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BLACKFEET INDIAN STORIES
by
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL
Author of _Blackfeet Lodge Tales_, _Trails Of The Pathfinders_, etc.
1915
[Illustration: Cold Maker]
TO THE READER
Those who wish to know something about how the people lived who told
these stories will find their ways of life described in the last
chapter 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 of
skins, and lived in tents covered by hides. Dogs, their only tame
animals, were used as beasts of burden to carry small packs and drag
light loads.
The stories here told come down to us from very ancient times.
Grandfathers have told them to their grandchildren, and these again
to their grandchildren, and so from mouth to mouth, through many
generations, they have reached our time.
CONTENTS
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 BULLS SOCIETY
THE OTHER 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 WONDERFUL BIRD
THE RABBITS' MEDICINE
THE LOST ELK MEAT
THE ROLLING ROCK
BEAR AND BULLBERRIES
THE THEFT FROM THE SUN
THE SMART WOMAN CHIEF
BOBCAT AND BIRCH TREE
THE RED-EYED DUCK
THE ANCIENT BLACKFEET
TWO FAST RUNNERS
Once, a long time ago, the antelope and the deer happened to meet on
the prairie. They spoke together, giving each other the news, each
telling what he had seen and done. After they had talked for a time
the antelope told the deer how fast he could run, and the deer said
that he could run fast too, and before long each began to say that
he could run faster than the other. So they agreed that they would
have a race to decide which could run the faster, and on this race
they bet their galls. When they started, the antelope ran ahead of
the deer from the very start and won the race and so took the deer's
gall.
But the deer began to grumble and said, "Well, it is true that out
here on the prairie you have beaten me, but this is not where I
live. I only come out here once in a while to feed or to cross the
prairie when I am going somewhere. It would be fairer if we had a
race in the timber. That is my home, and there I can run faster than
you. I am sure of it."
The antelope felt so glad and proud that he had beaten the deer in
the race that he was sure that wherever they might run he could beat
him, so he said, "All right, I will run you a race in the timber. I
have beaten you out here on the flat and I can beat you there." On
this race they bet their dew-claws.
They started and ran this race through the thick timber, among the
bushes, and over fallen logs, and this time the antelope ran slowly,
for he was afraid of hitting himself against the trees or of falling
over 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 no
dew-claws.
THE WOLF MAN
A long time ago there was a man who had two wives. They were not
good women; they did not look after their home nor try to keep
things comfortable there. If the man brought in plenty of buffalo
cow skins they did not tan them well, and often when he came home at
night, hungry and tired after his hunting, he had no food, for these
women would be away from the lodge, visiting their relations and
having a good time.
The man thought that if he moved away from the big camp and lived
alone where there were no other people perhaps he might teach these
women to become good; so he moved his lodge far off on the prairie
and camped at the foot of a high butte.
Every evening about sundown the man used to climb up to the top of
this butte and sit there and look all over the country to see where
the buffalo were feeding and whether any enemies were moving about.
On top of the hill there was a buffalo skull, on which he used to
sit.
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 to
our relations and have a good time."
Early next morning the man set out to hunt, and as soon as he was
out of sight his wives went up on top of the butte where he used to
sit. There they dug a deep hole and covered it over with light
sticks and grass and earth, so that it looked like the other soil
near by, and placed the buffalo skull on the sticks which covered
the hole.
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