Chapter 9 A BLACKFOOT LEGEND

FOR a time all sat silent, and then Joe asked, "White Bull, did you ever hear that the people once lived on the other side of the mountains; that there is where they came from?"

"No," said Hugh, "I don't know as I have. I seem to remember something about such a story, but I can't remember what it is."

"Tell it to us, Joe," said Jack.

"Well," said Joe, "it's a story I heard my uncle tell a good many years ago, when I was a little fellow, but I don't believe it's true. He didn't know whether it was true or not. It was just something that he had heard from some older person. You know the Piegans believe that they used to live far up northeast, in the timber by some big lake, and that they came this way looking for some place where life was easier, where there was more game and it was easier to get close to the animals. I guess that is true, because there are old people still living whose fathers and grandfathers can remember old Piegans, who said that they had made that journey. This other story is about some of the people having lived across the mountains. It's a long story, but I'll tell it to you if you want me to."

"Go ahead," said Hugh.

"Well," Joe went on, "the story tells that a long time ago the people lived west of the mountains and in a hot country away to the south. A season came when all animals were scarce and hard to find and the people got hungry. In the camp was an old man and his family, three sons, young men grown up. Now, at last, when there was no food to be had, this old man said, 'Why should I stay here where there is no food? I shall go away with my children and we will try to find a place where there are animals and where food can be had. I will travel toward the rising sun, even to the mountains, to the country where no one has ever been, to a land no one has looked on.'

"They started; the old man and his wife, and the three sons and their wives and children. They did not know the mountains, and supposed that as soon as they had gone over the nearest one they would pass down on the other side to the plain, but they found that this was not so. Beyond the first mountain rose another, and beyond this another. They traveled on, day after day, and climbed ridges and went down into valleys and always in front of them they saw other ridges or other valleys, always steeper, higher and harder to cross. The road was rough, thick timber kept them back, sharp stones cut their feet, wide rivers stopped them. They found no game, except now and then some birds, and soon they grew tired, hungry, footsore and discouraged. At last they had almost made up their minds to stop looking for what they could not find, and to turn about and try to return to their own country and their own people; but one night, as they talked about this, the old man said to them, 'Come, let us take courage, let us keep on a little longer and try to find that country. The road has been long and hard, and we are almost tired out, but let us go on a little further. It may be that we have almost arrived. To-day you saw that high mountain beyond, toward which we are traveling; let us climb over that and if beyond that we see nothing except more mountains, then we will turn about and go back to the place we came from.' The sons said it was good, and the next day they traveled on.

"At length they reached the top of the high peak, and when they looked down on the land below they saw before them a wide prairie. It looked beautiful to these people, who were tired of the lonely, rough, dark mountains. On the plain they could see herds of big brown animals, larger than any that they had ever seen before, animals with curly hair and short black horns. There, too, were yellow antelope, and in the valleys, deer, and on the ridges of the mountain were many elk. Fresh streams ran to the prairie, and the sight was one that made their hearts glad.

"'Ah,' said the old man, 'now it is good.'

"They all stopped, and he sat down and smoked to the sun and said, 'Listen, O Sun, now you have taken pity on us. We believed that we were going to die among these rocks, but you have taken care of us and have brought us safely out of them. Now we can see the things that we may live by.' So he prayed for help, and for plenty to eat and for long life, and when he had finished his prayer and his smoking, they made a present to the sun. Then they went slowly down the mountainside and toward night camped on a stream.

"The next day they hunted, but they could kill no game. They had no arrows, for they had used them all up in crossing the mountains, and the buffalo would not let them get too close to them, so they were still without food and hungry.

"Then the old man saw that something must be done, and he made strong medicine, a black medicine, which he rubbed on the feet of his oldest son, and after this had been put on his feet, the young man became so swift that he could at once run up alongside the fastest cows and kill them with his knife. This made the young man feel good, and he said to his brothers, 'Now and from this time forth I and my children are S?ks′ ? kā.[B] This shall be our name.'

[B] Black his foot.

"When the other two sons saw that their elder brother could do so much through the medicine their father had made and that they could do nothing, they felt badly. They went to the old man and said, 'Why do you treat our brother so much better than you treat us? You have made him a swift runner, so that he can overtake the game, while we can kill nothing, and our wives and children have to eat what he gives us. What have we done that you have forgotten us? Come, now, make us also swift runners, so that we, too, can have enough to eat and can have names.'

"The old man answered them and said, 'Why do you do nothing except sit about the fire and eat food which your brother has killed? If you wish names go to war, and when you come back, if you have done well and killed enemies and counted coups, you, too, shall have names.'

"So the young men went back to the lodge, and each asked his wife to make him some moccasins and a war sack, and they made themselves some war arrows and started.

"They were gone a long time. S?ks′ ? kā killed many buffalo, and the women dried the meat and tanned the hides. The berries grew ripe, and the women cut down the sarvice bushes and beat off the fruit over a robe spread on the ground and dried the berries. Then the tops of the mountains became white with snow, the leaves fell. From the north came the wild fowl, the swans, geese and ducks, and their numbers covered the surface of the prairie lakes, while their cries were heard night and day through the air. Then the wild fowl passed on, the snow fell and melted and fell again, and it was winter. After a long time black winds began to blow from the west and the snow disappeared. Then again the wild fowl were seen. Then the Thunder shouted, bringing the rain, so that the berries might grow large and sweet. Then the grass began to spring, the prairie to turn green, and soon it was summer.

"One night, a year after the young men had gone away, as they sat about the fire in the lodge, they heard the dogs bark and presently the door was lifted and the second son stepped in and sat down. His robe was thin and all his clothing worn by long travel, but his body was lean and hard. The women hurried and set food before him, and while he ate they sang songs about him, telling how brave he was and how he had traveled far to strike his enemies. After he had eaten the old man filled the pipe and smoked and passed it to his son, who spoke, and told of his journeyings to far-off lands and among strange people, and how he had struck his enemies and all that he had done.

"After he had finished the old man said to him, 'My son, you have done well and since you have killed many chiefs, let that be your name, Ah′ kāi nāh' (many chiefs). So after that the second son and his children and their children were called Ah′ kāi nāh, but now they call them Kāi′nāh.

"Another season passed, the berries ripened, the leaves fell, the water fowl came and went; it was winter. Then again the Thunder spoke, and again the grass grew. The wife of the third son thought much about her husband, fearing that she would not see him again. She used to talk of him to her children, telling them that they ought to be brave like their father.

"One night in summer, when all in the lodge were asleep, the dogs barked loudly, the lodge door was lifted and a person entered and sat down by the fire. 'Who is there?' said the old man. There was no answer. Then the wife of the third son rose from her bed and spread grass on the fire, and soon it blazed up and she saw sitting there her husband. Glad then was her heart, and quickly she built the fire and gave him food, and as he ate, she looked at him and saw that his clothing was torn and ragged, his face thin and his arms and breast scarred, but from his quiver hung scalps, and on the ground beside him was a bundle. Then she began to sing about him and the others in the lodge arose and sat by the fire while he ate. After he had eaten and smoked, he said to the old man, 'I have traveled far and I have seen many people. Look at these scalps,' and he showed them the scalps and the bundle of strange clothing that he had taken from enemies far to the south. He told them all that he had seen and done, and after he had finished speaking his father said to him, 'Because you have taken this strange clothing you shall be called Pī k?n′ ni' (garments), so since that time he and his children's children have been called Pī k?n′ ni."

"That's a bully story, Joe," exclaimed Jack, after the tale was ended, and Hugh joined in and said, "So it is, a mighty good story, but I reckon it's just a story and nothing else. I've always heard, like Joe said a little while ago, that the people came from up north and I've always believed that they were relations of the Crees. I've often wondered, though, about how the tribes got their names. There are lots of stories, but none of them seem to ring true. Now this word Pī k?n′ ni for Piegans, I've always believed came from Ap′ ? k?n n?, which means a badly tanned robe, one with white spots on it. Isn't that so, Joe?"

"Yes," said Joe, "that's so all right, and you know Ap′ k?n n? is a common name in the tribe to-day. There are two or three Indians and one white man that have that name. This story says that Ah′ kāi nāh has been shortened to Kainah, and if that is so why shouldn't Ap′ ? k?n n? have been shortened to Pi kun ni. Then the name of my tribe would mean a robe with hard white spots in it."

"Of course it would," said Hugh, "and I believe that's what it does mean, but I don't know that we'll ever find out for sure.

"Well, boys," he went on, "let's turn in. Get out early to-morrow morning and bring in your horses. I want to start before it gets warm, so as to get rid of the flies. We may have quite a ways to go to-morrow."