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
"They went farther up in the timber, and after some nosing of trails
started a big bull moose, and took after it, Heavy Body running far in
the lead. He was fast gaining upon it, was almost at its heels, when
it jumped into a wide, long pond, really a widening of the creek, and
started swimming across it to an island, and from that to the other
shore. Heavy Body thought of Old Man's warning, but said to himself:
'He doesn't know everything. I must have that moose!' And into the
water he went and started swimming toward the island. And just as he
was nearing it a water bear sprang from the shore, and killed him,
and dragged him to land, and Old Man appeared at the edge of the pond
just in time to see the bear and her two nearly grown young begin
feasting upon her kill. With a heart full of rage and sorrow, he
turned back into the timber and considered how he could revenge the
death of Heavy Body.
"Two mornings later, just before daylight, Old Man came again to the
shore of the pond, and close to the edge of the water took his stand
and gave himself the appearance of an old stump. Soon after sunrise
the old water bear, coming out from the brush on the island, saw it,
sat up and stared at it, and said to herself: 'I do not remember
having seen that stump before. I suspicion that it is Old Man, come to
do me harm. I saw him right there when I killed the wolf.'
"She stared and stared at the stump, and at last called out her young,
and said to one of them: 'Go across there and bite, and claw that
stump. I believe that it is Old Man. If it is, he will cry out and run
when you hurt him.'
"The young bear swam across and went up to the stump, and bit, and
clawed it, and hurt Old Man. He was almost on the point of giving up
and running away, when it left him and went back to the island and
told the old one that the stump was a stump, and nothing else. But the
old one was not satisfied. She sent the other young one over, and it
bit and clawed Old Man harder than its brother had, but he stood the
pain, bad as it was, and that young one went back and also said that
the stump was just a common old stump and without life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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