Blackfeet Indian Stories | Page 4

people. When he killed any animal he gave them part of the meat,
and gave them skins which his mother-in-law tanned for robes or for
clothing.
As time went on the son-in-law began to grow stingy, and pretty soon
he gave nothing to his father-in-law's lodge, but kept everything for his
own.
Now, the son-in-law was a person of much mysterious power, and he
kept the buffalo hidden under a big log-jam in the river. Whenever he
needed food and wished to kill anything, he would take his
father-in-law with him to help. He would send the old man out to stamp
on the log-jam and frighten the buffalo, and when they ran out from
under it the young man would shoot one or two with his arrows, never
killing more than he needed. But often he gave the old people nothing
at all to eat. They were hungry all the time, and at length they began to
grow thin and weak.
One morning early the young man asked his father-in-law to come and
hunt with him. They went to the log-jam and the old man drove out the
buffalo and his son-in-law killed a fat buffalo cow. Then he said to his
father-in-law, "Hurry back now to the camp and tell your daughters to
come and carry home the meat, and then you can have something to
eat." The old man set out for the camp, thinking, as he walked along,
"Now, at last, my son-in-law has taken pity on me; he will give me

some of this meat."
When he returned with his daughters they skinned the cow and cut it up
and, carrying it, went home. The young man had his wives leave the
meat at his own lodge and told his father-in-law to go home. He did not
give him even a little piece of the meat. The two older daughters gave
their parents nothing to eat, but sometimes the youngest one had pity
on them and took a piece of meat and, when she could, threw it into the
lodge to the old people. The son-in-law had told his wives not to give
the old people anything to eat. Except for the good heart of the
youngest daughter they would have died of hunger.
Another day the son-in-law rose early in the morning and went over to
the old man's lodge and kicked against the poles, calling to him, "Get
up now and help me; I want you to go and stamp on the log-jam to
drive out the buffalo." When the old man moved his feet on the jam and
a buffalo ran out, the son-in-law was not ready for it, and it passed by
him before he shot the arrow; so he only wounded it. It ran away, but at
last it fell down and died.
The old man followed close after it, and as he ran along he came to a
place where a great clot of blood had fallen from the buffalo's wound.
When he came to where this clot of blood was lying on the ground, he
stumbled and fell and spilled his arrows out of his quiver, and while he
was picking them up he picked up also the clot of blood and hid it in
his quiver.
"What are you picking up?" called the son-in-law.
"Nothing," replied the old man. "I fell down and spilled my arrows, and
I am putting them back."
"Ah, old man," said the son-in-law, "you are lazy and useless. You no
longer help me. Go back now to the camp and tell your daughters to
come down here and help carry in this meat."
The old man went to the camp and told his daughters of the meat that
their husband had killed, and they went down to the killing ground.
Then he went to his own lodge and said to his wife, "Hurry, now, put
the stone kettle on the fire. I have brought home something from the
killing."
"Ah," said the old woman, "has our son-in-law been generous and
given us something nice to eat?"
"No," replied the old man, "but hurry and put the kettle on the fire."

After a time the water began to boil and the old man turned his quiver
upside down over the pot, and immediately there came from it a sound
of a child crying, as if it were being hurt. The old people both looked in
the kettle and there they saw a little boy, and they quickly took him out
of the water. They were surprised and did not know where the child had
come from. The old woman wrapped the child up and wound a line
about its wrappings to keep them in place, making a lashing for the
child. Then they talked about