Many years ago there lived in the Blood camp a boy named Screech Owl (A'-tsi-tsi).
He was rather a lonely boy, and did not care to go with other boys. He liked
better to be by himself. Often he would go off alone, and stay out all night
away from the camp. He used to pray to all kinds of birds and animals that he
saw, and ask them to take pity on him and help him, saying that he wanted to be
a warrior. He never used paint. He was a fine looking young man, and he thought
it was foolish to use paint to make oneself good looking.
When Screech Owl was about fourteen years old, a large
party of Blackfeet were starting to war against the Crees and the Assinaboines.
The young man said to his father: "Father, with this war party many of my
cousins are going. I think that now I am old enough to go to war, and I would
like to join them." His father said, "My son, I am willing; you may
go." So he joined the party.
His father gave his son his own war horse, a black
horse with a white spot on its side a very fast horse. He offered him arms, but
the boy refused them all, except a little trapping axe. He said, "I think
this hatchet will be all that I shall need." Just as they were about to
start, his father gave the boy his own war headdress. This was not a war bonnet,
but a plume made of small feathers, the feathers of thunder birds, for the
thunder bird was his father's medicine. He said to the boy, "Now, my son,
when you go into battle, put this plume in your head, and wear it as I have worn
it."
The party started and traveled north-east, and at
length they came to where Fort Pitt now stands, on the Saskatchewan River. When
they had got down below Fort Pitt, they saw three riders, going out hunting.
These men had not seen the war party. The Blackfeet started around the men, so
as to head them off when they should run. When they saw the men, the Screech Owl
got off his horse, and took off all his clothes, and put on his father's war
plume, and began to ride around, singing his father's war song. The older
warriors were getting ready for the attack, and when they saw this young boy
acting in this way, they thought he was making fun of the older men, and they
said: "Here, look at this boy! Has he no shame? He had better stay
behind." When they got on their horses, they told
him to stay behind, and they charged the Crees. But the boy, instead of staying
behind, charged with them, and took the lead, for he had the best horse of all.
He, a boy, was leading the war party, and still singing his war song.
The three Crees began to run, and the boy kept gaining
on them. They did not want to separate, they kept together; and as the boy was
getting closer and closer, the last one turned in his saddle and shot at the
Screech Owl, but missed him. As the Cree fired, the boy whipped up his horse,
and rode up beside the Cree and struck him with his little trapping axe, and
knocked him off his horse. He paid no attention to the man that he had struck,
but rode on to the next Cree. As he came up with him, the Cree raised his gun
and fired, but just as he did so, the Blackfoot dropped down on the other side
of his horse, and the ball passed over him. He straightened up on his horse,
rode up by the Cree, and as he passed, knocked him off his horse with his axe.
When he knocked the second Cree off his horse, the Blackfeet, who were
following, whooped in triumph and to encourage him, shouting, "A-wah-heh'"
(Take courage). The boy was still singing his father's war song.
By this time, the main body of the Blackfeet were
catching up with him. He whipped his horse on both sides, and rode on after the
third Cree, who was also whipping his horse as hard as he could, and trying to
get away. Meantime, some of the Blackfeet had stopped to count coup on and scalp
the two dead Crees, and to catch the two ponies. Screech Owl at last got near to
the third Cree, who kept aiming his gun at him. The boy did not want to get too
close, until the Cree had fired his gun, but he was gaining a little, and all
the time was throwing himself from side to side on his horse, so as to make it
harder for the Cree to hit him. When he had nearly overtaken the enemy, the Cree
turned, raised his gun and fired; but the boy had thrown himself down behind his
horse, and again the ball passed over him. He raised himself up on his horse,
and rushed on the Cree, and struck him in the side of the body with his axe, and
then again, and with the second blow, he knocked him off his horse.
The boy rode on a little further, stopped, and jumped
off his horse, while the rest of the Blackfeet had come up and were killing the
fallen man. He stood off to one side and watched them count coup on and scalp
the dead.
The Blackfeet were much surprised at what the young man
had done. After a little while, the leader decided that they would go back to
the camp from which they had come. When he had returned from this war journey
this young man's name was changed from A'-tsi-tsi to E-k[=u]s'-kini (Low Horn).
This was his first war path.
From that time on the name of E-k[=u]s'-kini was often
heard as that of one doing some great deed.
E-k[=u]s'-kini started on his last war trail from the
Black-foot crossing (Su-yoh-pah'-wah-ku). He led a party of six Sarcees. He was
the seventh man.
On the second day out, they came to the Red Deer's
River. When they reached this river, they found it very high, so they built a
raft to cross on. They camped on the other side. In crossing, most of their
powder got wet. The next morning, when they awoke, E-k[=u]s'-kini said:
"Well, trouble is coming for us. We had better go back from here. We
started on a wrong day. I saw in my sleep our bodies lying on the prairie,
dead." Some of the young men said: "Oh well, we have started, we had
better go on. Perhaps it is only a mistake. Let us go on and try to take some
horses anyhow." E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "Yes, that is very true. To go
home is all foolishness; but remember that it is by your wish that we are going
on." He wanted to go back, not on his own account, but for the sake of his
young men to save his followers.
From there they went on and made another camp, and the
next morning he said to his young men: "Now I am sure. I have seen it for
certain. Trouble is before us." They camped two nights at this place and
dried some of their powder, but most of it was caked and spoilt. He said to his
young men: "Here, let us use some sense about this. We have no ammunition.
We cannot defend ourselves. Let us turn back from here." So they started
across the country for their camp.
They crossed the Red Deer's River, and there camped
again. The next morning E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "I feel very uneasy today. Two
of you go ahead on the trail and keep a close lookout. I am afraid that today we
are going to see our enemy." Two of the young men went ahead, and when they
had climbed to the top of a ridge and looked over it on to Sarvis Berry
(Saskatoon) Creek, they came back and told E-k[=u]s'-kini that they had seen a
large camp of people over there, and that they thought it was the Piegans,
Bloods, Blackfeet, and Sarcees, who had all moved over there together. Saskatoon
Creek was about twenty miles from the Blackfoot camp. He said: "No, it
cannot be our people. They said nothing about moving over here; it must be a war
party. It is only a few days since we left, and there was then no talk of their
leaving that camp. It cannot be they." The two young men said: "Yes,
they are our people. There are too many of them for a war party. We think that
the whole camp is there." They discussed this for some little time, E-k[=u]s'-kini
insisting that it could not be the Blackfoot camp, while the young men felt sure
that it was. These two men said, "Well, we are going on into the camp
now." Low Horn said: "Well, you may go. Tell my father that I will
come into the camp tonight. I do not like to go in the daytime, when I am not
bringing back anything with me."
It was now late in the afternoon, and the two young men
went ahead toward the camp, travelling on slowly. A little after sundown, they
came down the hill on to the flat of the river, and saw there the camp. They
walked down toward it, to the edge of the stream, and there met two women, who
had come down after water. The men spoke to them in Sarcee, and said,
"Where is the Sarcee camp?" The women did not understand them, so they
spoke again, and asked the same question in Blackfoot. Then these two women
called out in the Cree language, "Here are two Blackfeet, who have come
here and are talking to us." When these men heard the women talk Cree, and
saw what a mistake they had made, they turned and ran away up the creek. They
ran up above camp a short distance, to a place where a few willow bushes were
hanging over the stream, and pushing through these, they hid under the bank, and
the willows above concealed them. The people in the camp came rushing out, and
men ran up the creek, and down, and looked everywhere for the two enemies, but
could find nothing of them.
Now when these people were running in all directions,
hunting for these two men, E-k[=u]s'-kini was coming down the valley slowly with
the four other Sarcees. He saw some Indians coming toward him, and supposed that
they were some of his own people, coming to meet him, with horses for him to
ride. At length, when they were close to him, and E-k[=u]s'-kini could see that
they were the enemy, and were taking the covers off their guns, he jumped to one
side and stood alone and began to sing his war song. He called out,
"Children of the Crees, if you have come to try my manhood, do your
best." In a moment or two he was surrounded, and they were shooting at him
from all directions. He called out again, "People, you can't kill me here,
but I will take my body to your camp, and there you shall kill me." So he
advanced, fighting his way toward the Cree camp, but before he started, he
killed two of the Crees there. His enemies kept coming up and clustering about
him: some were on foot and some on horseback. They were thick about him on all
sides, and they could not shoot much at him, for fear of killing their own
people on the other side.
One of the Sarcees fell. E-k[=u]s'-kini said to his
men, "A-wah-heh'" (Take courage). "These people cannot kill us
here. Where that patch of choke-cherry brush is, in the very centre of their
camp, we will go and take our stand." Another Sarcee fell, and now there
were only three of them. E-k[=u]s'-kini said to his remaining men: "Go
straight to that patch of brush, and I will fight the enemy off in front and at
the sides, and so will keep the way open for you. These people cannot kill us
here. There are too many of their own people. If we can get to that brush, we
will hurt them badly." All this time they were killing enemies, fighting
bravely, and singing their war songs. At last they gained the patch of brush,
and then with their knives they began to dig holes in the ground, and to throw
up a shelter.
In the Cree camp was K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s (Round),
the chief of the Crees, who could talk Blackfoot well. He called out:
"E-k[=u]s'-kini, there is a little ravine running out of that brush patch,
which puts into the hills. Crawl out through that, and try to get away. It is
not guarded." E-k[=u]s'-kini replied: "No, Children of the Crees, I
will not go. You must remember that it is E-k[=u]s'-kini that you are fighting
with a man who has done much harm to your people. I am glad that I am here. I am
sorry for only one thing; that is, that my ammunition is going to run out.
Tomorrow you may kill me."
All night long the fight was kept up, the enemy
shooting all the time, and all night long E-k[=u]s'-kini sang his death song.
K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s called to him several times: "E-k[=u]s'-kini, you
had better do what I tell you. Try to get away." But he shouted back,
"No," and laughed at them. He said: "You have killed all my men.
I am here alone, but you cannot kill me." K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, the
chief, said: "Well, if you are there at daylight in the morning, I will go
into that brush and will catch you with my hands. I will be the man who will put
an end to you." E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, do not
try to do that. If you do, you shall surely die." The patch of brush in
which he had hidden had now been all shot away, cut off by the bullets of the
enemy.
When day came, E-k[=u]s'-kini called out: "Eh,
K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, it is broad daylight now. I have run out of ammunition.
I have not another grain of powder in my horn. Now come and take me in your
hands, as you said you would." K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s answered: "Yes,
I said that I was the one who was going to catch you this morning. Now I am
coming."
He took off all his clothes, and alone rushed for the
breastworks. E-k[=u]s'-kini's ammunition was all gone, but he still had one load
in his gun, and his dagger. K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s came on with his gun at his
shoulder, and E-k[=u]s'-kini sat there with his gun in his hand, looking at the
man who was coming toward him with the cocked gun pointed at him. He was singing
his death song. As K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s got up close, and just as he was about
to fire, E-k[=u]s'-kini threw up his gun and fired, and the ball knocked off the
Cree chiefs forefinger, and going on, entered his right eye and came out at the
temple, knocking the eye out. K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s went down, and his gun flew
a long way.
When K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s fell, the whole camp
shouted the war whoop, and cried out, "This is his last shot," and
they all charged on him. They knew that he had no more ammunition.
The head warrior of the Crees was named Bunch of
Lodges. He was the first man to jump inside the breastworks. As he sprang
inside, E-k[=u]s'-kini met him, and thrust his dagger through him, and killed
him on the spot. Then, as the enemy threw themselves on him, and he began to
feel the knives stuck into him from all sides, he gave a war whoop and laughed,
and said, "Only now I begin to think that I am fighting." All the time
he was cutting and stabbing, jumping backward and forward, and all the time
laughing. When he was dead, there were fifteen dead Crees lying about the
earthworks. E-k[=u]s'-kini body was cut into small pieces and scattered all over
the country, so that he might not come to life again.
That morning, before it was daylight, the two Sarcees
who had hidden in the willows left their hiding-place and made their way to the
Blackfoot camp. When they got there, they told that when they had left the Cree
camp E-k[=u]s'kini was surrounded, and the firing was terrible. When E-k[=u]s'-kini's
father heard this, he got on his horse and rode through the camp, calling out:
"My boy is surrounded; let us turn out and go to help him. I have no doubt
they are many tens to one, but he is powerful, and he may be fighting yet."
No time was lost in getting ready, and soon a large party started for the Cree
camp. When they came to the battle-ground, the camp had been moved a long time.
The old man looked about, trying to gather up his son's body, but it was found
only in small pieces, and not more than half of it could be gathered up.
After the fight was over, the Crees started on down to
go to their own country. One day six Crees were travelling along on foot,
scouting far ahead. As they were going down into a little ravine, a grizzly bear
jumped up in front of them and ran after them. The bear overtook, and tore up,
five of them, one after another. The sixth got away, and came home to camp. The
Crees and the Blackfeet believe that this was the spirit of E-k[=u]s'-kini, for
thus he comes back. They think that he is still on the earth, but in a different
shape.
E-k[=u]s'-kini was killed about forty years ago. When
he was killed, he was still a boy, not married, only about twenty-four years
old.