On the day appointed for the Beaver Ceremony, the chief’s family rose
before sunrise to cook food for the feast and prepare for many
visitors. They made ready a kettle of service-berry soup and tongues;
also dried meat mixed with wild cherries, and dried bear-berry leaves
for smoking. I helped in the feast with a supply of raisins and fresh
meat, dried berries, and a roll of strong Hudson Bay tobacco, which
they liked to smoke mixed with bear-berry leaves. I also gave a blanket
with colored stripes. It was looked upon as my offering to the Beaver
Bundle; so during the ceremony it lay under the Bundle.
When the sun was high over the eastern horizon, the guests began to
arrive. The head men of the tribe came with their families: White Calf,
the head-chief; White Grass, a judge and medicine man; Heavy Breast,
Middle Calf, Medicine Wolf, Elk Chief, Bear Child; Ear-Rings, a doctor
and medicine man; and Double Runner. The tepee was filled to the door
with eleven men, seventeen women and ten children. Mad Wolf as director
of the ceremony, sat at the back and in the center. The men were on his
left, the women and children on his right. The beaver men had seats in
the front row. Beside Mad Wolf was White Calf, the head-chief, then
White Grass, the medicine man, who helped him in conducting the
ceremony. I was next to Maka, an Indian of unusual appearance. He was
short and stout with a large head which was crowned with a heavy mass
of hair.
While they were waiting for the ceremony to begin, Mad Wolf said to
White Calf, so that all in the lodge could hear:
“Because you are my friend, I ask you to make the choice of a name for
my white son.” After that, the venerable chief sat in silence for a
while, his head bowed and eyes closed, trying to think of a suitable
name.
In the meantime, Middle Calf mixed the tobacco and filled the pipes; he
had charge of the smoking outfit, while Bear Child looked after the
incense of sweet grass.
The ceremony began by Bear Child taking a forked stick and selecting a
live coal from the fire. He laid it on the ground in front of Mad Wolf,
who placed upon it dried sweet grass. And the rising smoke soon filled
the tepee with incense. Mad Wolf held up his right hand to command
attention; then swaying his body to and fro, he chanted:
“I am the Morning Star, child of Sun and Moon,
My power is very strong.”
He held both hands in the smoke, and, placing them upon the sacred
bundle, sang a chant to the Sun. Then he raised his hands from the
bundle and laid them upon his breast—the sign that Sun Power was thus
communicated.
The Beaver Bundle lay at the back of the tepee, between Mad Wolf and
his wife. It had a wrapper of elkskin painted red; and the tie strings
were also of elkskin. To the outside were attached sacred implements—a
long pipe, digging stick, and a set of smudge sticks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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