Every year in summer, about the time the berries ripen, the Blackfeet used to hold the great festival and sacrifice which we call the ceremony of the Medicine Lodge.  This was a time of happy meetings, of feasting, of giving presents; but besides this rejoicing, those men who wished to have good-luck in whatever they might undertake tried to prove their prayers sincere by sacrificing their bodies, torturing themselves in ways that caused great suffering.  In ancient times, as we are told in books of history, things like that used to happen among many peoples all over the world.

It was the law that the building of the Medicine Lodge must always be pledged by a good woman.  If a woman had a son or a husband away at war and feared that he was in danger, or if she had a child that was sick and might die, she might pray for the safety of the one she loved, and promise that if he returned or recovered she would build a Medicine Lodge.  This pledge was made in a loud voice, publicly, in open air, so that all might know the promise had been made.

At the time appointed all the tribe came together and pitched their lodges in a great circle, and within this circle the Medicine Lodge was built.  The ceremony lasted for four days and four nights, during which time the woman who had promised to make the Medicine Lodge neither ate nor drank, except once in sacrifice.  Different stories are told of how the first Medicine Lodge came to be built.  This is one of those stories: 

In the earliest times there was a man who had a very beautiful daughter.  Many young men wished to marry her, but whenever she was asked she shook her head and said she did not wish to marry.

“Why is this?” said her father.  “Some of these young men are rich, handsome, and brave.”

“Why should I marry?” replied the girl.  “My father and mother take care of me.  Our lodge is good; the parfleches are never empty; there are plenty of tanned robes and soft furs for winter.  Why trouble me, then?”

Soon after, the Raven Bearers held a dance.  They all painted themselves nicely and wore their finest ornaments and each one tried to dance the best.  Afterward some of them asked for this girl, but she said, “No.”  After that the Bulls, the Kit-Foxes, and others of the All Comrades held their dances, and many men who were rich and some great warriors asked this man for his daughter, but to every one she said, “No.”

Then her father was angry, and he said, “Why is this?  All the best men have asked for you, and still you say ‘No.’” Then the girl said, “Father, listen to me.  That Above Person, the Sun, said to me, ’Do not marry any of these men, for you belong to me.  Listen to what I say, and you shall be happy and live to a great age.’  And again he said to me, ‘Take heed, you must not marry; you are mine.’”

“Ah!” replied her father; “it must always be as he says”; and they spoke no more about it.