Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

"Gracious! Hugh," said Jack, "I wish you would tell me all about Last Bull and what he did, and what he said, and what you were talking about. I never saw such an interesting person, and it seems as if he must have a wonderful history, if it could only be told."

"Well, son, that's so," said Hugh, "he is a mighty queer man in some ways, but a mighty good man. There isn't an Indian in the camp that I'd rather have take an interest in you, than Last Bull; he is certainly the bravest man in the whole camp. He might easily enough be head chief, but he never would take it. When he was young, all his pleasure was going to war, and in his time he has killed a great many of his enemies. He has also had one big trouble that I know about and can tell you of. One time, a good many years ago, he was travelling with a party—just a few lodges; they were charged by the enemy and ran, but Last Bull's wife was on a slow horse and while he was trying to fight the enemy off, she was captured. He charged back into the thick of the enemy three or four times to try and rescue her, but couldn't, though his bravery stopped the pursuit, and the enemy drew off on a hill. Some of the attacking party could talk Piegan, and they asked the captive woman who she was. She was brave, too, and she laughed at them and told them that she was the wife of that brave man that had charged back on them so often, and that had killed three of their party. And when the enemy understood that, they pushed the woman out in front of their line, and shot her full of arrows, right there in Last Bull's sight. Last Bull was a young man when that happened, and I often thought, maybe that was one of the reasons why he was always going on the war-path. The people that killed his wife were Snakes, and I've always heard that he cared a great deal more to go on the war-path across the mountains looking for Snake camps, than he did for going to war on the prairie."

"Well," said Jack, "I don't wonder that he was a fighter after that."

"No," said Hugh, "these Indians are great hands to get revenge if they think they have been injured. They always want to get even.

"There was another queer thing happened to Last Bull," said Hugh. "He didn't know about it at the time, but he heard of it afterward, and I expect it must have made him feel pretty bad. When he was a little fellow, he had a brother two years older than himself, and one time, in a big fight that they had with the Snakes, this older brother was captured by the Snakes and was raised in their camp. Of course that made him a Snake in his feelings, and when he grew up and went to war, he fought with the enemies of the Snakes, and so with the Blackfeet tribes. After Last Bull had become a man and a good warrior, the Snakes and the Piegans one time had a big fight on the prairie. The parties were pretty evenly matched, and it was about a stand-off between the two. The fight was over and the Snakes were slowly drawing off; not running, but just moving off slowly, and the Piegans didn't dare to follow them, but just as they were getting out of range, Last Bull stepped out in front of the line and fired a last shot at the enemy. It was done more for brag than for anything else, but he happened to hit a man and kill him. Two years afterwards, the Snakes and the Piegans made peace for awhile, and then the Snakes told them that the man that was killed by that last shot was Last Bull's brother. Of course, Last Bull didn't know that his brother was in the fight, and in fact, never had known anything about him except that he had been captured by the Snakes; but I expect, likely, it made the old man feel pretty bad."

"I should think so," said Jack.

That afternoon, John Monroe told Hugh that he was going to give a feast that night, and was going to invite a number of the principal men of the camp to eat and smoke with him. He told Hugh, that although Jack was only a boy, he wanted him to sit in the circle with the feasters. And when Hugh heard this, he said to John, "Look here, John, why don't you ask Blood Man to come too? Jack will feel pretty lonely sitting there with a lot of old men and not understanding anything that's said, and with nobody to talk to; if you ask the other boy it will be a heap pleasanter for Jack, and I don't reckon the old men will mind it if you explain to them why you did it." John said that he thought that this would be good, and told Hugh that he would call Joe to the feast.

Jack was very much interested to hear what was going to take place, and greatly pleased to know that Joe was coming too, for he knew that if Joe sat by him he would at least get the general drift of what was said by the old men when they made their speeches, after eating.

All through the afternoon John's wife and her two sisters were busy cooking food. Bread was baked from flour which came from Hugh's supply, and he also provided enough coffee and sugar to make coffee for the guests. Besides this, the women boiled and cooked great kettles of antelope meat, and of dried buffalo tongues, and of back fat, as well as other kettles of sarvis berries. A little before sundown, all was ready, and John, going out in front of the camp, called out the names of the various guests, sometimes repeating the invitation over and over: "Last Bull, you are asked to eat. Last Bull, you are asked to eat. Last Bull, you are asked to eat; and you will smoke." In this way he called out names of fifteen of the important men of the camp, and not very long afterward the guests were seen approaching from different parts of the camp. John Monroe sat at the back of the lodge, with Hugh at his left hand and Jack and Joe on his right. The others, as they came in, had their seats pointed out to them by the host; the more important men sitting furthest back in the lodge, while the younger ones were nearer the door. It took some little time for the whole party to assemble, but when all were there, the women, at a sign from the host, passed around, first the dishes and cups, and then the food.

The dishes were a curious mixture of the ancient and the modern. There were some tin plates and spoons, but most of the dishes were great bowls hollowed out of wood, though two or three were made of strips split from the buffalo horn, and sewed together with sinew. Such dishes, though serviceable enough for holding meat, of course, leaked and could not be used for anything that was fluid.