The old lodges of the Piegans were made of buffalo skin and were
painted with pictures of different kinds--birds, or animals, or
trees, or mountains. It is believed that in most cases the first
painter of any lodge was taught how he should paint it in a dream,
but this was not always the case.
Two of the most important lodges in the Blackfeet camp are known as
the [=I]n[)i]s´k[)i]m lodges. Both are painted with figures of
buffalo, one with black buffalo, and the other with yellow buffalo.
Certain of the Inis´kim are kept in these lodges and can be
kept in no others.
This story tells how these two lodges came to be made.
The painters were told what to do long, long ago, "in about the
second generation after the first people."
In those days the old Piegans lived in the north, close to the Red
Deer River. The camp moved, and the lodges were pitched on the
river. One day two old men who were close friends had gone out from
the camp to find some straight cherry shoots with which to make
arrows. After they had gathered their shafts, they sat down on a
high bank by the river and began to peel the bark from the shoots.
The river was high. One of these men was named Weasel Heart and the
other Fisher.
As they sat there, Weasel Heart chanced to look down into the water
and saw something. He said to his comrade, "Friend, do you not see
something down there where the water goes around?"
Fisher said, "No; I see nothing except buffalo," for he was looking
across the river to the other side, and not down into the water.
"No," said Weasel Heart; "I do not mean over there on the prairie.
Look down into that deep hole in the river, and you will see a lodge
there."
Fisher looked as he had been told, and saw the lodge.
Weasel Heart said, "There is a lodge painted with black
buffalo." As he spoke thus, Fisher said, "I see another lodge,
standing in front of it." Weasel Heart saw that lodge too--the
yellow-painted-buffalo lodge.
The two men wondered at this and could not understand how it could
be, but they were both men of strong hearts, and presently Weasel
Heart said, "Friend, I shall go down to enter that lodge. Do you sit
here and tell me when I get to the place." Then Weasel Heart went up
the river and found a drift-log to support him and pushed it out
into the water, and floated down toward the cut bank. When he had
reached the place where the lodge stood Fisher told him, and he let
go the log and dived down into the water and entered the lodge.
In it he found two persons who owned the lodge, a man and his wife.
The man said to him, "You are welcome," and Weasel Heart sat down.
Then spoke the owner of the lodge saying, "My son, this is my lodge,
and I give it to you. Look well at it inside and outside; and make
your lodge like this. If you do that, it may be a help to you."
Fisher sat a long time waiting for his friend, but at last he
looked down the stream and saw a man on the shore walking toward
him. He came along the bank until he had reached his friend. It was
Weasel Heart.
Fisher said to him, "I have been waiting a long time, and I was
afraid that something bad had happened to you."