Among the animals especially respected and supposed to have great power, are the buffalo, the bear, the raven, the wolf, the beaver, and the kit-fox.  Geese too, are credited with great wisdom and with foreknowledge of the weather.  They are led by chiefs.  As is quite natural among a people like the Blackfeet, the buffalo stood very high among the animals which they reverenced.  It symbolized food and shelter, and was Nato’y[)e] (of the Sun), sacred.  Not a few considered it a medicine animal, and had it for their dream, or secret helper.  It was the most powerful of all the animal helpers.  Its importance is indicated by the fact that buffalo skulls were placed on the sweat houses built in connection with the Medicine Lodge.  A similar respect for the buffalo exists among many Plains tribes, which were formerly dependent on it for food and raiment.  A reverence for the bear appears to be common to all North American tribes, and is based not upon anything that the animal’s body yields, but perhaps on the fact that it is the largest carnivorous mammal of the continent, the most difficult to kill and extremely keen in all its senses.  The Blackfeet believe it to be part brute and part human, portions of its body, particularly the ribs and feet, being like those of a man.  The raven is cunning.  The wolf has great endurance and much craft.  He can steal close to one without being seen.  In the stories given in the earlier pages of this book, many of the attributes of the different animals are clearly set forth.

There were various powers and signs connected with these animals so held in high esteem by the Blackfeet, to which the people gave strict heed.  Thus the raven has the power of giving people far sight.  It was also useful in another way.  Often, in going to war, a man would get a raven’s skin and stuff the head and neck, and tie it to the hair of the head behind.  If a man wearing such a skin got near the enemy without knowing it, the skin would give him warning by tapping him on the back of the head with its bill.  Then he would know that the enemy was near, and would hide.  If a raven flew over a lodge, or a number of lodges, and cried, and then was joined by other ravens, all flying over the camp and crying, it was a sure sign that during the day some one would come and tell the news from far off.  The ravens often told the people that game was near, calling to the hunter and then flying a little way, and then coming back, and again calling and flying toward the game.

The wolves are the people’s great friends; they travel with the wolves.  If, as they are travelling along, they pass close to some wolves, these will bark at the people, talking to them.  Some man will call to them, “No, I will not give you my body to eat, but I will give you the body of some one else, if you will go along with us.”  This applies both to wolves and coyotes.  If a man goes away from the camp at night, and meets a coyote, and it barks at him, he goes back to the camp, and says to the people:  “Look out now; be smart.  A coyote barked at me to-night.”  Then the people look out, and are careful, for it is a sure sign that something bad is going to happen.  Perhaps some one will be shot; perhaps the enemy will charge the camp.