Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER XX.

  WHITE WARRIOR, PIEGAN.

  Early next morning, Joe put his head in at the lodge door with a look ofsome importance on his face, and seeing Jack sitting by the fire,beckoned to him and then went out again. Jack followed and joined him afew steps from the lodge, and they walked out away from the circle,toward the prairie. Before they had gone far, Joe said: "Say, Jack, Istarted out this morning to tell you that I'd made up my mind that Iwouldn't go on the war party, but would stay here in the camp. If youcan't go, I don't want to go either. I'd rather stop here with you."

  "That's good of you, Joe," said Jack, "I'd be mighty lonesome if youwere to go off; it's kind of you to give up the trip for me."

  "Hold on," said Joe, "I ain't got through yet. As I was coming aroundthis morning to tell you about this, I met Bull Calf, and he says thewhole party has been given up. Skunk Bear, he was the leader you know,had a bad dream, and now they're all afraid to go. They're afraid badluck will happen, so they're none of 'em going."

  "How do you mean a bad dream, Joe?" said Jack. "What's that got to dowith their going to war?"

  "Why," said Joe, "it's got a whole lot to do with it. Don't you knowthat dreams come to us to tell us what is going to happen? And if a mandreams that some bad luck is coming, he's got to look out, for if heisn't careful, the bad thing will happen and maybe he'll get killed, orhurt himself, or get sick."

  "Well," said Jack, "that seems queer. I never heard of anything likethat before. Doing things because dreams tell you to, or not doing thembecause dreams tell you not to!"

  "Well," said Joe, "it's so. You ask any of the old men, they'll tellyou. There have been lots of times when men have started off on thewar-path, and dreamed they saw themselves wounded, and then have beenwounded, and sometimes men have dreamed that they saw one of the partylying dead on the ground, and a little while after, the man that theydreamed about was killed by enemies. I tell you, the Indians depend awhole lot on dreams."

  "Well, son," said Hugh to Jack later in the day, "don't you want to tryyour new horse? Let's saddle up and ride a few miles up the lakes andsee what sort of a beast he is. I asked John Monroe about him, and hesays he's a running horse, a good buffalo horse or a good pony for war."

  "Yes, Hugh," said Jack, "I'd like to try him first-rate."

  The two went out and saddled their horses and crossing the river, rodealong the trail up the lake. When they came to one of the little openparks they ran a short race, and Jack's horse proved to be very fast.They kept on up the lake for five or six miles, and then, as themosquitoes were bad, turned about and rode back to the camp.

  As they drew up in front of the lodge, Jack saw sitting there, a man,whom at first he took to be very old, but after they had unsaddled andhad walked up to him, he saw that he was not such a very old man, butthat his hair was white, all except two black locks on the right side.He was extremely tall and very thin. Hugh seemed very glad to see theman and shook hands with him most cordially; then after speaking to himfor a few moments, he called Jack to him and said, "Son, I want you toknow this man; this is Last Bull. He is one of the best men of thetribe. He is getting old now, but in his time he has been a greatwarrior. He is not such a very old man as you would think from his whitehair, he is one of those gray-haired people such as you see lots of inthe tribe, and his hair has always been this colour since he was alittle child. I'd like to have you know him well, and I want to have himlike you. He is a good man."

  Jack shook hands with the man who smiled in a most kindly way, and thenturning to Hugh spoke at some length. Hugh looked greatly pleased andsaid, "Why, son, Last Bull has always been a great friend of mine, andhe says that hearing that you had come to the camp with me, and hearing,too, about the good things that you have done since you came, he wantsto give you a name; probably it will be some name that he has bornehimself when he was a young man. What do you say, would you like to havehim do so? If he gives you a name he will always regard himself as youradopted father, and will think a great deal of you."

  "Why!" said Jack, "that would be splendid. I would love to have him dothat, and I'd think it a great honour. It would make me feel mightyproud."

  When Hugh had interpreted to Last Bull what Jack had said, the Indianseemed pleased. Stepping up to Jack, he took him by the right arm andled him a little way forward, turning him so that his face looked towardthe sun, and stretching his own arms upward toward it, and then closinghis hands as if grasping the sunlight, he turned again to Jack andrubbed them over his head, his shoulders, and down his arms, and overhis body. Then Last Bull made a prayer, which Hugh interpreted to Jackafterward. He said:--

  "O Sun, Old Man, Creator, look down. Have pity; have pity. Listen. Lookdown on this my son and on me. Pity us.

  "I am old, but all my life you have looked after me. This, my son, isyoung, he is just beginning; care for him all through his life. Give tohim, always, plenty of all those things that all men desire. Increasehis body, so that he may grow strong. Harden his flesh, so that he mayalways be well. Give him health; give him full life; let him live togreat age. Watch him as he journeys to and fro over the country; guardhim against all dangers and against all harm. Protect him in battle. Letneither the arrows nor the bullets of the enemy strike his body, or ifthey must strike it, let them not pierce his flesh, but turn them aside,so that they shall do him no harm. Grant that he may always have goodsense, and may act wisely; make his eyes keen to see danger at adistance, and his ears quick to hear the enemies that are creeping upon him. Let his wisdom be that of the raven, his craft that of the wolf,his sight like the eagles, and his hearing that of the little prairiefox. Give to him the strength of the buffalo bull, so that when herushes upon his enemies, he will overthrow them as the bull overthrowshis.

  "Oh Sun, Old Man, Creator, look down. Have pity. Listen. Many years ago,when I was a young man, I went to sleep for power, up on the top of thepinnacle of a high mountain, where all men feared to go. For four dayswithout food or drink, I slept there; for two days and two nights lyingon my right side, and for two days and two nights on my left. On thefourth night my dream came to me and said, 'I have heard your prayersand your cryings, and I have taken pity on you, and henceforth I will bewith you always, and now I will give you a name. You shall be a greatman for fighting, and your name shall be Fighter, and, because, thoughyou are yet young, your head is white, you shall call yourself WhiteWarrior, and when your enemies see your white hair coming towards them,they shall be afraid.'

  "My Son, for many years I had this name, but now I am growing old, and Ino longer go on the war path. Now I do not need this name, and so, mySon, I give it to you. To me it has been fortunate and I can see that itwill be so to you also."

  Then Last Bull, again stretching his arms towards the sun, and againseeming to grasp the sunlight in his hands, passed them over Jack'shead, and shoulders and body, then he turned away and walked to thelodge and sat down on the ground.

  Jack had most curious feelings while this prayer was being made. Theman, who was speaking, was so earnest, and so moved by the prayer thathe had made, that Jack could not but be moved himself. He felt solemn,as if he were in a big gloomy church and the organ were playing solemnmusic that thrilled him. When Last Bull turned away from him and walkedtowards Hugh, Jack picked up his hat from the ground, where he hadthrown it, and followed with his head bent down, and feeling as if hehad just come out of the church.

  Last Bull and Hugh talked together for some time, and Jack sat there andlistened, though of course, he understood nothing of what was beingsaid. At length Hugh went into the lodge, and after a few moments cameout and handed a package to Last Bull, who presently arose, and aftershaking hands again with Jack, stalked off across the camp.

  "Gracious! Hugh," said Jack, "I wish you would tell me all about LastBull and what he did, and what he said, and what you were talking about.I never saw such an interesting person, and it seems as if he must havea wonderful history, if it could only be told."

 
; "Well, son, that's so," said Hugh, "he is a mighty queer man in someways, but a mighty good man. There isn't an Indian in the camp that I'drather have take an interest in you, than Last Bull; he is certainly thebravest man in the whole camp. He might easily enough be head chief, buthe never would take it. When he was young, all his pleasure was going towar, and in his time he has killed a great many of his enemies. He hasalso had one big trouble that I know about and can tell you of. Onetime, a good many years ago, he was travelling with a party--just a fewlodges; they were charged by the enemy and ran, but Last Bull's wife wason a slow horse and while he was trying to fight the enemy off, she wascaptured. He charged back into the thick of the enemy three or fourtimes to try and rescue her, but couldn't, though his bravery stoppedthe pursuit, and the enemy drew off on a hill. Some of the attackingparty could talk Piegan, and they asked the captive woman who she was.She was brave, too, and she laughed at them and told them that she wasthe wife of that brave man that had charged back on them so often, andthat had killed three of their party. And when the enemy understoodthat, they pushed the woman out in front of their line, and shot herfull of arrows, right there in Last Bull's sight. Last Bull was a youngman when that happened, and I often thought, maybe that was one of thereasons why he was always going on the war-path. The people that killedhis wife were Snakes, and I've always heard that he cared a great dealmore to go on the war-path across the mountains looking for Snake camps,than he did for going to war on the prairie."

  "Well," said Jack, "I don't wonder that he was a fighter after that."

  "No," said Hugh, "these Indians are great hands to get revenge if theythink they have been injured. They always want to get even.

  "There was another queer thing happened to Last Bull," said Hugh. "Hedidn't know about it at the time, but he heard of it afterward, and Iexpect it must have made him feel pretty bad. When he was a littlefellow, he had a brother two years older than himself, and one time, ina big fight that they had with the Snakes, this older brother wascaptured by the Snakes and was raised in their camp. Of course that madehim a Snake in his feelings, and when he grew up and went to war, hefought with the enemies of the Snakes, and so with the Blackfeet tribes.After Last Bull had become a man and a good warrior, the Snakes and thePiegans one time had a big fight on the prairie. The parties were prettyevenly matched, and it was about a stand-off between the two. The fightwas over and the Snakes were slowly drawing off; not running, but justmoving off slowly, and the Piegans didn't dare to follow them, but justas they were getting out of range, Last Bull stepped out in front of theline and fired a last shot at the enemy. It was done more for brag thanfor anything else, but he happened to hit a man and kill him. Two yearsafterwards, the Snakes and the Piegans made peace for awhile, and thenthe Snakes told them that the man that was killed by that last shot wasLast Bull's brother. Of course, Last Bull didn't know that his brotherwas in the fight, and in fact, never had known anything about him exceptthat he had been captured by the Snakes; but I expect, likely, it madethe old man feel pretty bad."

  "I should think so," said Jack.

  That afternoon, John Monroe told Hugh that he was going to give a feastthat night, and was going to invite a number of the principal men of thecamp to eat and smoke with him. He told Hugh, that although Jack wasonly a boy, he wanted him to sit in the circle with the feasters. Andwhen Hugh heard this, he said to John, "Look here, John, why don't youask Blood Man to come too? Jack will feel pretty lonely sitting therewith a lot of old men and not understanding anything that's said, andwith nobody to talk to; if you ask the other boy it will be a heappleasanter for Jack, and I don't reckon the old men will mind it if youexplain to them why you did it." John said that he thought that thiswould be good, and told Hugh that he would call Joe to the feast.

  Jack was very much interested to hear what was going to take place, andgreatly pleased to know that Joe was coming too, for he knew that if Joesat by him he would at least get the general drift of what was said bythe old men when they made their speeches, after eating.

  All through the afternoon John's wife and her two sisters were busycooking food. Bread was baked from flour which came from Hugh's supply,and he also provided enough coffee and sugar to make coffee for theguests. Besides this, the women boiled and cooked great kettles ofantelope meat, and of dried buffalo tongues, and of back fat, as well asother kettles of sarvis berries. A little before sundown, all was ready,and John, going out in front of the camp, called out the names of thevarious guests, sometimes repeating the invitation over and over: "LastBull, you are asked to eat. Last Bull, you are asked to eat. Last Bull,you are asked to eat; and you will smoke." In this way he called outnames of fifteen of the important men of the camp, and not very longafterward the guests were seen approaching from different parts of thecamp. John Monroe sat at the back of the lodge, with Hugh at his lefthand and Jack and Joe on his right. The others, as they came in, hadtheir seats pointed out to them by the host; the more important mensitting furthest back in the lodge, while the younger ones were nearerthe door. It took some little time for the whole party to assemble, butwhen all were there, the women, at a sign from the host, passed around,first the dishes and cups, and then the food.

  The dishes were a curious mixture of the ancient and the modern. Therewere some tin plates and spoons, but most of the dishes were great bowlshollowed out of wood, though two or three were made of strips split fromthe buffalo horn, and sewed together with sinew. Such dishes, thoughserviceable enough for holding meat, of course, leaked and could not beused for anything that was fluid.

  Little was said until the meal was over. Occasionally a man chatted in alow voice with his neighbour, or some more loudly spoken jest wasuttered, at which all laughed. Jack was surprised to see that the hostwas not served with food. He did not eat anything, but occupied his timeduring the meal by cutting up tobacco on a board in front of him, andmixing it preparatory to filling the great stone pipe, which was to besmoked after all had finished eating. As the dishes were cleared away bythe watchful women, Pis'kun pushed the tobacco and the pipe over to Joe,and made a sign to him. The boy cleaned out the pipe, filled it, andpassing it back to the host, reached over, and with a pair of tongs madefrom a forked twig, drew from the fire a coal which he placed on thepipe. The host smoked until the pipe was well going, then blew a puff ofsmoke to the sky, turned the stem toward the earth, and made a lowvoiced prayer. Then he handed the pipe to the man on his left, who,without smoking, passed it to the next one, and so from hand to hand itpassed along until it reached the guest nearest the door. He smoked asthe host had done, made a prayer, passed the pipe back to the man on hisright, who in turn smoked, and so the pipe passed round the circle,until it reached the host again.

  Soon after the pipe had passed him, the oldest man present, Calf Robe,rose to his feet and spoke for some little time. When he had finished,Joe whispered to Jack that the man had been praising John Monroe, andhad also spoken of Hugh's return to the tribe, and of the young man thathe had brought with him. Calf Robe's speech was followed by others, andJack waited for Joe to tell him what they were talking about; but,although he nudged Joe two or three times to try to get him to look athim, Joe seemed to be so much interested in the speeches, that he paidno attention to Jack, who sat there, altogether in the dark as to whatwas going on. Presently another one of the elder men, whom Jackrecognised as Iron Shirt, the head chief, stood up and said a few words,and then, to Jack's surprise, Hugh turned to him and said, "Son, IronShirt wants me to interpret to you what he is going to say." Then IronShirt went on, speaking slowly, a sentence at a time, and waiting untilHugh had interpreted it to Jack, and this was the speech he made:

  "My Son, you have come here from a far country with this white man, whois our old friend, White Bull. We have known him for many years. Hetells us that you have come from the edge of the world, from where theearth runs down to meet the salt water. He has told us about you, thatyou are a good young man, true, speaking only the things that are, andneither talki
ng foolishly nor falsely. Before you had come into ourcamp, but while you were yet in sight of it, you did a brave thing andsaved from death the child of one of those sitting here. Since you havebeen with us, we have watched you in the camp. We have seen that you arequiet and orderly, and we have found too that you are brave. A fewnights ago, when our people, with whom you were camped, were attacked byenemies, you defended them and killed one of these enemies. I am gladthat so good a person has come to stay with us, and all the camp areglad too. I should like to have you stay with us always, and become oneof my children. Sitting about you to-night there are chief men of thecamp and we all of us wish to have you become a Piegan, and to be infact, what I think you are in your heart, one of our people. Therefore,now this day, although your skin is white, we have chosen you one of us,and from this time you belong to the tribe of the Piegans. What I say toyou now, I do not say for myself alone, but I say it for these who aresitting here, and also for the whole tribe."

  The old man ceased speaking and sat down. Jack had grown red and whitealternately, as he had heard Hugh's interpretation, and his feelingswere so strong, that for a moment he had almost felt like crying. Heturned to Hugh and said:

  "What shall I do, Hugh? Shall I say anything?"

  "Why," said Hugh, "I expect they'd like to have you say something, evenif it is only a little, in answer."

  It was the first time that Jack had ever spoken in public, and as hestood upon his feet, his knees shook, and his tongue seemed dry. All hecould say was, "Hugh, I wish you would tell them how proud I feel tohave them talk as they have talked, and how glad I am to be a member ofthe tribe. Tell them I'll never forget this night, if I live to be athousand years, and that when I go back East, wherever I may be, I'llalways think of the members of the Piegan tribe as my friends and mybrothers."

  Jack sat down with his ears ringing from the effort that he had made,and overwhelmed with shyness and embarrassment. At the same time hisheart swelled with pride at the honour that had been done him and hesqueezed Joe's hand, which had sought his, with a fervent clasp. Soonafter this, the guests rose, one by one and filed out of the lodge, andthe last to go was Joe, who, dragging Jack with him, rushed out of thelodge, and standing in front of it, gave vent to a series of shrillwhoops and yells, and then he and Jack, throwing their arms about eachother, wrestled in the darkness until both were exhausted.