MIK-A’PI—­RED OLD MAN

I

It was in the valley of “It fell on them"[1] Creek, near the mountains, that the Pik[)u]n’i were camped when Mik-a’pi went to war.  It was far back, in the days of stone knives, long before the white people had come.  This was the way it happened.

[Footnote 1:  Armells Creek in Northern Montana is called Et-tsis-ki-ots-op, “It fell on them.”  A longtime ago a number of Blackfeet women were digging in a bank near this creek for the red clay which they use for paint, when the bank gave way and fell on them, burying and killing them.]

Early in the morning a band of buffalo were seen in the foot-hills of the mountains, and some hunters went out to get meat.  Carefully they crawled along up the coulees and drew near to the herd; and, when they had come close to them, they began to shoot, and their arrows pierced many fat cows.  But even while they were thus shooting, they were surprised by a war party of Snakes, and they began to run back toward the camp.  There was one hunter, named Fox-eye, who was very brave.  He called to the others to stop, saying:  “They are many and we are few, but the Snakes are not brave.  Let us stop and fight them.”  But the other hunters would not listen.  “We have no shields,” they said, “nor our war medicine.  There are many of the enemy.  Why should we foolishly die?”

They hurried on to camp, but Fox-eye would not turn back.  He drew his arrows from the quiver, and prepared to fight.  But, even as he placed an arrow, a Snake had crawled up by his side, unseen.  In the still air, the Piegan heard the sharp twang of a bow string, but, before he could turn his head, the long, fine-pointed arrow pierced him through and through.  The bow and arrows dropped from his hands, he swayed, and then fell forward on the grass, dead.  But now the warriors came pouring from the camp to aid him.  Too late!  The Snakes quickly scalped their fallen enemy, scattered up the mountain, and were lost to sight.

Now Fox-eye had two wives, and their father and mother and all their near relations were dead.  All Fox-eye’s relatives, too, had long since gone to the Sand Hills[1].  So these poor widows had no one to avenge them, and they mourned deeply for the husband so suddenly taken from them.  Through the long days they sat on a near hill and mourned, and their mourning was very sad.

[Footnote 1:  Sand Hills:  the shadow land; place of ghosts; the Blackfoot future world.]

There was a young warrior named Mik-a’pi.  Every morning he was awakened by the crying of these poor widows, and through the day his heart was touched by their wailing.  Even when he went to rest, their mournful cries reached him through the darkness, and he could not sleep.  So he sent his mother to them.  “Tell them,” he said, “that I wish to speak to them.”  When they had entered, they sat close by the door-way, and covered their heads.