much as
they can eat, and the wives take the rest. The horses are now seen coming
in, hundreds and thousands of them, driven by boys and young men who
started out after them at daylight. If buffalo are close at hand, and it
has been decided to make a run, each hunter catches his favorite buffalo
horse, and they all start out together; they are followed by women, on the
travois or pack horses, who will do most of the butchering, and transport
the meat and hides to camp. If there is no band of buffalo near by, they go
off, singly or by twos and threes, to still-hunt scattering buffalo, or
deer, or elk, or such other game as may be found. The women remaining in
camp are not idle. All day long they tan robes, dry meat, sew moccasins,
and perform a thousand and one other tasks. The young men who have stayed
at home carefully comb and braid their hair, paint their faces, and, if the
weather is pleasant, ride or walk around the camp so that the young women
may look at them and see how pretty they are.
Feasting began early in the morning, and will be carried on far into the
night. A man who gives a feast has his wives cook the choicest food they
have, and when all is ready, he goes outside the lodge and shouts the
invitation, calling out each guest's name three times, saying that he is
invited to eat, and concludes by announcing that a certain number of
pipes--generally three--will be smoked. The guests having assembled, each
one is served with a dish of food. Be the quantity large or small, it is
all that he will get. If he does not eat it all, he may carry home what
remains. The host does not eat with his guests. He cuts up some tobacco,
and carefully mixes it with _l'herbe_, and when all have finished eating,
he fills and lights a pipe, which is smoked and passed from one to another,
beginning with the first man on his left. When the last person on the left
of the host has smoked, the pipe is passed back around the circle to the
one on the right of the door, and smoked to the left again. The guests do
not all talk at once. When a person begins to speak, he expects every one
to listen, and is never interrupted. During the day the topics for
conversation are about the hunting, war, stories of strange adventures,
besides a good deal of good-natured joking and chaffing. When the third and
last pipeful of tobacco has been smoked, the host ostentatiously knocks out
the ashes and says "_Kyi"_ whereupon all the guests rise and file out.
Seldom a day passed but each lodge-owner in camp gave from one to three
feasts. In fact almost all a man did, when in camp, was to go from one of
these gatherings to another.
A favorite pastime in the day was gambling with a small wheel called
_it-se'-wah._ This wheel was about four inches in diameter, and had five
spokes, on which were strung different-colored beads, made of bone or
horn. A level, smooth piece of ground was selected, at each end of which
was placed a log. At each end of the course were two men, who gambled
against each other. A crowd always surrounded them, betting on the
sides. The wheel was rolled along the course, and each man at the end
whence it started, darted an arrow at it. The cast was made just before
the wheel reached the log at the opposite end of the track, and points were
counted according as the arrow passed between the spokes, or when the
wheel, stopped by the log, was in contact with the arrow, the position and
nearness of the different beads to the arrow representing a certain number
of points. The player who first scored ten points won. It was a very
difficult game, and one had to be very skilful to win.
Another popular game was what with more southern tribes is called "hands";
it is like "Button, button, who's got the button?" Two small, oblong bones
were used, one of which had a black ring around it. Those who participated
in this game, numbering from two to a dozen, were divided into two equal
parties, ranged on either side of the lodge. Wagers were made, each person
betting with the one directly opposite him. Then a man took the bones, and,
by skilfully moving his hands and changing the objects from one to the
other, sought to make it impossible for the person opposite him to decide
which hand held the marked one. Ten points were the game, counted by
sticks, and the side which first got the number took the stakes. A song
always accompanied this game, a weird, unearthly air,--if it can be so
called,--but when heard at a little distance, very pleasant and
soothing. At first a scarcely audible murmur, like the gentle soughing of
an evening breeze, it gradually increased in volume and reached a very high
pitch, sank quickly to a low bass sound, rose and fell, and gradually died
away, to be again repeated. The person concealing the bones swayed his
body, arms, and hands in time to the air, and went through all manner of
graceful and intricate movements for the purpose of confusing the
guesser. The stakes were sometimes very high, two or three horses or more,
and men have been known to lose everything they possessed, even to their
clothing.
The children, at least the boys, played about and did as they pleased. Not
so with the girls. Their duties began at a very early age. They carried
wood and water for their mothers, sewed moccasins, and as soon as they were
strong enough, were taught to tan robes and furs, make lodges, travois, and
do all other woman's--and so menial--work. The boys played at mimic
warfare, hunted around in the brush with their bows and arrows, made mud
images of animals, and in summer spent about half their time in the
water. In winter, they spun tops on the ice, slid down hill on a
contrivance made of buffalo ribs, and hunted rabbits.
Shortly after noon, the hunters began to return, bringing in deer,
antelope, buffalo, elk, occasionally bear, and, sometimes, beaver which
they had trapped. The camp began to be more lively. In all directions
persons could be heard shouting out invitations to feasts. Here a man was
lying back on his couch singing and drumming; there a group of young men
were holding a war dance; everywhere the people were eating, singing,
talking, and joking. As the light faded from the western sky and darkness
spread over the camp, the noise and laughter increased. In many lodges, the
people held social dances, the women, dressed in their best gowns, ranged
on one side, the men on the other; all sung, and three or four drummers
furnished an accompaniment; the music was lively if somewhat jerky. At
intervals the people rose and danced, the "step" being a bending of the
knees and swinging of the body, the women holding their arms and hands in
various graceful positions.
With the night came the rehearsal of the wondrous doings of the gods. These
tales may not be told in the daytime. Old Man would not like that, and
would cause any one who narrated them while it was light to become
blind. All Indians are natural orators, but some far exceed others in their
powers of expression. Their attitudes, gestures, and signs are so
suggestive that they alone would enable one to understand the stories they
relate. I have seen these story-tellers so much in earnest, so entirely
carried away by the tale they were relating, that they fairly trembled with
excitement. They held their little audiences spell-bound. The women
dropped their half-sewn moccasin from their listless hands, and the men let
the pipe go out. These stories for the most part were about the ancient
gods and their miraculous doings. They were generally related by the old
men, warriors who had seen their best days. Many of them are recorded in
this book. They are the explanations of the phenomena of life, and contain
many a moral for the instruction of youth.
The _I-k[)u]n-[)u]h'-kah-tsi_ contributed not a little to the entertainment
of every-day life. Frequent dances were held by the different bands of the
society, and the whole camp always turned out to see them. The animal-head
masks, brightly painted bodies, and queer performances were dear to the
Indian heart.
Such was the every-day life of the Blackfeet in the buffalo days. When the
camp moved, the women packed up their possessions, tore down the lodges,
and loaded everything on the backs of the ponies or on the
travois. Meantime the chiefs had started on, and the soldiers--the Brave
band of the _I-kun-uh'-kah-tsi_--followed after them. After these leaders
had gone a short distance, a halt was made to allow the column to close
up. The women, children, horses, and dogs of the camp marched in a
disorderly, straggling fashion, often strung out in a line a mile or two
long. Many of the men rode at a considerable distance ahead, and on each
side of the marching column, hunting for any game that might be found, or
looking over the country for signs of enemies.
Before the Blackfeet obtained horses in the very first years of the present
century, and when their only beasts of burden were dogs, their possessions
were transported by these animals or on men's backs. We may imagine that
in those days the journeys made were short ones, the camp travelling but a
few miles.
In moving the camp in ancient days, the heaviest and bulkiest things to be
transported were the lodges. These were sometimes very large, often
consisting of thirty cow-skins, and, when set up, containing two or three
fires like this [Illustration:] or in ground plan like this
[Illustration:]. The skins of these large lodges were sewn together in
strips, of which there would be sometimes as many as four; and, when the
lodge was set up, these strips were pinned together as the front of a
common lodge is pinned to-day. The dogs carried the provisions, tools, and
utensils, sometimes the lodge strips, if these were small enough, or
anything that was heavy, and yet could be packed in small compass; for
since dogs are small animals, and low standing, they cannot carry bulky
burdens. Still, some of the dogs were large enough to carry a load of one
hundred pounds. Dogs also hauled the travois, on which were bundles and
sometimes babies. This was not always a safe means of transportation for
infants, as is indicated by an incident related by John Monroe's mother as
having occurred in her father's time. The camp, on foot of course, was
crossing a strip of open prairie lying between two pieces of timber, when a
herd of buffalo, stampeding, rushed through the marching column. The
loaded dogs rushed after the buffalo, dragging the travois after them and
scattering their loads over the prairie. Among the lost chattels were two
babies, dropped off somewhere in the long grass, which were never found.
There were certain special customs and beliefs which were a part of the
every-day life of the people.
In passing the pipe when smoking, it goes from the host, who takes the
first smoke, to the left, passing from hand to hand to the door. It may not
be passed across the door to the man on the other side, but must come
back,--no one smoking,--pass the host, and go round to the man across the
door from the last smoker. This man smokes and passes it to the one on his
left, and so it goes on until it reaches the host again. A person entering
a lodge where people are smoking must not pass in front of them, that is,
between the smokers and the fire.
A solemn form of affirmation, the equivalent of the civilized oath, is
connected with smoking, which, as is well known, is with many tribes of
Indians a sacred ceremony. If a man sitting in a lodge tells his companions
some very improbable story, something that they find it very hard to
believe, and they want to test him, to see if he is really telling the
truth, the pipe is given to a medicine man, who paints the stem red and
prays over it, asking that if the man's story is true he may have long
life, but if it is false his life may end in a short time. The pipe is then
filled and lighted, and passed to the man, who has seen and overheard what
has been done and said. The medicine man says to him: "Accept this pipe,
but remember that, if you smoke, your story must be as sure as that there
is a hole through this pipe, and as straight as the hole through this
stem. So your life shall be long and you shall survive, but if you have
spoken falsely your days are counted." The man may refuse the pipe, saying,
"I have told you the truth; it is useless to smoke this pipe." If he
declines to smoke, no one believes what he has said; he is looked upon as
having lied. If, however, he takes the pipe and smokes, every one believes
him. It is the most solemn form of oath. The Blackfoot pipes are usually
made of black or green slate or sandstone.
The Blackfeet do not whip their children, but still they are not without
some training. Children must be taught, or they will not know anything; if
they do not know anything, they will have no sense; and if they have no
sense they will not know how to act. They are instructed in manners, as
well as in other more general and more important matters.
If a number of boys were in a lodge where older people were sitting, very
likely the young people would be talking and laughing about their own
concerns, and making so much noise that the elders could say nothing. If
this continued too long, one of the older men would be likely to get up and
go out and get a long stick and bring it in with him. When he had seated
himself, he would hold it up, so that the children could see it and would
repeat a cautionary formula, "I will give you gum!" This was a warning to
them to make less noise, and was always heeded--for a time. After a little,
however, the boys might forget and begin to chatter again, and presently
the man, without further warning, would reach over and rap one of them on
the head with the stick, when quiet would again be had for a time.
In the same way, in winter, when the lodge was full of old and young
people, and through lack of attention the fire died down, some older person
would call out, "Look out for the skunk!" which would be a warning to the
boys to put some sticks on the fire. If this was not done at once, the man
who had called out might throw a stick of wood across the lodge into the
group of children, hitting and hurting one or more of them. It was taught
also that, if, when young and old were in the lodge and the fire had burned
low, an older person were to lay the unburned ends of the sticks upon the
fire, all the children in the lodge would have the scab, or itch. So, at
the call "Look out for the scab!" some child would always jump to the fire,
and lay up the sticks.
There were various ways of teaching and training the children. Men would
make long speeches to groups of boys, playing in the camps, telling them
what they ought to do to be successful in life. They would point out to
them that to accomplish anything they must be brave and untiring in war;
that long life was not desirable; that the old people always had a hard
time, were given the worst side of the lodge and generally neglected; that
when the camp was moved they suffered from cold; that their sight was dim,
so that they could not see far; that their teeth were gone, so that they
could not chew their food. Only discomfort and misery await the old. Much
better, while the body is strong and in its prime, while the sight is
clear, the teeth sound, and the hair still black and long, to die in battle
fighting bravely. The example of successful warriors would be held up to
them, and the boys urged to emulate their brave deeds. To such advice some
boys would listen, while others would not heed it.
The girls also were instructed. All Indians like to see women more or less
sober and serious-minded, not giggling all the time, not silly. A Blackfoot
man who had two or three girls would, as they grew large, often talk to
them and give them good advice. After watching them, and taking the measure
of their characters, he would one day get a buffalo's front foot and
ornament it fantastically with feathers. When the time came, he would call
one of his daughters to him and say to her: "Now I wish you to stand here
in front of me and look me straight in the eye without laughing. No matter
what I may do, do not laugh." Then he would sing a funny song, shaking the
foot in the girl's face in time to the song, and looking her steadily in
the eye. Very likely before he had finished, she would begin to giggle. If
she did this, the father would stop singing and tell her to finish
laughing; and when she was serious again, he would again warn her not to
laugh, and then would repeat his song. This time perhaps she would not
laugh while he was singing. He would go through with this same performance
before all his daughters. To such as seemed to have the steadiest
characters, he would give good advice. He would talk to each girl of the
duties of a woman's life and warn her against the dangers which she might
expect to meet.
At the time of the Medicine Lodge, he would take her to the lodge and point
out to her the Medicine Lodge woman. He would say: "There is a good
woman. She has built this Medicine Lodge, and is greatly honored and
respected by all the people. Once she was a girl just like you; and you, if
you are good and live a pure life, may some day be as great as she is
now. Remember this, and try to live a worthy life."
At the time of the Medicine Lodge, the boys in the camp also gathered to
see the young men count their _coups_. A man would get up, holding in one
hand a bundle of small sticks, and, taking one stick from the bundle, he
would recount some brave deed, throwing away a stick as he completed the
narrative of each _coup_, until the sticks were all gone, when he sat down,
and another man stood up to begin his recital. As the boys saw and heard
all this, and saw how respected those men were who had done the most and
bravest things, they said to themselves, "That man was once a boy like us,
and we, if we have strong hearts, may do as much as he has done." So even
the very small boys used often to steal off from the camp, and follow war
parties. Often they went without the knowledge of their parents, and poorly
provided, without food or extra moccasins. They would get to the enemy's
camp, watch the ways of the young men, and so learn about going to war, how
to act when on the war trail so as to be successful. Also they came to know
the country.
The Blackfeet men often went off by themselves to fast and dream for
power. By no means every one did this, and, of those who attempted it, only
a few endured to the end,--that is, fasted the whole four days,--and
obtained the help sought. The attempt was not usually made by young boys
before they had gone on their first war journey. It was often undertaken by
men who were quite mature. Those who underwent this suffering were obliged
to abstain from food or drink for four days and four nights, resting for
two nights on the right side, and for two nights on the left. It was deemed
essential that the place to which a man resorted for this purpose should be
unfrequented, where few or no persons had walked; and it must also be a
place that tried the nerve, where there was some danger. Such situations
were mountain peaks; or narrow ledges on cut cliffs, where a careless
movement might cause a man to fall to his death on the rocks below; or
islands in lakes, which could only be reached by means of a raft, and where
there was danger that a person might be seized and carried off by the
_S[=u]'-y[=e] t[)u]p'-pi_, or Under Water People; or places where the dead
had been buried, and where there was much danger from ghosts. Or a man
might lie in a well-worn buffalo trail, where the animals were frequently
passing, and so he might be trodden on by a travelling band of buffalo; or
he might choose a locality where bears were abundant and dangerous.
Wherever he went, the man built himself a little lodge of brush, moss, and
leaves, to keep off the rain; and, after making his prayers to the sun and
singing his sacred songs, he crept into the hut and began his fast. He was
not allowed to take any covering with him, nor to roof over his shelter
with skins. He always had with him a pipe, and this lay by him, filled, so
that, when the spirit, or dream, came, it could smoke. They did not appeal
to any special class of helpers, but prayed to all alike. Often by the end
of the fourth day, a secret helper--usually, but by no means always, in the
form of some animal--appeared to the man in a dream, and talked with him,
advising him, marking out his course through life, and giving him its
power. There were some, however, on whom the power would not work, and a
much greater number who gave up the fast, discouraged, before the
prescribed time had been completed, either not being able to endure the
lack of food and water, or being frightened by the strangeness or
loneliness of their surroundings, or by something that they thought they
saw or heard. It was no disgrace to fail, nor was the failure necessarily
known, for the seeker after power did not always, nor perhaps often, tell
any one what he was going to do.
Three modes of burial were practised by the Blackfeet. They buried their
dead on platforms placed in trees, on platforms in lodges, and on the
ground in lodges. If a man dies in a lodge, it is never used again. The
people would be afraid of the man's ghost. The lodge is often used to wrap
the body in, or perhaps the man may be buried in it.
As soon as a person is dead, be it man, woman, or child, the body is
immediately prepared for burial, by the nearest female relations. Until
recently, the corpse was wrapped in a number of robes, then in a lodge
covering, laced with rawhide ropes, and placed on a platform of lodge
poles, arranged on the branches of some convenient tree. Some times the
outer wrapping--the lodge covering--was omitted. If the deceased was a man,
his weapons, and often his medicine, were buried with him. With women a few
cooking utensils and implements for tanning robes were placed on the
scaffolds. When a man was buried on a platform in a lodge, the platform was
usually suspended from the lodge poles.
Sometimes, when a great chief or noted warrior died, his lodge would be
moved some little distance from the camp, and set up in a patch of
brush. It would be carefully pegged down all around, and stones piled on
the edges to make it additionally firm. For still greater security, a rope
fastened to the lodge poles, where they come together at the smoke hole,
came down, and was securely tied to a peg in the ground in the centre of
the lodge, where the fireplace would ordinarily be. Then the beds were made
up all around the lodge, and on one of them was placed the corpse, lying as
if asleep. The man's weapons, pipe, war clothing, and medicine were placed
near him, and the door then closed. No one ever again entered such a
lodge. Outside the lodge, a number of his horses, often twenty or more,
were killed, so that he might have plenty to ride on his journey to the Sand
Hills, and to use after arriving there. If a man had a favorite horse, he
might order it to be killed at his grave, and his order was always carried
out. In ancient times, it is said, dogs were killed at the grave.
Women mourn for deceased relations by cutting their hair short. For the
loss of a husband or son (but not a daughter), they not only cut their
hair, but often take off one or more joints of their fingers, and always
scarify the calves of their legs. Besides this, for a month or so, they
daily repair to some place near camp, generally a hill or little rise of
ground, and there cry and lament, calling the name of the deceased over and
over again. This may be called a chant or song, for there is a certain tune
to it. It is in a minor key and very doleful. Any one hearing it for the
first time, even though wholly unacquainted with Indian customs, would at
once know that it was a mourning song, or at least was the utterance of one
in deep distress. There is no fixed period for the length of time one must
mourn. Some keep up this daily lament for a few weeks only, and others much
longer. I once came across an old wrinkled woman, who was crouched in the
sage brush, crying and lamenting for some one, as if her heart would
break. On inquiring if any one had lately died, I was told she was mourning
for a son she had lost more than twenty years before.
Men mourn by cutting a little of their hair, going without leggings, and
for the loss of a son, sometimes scarify their legs. This last, however, is
never done for the loss of a wife, daughter, or any relative except a son.
Many Blackfeet change their names every season. Whenever a Blackfoot counts
a new _coup_, he is entitled to a new name. A Blackfoot will never tell his
name if he can avoid it. He believes that if he should speak his name, he
would be unfortunate in all his undertakings. It was considered a gross
breach of propriety for a man to meet his mother-in-law, and if by any
mischance he did so, or what was worse, if he spoke to her, she demanded a
very heavy payment, which he was obliged to make. The mother-in-law was
equally anxious to avoid meeting or speaking to her son-in-law.