The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick"Love, Nat
History
The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick"
Love, Nat
African American cowboys -- West (U.S.) -- Biography; Cowboys -- West (U.S.) -- Biography; Love, Nat, 1854-1921; West (U.S.) -- Biography
Then again Yellow Dog's tribe was composed largely of half breeds, and
there was a large percentage of colored blood in the tribe, and as I was
a colored man they wanted to keep me, as they thought I was too good a
man to die. Be that as it may, they dressed my wounds and gave me plenty
to eat, but the only grub they had was buffalo meat which they cooked
over a fire of buffalo chips, but of this I had all I wanted to eat. For
the first two days after my capture they kept me tied hand and foot. At
the end of that time they untied my feet, but kept my hands tied for a
couple of days longer, when I was given my freedom, but was always
closely watched by members of the tribe. Three days after my capture my
ears were pierced and I was adopted into the tribe. The operation of
piercing my ears was quite painful, in the method used, as they had a
small bone secured from a deer's leg, a small thin bone, rounded at the
end and as sharp as a needle. This they used to make the holes, then
strings made from the tendons of a deer were inserted in place of
thread, of which the Indians had none. Then horn ear rings were placed
in my ears and the same kind of salve made from herbs which they placed
on my wounds was placed on my ears and they soon healed.
[Illustration: I am Adopted by Yellow Dog's Tribe--The War Dance]
The bullet holes in my leg and breast also healed in a surprisingly
short time. That was good salve all right. As soon as I was well enough
I took part in the Indian dances. One kind or another was in progress
all the time. The war dance and the medicine dance seemed the most
popular. When in the war dance the savages danced around me in a circle,
making gestures, chanting, with every now and then a blood curdling
yell, always keeping time to a sort of music provided by stretching
buffalo skins tightly over a hoop.
When I was well enough I joined the dances, and I think I soon made a
good dancer. The medicine dance varies from the war dance only that in
the medicine dance the Indians danced around a boiling pot, the pot
being filled with roots and water and they dance around it while it
boils. The medicine dance occurs about daylight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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