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
"'That I shall do,' said the young man, 'but, first, will you not call
in the chiefs, and the medicine men and braves, and let me hear from
them where they went, and what they did to get their medicine? I shall
then have a better idea of what I am to do.'
"'We will have in our lodge full of them,' Heavy Runner said. And the
next morning he shouted out invitations for a smoke, asking only the
great of the tribe to come to it. They came, filling the lodge, and
then, when the pipe was going the round of the circle, he told why he
had invited them to the smoke; asked them to give their experiences in
their search for medicines.
"One after another they told their adventures; where they went; what
they did; what they saw; what narrow escapes from death they had. And
at last it came Spotted Bear's turn. But he refused to give his
experience.
"'What,' he cried, 'tell that crazy youth about my adventure? Why, I
wouldn't waste my breath on him!'
"'But he is a poor boy; he wants to know; you might tell it him in a
short way,' pleaded Heavy Runner.
"'Well, I will tell it; not for his benefit, for he is crazy, and
would not understand; but I will tell it so that you all may know what
I did,' the surly one answered.
"'From this very place I traveled southward along the foot of the
mountains. Seven days and seven nights I traveled, stopping only now
and then for a short rest and sleeping very little, and on the morning
after the seventh night I arrived at the shore of a small lake. There
I met a stranger man who asked me what I sought, and I told him that I
was wandering in search of a strong, a powerful medicine. "Ah!" said
he, "in such a matter I cannot help you. Go on south for three days
and three nights, and you will find a man who will give you what you
seek."
"'I went on. Stopping only for short rests, and rarely sleeping, I
traveled south for three days and three nights from that place, and in
the morning after the third night arrived at a long, wide lake running
away back in the mountains. I looked at it, looked at the mountains,
turning this way, that way, and when I turned a last time, lo! there
in front of me stood a man, fierce of face, dressed in beautiful
strange clothing, wrapped in a robe such as I had never seen before,
and carrying a spear with a big, flint point.
"'"What do you here?" he asked. "Are you not afraid to come to this,
the home of us gods of the deep waters?"
"'I answered that I was not afraid; that I feared neither gods nor
men, nor any animal of the earth, the sky, or the deep waters. And at
that he cried out: "You are brave! The brave shall be rewarded! Come
with me!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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