All animals of the Plains at one time heard and knew him, and all birds of
the air heard and knew him. All things that he had made understood him, when he
spoke to them, the birds, the animals, and the people.
Old Man was travelling about, south of here, making the
people. He came from the south, travelling north, making animals and birds as he
passed along. He made the mountains, prairies, timber, and brush first. So he
went along, travelling northward, making things as he went, putting rivers here
and there, and falls on them, putting red paint here and there in the ground,
fixing up the world as we see it today. He made the Milk River (the Teton) and
crossed it, and, being tired, went up on a little hill and lay down to rest. As
he lay on his back, stretched out on the ground, with arms extended, he marked
himself out with stones, the shape of his body, head, legs, arms, and
everything. There you can see those rocks today. After he had rested, he went on
northward, and stumbled over a knoll and fell down on his knees. Then he said,
"You are a bad thing to be stumbling against"; so he raised up two
large buttes there, and named them the Knees, and they are called so to this
day. He went on further north, and with some of the rocks he carried with him he
built the Sweet Grass Hills.
Old Man covered the plains with grass for the animals
to feed on. He marked off a piece of ground, and in it he made to grow all kinds
of roots and berries, camas, wild carrots, wild turnips, sweet-root,
bitter-root, sarvis berries, bull berries, cherries, plums, and rosebuds. He put
trees in the ground. He put all kinds of animals on the ground. When he made the
bighorn with its big head and horns, he made it out on the prairie. It did not
seem to travel easily on the prairie; it was awkward and could not go fast. So
he took it by one of its horns, and led it up into the mountains, and turned it
loose; and it skipped about among the rocks, and went up fearful places with
ease. So he said, "This is the place that suits you; this is what you are
fitted for, the rocks and the mountains." While he was in the mountains, he
made the antelope out of dirt, and turned it loose, to see how it would go. It
ran so fast that it fell over some rocks and hurt itself. He saw that this would
not do, and took the antelope down on the prairie, and turned it loose; and it
ran away fast and gracefully, and he said, "This is what you are suited
to."
One day Old Man determined that he would make a woman
and a child; so he formed them both the woman and the child, her son of clay.
After he had molded the clay in human shape, he said to the clay, "You must
be people," and then he covered it up and left it, and went away. The next
morning he went to the place and took the covering off, and saw that the clay
shapes had changed a little. The second morning there was still more change, and
the third still more. The fourth morning he went to the place, took the covering
off, looked at the images, and told them to rise and walk; and they did so. They
walked down to the river with their Maker, and then he told them that his name
was Na'pi, Old Man.
As they were standing by the river, the woman said to
him, "How is it? will we always live, will there be no end to it?" He
said: "I have never thought of that. We will have to decide it. I will take
this buffalo chip and throw it in the river. If it floats, when people die, in
four days they will become alive again; they will die for only four days. But if
it sinks, there will be an end to them." He threw the chip into the river,
and it floated. The woman turned and picked up a stone, and said: "No, I
will throw this stone in the river; if it floats we will always live, if it
sinks people must die, that they may always be sorry for each other." 1
The woman threw the stone into the water, and it sank. "There," said
Old Man, "you have chosen. There will be an end to them."
It was not many nights after, that the woman's child
died, and she cried a great deal for it. She said to Old Man: "Let us
change this. The law that you first made, let that be a law." He said:
"Not so. What is made law must be law. We will undo nothing that we have
done. The child is dead, but it cannot be changed. People will have to
die."
That is how we came to be people. It is he who made us.
The first people were poor and naked, and did not know
how to get a living. Old Man showed them the roots and berries, and told them
that they could eat them; that in a certain month of the year they could peel
the bark off some trees and eat it, that it was good. He told the people that
the animals should be their food, and gave them to the people, saying,
"These are your herds." He said: "All these little animals that
live in the ground rats, squirrels, skunks, beavers are good to eat. You need
not fear to eat of their flesh." He made all the birds that fly, and told
the people that there was no harm in their flesh, that it could be eaten. The
first people that he created he used to take about through the timber and swamps
and over the prairies, and show them the different plants. Of a certain plant he
would say, "The root of this plant, if gathered in a certain month of the
year, is good for a certain sickness." So they learned the power of all
herbs. In those days there were buffalo. Now the people had no arms, but those
black animals with long beards were armed; and once, as the people were moving
about, the buffalo saw them, and ran after them, and hooked them, and killed and
ate them. One day, as the Maker of the people was travelling over the country,
he saw some of his children, that he had made, lying dead, torn to pieces and
partly eaten by the buffalo. When he saw this he was very sad. He said:
"This will not do. I will change this. The people shall eat the
buffalo."
He went to some of the people who were left, and said
to them, "How is it that you people do nothing to these animals that are
killing you?" The people said: "What can we do? We have no way to kill
these animals, while they are armed and can kill us." Then said the Maker:
"That is not hard. I will make you a weapon that will kill these
animals." So he went out, and cut some sarvis berry shoots, and brought
them in, and peeled the bark off them. He took a larger piece of wood, and
flattened it, and tied a string to it, and made a bow. Now, as he was the master
of all birds and could do with them as he wished, he went out and caught one,
and took feathers from its wing, and split them, and tied them to the shaft of
wood. He tied four feathers along the shaft, and tried the arrow at a mark, and
found that it did not fly well. He took these feathers off, and put on three;
and when he tried it again, he found that it was good. He went out and began to
break sharp pieces off the stones. He tried them, and found that the black flint
stones made the best arrow points, and some white flints. Then he taught the
people how to use these things.
Then he said: "The next time you go out, take
these things with you, and use them as I tell you, and do not run from these
animals. When they run at you, as soon as they get pretty close, shoot the
arrows at them, as I have taught you; and you will see that they will run from
you or will run in a circle around you."
Now, as people became plenty, one day three men went
out on to the plain to see the buffalo, but they had no arms. They saw the
animals, but when the buffalo saw the men, they ran after them and killed two of
them, but one got away. One day after this, the people went on a little hill to
look about, and the buffalo saw them, and said, "Saiyah, there is some more
of our food," and they rushed on them. This time the people did not run.
They began to shoot at the buffalo with the bows and arrows Na'pi had given
them, and the buffalo began to fall; but in the fight a person was killed.
At this time these people had flint knives given them,
and they cut up the bodies of the dead buffalo. It is not healthful to eat the
meat raw, so Old Man gathered soft dry rotten driftwood and made punk of it, and
then got a piece of hard wood, and drilled a hole in it with an arrow point, and
gave them a pointed piece of hard wood, and taught them how to make a fire with
fire sticks, and to cook the flesh of these animals and eat it.
They got a kind of stone that was in the land, and then
took another harder stone and worked one upon the other, and hollowed out the
softer one, and made a kettle of it. This was the fashion of their dishes.
Also Old Man said to the people: "Now, if you are
overcome, you may go and sleep, and get power. Something will come to you in
your dream, that will help you. Whatever these animals tell you to do, you must
obey them, as they appear to you in your sleep. Be guided by them. If anybody
wants help, if you are alone and travelling, and cry aloud for help, your prayer
will be answered. It may be by the eagles, perhaps by the buffalo, or by the
bears. Whatever animal answers your prayer, you must listen to him." That
was how the first people got through the world, by the power of their dreams.
After this, Old Man kept on, travelling north. Many of
the animals that he had made followed him as he went. The animals understood him
when he spoke to them, and he used them as his servants. When he got to the
north point of the Porcupine Mountains, there he made some more mud images of
people, and blew breath upon them, and they became people. He made men and
women. They asked him, "What are we to eat?" He made many images of
clay, in the form of buffalo. Then he blew breath on these, and they stood up;
and when he made signs to them, they started to run. Then he said to the people,
"Those are your food." They said to him, "Well, now, we have
those animals; how are we to kill them?" "I will show you," he
said. He took them to the cliff, and made them build rock piles like this; and
he made the people hide behind these piles of rock, and said, "When I lead
the buffalo this way, as I bring them opposite to you, rise up."
After he had told them how to act, he started on toward
a herd of buffalo. He began to call them, and the buffalo started to run toward
him, and they followed him until they were inside the lines. Then he dropped
back; and as the people rose up, the buffalo ran in a straight line and jumped
over the cliff. He told the people to go and take the flesh of those animals.
They tried to tear the limbs apart, but they could not. They tried to bite
pieces out, and could not. So Old Man went to the edge of the cliff, and broke
some pieces of stone with sharp edges, and told them to cut the flesh with
these. When they had taken the skins from these animals, they set up some poles
and put the hides on them, and so made a shelter to sleep under. There were some
of these buffalo that went over the cliff that were not dead. Their legs were
broken, but they were still alive. The people cut strips of green hide, and tied
stones in the middle, and made large mauls, and broke in the skulls of the
buffalo, and killed them.
After he had taught those people these things, he
started off again, travelling north, until he came to where Bow and Elbow rivers
meet. There he made some more people, and taught them the same things. From here
he again went on northward. When he had come nearly to the Red Deer's River, he
reached the hill where the Old Man sleeps. There he lay down and rested himself.
The form of his body is to be seen there yet.
When he awoke from his sleep, he traveled further
northward and came to a fine high hill. He climbed to the top of it, and there
sat down to rest. He looked over the country below him, and it pleased him.
Before him the hill was steep, and he said to himself, "Well, this is a
fine place for sliding; I will have some fun," and he began to slide down
the hill. The marks where he slid down are to be seen yet, and the place is
known to all people as the "Old Man's Sliding Ground."
This is as far as the Blackfeet followed Old Man. The
Crees know what he did further north.
In later times once, Na'pi said, "Here I will mark
you off a piece of ground," and he did so. 2 Then he said:
"There is your land, and it is full of all kinds of animals, and many
things grow in this land. Let no other people come into it. This is for you five
tribes (Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Gros Ventres, Sarcees). When people come to
cross the line, take your bows and arrows, your lances and your battle axes, and
give them battle and keep them out. If they gain a footing, trouble will come to
you." Our forefathers gave battle to all people
who came to cross these lines, and kept them out. Of late years we have let our
friends, the white people, come in, and you know the result. We, his children,
have failed to obey his laws.
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