Blackfeet Indian Stories | Page 3

there was a very old blind wolf who had great
power and could do wonderful things. He cured the man and made his
head and his hands look like those of a wolf. The rest of his body was
not changed.
In those days the people used to make holes in the walls of the fence
about the enclosure into which they led the buffalo. They set snares
over these holes, and when wolves and other animals crept through
them so as to get into the pen and feed on the meat they were caught by
the neck and killed, and the people used their skins for clothing.
One night all the wolves went down to the pen to get meat, and when
they had come close to it, the man-wolf said to his brothers, "Stop here
for a little while and I will go down and fix the places so that you will
not be caught." He went down to the pen and sprung all the snares, and
then went back and called the wolves and the others--the coyotes,
badgers, and kit-foxes--and they all went into the pen and feasted and
took meat to carry home to their families. In the morning the people

found the meat gone and all their snares sprung, and they were
surprised and wondered how this could have happened. For many
nights the nooses were pulled tight and the meat taken; but once when
the wolves went there to eat they found only the meat of a lean and
sickly bull. Then the man-wolf was angry, and he cried out like a wolf,
"Bad-food-you-give-us-o-o-o! Bad-food-you-give-us-o-o-o-o!"
When the people heard this they said to one another, "Ah, it is a
man-wolf who has done all this. We must catch him." So they took
down to the piskun[1] pemmican and nice back fat and placed it there,
and many of them hid close by. After dark the wolves came, as was
their custom, and when the man-wolf saw the good food, he ran to it
and began to eat. Then the people rushed upon him from every side and
caught him with ropes, and tied him and took him to a lodge, and when
they had brought him inside to the light of the fire, at once they knew
who it was. They said, "Why, this is the man who was lost."
[Footnote 1: A pen or enclosure, usually--among the Blackfeet--at the
foot of a cliff, over which the buffalo were induced to jump.
Pronounced p[)i]´sk[)u]n.]
"No," said the man, "I was not lost. My wives tried to kill me. They
dug a deep hole and I fell into it, and I was hurt so badly I could not get
out; but the wolves took pity on me and helped me or I would have
died there."
When the people heard this they were angry, and they told the man to
do something to punish these women.
"You say well," he replied; "I give those women to the punishing
society. They know what to do."
After that night the two women were never seen again.

KUT-O-YIS´, THE BLOOD BOY
As the children whose ancestors came from Europe have stories about
the heroes who killed wicked and cruel monsters--like Jack the Giant
Killer, for example--so the Indian children hear stories about persons
who had magic power and who went about the world destroying those
who treated cruelly or killed the Indians of the camps. Such a hero was
K[)u]t-o-y[)i]s´, and this is how he came to be alive and to travel about
from place to place, helping the people and destroying their enemies.
It was long, long ago, down where Two Medicine and Badger Rivers

come together, that an old man lived with his wife and three daughters.
One day there came to his camp a young man, good-looking, a good
hunter, and brave. He stayed in the camp for some time, and whenever
he went hunting he killed game and brought in great loads of meat.
All this time the old man was watching him, for he said in his heart,
"This seems a good young man and a good hunter. Perhaps I will give
him my daughters for wives, and then he will stay here and help me
always."
After a time the old man decided to do this, and he gave the young man
his daughters; and because these three were his only children he gave
his son-in-law his dogs and all his property, and for himself and his
wife he kept only a little lodge. The young man's wives tanned plenty
of cow skins and made a big fine lodge, and in this the son-in-law lived
with his wives.
For some time after this the son-in-law was very good and kind to the
old