Daily Life and Customs - Blackfoot

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Daily Life and Customs - Blackfoot

Released 17 June 2004
Blackfoot Lodge Tales

Indians are usually represented as being a silent, sullen race, seldom
speaking, and never laughing nor joking. However true this may be in regard
to some tribes, it certainly was not the case with most of those who lived
upon the Great Plains. These people were generally talkative, merry, and
light-hearted; they delighted in fun, and were a race of jokers. It is true
that, in the presence of strangers, they were grave, silent, and reserved,
but this is nothing more than the shyness and embarrassment felt by a child
in the presence of strangers. As the Indian becomes acquainted, this reserve
wears off; he is at his ease again and appears in his true colors, a
light-hearted child. Certainly the Blackfoot never were a taciturn and
gloomy people. Before the disappearance of the buffalo, they were happy and
cheerful. Why should they not have been? Food and clothing were to be had
for the killing and tanning. All fur animals were abundant, and thus the
people were rich. Meat, really the only food they cared for, was plenty and
cost nothing. Their robes and furs were exchanged with the traders for
bright-colored blankets and finery. So they wanted nothing.

It is but nine years since the buffalo disappeared from the land. Only nine
years have passed since these people gave up that wild, free life which was
natural to them, and ah, how dear! Let us go back in memory to those happy
days and see how they passed the time.

The sun is just rising. Thin columns of smoke are creeping from the smoke
holes of the lodges, and ascending in the still morning air. Everywhere the
women are busy, carrying water and wood, and preparing the simple meal. And
now we see the men come out, and start for the river. Some are followed by
their children; some are even carrying those too small to walk. They have
reached the water's edge. Off drop their blankets, and with a plunge and a
shivering ah-h-h they dash into the icy waters. Winter and summer, storm or
shine, this was their daily custom. They said it made them tough and
healthy, and enabled them to endure the bitter cold while hunting on the
bare bleak prairie. By the time they have returned to the lodges, the women
have prepared the early meal. A dish of boiled meat some three or four
pounds is set before each man; the children are served as much as they can
eat, and the wives take the rest.

The horses are now seen coming in, hundreds and thousands of them, driven by
boys and young men who started out after them at daylight. If buffalo are
close at hand, and it has been decided to make a run, each hunter catches
his favorite buffalo horse, and they all start out together; they are
followed by women, on the travois or pack horses, who will do most of the
butchering, and transport the meat and hides to camp. If there is no band of
buffalo near by, they go off, singly or by twos and threes, to still-hunt
scattering buffalo, or deer, or elk, or such other game as may be found. The
women remaining in camp are not idle. All day long they tan robes, dry meat,
sew moccasins, and perform a thousand and one other tasks. The young men who
have stayed at home carefully comb and braid their hair, paint their faces,
and, if the weather is pleasant, ride or walk around the camp so that the
young women may look at them and see how pretty they are.

Feasting began early in the morning, and will be carried on far into the
night. A man who gives a feast has his wives cook the choicest food they
have, and when all is ready, he goes outside the lodge and shouts the
invitation, calling out each guest's name three times, saying that he is
invited to eat, and concludes by announcing that a certain number of pipes
generally three will be smoked. The guests having assembled, each one is
served with a dish of food. Be the quantity large or small, it is all that
he will get. If he does not eat it all, he may carry home what remains. The
host does not eat with his guests. He cuts up some tobacco, and carefully
mixes it with l'herbe, and when all have finished eating, he fills and
lights a pipe, which is smoked and passed from one to another, beginning
with the first man on his left. When the last person on the left of the host
has smoked, the pipe is passed back around the circle to the one on the
right of the door, and smoked to the left again. The guests do not all talk
at once. When a person begins to speak, he expects every one to listen, and
is never interrupted. During the day the topics for conversation are about
the hunting, war, stories of strange adventures, besides a good deal of
good-natured joking and chaffing. When the third and last pipeful of tobacco
has been smoked, the host ostentatiously knocks out the ashes and says "Kyi"
whereupon all the guests rise and file out. Seldom a day passed but each
lodge-owner in camp gave from one to three feasts. In fact almost all a man
did, when in camp, was to go from one of these gatherings to another.

A favorite pastime in the day was gambling with a small wheel called
it-se'-wah. This wheel was about four inches in diameter, and had five
spokes, on which were strung different-colored beads, made of bone or horn.
A level, smooth piece of ground was selected, at each end of which was
placed a log. At each end of the course were two men, who gambled against
each other. A crowd always surrounded them, betting on the sides. The wheel
was rolled along the course, and each man at the end whence it started,
darted an arrow at it. The cast was made just before the wheel reached the
log at the opposite end of the track, and points were counted according as
the arrow passed between the spokes, or when the wheel, stopped by the log,
was in contact with the arrow, the position and nearness of the different
beads to the arrow representing a certain number of points. The player who
first scored ten points won. It was a very difficult game, and one had to be
very skilful to win.

Another popular game was what with more southern tribes is called "hands";
it is like "Button, button, who's got the button?" Two small, oblong bones
were used, one of which had a black ring around it. Those who participated
in this game, numbering from two to a dozen, were divided into two equal
parties, ranged on either side of the lodge. Wagers were made, each person
betting with the one directly opposite him. Then a man took the bones, and,
by skillfully moving his hands and changing the objects from one to the
other, sought to make it impossible for the person opposite him to decide
which hand held the marked one. Ten points were the game, counted by sticks,
and the side which first got the number took the stakes. A song always
accompanied this game, a weird, unearthly air, if it can be so called, but
when heard at a little distance, very pleasant and soothing. At first a
scarcely audible murmur, like the gentle soughing of an evening breeze, it
gradually increased in volume and reached a very high pitch, sank quickly to
a low bass sound, rose and fell, and gradually died away, to be again
repeated. The person concealing the bones swayed his body, arms, and hands
in time to the air, and went through all manner of graceful and intricate
movements for the purpose of confusing the guesser. The stakes were
sometimes very high, two or three horses or more, and men have been known to
lose everything they possessed, even to their clothing.

The children, at least the boys, played about and did as they pleased. Not
so with the girls. Their duties began at a very early age. They carried wood
and water for their mothers, sewed moccasins, and as soon as they were
strong enough, were taught to tan robes and furs, make lodges, travois, and
do all other woman's and so menial work. The boys played at mimic warfare,
hunted around in the brush with their bows and arrows, made mud images of
animals, and in summer spent about half their time in the water. In winter,
they spun tops on the ice, slid down hill on a contrivance made of buffalo
ribs, and hunted rabbits.

Shortly after noon, the hunters began to return, bringing in deer, antelope,
buffalo, elk, occasionally bear, and, sometimes, beaver which they had
trapped. The camp began to be more lively. In all directions persons could
be heard shouting out invitations to feasts. Here a man was lying back on
his couch singing and drumming; there a group of young men were holding a
war dance; everywhere the people were eating, singing, talking, and joking.
As the light faded from the western sky and darkness spread over the camp,
the noise and laughter increased. In many lodges, the people held social
dances, the women, dressed in their best gowns, ranged on one side, the men
on the other; all sung, and three or four drummers furnished an
accompaniment; the music was lively if somewhat jerky. At intervals the
people rose and danced, the "step" being a bending of the knees and swinging
of the body, the women holding their arms and hands in various graceful
positions.

With the night came the rehearsal of the wondrous doings of the gods. These
tales may not be told in the daytime. Old Man would not like that, and would
cause any one who narrated them while it was light to become blind. All
Indians are natural orators, but some far exceed others in their powers of
expression. Their attitudes, gestures, and signs are so suggestive that they
alone would enable one to understand the stories they relate. I have seen
these story-tellers so much in earnest, so entirely carried away by the tale
they were relating, that they fairly trembled with excitement. They held
their little audiences spell-bound. The women dropped their half-sewn
moccasin from their listless hands, and the men let the pipe go out. These
stories for the most part were about the ancient gods and their miraculous
doings. They were generally related by the old men, warriors who had seen
their best days. Many of them are recorded in this book. They are the
explanations of the phenomena of life, and contain many a moral for the
instruction of youth.

The I-k[)u]n-[)u]h'-kah-tsi contributed not a little to the entertainment of
every-day life. Frequent dances were held by the different bands of the
society, and the whole camp always turned out to see them. The animal-head
masks, brightly painted bodies, and queer performances were dear to the
Indian heart.

Such was the every-day life of the Blackfoot in the buffalo days. When the
camp moved, the women packed up their possessions, tore down the lodges, and
loaded everything on the backs of the ponies or on the travois. Meantime the
chiefs had started on, and the soldiers the Brave band of the
I-kun-uh'-kah-tsi followed after them. After these leaders had gone a short
distance, a halt was made to allow the column to close up. The women,
children, horses, and dogs of the camp marched in a disorderly, straggling
fashion, often strung out in a line a mile or two long. Many of the men rode
at a considerable distance ahead, and on each side of the marching column,
hunting for any game that might be found, or looking over the country for
signs of enemies.

Before the Blackfoot obtained horses in the very first years of the present
century, and when their only beasts of burden were dogs, their possessions
were transported by these animals or on men's backs. We may imagine that in
those days the journeys made were short ones, the camp travelling but a few
miles.

In moving the camp in ancient days, the heaviest and bulkiest things to be
transported were the lodges. These were sometimes very large, often
consisting of thirty cow-skins, and, when set up, containing two or three
fires like this or in ground plan like this. The skins of these large lodges
were sewn together in strips, of which there would be sometimes as many as
four; and, when the lodge was set up, these strips were pinned together as
the front of a common lodge is pinned today. The dogs carried the
provisions, tools, and utensils, sometimes the lodge strips, if these were
small enough, or anything that was heavy, and yet could be packed in small
compass; for since dogs are small animals, and low standing, they cannot
carry bulky burdens. Still, some of the dogs were large enough to carry a
load of one hundred pounds. Dogs also hauled the travois, on which were
bundles and sometimes babies. This was not always a safe means of
transportation for infants, as is indicated by an incident related by John
Monroe's mother as having occurred in her father's time. The camp, on foot
of course, was crossing a strip of open prairie lying between two pieces of
timber, when a herd of buffalo, stampeding, rushed through the marching
column. The loaded dogs rushed after the buffalo, dragging the travois after
them and scattering their loads over the prairie. Among the lost chattels
were two babies, dropped off somewhere in the long grass, which were never
found.

There were certain special customs and beliefs which were a part of the
every-day life of the people.

In passing the pipe when smoking, it goes from the host, who takes the first
smoke, to the left, passing from hand to hand to the door. It may not be
passed across the door to the man on the other side, but must come back, no
one smoking, pass the host, and go round to the man across the door from the
last smoker. This man smokes and passes it to the one on his left, and so it
goes on until it reaches the host again. A person entering a lodge where
people are smoking must not pass in front of them, that is, between the
smokers and the fire.

A solemn form of affirmation, the equivalent of the civilized oath, is
connected with smoking, which, as is well known, is with many tribes of
Indians a sacred ceremony. If a man sitting in a lodge tells his companions
some very improbable story, something that they find it very hard to
believe, and they want to test him, to see if he is really telling the
truth, the pipe is given to a medicine man, who paints the stem red and
prays over it, asking that if the man's story is true he may have long life,
but if it is false his life may end in a short time. The pipe is then filled
and lighted, and passed to the man, who has seen and overheard what has been
done and said. The medicine man says to him: "Accept this pipe, but remember
that, if you smoke, your story must be as sure as that there is a hole
through this pipe, and as straight as the hole through this stem. So your
life shall be long and you shall survive, but if you have spoken falsely
your days are counted." The man may refuse the pipe, saying, "I have told
you the truth; it is useless to smoke this pipe." If he declines to smoke,
no one believes what he has said; he is looked upon as having lied. If,
however, he takes the pipe and smokes, every one believes him. It is the
most solemn form of oath. The Blackfoot pipes are usually made of black or
green slate or sandstone.

The Blackfoot do not whip their children, but still they are not without
some training. Children must be taught, or they will not know anything; if
they do not know anything, they will have no sense; and if they have no
sense they will not know how to act. They are instructed in manners, as well
as in other more general and more important matters.

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If a number of boys were in a lodge where older people were sitting, very
likely the young people would be talking and laughing about their own
concerns, and making so much noise that the elders could say nothing. If
this continued too long, one of the older men would be likely to get up and
go out and get a long stick and bring it in with him. When he had seated
himself, he would hold it up, so that the children could see it and would
repeat a cautionary formula, "I will give you gum!" This was a warning to
them to make less noise, and was always heeded for a time. After a little,
however, the boys might forget and begin to chatter again, and presently the
man, without further warning, would reach over and rap one of them on the
head with the stick, when quiet would again be had for a time.

In the same way, in winter, when the lodge was full of old and young people,
and through lack of attention the fire died down, some older person would
call out, "Look out for the skunk!" which would be a warning to the boys to
put some sticks on the fire. If this was not done at once, the man who had
called out might throw a stick of wood across the lodge into the group of
children, hitting and hurting one or more of them. It was taught also that,
if, when young and old were in the lodge and the fire had burned low, an
older person were to lay the unburned ends of the sticks upon the fire, all
the children in the lodge would have the scab, or itch. So, at the call
"Look out for the scab!" some child would always jump to the fire, and lay
up the sticks.

There were various ways of teaching and training the children. Men would
make long speeches to groups of boys, playing in the camps, telling them
what they ought to do to be successful in life. They would point out to them
that to accomplish anything they must be brave and untiring in war; that
long life was not desirable; that the old people always had a hard time,
were given the worst side of the lodge and generally neglected; that when
the camp was moved they suffered from cold; that their sight was dim, so
that they could not see far; that their teeth were gone, so that they could
not chew their food. Only discomfort and misery await the old. Much better,
while the body is strong and in its prime, while the sight is clear, the
teeth sound, and the hair still black and long, to die in battle fighting
bravely. The example of successful warriors would be held up to them, and
the boys urged to emulate their brave deeds. To such advice some boys would
listen, while others would not heed it.

The girls also were instructed. All Indians like to see women more or less
sober and serious-minded, not giggling all the time, not silly. A Blackfoot
man who had two or three girls would, as they grew large, often talk to them
and give them good advice. After watching them, and taking the measure of
their characters, he would one day get a buffalo's front foot and ornament
it fantastically with feathers. When the time came, he would call one of his
daughters to him and say to her: "Now I wish you to stand here in front of
me and look me straight in the eye without laughing. No matter what I may
do, do not laugh." Then he would sing a funny song, shaking the foot in the
girl's face in time to the song, and looking her steadily in the eye. Very
likely before he had finished, she would begin to giggle. If she did this,
the father would stop singing and tell her to finish laughing; and when she
was serious again, he would again warn her not to laugh, and then would
repeat his song. This time perhaps she would not laugh while he was singing.
He would go through with this same performance before all his daughters. To
such as seemed to have the steadiest characters, he would give good advice.
He would talk to each girl of the duties of a woman's life and warn her
against the dangers which she might expect to meet.

At the time of the Medicine Lodge, he would take her to the lodge and point
out to her the Medicine Lodge woman. He would say: "There is a good woman.
She has built this Medicine Lodge, and is greatly honored and respected by
all the people. Once she was a girl just like you; and you, if you are good
and live a pure life, may some day be as great as she is now. Remember this,
and try to live a worthy life."

At the time of the Medicine Lodge, the boys in the camp also gathered to see
the young men count their coups. A man would get up, holding in one hand a
bundle of small sticks, and, taking one stick from the bundle, he would
recount some brave deed, throwing away a stick as he completed the narrative
of each coup, until the sticks were all gone, when he sat down, and another
man stood up to begin his recital. As the boys saw and heard all this, and
saw how respected those men were who had done the most and bravest things,
they said to themselves, "That man was once a boy like us, and we, if we
have strong hearts, may do as much as he has done." So even the very small
boys used often to steal off from the camp, and follow war parties. Often
they went without the knowledge of their parents, and poorly provided,
without food or extra moccasins. They would get to the enemy's camp, watch
the ways of the young men, and so learn about going to war, how to act when
on the war trail so as to be successful. Also they came to know the country.

The Blackfoot men often went off by themselves to fast and dream for power.
By no means every one did this, and, of those who attempted it, only a few
endured to the end, that is, fasted the whole four days, and obtained the
help sought. The attempt was not usually made by young boys before they had
gone on their first war journey. It was often undertaken by men who were
quite mature. Those who underwent this suffering were obliged to abstain
from food or drink for four days and four nights, resting for two nights on
the right side, and for two nights on the left. It was deemed essential that
the place to which a man resorted for this purpose should be unfrequented,
where few or no persons had walked; and it must also be a place that tried
the nerve, where there was some danger. Such situations were mountain peaks;
or narrow ledges on cut cliffs, where a careless movement might cause a man
to fall to his death on the rocks below; or islands in lakes, which could
only be reached by means of a raft, and where there was danger that a person
might be seized and carried off by the S[=u]'-y[=e] t[)u]p'-pi, or Under
Water People; or places where the dead had been buried, and where there was
much danger from ghosts. Or a man might lie in a well-worn buffalo trail,
where the animals were frequently passing, and so he might be trodden on by
a travelling band of buffalo; or he might choose a locality where bears were
abundant and dangerous. Wherever he went, the man built himself a little
lodge of brush, moss, and leaves, to keep off the rain; and, after making
his prayers to the sun and singing his sacred songs, he crept into the hut
and began his fast. He was not allowed to take any covering with him, nor to
roof over his shelter with skins. He always had with him a pipe, and this
lay by him, filled, so that, when the spirit, or dream, came, it could
smoke. They did not appeal to any special class of helpers, but prayed to
all alike. Often by the end of the fourth day, a secret helper usually, but
by no means always, in the form of some animal appeared to the man in a
dream, and talked with him, advising him, marking out his course through
life, and giving him its power. There were some, however, on whom the power
would not work, and a much greater number who gave up the fast, discouraged,
before the prescribed time had been completed, either not being able to
endure the lack of food and water, or being frightened by the strangeness or
loneliness of their surroundings, or by something that they thought they saw
or heard. It was no disgrace to fail, nor was the failure necessarily known,
for the seeker after power did not always, nor perhaps often, tell any one
what he was going to do.

Three modes of burial were practiced by the Blackfoot. They buried their
dead on platforms placed in trees, on platforms in lodges, and on the ground
in lodges. If a man dies in a lodge, it is never used again. The people
would be afraid of the man's ghost. The lodge is often used to wrap the body
in, or perhaps the man may be buried in it.

As soon as a person is dead, be it man, woman, or child, the body is
immediately prepared for burial, by the nearest female relations. Until
recently, the corpse was wrapped in a number of robes, then in a lodge
covering, laced with rawhide ropes, and placed on a platform of lodge poles,
arranged on the branches of some convenient tree. Some times the outer
wrapping the lodge covering was omitted. If the deceased was a man, his
weapons, and often his medicine, were buried with him. With women a few
cooking utensils and implements for tanning robes were placed on the
scaffolds. When a man was buried on a platform in a lodge, the platform was
usually suspended from the lodge poles.

Sometimes, when a great chief or noted warrior died, his lodge would be
moved some little distance from the camp, and set up in a patch of brush. It
would be carefully pegged down all around, and stones piled on the edges to
make it additionally firm. For still greater security, a rope fastened to
the lodge poles, where they come together at the smoke hole, came down, and
was securely tied to a peg in the ground in the centre of the lodge, where
the fireplace would ordinarily be. Then the beds were made up all around the
lodge, and on one of them was placed the corpse, lying as if asleep. The
man's weapons, pipe, war clothing, and medicine were placed near him, and
the door then closed. No one ever again entered such a lodge. Outside the
lodge, a number of his horses, often twenty or more, were killed, so that he
might have plenty to ride on his journey to the Sand Hills, and to use after
arriving there. If a man had a favorite horse, he might order it to be
killed at his grave, and his order was always carried out. In ancient times,
it is said, dogs were killed at the grave.

Women mourn for deceased relations by cutting their hair short. For the loss
of a husband or son (but not a daughter), they not only cut their hair, but
often take off one or more joints of their fingers, and always scarify the
calves of their legs. Besides this, for a month or so, they daily repair to
some place near camp, generally a hill or little rise of ground, and there
cry and lament, calling the name of the deceased over and over again. This
may be called a chant or song, for there is a certain tune to it. It is in a
minor key and very doleful. Any one hearing it for the first time, even
though wholly unacquainted with Indian customs, would at once know that it
was a mourning song, or at least was the utterance of one in deep distress.
There is no fixed period for the length of time one must mourn. Some keep up
this daily lament for a few weeks only, and others much longer. I once came
across an old wrinkled woman, who was crouched in the sage brush, crying and
lamenting for some one, as if her heart would break. On inquiring if any one
had lately died, I was told she was mourning for a son she had lost more
than twenty years before.

Men mourn by cutting a little of their hair, going without leggings, and for
the loss of a son, sometimes scarify their legs. This last, however, is
never done for the loss of a wife, daughter, or any relative except a son.

Many Blackfoot change their names every season. Whenever a Blackfoot counts
a new coup, he is entitled to a new name. A Blackfoot will never tell his
name if he can avoid it. He believes that if he should speak his name, he
would be unfortunate in all his undertakings. It was considered a gross
breach of propriety for a man to meet his mother-in-law, and if by any
mischance he did so, or what was worse, if he spoke to her, she demanded a
very heavy payment, which he was obliged to make. The mother-in-law was
equally anxious to avoid meeting or speaking to her son-in-law.

Blackfoot lodge tales; Grinnell, George Bird, New York, C. Scribner's sons,
1903, and is now in the public domain.