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Long, long ago, before our fathers or
grandfathers were born, before the white people knew anything about the
western half of North America, the
Indians
who told these stories lived on the Western plains. To the west of their
home rose high mountains, black with pine-trees on their lower slopes and
capped with snow, but their tents were pitched on the rolling prairie. For
a little while in spring this prairie was green and dotted with flowers,
but for most of the year it stretched away brown and bare, north, east,
and south, farther than one could see.
On these plains were many kinds of wild
animals. Sometimes the prairie was crowded with herds of black
buffalo
running in fear; or, again, the herds, unfrightened, fed scattered out; so
that the hills far and near were dotted with their dark forms. Among the
buffalo
were yellow and white antelope—many of them—graceful and swift of foot.
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The
Blackfeet
depended upon the
buffalo
once roamed
the Western Plains. Photo courtesy Library of
Congress.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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| Feeding on the high
prairie or going down into the wooded river valleys to drink were
herds of elk, while the willow thickets, the brushy ravines, and the
lower timbered foot-hills sheltered deer. The naked Bad Lands, the
rocky slopes of the mountains, and the tall buttes that often rise
above the level prairie were the refuge of the mountain sheep, which
in those days, like all the other grass eaters of the region, grazed
on the prairie and sought the more broken, higher country only when
alarmed or when they wished to rest.
These were the animals which the
Blackfeet
killed for food before the white men came, and of these the
buffalo was the chief.
Buffalo, more than any other animals, could be captured in
numbers, and the
Blackfeet,
like the other
Indians of the plains, had devised a method for taking them, so
that when the
buffalo were near the
Blackfeet
never suffered from hunger. Yet sometimes it happened that the
buffalo went away, and that the lonely far traveling scouts sent
out by the tribe could not find them. Then the people had to turn to
the smaller animals—the elk, deer, antelope, and wild sheep.
In those old days, before they had
horses, they did not make long marches when they moved. Their only
domestic animal was the dog, which was used chiefly as a beast of
burden, either carrying loads on its back or hauling a travois, formed
by two long sticks crossing above the shoulders and dragging on the
ground behind. Behind the dog these two sticks were united by a little
platform, on which was lashed some small burden—sometimes a little
baby.
In those days, when the people moved
from one place to another, all who were large enough to walk and
strong enough to carry a burden on the shoulders, were laden. Usually
men, women, and children alike bore loads suited to their strength.
Yet sometimes the men carried no loads at all, for if journeying
through a country where they feared that some enemy might attack them,
the men must be ready to fight and to defend their wives and children.
A man cannot fight well if he is carrying a burden; he cannot use his
arms readily, nor run about lightly—forward to attack, backward in
retreat. If he is not free to fight well, his family will be in
danger. White men who have seen
Indians journeying in this way, and who have not understood why
some women carried heavy loads and the men carried nothing, have said
that Indian men were idle and lazy, and forced their women to do all
the work. Those who wrote those things were mistaken in what they
said. They did not understand what they saw. The truth is that these
men were prepared for danger of attacks by enemies, and were ready to
do their best to save their families from harm.
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Piegan
Blackfoot woman seated on the hill, 1910,
Edward S. Curtis.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE! |
Carrying on their backs all their property,
except the little which the dogs might pack, it is evident that the
Indians
in those days could not make long journeys.
In those days they had no buckets of wood
or tin in which to carry water. Instead, they used a vessel like a bag or
sack, made from the soft membrane of one of the stomachs of the
buffalo.
This, after it had been cleansed and all the openings from it save one had
been tied up, the women filled at the stream with a spoon made of
buffalo
horn or with a larger ladle of the horn of the wild sheep. Because this
water-skin was soft and flexible, it could not stand on the ground, and
they hung it up, sometimes on the limb of a tree, more often on one of the
poles of the lodge, or sometimes on a tripod—three sticks coming together
at the top and standing spread out at the ground.
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Most of the meat cooked for the family was
roasted, yet much of it was boiled, sometimes in a bowl of stone,
sometimes in a kettle made of a fresh hide or of the paunch of the
buffalo.
Sometimes these skin or paunch kettles were supported at the sides by
stakes stuck in the ground, and sometimes a hole dug in the ground was
lined with the hide, which was so arranged as to be water-tight. They were
not, as may be imagined, put over a fire, but when filled with cold water
this water was heated in quite another way. Near by a fire was built, in
which were thrown large stones, and on top of the stones more wood was
piled; so that after a time, when the wood had burnt down, the stones were
very hot—sometimes red hot. With two rather short-handled forked sticks,
the women took from the fire one of the hot stones, and put it in the
water in the hide kettle, and as it cooled, took it out and put in another
hot stone. Thus the water was soon heated, and boiled and cooked whatever
was in the kettle. To be sure, there were some ashes and a little dirt in
the soup, but that was not regarded as important.
This was long before the
Indians
knew of matches, or even of flint and steel. In those days to make a fire
was not easy and it took a long time. By his knees or feet a man held in
position on the ground a piece of soft, dry wood in which two or three
little hollows had been dug out, and taking another slender stick of hard
wood, and pressing the point in one of the little hollows in the stick of
soft wood, he twirled the stick rapidly between the palms of his hands, so
fast and so long that presently the dust ground from the softer stick,
falling to one side in a little pile, began to smoke, and at last a faint
spark was seen at the top of the pile, which began to glow, and,
spreading, became constantly larger. He, or his companion, for often two
men twirled the stick, one relieving the other, caught this spark in a bit
of tinder—perhaps some dry punk or a little fine grass—and by blowing
coaxed it into flame, and there was the fire.
This fire making was hard work, and the
people tried to escape this work by keeping a spark of fire always alive.
To do this, men sometimes carried, by a thong slung over the shoulder, the
hollow tip of a
buffalo
horn, the opening of which was closed by a wooden plug. When going on a
journey, the man lighted a piece of punk, and, placing it in this horn,
plugged up the open end, so that no air could get into the horn. There the
punk smouldered for a long time, and neither went out nor was wholly
consumed. Once in a while during the day the man looked at this punk, and,
if he saw that it was almost consumed, he lighted another piece and put it
in the horn and replaced the plug. So at night when he reached camp the
fire was still in his horn, and he could readily kindle a blaze, and from
this blaze other fires were kindled. Often, if the camp was large, the
first young men who reached it gathered wood and perhaps kindled four
fires, and after the women had reached the camp, unpacked their dogs, and
put up their lodges, each woman would go to one of these fires to get a
brand or some coals with which to start her own lodge fire.
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