SINOPAH AND HIS PLAYFELLOWS
It was not until Sinopah was four years old that his mother ever let him
out of her sight. If she missed him for a minute, even, she would run
about and find him, and keep him close to her side. White Wolf often
told her that she should give the little one more freedom, but for
answer she would only shake her head and reply: "You are wrong. He is
very much too young to be turned loose."
So White Wolf let her have her way until Sinopah's fourth summer came,
and then he said to her one day: "You have done well with this boy of
ours. You have fed him good food and kept him strong and healthy. But it
is not right for a boy to be long kept in the lodge; he must learn early
to make a play of the things that he will have to do in earnest when he
grows up. From this day on he shall go about as he pleases with the
children of the camp."
"What you say to do must be done," Tsistsaki replied, "and I know that
you are right. But you know how it is with us women; we are always
timid. Therefore, for a time, when our son goes out to play, I will go
too. At least I will be near enough to see that no harm comes to him."
Tsistsaki, I had forgotten to tell you, was the name of Sinopah's
mother. In the Blackfoot language it means Little Bird Woman. That is a
very pretty name and a very good one. Before her time many noted women
of the tribe had borne it, and for that reason she was very glad that it
had been given to her.
In the next lodge there was a little boy seven years old, named Lone
Bull, and his younger sister Otaki, Yellow Weasel Woman, with whom the
little Sinopah was now allowed to play, and they were very glad to have
him with them. There were also many other children in that part of the
camp, some of them much older than these, and often there would be
twenty or thirty of them together in their different games. Better than
all the rest, Sinopah liked Lone Bull and Otaki, perhaps because they
lived so close to him, and then their mothers were very close friends.
The two mothers got together one day and planned what was to be a
surprise for the children. Having decided, they set to work and for all
of a moon's time they were very busy when the little ones were out
playing. And often, when all others were asleep, they worked far into
the night by the light of the little lodge fires. Another part of the
work was the training of three big dogs for their share in the game; and
right here I must tell you about this breed.
The Indians never had horses until they obtained them from the
Spaniards, who brought some to Mexico soon after the discovery of
America. Before that time, and long afterwards until these animals
became plentiful in all the Western country, the Indians used dogs as
pack-animals. When moving camp they were made to carry heavy bundles of
household, or, rather, "lodge-hold" things, and the hunters always made
them lug in big packs of meat. Long before Sinopah was born, the
Blackfeet had so many horses that the dogs were no longer used; but the
people loved the animals and had many of them; some lodges as many as
twenty-five or thirty. They were very tall and heavy, long-haired and
broad-headed, and much of the color of the wolf, to which they were very
closely related. At night when the wolves howled all around the camp,
the dogs would answer them; and then the people would say: "Listen! They
are talking to their brothers out there on the plain."
The mothers made pack-saddles for the dogs, and got them used to being
packed and led by a rawhide strand. Then one day, when the children were
playing in the timber back of the lodges, they packed all the things
they had made on two of the dogs, and fastened the small ends of
fourteen slender pine poles to the saddle of the third dog, and made him
drag them.
So, leading the dogs, they turned into the timber and soon came to where
the children were playing. Sinopah was the first to notice them, and
what he saw was so surprising that at first he could hardly believe his
eyes, and stood staring with his little mouth wide open. And well he
might; for except that they were packed dogs instead of packed horses,
it was as if the women were moving camp. The first dog carried a small,
new, and brightly painted parfleche, or rawhide pouch shaped like an
envelope, on each side of its saddle, and piled on top, and firmly
lashed with a stout rawhide rope, were several small blankets and
buffalo robes. The second dog also carried two parfleches and a couple
of robes, and tied on top of the pack was a small Hudson's Bay Company
copper kettle. Besides dragging the lodge poles, the third dog carried
a bundle that looked like a small lodge skin, and that is just what it
was.
Sinopah found his voice: "What is it?" he cried. "Oh, how funny; my dogs
packed just like horses."
And then Lone Bull and Otaki began to dance around the dogs: "Oh,
Sinopah! We know what all this is," they shouted. "Your mother and ours
have given us a little lodge and everything to go in it."
"Ai! They speak truth, little one," his mother told him; "come, we are
going to make camp for you. Now, where shall it be?"
"Let me lead the first dog and be chief," said Lone Bull. "I will go
ahead and choose the place for the camp."
So the little procession started, each child leading a dog, the mothers
following and laughing. They had worked long and hard for all this, and
were very happy because the children were so excited and pleased.
Lone Bull, very quiet and solemn-faced now, led them under three large
cottonwood trees near the edge of the river. "We will camp here," he
said. "In this place the camp will be well sheltered from the wind. Out
there on the plain is plenty of rich grass for the horses. Here is good
water for all. Back of the bluffs there, the plain is covered with
buffalo. The hunters will make big killings and the camp will be red
with meat. Come, Sinopah, sit you down here with me while the women put
up the lodge and get things in shape for the night."
The mothers laughed to hear him talking so wisely, and giving orders
just as if he was a chief. They soon unpacked the dogs, little Otaki
helping all she could. That was the way things were done by the
Blackfeet. The women did all the work of packing and unpacking the
animals, making camp and getting firewood and water. But they did not
work too hard; not nearly as hard as most white women who have a family
and no servants. The men rested when in camp and were waited on by the
women; but they did their share of work: in good weather and bad they
hunted to provide food for their own families, and for all the widows
and orphans and the old and crippled people of the great camp. That, and
herding horses, fighting the enemy, and making their bows and arrows,
their shields and clothing, kept them generally busy.
When the dogs were unpacked and turned loose, the women tied four lodge
poles together about two feet from the tips,--they were fourteen feet
long,--and then set them up in the form of a square-based cone, after
which all save one of the remaining poles were laid up in a circle,
their tips resting in the crotches formed by the tips of the original
four. The upper edge of the lodge skin was then tied to the remaining
pole at the proper height, and with it raised at the back of the lodge.
It was easy then to bring the side edges of the lodge skin around and
fasten them together in the front with wooden skewers. Lastly, the
poles were pushed outward at the bottom until the skin set tightly over
them.
The women then hung a curtain over the little round hole in front that
answered for a doorway. The bedding of robes and blankets was carried in
and made up in three couches. The parfleches, tightly stuffed with dried
meat, dried berries, and pemmican, were taken in and laid open near the
door, water was brought in the little kettle, and the work was done. It
was a fine little lodge, the skin made of tanned elk hides and almost
snow-white. At the base it was about ten feet in diameter, large enough
for a dozen or more children to play in.
Although Lone Bull and Sinopah were playing chiefs, they could not carry
it out to the end. Long before everything was fixed, they went inside
and got in the way of the busy women, but the mothers did not scold
them. A small fire was soon made in the centre of the lodge, and when
it had burned down to a bed of red coals some sheets of dried meat were
quickly roasted on them. Never were there happier children than those
three, sitting there in their own little lodge and eating the first meal
in it. They at once began to plan their play for the next day, and at
sundown were glad enough to go home with their mothers, leaving the big
cottonwood trees to guard their treasures during the night.