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 skillfully 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 or in ground plan like this. 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 today. 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 practiced 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.
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