The whole party then got up and walked to the camp.  The woman took the scalp, knife and coat to the lodge, and gave them to her husband.  The chief invited Api-kunni to come to his lodge to visit him.  He said:  “I see that you have been to war, and that you have done more than any of us have ever done.  This is a reason why you should be a chief.  Now take my lodge and this woman, and live here.  Take my place and rule these people.  My two wives will be your servants.”  When Api-kunni heard this, and saw the young woman sitting there in the lodge, he could not speak.  Something seemed to rise up in his throat and choke him.

So this young man lived in the camp and was known as their chief.

After a time, he called his people together in council and told them of the strange things the beaver had taught him, and the power that the beaver had given him.  He said:  “This will be a benefit to us while we are a people now, and afterward it will be handed down to our children, and if we follow the words of the beaver we will be lucky.  This seed the beaver gave me, and told me to plant it every year.  When we ask help from the beaver, we will smoke this plant.”

This plant was the Indian tobacco, and it is from the beaver that the Blackfeet got it.  Many strange things were taught this man by the beaver, which were handed down and are followed till to-day.

THE BUFFALO ROCK

A small stone, which is usually a fossil shell of some kind, is known by the Blackfeet as I-nis’-kim, the buffalo stone.  This object is strong medicine, and, as indicated in some of these stories, gives its possessor great power with buffalo.  The stone is found on the prairie, and the person who succeeds in obtaining one is regarded as very fortunate.  Sometimes a man, who is riding along on the prairie, will hear a peculiar faint chirp, such as a little bird might utter.  The sound he knows is made by a buffalo rock.  He stops and searches on the ground for the rock, and if he cannot find it, marks the place and very likely returns next day, either alone or with others from the camp, to look for it again.  If it is found, there is great rejoicing.  How the first buffalo rock was obtained, and its power made known, is told in the following story.

Long ago, in the winter time, the buffalo suddenly disappeared.  The snow was so deep that the people could not move in search of them, for in those days they had no horses.  So the hunters killed deer, elk, and other small game along the river bottoms, and when these were all killed off or driven away, the people began to starve.