Indian Boyhood | Page 3

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INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA (CHARLES A. EASTMAN)
Contents
I EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS I: Hakadah, "The Pitiful Last" II:
Early Hardships III: My Indian Grandmother IV: In Indian Sugar Camp
V: A Midsummer Feast
II AN INDIAN BOY'S TRAINING
III MY PLAYS AND PLAYMATES I: Games and Sports II: My
Playmates III: The Boy Hunter
IV HAKADAH'S FIRST OFFERING
V FAMILY TRADITIONS I: A Visit to Smoky Day II: The Stone Boy
VI EVENING IN THE LODGE I: Evening in the Lodge II: Adventures
of My Uncle
VII THE END OF THE BEAR DANCE
VIII THE MAIDENS' FEAST
IX MORE LEGENDS I: A Legend of Devil's Lake II: Manitoshaw's
Hunting
X INDIAN LIFE AND ADVENTURE I: Life in the Woods II: A
Winter Camp III: Wild Harvests IV: A Meeting on the Plains V: An
Adventurous Journey
XI THE LAUGHING PHILOSOPHER
XII FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CIVILIZATION

I Earliest Recollections
I: Hadakah, "The Pitiful Last"
WHAT boy would not be an Indian for a while when he thinks of the
freest life in the world? This life was mine. Every day there was a real
hunt. There was real game. Occasionally there was a medicine dance
away off in the woods where no one could disturb us, in which the boys
impersonated their elders, Brave Bull, Standing Elk, High Hawk,
Medicine Bear, and the rest. They painted and imitated their fathers and

grandfathers to the minutest detail, and accurately too, because they
had seen the real thing all their lives.
We were not only good mimics but we were close students of nature.
We studied the habits of animals just as you study your books. We
watched the men of our people and represented them in our play; then
learned to emulate them in our lives.
No people have a better use of their five senses than the children of the
wilderness. We could smell as well as hear and see. We could feel and
taste as well as we could see and hear. Nowhere has the memory been
more fully developed than in the wild life, and I can still see wherein I
owe much to my early training.
Of course I myself do not remember when I first saw the day, but my
brothers have often recalled the event with much mirth; for it was a
custom of the Sioux that when a boy was born his brother must plunge
into the water, or roll in the snow naked if it was winter time; and if he
was not big enough to do either of these himself, water was thrown on
him. If the new-born had a sister, she must be immersed. The idea was
that a warrior had come to camp, and the other chil- dren must display
some act of hardihood.
I was so unfortunate as to be the youngest of five children who, soon
after I was born, were left motherless. I had to bear the humiliating
name "Hakadah," meaning "the pitiful last," until I should earn a more
dignified and appropriate name. I was regarded as little more than a
play- thing by the rest of the children.
My mother, who was known as the handsomest woman of all the Spirit
Lake and Leaf Dweller Sioux, was dangerously ill, and one of the
medi- cine men who attended her said: "Another medicine man has
come into existence, but the mother must die. Therefore let him bear
the name 'Mysterious Medicine.'" But one of the by- standers hastily
interfered, saying that an uncle of the child already bore that name, so,
for the time, I was only "Hakadah."
My beautiful mother, sometimes called the "Demi-Goddess" of the
Sioux, who tradition says had every feature of a Caucasian descent with
the exception of her luxuriant black hair and deep black eyes, held me
tightly to her bosom upon her death-bed, while she whispered a few
words to her mother-in-law. She said: "I give you this boy for your own.
I cannot trust my own mother with him; she will neglect him and he

will surely die."
The woman to whom these words were spoken was below the average
in stature, remarkably ac- tive for her age (she