Blackfeet Indian Stories | Page 2

ago there was a man who had two wives. They were not
good women; they did not look after their home nor try to keep things
comfortable there. If the man brought in plenty of buffalo cow skins
they did not tan them well, and often when he came home at night,
hungry and tired after his hunting, he had no food, for these women
would be away from the lodge, visiting their relations and having a

good time.
The man thought that if he moved away from the big camp and lived
alone where there were no other people perhaps he might teach these
women to become good; so he moved his lodge far off on the prairie
and camped at the foot of a high butte.
Every evening about sundown the man used to climb up to the top of
this butte and sit there and look all over the country to see where the
buffalo were feeding and whether any enemies were moving about. On
top of the hill there was a buffalo skull, on which he used to sit.
One day one of the women said to the other, "It is very lonely here; we
have no one to talk with or to visit."
"Let us kill our husband," said the other: "then we can go back to our
relations and have a good time."
Early next morning the man set out to hunt, and as soon as he was out
of sight his wives went up on top of the butte where he used to sit.
There they dug a deep hole and covered it over with light sticks and
grass and earth, so that it looked like the other soil near by, and placed
the buffalo skull on the sticks which covered the hole.
In the afternoon, as they watched for their returning husband, they saw
him come over the hill loaded down with meat that he had killed. When
he threw down his load outside the lodge, they hurried to cook
something for him. After he had eaten he went up on the butte and sat
down on the skull. The slender sticks broke and he fell into the hole.
His wives were watching him, and when they saw him disappear, they
took down the lodge and packed their dogs and set out to go to the
main camp. As they drew near it, so that people could hear them, they
began to cry and mourn.
Soon some people came to meet them and said, "What is this? Why are
you mourning? Where is your husband?"
"Ah," they replied, "he is dead. Five days ago he went out to hunt and
he did not come back. What shall we do? We have lost him who cared
for us"; and they cried and mourned again.
Now, when the man fell into the pit he was hurt, for the hole was deep.
After a time he tried to climb out, but he was so badly bruised that he
could not do so. He sat there and waited, thinking that here he must
surely die of hunger.
But travelling over the prairie was a wolf that climbed up on the butte

and came to the hole and, looking in, saw the man and pitied him.
"Ah-h-w-o-o-o! Ah-h-w-o-o-o-o!" he howled, and when the other
wolves heard him they all came running to see what was the matter.
Following the big wolves came also many coyotes, badgers, and
kit-foxes. They did not know what had happened, but they thought
perhaps there was food here.
To the others the wolf said, "Here in this hole is what I have found.
Here is a man who has fallen in. Let us dig him out and we will have
him for our brother."
All the wolves thought that this talk was good, and they began to dig,
and before very long they had dug a hole down almost to the bottom of
the pit.
Then the wolf who had found the man said, "Hold on; wait a little; I
want to say a few words." All the animals stopped digging and began to
listen, and the wolf said, "We will all have this man for our brother; but
I found him, and so I think he ought to live with us big wolves." All the
others thought that this was good, and the wolf that had found the man
went into the hole that had been dug, and tearing down the rest of the
earth, dragged out the poor man, who was now almost dead, for he had
neither eaten nor drunk anything since he fell in the hole. They gave the
man a kidney to eat, and when he was able to walk the big wolves took
him to their home. Here