Blackfoot Lodge Tales | Page 8

and he gave me his knife, but I would not kill him. So we
talked together what we should do, and now we have made peace. And
now (turning to the Snake) this is your lodge, also all the things in it.
My horses, too, I give you. All are yours."
So it was. The Piegan took the Snake's wife, lodge, and horses, and the
Snake took the Piegan's, and they camped side by side. All the people
camped together, and feasted each other and made presents. So the
peace was made.
V
For many days they camped side by side. The young men kept hunting,
and the women were always busy drying meat and tanning robes and
cowskins. Buffalo were always close, and after a while the people had
all the meat and robes they could carry. Then, one day, the Snake chief
said to Owl Bear: "Now, my friend, we have camped a long time
together, and I am glad we have made peace. We have dug a hole in the
ground, and in it we have put our anger and covered it up, so there is no

more war between us. And now I think it time to go. To-morrow
morning the Snakes break camp and go back south."
"Your words are good," replied Owl Bear. "I too am glad we have
made this peace. You say you must go south, and I feel lonesome. I
would like you to go with us so we could camp together a long time,
but as you say, so it shall be done. To-morrow you will start south. I
too shall break camp, for I would be lonesome here without you; and
the Piegans will start in the home direction."
The lodges were being taken down and packed. The men sat about the
fireplaces, taking a last smoke together.
They were now great friends. Many Snakes had married Piegan women,
and many Piegans had married Snake women. At last all was ready.
The great chiefs mounted their horses and started out, and soon both
parties were strung out on the trail.
Some young men, however, stayed behind to gamble a while. It was yet
early in the morning, and by riding fast it would not take them long to
catch up with their camps. All day they kept playing; and sometimes
the Piegans would win, and sometimes the Snakes.
It was now almost sunset. "Let us have one horse race," they said, "and
we will stop." Each side had a good horse, and they ran their best; but
they came in so close together it could not be told who won. The
Snakes claimed that their horse won, and the Piegans would not allow
it. So they got angry and began to quarrel, and pretty soon they began
to fight and to shoot at each other, and some were killed.
Since that time the Snakes and Piegans have never been at peace.

THE LOST WOMAN
I
A long time ago the Blackfeet were camped on Backfat Creek. There
was in the camp a man who had but one wife, and he thought a great
deal of her. He never wanted to have two wives. As time passed they
had a child, a little girl. Along toward the end of the summer, this man's
wife wanted to get some berries, and she asked her husband to take her
to a certain place where berries grew, so that she could get some. The
man said to his wife: "At this time of the year, I do not like to go to that
place to pick berries. There are always Snake or Crow war parties
travelling about there." The woman wanted very much to go, and she

coaxed her husband about it a great deal; and at last he said he would
go, and they started, and many women followed them.
When they came to where the berries grew, the man said to his wife:
"There are the berries down in that ravine. You may go down there and
pick them, and I will go up on this hill and stand guard. If I see any one
coming, I will call out to you, and you must all get on your horses and
run." So the women went down to pick berries.
The man went up on the hill and sat down and looked over the country.
After a little time, he looked down into another ravine not far off, and
saw that it was full of horsemen coming. They started to gallop up
towards him, and he called out in a loud voice, "Run, run, the enemy is
rushing on us." The women started to run, and he jumped on his horse
and followed them. The enemy rushed after them, and he drew