Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park — John Shaqi
Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National ParkSchultz, James Willard
History
Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park
Schultz, James Willard
Glacier National Park (Mont.); Indians of North America -- Folklore; Siksika Indians -- Folklore
"Then the Kootenai told Mountain Chief to have the women build for him a
little lodge there inside the big lodge. This they did by leaning the
sticks of two tripods against one of the poles of the lodge, their lower
ends making a half-circle, and then covering them with buffalo leather.
Into this little enclosure crept the Kootenai, taking with him a bird
wing-bone whistle, and a medicine rattle, and as soon as he was inside
he ordered the women to smooth down carefully the leather coverings so
that he would be in the dark. He then said to the people, sitting there
in the big lodge: 'We will now sing the song four times. It is a call
song to all living things: the birds, the animals, the trees, the
rocks--yes, even they have life. All will come when we sing this song,
and we will question them as to the whereabouts of the two missing
horses.'
"They sang the song four times, and then the Kootenai, alone in his
dark little lodge, sang another song, keeping time to it with his
rattle, and the people, listening, heard outside the sighing of the
wind through a big pine tree, although no such tree was near; and the
Kootenai questioned the pine tree, and it answered that it had no
knowledge of the missing horses.
"Then, at his summons, came the different birds and the animals; one
could hear outside the flutter of their wings, the tread of their
feet; and the Kootenai questioned them, and one by one they answered
that they had not seen the horses. Came then a big rock, hurtling down
through the sky and through the smoke hole of the lodge right into
the fireplace, scattering ashes and coals all around the lodge, and
frightening the people sitting there. And the Kootenai questioned it,
and it answered that it knew nothing of the lost horses.
[Illustration: STREAM FROM UNNAMED GLACIER POURING INTO CUTBANK
CAÑON]
"'Let us sing the sacred song again,' the Kootenai called out from his
dark little lodge, and the people sang it with him, not once, but four
times. The Kootenai then blew his whistle four times, four long, loud
whistles. At the time there was no wind, but soon they heard, far off,
the roar of an approaching wind of terrible force. Said the Kootenai
then: 'I have called him, he is coming, Old-Man-of-the-Winds: be not
afraid; he will not harm you.'
"He came with dreadful whirlwinds of his making. Winds that shook the
lodge, and made the lodge ears hum with the noise of that of a hundred
swarms of bees. And then, suddenly, the wind fell, and outside the
people heard this wind god ask: 'Why have you sung--why have you
whistled for me--what is it you want to know?'
"The Kootenai answered: 'Mountain Chief, here, has lost his two best
horses. Fast buffalo runners they are; both black; one with a white
spot on his side. I called you to ask if you have seen them anywhere?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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