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The Floating Press - Bird Grinnell George

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79 pages

English

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Long regarded as some of the most skilled bison hunters, the Blackfeet tribes' territory once covered large swaths of the areas now known as Alberta, Canada and the U.S. state of Montana. This fascinating collection of legends and folklore will afford modern-day readers a glimpse into the unique values and beliefs of this culture.

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 mai 2014
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781776533558
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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BLACKFEET INDIAN STORIES
* * *
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL

*
Blackfeet Indian Stories First published in 1915 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-355-8 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-356-5 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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To the Reader Two Fast Runners The Wolf Man Kut-O-Yis´, the Blood Boy The Dog and the Root Digger The Camp of the Ghosts The Buffalo Stone How the Thunder Pipe Came Cold Maker's Medicine The All Comrades Societies The First Medicine Lodge The Buffalo-Painted Lodges Mika´Pi—Red Old Man Red Robe's Dream The Blackfeet Creation Old Man Stories The Ancient Blackfeet Endnotes
To the Reader
*
Those who wish to know something about how the people lived who toldthese stories will find their ways of life described in the lastchapter of this book.
The Blackfeet were hunters, travelling from place to place on foot.They used implements of stone, wood, or bone, wore clothing made ofskins, and lived in tents covered by hides. Dogs, their only tameanimals, were used as beasts of burden to carry small packs and draglight loads.
The stories here told come down to us from very ancient times.Grandfathers have told them to their grandchildren, and these againto their grandchildren, and so from mouth to mouth, through manygenerations, they have reached our time.
Two Fast Runners
*
Once, a long time ago, the antelope and the deer happened to meet onthe prairie. They spoke together, giving each other the news, eachtelling what he had seen and done. After they had talked for a timethe antelope told the deer how fast he could run, and the deer saidthat he could run fast too, and before long each began to say thathe could run faster than the other. So they agreed that they wouldhave a race to decide which could run the faster, and on this racethey bet their galls. When they started, the antelope ran ahead ofthe deer from the very start and won the race and so took the deer'sgall.
But the deer began to grumble and said, "Well, it is true that outhere on the prairie you have beaten me, but this is not where Ilive. I only come out here once in a while to feed or to cross theprairie when I am going somewhere. It would be fairer if we had arace in the timber. That is my home, and there I can run faster thanyou. I am sure of it."
The antelope felt so glad and proud that he had beaten the deer inthe race that he was sure that wherever they might run he could beathim, so he said, "All right, I will run you a race in the timber. Ihave beaten you out here on the flat and I can beat you there." Onthis race they bet their dew-claws.
They started and ran this race through the thick timber, among thebushes, and over fallen logs, and this time the antelope ran slowly,for he was afraid of hitting himself against the trees or of fallingover the logs. You see, he was not used to this kind of travelling.So the deer easily beat him and took his dew-claws.
Since that time the deer has had no gall and the antelope nodew-claws.
The Wolf Man
*
A long time ago there was a man who had two wives. They were notgood women; they did not look after their home nor try to keepthings comfortable there. If the man brought in plenty of buffalocow skins they did not tan them well, and often when he came home atnight, hungry and tired after his hunting, he had no food, for thesewomen would be away from the lodge, visiting their relations andhaving a good time.
The man thought that if he moved away from the big camp and livedalone where there were no other people perhaps he might teach thesewomen to become good; so he moved his lodge far off on the prairieand camped at the foot of a high butte.
Every evening about sundown the man used to climb up to the top ofthis butte and sit there and look all over the country to see wherethe buffalo were feeding and whether any enemies were moving about.On top of the hill there was a buffalo skull, on which he used tosit.
One day one of the women said to the other, "It is very lonely here;we have no one to talk with or to visit."
"Let us kill our husband," said the other: "then we can go back toour relations and have a good time."
Early next morning the man set out to hunt, and as soon as he wasout of sight his wives went up on top of the butte where he used tosit. There they dug a deep hole and covered it over with lightsticks and grass and earth, so that it looked like the other soilnear by, and placed the buffalo skull on the sticks which coveredthe hole.
In the afternoon, as they watched for their returning husband, theysaw him come over the hill loaded down with meat that he had killed.When he threw down his load outside the lodge, they hurried to cooksomething for him. After he had eaten he went up on the butte andsat down on the skull. The slender sticks broke and he fell into thehole. His wives were watching him, and when they saw him disappear,they took down the lodge and packed their dogs and set out to go tothe main camp. As they drew near it, so that people could hear them,they began to cry and mourn.
Soon some people came to meet them and said, "What is this? Why areyou mourning? Where is your husband?"
"Ah," they replied, "he is dead. Five days ago he went out to huntand he did not come back. What shall we do? We have lost him whocared for us"; and they cried and mourned again.
Now, when the man fell into the pit he was hurt, for the hole wasdeep. After a time he tried to climb out, but he was so badlybruised that he could not do so. He sat there and waited, thinkingthat here he must surely die of hunger.
But travelling over the prairie was a wolf that climbed up on thebutte and came to the hole and, looking in, saw the man and pitiedhim.
"Ah-h-w-o-o-o! Ah-h-w-o-o-o-o!" he howled, and when the other wolvesheard him they all came running to see what was the matter.Following the big wolves came also many coyotes, badgers, andkit-foxes. They did not know what had happened, but they thoughtperhaps there was food here.
To the others the wolf said, "Here in this hole is what I havefound. Here is a man who has fallen in. Let us dig him out and wewill have him for our brother."
All the wolves thought that this talk was good, and they began todig, and before very long they had dug a hole down almost to thebottom of the pit.
Then the wolf who had found the man said, "Hold on; wait a little; Iwant to say a few words." All the animals stopped digging and beganto listen, and the wolf said, "We will all have this man for ourbrother; but I found him, and so I think he ought to live with usbig wolves." All the others thought that this was good, and thewolf that had found the man went into the hole that had been dug,and tearing down the rest of the earth, dragged out the poor man,who was now almost dead, for he had neither eaten nor drunk anythingsince he fell in the hole. They gave the man a kidney to eat, andwhen he was able to walk the big wolves took him to their home. Herethere was a very old blind wolf who had great power and could dowonderful things. He cured the man and made his head and his handslook like those of a wolf. The rest of his body was not changed.
In those days the people used to make holes in the walls of thefence about the enclosure into which they led the buffalo. They setsnares over these holes, and when wolves and other animals creptthrough them so as to get into the pen and feed on the meat theywere caught by the neck and killed, and the people used their skinsfor clothing.
One night all the wolves went down to the pen to get meat, and whenthey had come close to it, the man-wolf said to his brothers, "Stophere for a little while and I will go down and fix the places sothat you will not be caught." He went down to the pen and sprung allthe snares, and then went back and called the wolves and theothers—the coyotes, badgers, and kit-foxes—and they all went intothe pen and feasted and took meat to carry home to their families.In the morning the people found the meat gone and all their snaressprung, and they were surprised and wondered how this could havehappened. For many nights the nooses were pulled tight and the meattaken; but once when the wolves went there to eat they found onlythe meat of a lean and sickly bull. Then the man-wolf was angry,and he cried out like a wolf, "Bad-food-you-give-us-o-o-o!Bad-food-you-give-us-o-o-o-o!"
When the people heard this they said to one another, "Ah, it is aman-wolf who has done all this. We must catch him." So they tookdown to the piskun [1] pemmican and nice back fat and placed itthere, and many of them hid close by. After dark the wolves came,as was their custom, and when the man-wolf saw the good food, he ranto it and began to eat. Then the people rushed upon him from everyside and caught him with ropes, and tied him and took him to alodge, and when they had brought him inside to the light of thefire, at once they knew who it was. They said, "Why, this is the manwho was lost."
"No," said the man, "I was not lost. My wives tried to kill me. Theydug a deep hole and I fell into it, and I was hurt so badly I couldnot get out; but the wolves took pity on me and helped me or I wouldhave died there."
When the people heard this they were angry, and they told the man todo something to punish these women.
"You say well," he replied; "I give those women to the punishingsociety. They know what to do."
After that night the two women were never seen again.
Kut-O-Yis´, the Blood