Treasury of American Indian TalesRessler, Theodore Whitson
General
Treasury of American Indian Tales
Ressler, Theodore Whitson
Indians of North America -- Folklore; Indians of North America -- Juvenile literature
The Blackfoot tribe was on the move. The buffalo had begun to search for
new pasture. So the tribe had packed all its tepees on the travois and
were moving to follow the herd. Their lives depended upon these prairie
beasts, and they did not dare to be too far from them. For two days the
herd moved until it found enough grass and water, and then it milled
around and started to graze. How long or how short a time they would
stay in this new place, no one knew; but here the tribe must make its
camp until the buffalo forced them to move again.
As soon as his family’s tepee was set up, Little Thunderbird wandered
off in search of some excitement. He was a Blackfoot lad who seemed to
be able to get into trouble no matter where he was—like the day he cut
the string on his father’s bow, or the day he burned a hole in his
mother’s new dress. These are only samples of the kinds of mischief
Thunderbird got himself into. So today he planned to stay far from his
home until mealtime and in that way keep out of trouble.
Skipping through the village, he saw some of his friends throwing stones
to see who could throw the farthest, and he ran up to them to ask if he
could play. His friends told him to get in line and wait his turn. Soon
he was throwing stones along with the other children. After they had
played this game for a while, the children decided to play Follow the
Leader. There was a great deal of talk about who would be leader for the
game. Finally, one of the older boys was chosen, and he led off by
dodging through a rack of drying buffalo meat.
After everyone had run through the rack, the leader headed for the
strings of ponies which were picketed out on the edge of the village.
Here he ducked under the lines of many ponies that reared and whinnied
from fright as the shouting youths leaped past them one after another.
This kept on until one of the braves who was guarding the ponies chased
the boys back into the village. The leader ran over boulders, danced
between tepees, and did many other stunts which each boy repeated until
finally the leader sat down, tired out. All the other boys admitted they
were tired, too, and the group sat around talking about their fathers’
great deeds.
Soon it was Little Thunderbird’s turn and he stood and walked to the
center of the circle, the way the big braves did in council. Then he
raised his hands for silence from the group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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