“I flung the lasso over his head and jerked him from his pony.”CHAPTER NINEPAPOOSE TROUBLES
“I flung the lasso over his head and jerked him from his pony.”
“I flung the lasso over his head and jerked him from his pony.”
“I flung the lasso over his head and jerked him from his pony.”
After this second Crow scare, things quieted down again. I kept on breaking colts, and whipping kids once in a while. One day while I was riding a wild colt, the boy whom I had kicked before for trying to see my sore legs began to act smart again. He was riding with other papooses along with me to see the fun, and every once in a while he would poke my pony with a stick to see him jump. I warned him once or twice to quit; but this only seemed to make him worse.
I had a long rawhide rope around the colt’s neck, and I made a noose in the loose end. When he punched my horse again, I flung the lasso over his head and jerked him from his pony. This scared my broncho and he broke into a run. Before I could stop him, I had nearly choked the life out of that kid. The blood was coming out of his nose and mouth and I thought that I had surely killed him; but as soon as I loosened the rope, he began to bawl, and when he got up he put out for camp on the dead run, yelling and groaning as if he was being murdered.I started for camp, too, for I knew that things would be popping pretty soon. As he passed our camp, mother asked who had hurt him. “Yagaki!” he cried, running on to his mother.
Before I got home, mother met me and asked, “What have you been doing, Yagaki?”
“Trying to kill that blamed kid,” I said.
“Well, you have nearly done it this time,” she said. “How did it happen?”
I told her all about it.
“It will cause another camp fight,” she said.
I turned loose the colt I was riding and started after my pinto pony.
“Where are you going?” she asked me.
“After my horse.”
“What for?”
“Because I want him.”
When I had caught and saddled my pony I saw the boy and his father and mother with some more Indians coming towards our tent. I jumped on my horse and started off. Mother called to me to stop, but I kept on going. I thought that if they wanted to fight they could fight; I was going to get out of it as fast as my pinto could carry me, so I went up the river and hid in the brush. After dark I heard the Indians calling “Yagaki, Yagaki,” but I would not answer them.
After a while the mosquitoes got so bad in the brush that I could not stay there, so when everything was still I crept out, but I did not know where to go or what to do. I sat down on a stump and tried to decide. I knew that there would be a racket in camp and I felt bad on account of mother, but I was not a bit sorry for the papoose I had hurt; just then I almost wished I had killed him. I had some pretty mean feelings as I sat there on thestump. I was more homesick than I had ever been before.
Bur. Am. Ethnology, Smithsonian InstitutionIndian girls carrying water.
Bur. Am. Ethnology, Smithsonian InstitutionIndian girls carrying water.
Bur. Am. Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution
Indian girls carrying water.
It was not a very pleasant situation, I tell you, to be so far away from home among a lot of Indians who were mad at me. I did not know but that they would kill me. I was worried; but after thinking the matter over I decided that it would be better for me to go back and face the music.
When I got near camp I met a lot of Indians that mother had sent out to hunt me. They said that Washakie was also out trying to find me. When I asked them what the Indians were going to do to me, they said that they would do nothing, that I had done what any of them would have done. I told them that I was afraid that it would start another camp fight, but they laughed and said it would not. This made me feel much better.
When I reached camp, mother asked me where I had been. I told her and she said I was a foolish boy for running away like that. “Well,” I said, “I thought it might stop another camp fight if I went away.”
It was not long before Washakie returned. He gave me a long talk, telling me not to run away any more but to come to him if I got into trouble again. He would see that I did not get hurt. I told him that I thought I had better go home, for I was always getting into trouble and making it hard for mother and him. He told me he would not let me go home for that, but advised me to be a little more careful, as I might have killed the boy. “A rope tied to a wild horse and around a boy’s neck,” he said, “is not much fun for the boy.”
“Well I forgot about the rope’s being tied to the horse,” I said, “the boy made me so mad that I did not know what I was doing.”
Washakie said that the boy’s neck was badly skinned and that his father and mother were very angry about it, but that he would try to calm them. The other papooses who saw it thought that I did just right. The chief had a long talk with the boy’s parents, and I heard no more about it, but I saw the boy wearing a greasy rag about his neck, and whenever I came near, he would look very savagely at me.
The mosquitoes made us move from this camp. Wewent east nearly to the Teton Peaks, where we found game plentiful and the streams full of trout. The valley with its river running north and south through the middle of it was beautiful. There was no timber on the banks of the stream, but it was bordered with great patches of willows from one to two miles wide extending for about twenty miles along it. The white-tailed deer were plentiful among the willows. I killed five while we were there and mother tanned the skins and made a suit of clothes for me out of them. The clothes were nice and warm. The Indians also killed a number of moose among the willows.
Albert Schlechten, Bozeman, Mont.A white-tailed deer.
Albert Schlechten, Bozeman, Mont.A white-tailed deer.
Albert Schlechten, Bozeman, Mont.
A white-tailed deer.
Washakietold me that his tribe had had a great fight with the Sioux Indians in this valley many years before when he was a small boy. He said that his people lost a great many of their best men. He took me all over the battle ground.
We stayed in this valley about thirty days and I began again breaking colts. When I brought up the first one, mother said, “Leave your rope here.” I told her I could not manage the colt without it.
“Well, don’t use it on any more papooses,” she said, and I minded her.
The Indians killed a great many elk, deer, and moose while in this valley, and the squaws had all they could do tanning the skins and drying the meat. I asked Washakie if he was planning to winter in this valley.
“Oh, no,” he replied. “The snow falls too deep here. After the buffalo get fat, and we kill all we want for our winter use, we will go a long way west out of the buffalo country, but where there are plenty of deer and antelope and fish. Some of the fish,” he said, “are as long as you are.”
Berries were getting ripe, so we papooses would go withour mothers up in the hills and gather them to dry. It was great fun. One day, however, things got pretty exciting. We were in a canyon busy gathering the berries when all at once we heard a terrible screaming. Pretty soon there came a crowd of squaws and papooses. One was yelling, “A bear has killed my girl.”
I jumped on my pinto pony, for I was riding him that day, and started up through the brush as fast as I could go. When I got a little way up the canyon, where the brush was not so thick, I could see a bear running up the hill. I went a little farther and found the girl stretched out on the ground as if she were dead. Then I shouted as loudly as I could for some of the Indians to come back, but they had all gone. I tried to lift her on to my horse but she was too heavy for me, so I laid her down again. Then she asked me for a drink. I took the cup she had been picking berries in and gave her some water. Then she said she felt better.
“Where is my mother?” she asked.
I told her that they had all run down the canyon like scared sheep. Then I helped her to her feet. She was crying all the time, and she said that her head and side and arm hurt her very much. I asked her if she could ride. She said she would try, so I helped her up on my horse and led it until we got out of the canyon. Then she told me to get on behind her as she thought she could guide the horse. We had about four miles to go, so I climbed upon the pony with her.
When we got in sight of camp we saw some Indians coming full tilt, and when they met us there was the greatest hubbub I ever heard. When we reached the camp the girl’s mother came running up and threw her arms about the girl and acted as if she were crazy. She would have hugged me too if I had been willing. Shesaid that I was a brave boy. Mother came up and said, “Yagaki, I thought you had come down to camp ahead of me or I never would have come without you.”
New YorkZoölogicalSocietyA black bear.
New YorkZoölogicalSocietyA black bear.
New YorkZoölogicalSociety
A black bear.
“Oh, you were as scared as any of them,” I said.
“I know I was scared,” she said, “but I never would have left you, if I had known you were still in the canyon.”
That night the girl’s father and mother came to our tepee to see what I wanted for saving their daughter’s life. I told them that I wanted nothing.
“You are a good, brave boy,” said her father.
I asked her mother why she ran away and left the girl.
“Well,” she said, “I saw the bear knock my girl down and jump on her and I thought she was dead, and I thought the bear would kill me, then there would be two of us dead.”
The father said that the bears killed many people because they tried to help the one that was first caught. He felt that it was better for the rest to run. I did notagree with him. I thought that everybody should help kill the bear even if they did run the risk of getting killed.
“Yes, you have already shown what you would do,” said my mother. “You are a brave boy.”
“It was a brave act for a boy,” said Washakie; “but we must not brag too much about Yagaki or he will begin to think he is a great hero. It is about time we went to sleep.”
The girl’s mother told me that I might have her daughter for a wife when I got big enough; but I told her she could keep the girl, I did not want her.
The next day I wanted mother and the other Indians to go up the canyon after more service berries, but they wouldn’t go a step. They had had bear scares enough for that time. The Indians left the bears alone unless they caught these animals in the open.
One morning we saw two bears crossing the valley. About fifty Indians on horses started after them. I ran and got my pinto pony. When I came back for my saddle, mother asked where I was going.
“To help kill those bears yonder.”
“No, you are not,” she said.
“Oh, let him go,” said Washakie, and she consented. I jumped on the horse and started after the bears as hard as I could go. The Indians had headed them away from the timber and were popping arrows into them. My horse was not a bit scared so I ran up to one of the bears and shot three arrows into his side.
“Keep back, you little dunce,” shouted the Indians, “that bear will tear you to pieces.”
But the bear was too full of arrows to tear much. He looked like a porcupine with his quills on end. Very soon the two bears dropped dead; but their skins were so fullof holes that they were not worth much; the meat was not much good either.
S. N. Leek, Jackson, WyomingA baby elk in its hiding place.
S. N. Leek, Jackson, WyomingA baby elk in its hiding place.
S. N. Leek, Jackson, Wyoming
A baby elk in its hiding place.
That night the Indians had a big dance around the two hides. I joined in the fun and sang as loud as any of them. They thought I was pretty daring. One old Indian said, “The little fool doesn’t know any better. If a bear once got hold of him he would not be so brave.” But they gave me one of the hides and mother tanned it and sewed up most of the holes. It made me a very good robe to sleep in.
While we were in this valley another small band of Indians joined us. The girl that had hit me with the fishing pole was with them. When she saw that the other Indians liked me so much, she wanted to make up with me. She came around several times before she said anything to me, but finally one day she walked over to where I was helping mother stake down a moose hide to dry and said, “Yagaki, I am sorry that I hit you that day with the fish pole.”
“I am not,” I said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because we had lots of fun that day.”
“Why don’t you be friends with her?” mother asked.
I said that I did not want to be her friend.
“You are a mean boy,” said mother; “you should be friends.”
“Not much,” I said; but I did finally tell the girl that it was all right.
Then she wanted me to go over to their tepee and play, but I told her that I was afraid her mother would cut my head off.
“No,” she said, “mother will not hurt you. She feels sorry for what we did to your folks, and so does my father.”
Well, we passed the trouble over and became pretty good friends after that.
CreelA squaw tanning buckskin.
CreelA squaw tanning buckskin.
Creel
A squaw tanning buckskin.
By this time we had gathered most of the berries that grew along the foothills; the squaws were afraid to go farther into the mountains after the bear excitement;so then they stopped berry picking and went to work in earnest tanning buckskin and drying meat for winter use. The Indians quit hunting for elk and deer; for they already had all of the skins that the women could get ready for the trading trip they had planned.
It was the custom of the tribe to make a journey almost every fall to Salt Lake City, and other White settlements, and swap their buckskin and buffalo robes for red blankets, beads, ammunition, and other things they needed. Mother and Hanabi worked all day and away into the night to get their skins ready in time, and I helped them all I could. I got an old horse and dragged down enough wood to last while we stayed there. I carried all the water for them, and no kid dared to call me a squaw either.
Finally the time came for us to begin killing buffaloes for our winter’s supply of meat. We did not have to hunt them, however, for we could see them at any time in almost any direction. Many a time I went out with Washakie to watch the hunters kill the buffaloes. Washakie wanted only five and we soon got them; but it took mother and Hanabi a good many days to tan their hides and get the meat ready for winter.