Blackfoot Lodge Tales

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Many years ago there lived in the Blood camp a boy named Screech Owl (A’-tsi-tsi). He was rather a lonely boy, and did not care to go with other boys. He liked better to be by himself. Often he would go off alone, and stay out all night […]

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by One day, as Old Man was walking about in the woods, he saw something very queer. A bird was sitting on the limb of a tree making a strange noise, and every time it made this noise, its eyes would go out of its head and fasten on

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by There was once a man who had two bad wives. They had no shame. The man thought if he moved away where there were no other people, he might teach these women to become good, so he moved his lodge away off on the prairie. Near where they

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Once Old Man was traveling around, when he came to the Sun’s lodge, and the Sun asked him to stay a while. Old Man was very glad to do so. One day the meat was all gone, and the Sun said, “Kyi! Old Man, what say you if

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Once Old Man was traveling, and becoming tired he sat down on a rock to rest. After a while he started to go on, and because the sun was hot he threw his robe over the rock, saying: “Here, I give you my robe, because you are poor

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Once Old Man was traveling around, when he heard some very queer singing. He had never heard anything like this before, and looked all around to see who it was. At last he saw it was the cottontail rabbits, singing and making medicine. They had built a fire,

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by In those days there was a Piegan chief named Owl Bear. He was a great chief, very brave and generous. One night he had a dream: he saw many dead bodies of the enemy lying about, scalped, and he knew that he must go to war. So he

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Fifty years ago the name Blackfoot was one of terrible meaning to the white traveler who passed across that desolate buffalo-trodden waste which lay to the north of the Yellowstone River and east of the Rocky Mountains. This was the Blackfoot land, the undisputed home of a people

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by For a long time the buffalo had not been seen. The pis’kun was useless, and the hunters could find no food for the people. Then a man who had two wives, a daughter, and two sons, said: “I shall not stop here to die. Tomorrow we will move

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by A long time ago the Blackfeet were camped on Backfat Creek. There was in the camp a man who had but one wife, and he thought a great deal of her. He never wanted to have two wives. As time passed they had a child, a little girl.

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Once a camp of people stopped on the bank of a river. There were but a few lodges of them. One day the little children in the camp crossed the river to play on the other side. For some time they stayed near the bank, and then they

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by A long time ago there were four Blackfeet, who went to war against the Crees. They traveled a long way, and at last their horses gave out, and they started back toward their homes. As they were going along they came to the Sand Hills; and while they

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by One day Old Man went out hunting and took the fox with him. They hunted for several days, but killed nothing. It was nice warm weather in the late fall. After they had become very hungry, as they were going along one day, Old Man went up over

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Once, long ago, the antelope and the deer met on the prairie. At this time both of them had galls and both dew claws. They began to talk together, and each was telling the other what he could do. Each one told how fast he could run, and

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by Old Man was very hungry. He had been a long time without food, and was thinking how he could get something to eat, when he saw a band of elk on a ridge. So he went up to them and said, “Oh, my brothers, I am lonesome because

Last Updated on April 11, 2013 by Dennis This happened long ago. In those days the people were hungry. No buffalo nor antelope were seen on the prairie. The deer and the elk trails were covered with grass and leaves; not even a rabbit could be found in the brush. Then the people prayed, saying:

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by 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

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by All animals of the Plains at one time heard and knew him, and all birds of the air heard and knew him. All things that he had made understood him, when he spoke to them, the birds, the animals, and the people. Old Man was traveling about, south

Last Updated on April 8, 2013 by This story goes back many years, to a time before the Indians went to war against each other. Then there was peace among all the tribes. They met, and did not kill each other. They had no guns and they had no horses. When two tribes met, the