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

by George Bird Grinnell

"Why no," said Jack, "it ain't so very different from what the white man and the white woman do. Is it?"

"Not very," said Hugh. "Now, I'll tell you, son," he went on, "let's pack up most all our truck to-night, and get the packs ready to put on the horses in the morning. Our horses will be driven in with the old man's, and we can catch them and pack them, and leave them here for the women to drive on with theirs, and then we can either go ahead with the soldiers, or if you like, you can stop in the camp, and see them take down everything and begin to move."

"I think I'd rather stay here and see them move, Hugh," said Jack. "But what do you mean by the soldiers?"

"Why, the soldiers," said Hugh, "are sort of constables like. I thought I'd told you about them. They're young men that are going to war all the time, and they're the ones that see that the orders given by the chiefs are obeyed. It is like this; if there was any man to-morrow morning, who said he was not going to move, and whose lodge was not taken down, the soldiers would go to him and if he were obstinate, just as like as not they'd give him a good licking with their quirts. If he still refused to go with the camp, they might tear down his lodge, break the lodge poles and even cut the lodge-skins to pieces. It is a pretty serious matter you see, to disobey the chief's orders, and really, 'tisn't ever done."

After supper that night, Joe came to the lodge, and after a little talk said to Jack, "Isn't this great, that we are going to move and going to chase buffalo?"

"You bet it is great," said Jack. "You know I've never seen a buffalo chase, and I've always thought it must be a fine thing to see."

"I tell you," said Joe; "after they kill plenty of buffalo, everybody is glad. All through the camp they put up the drying scaffolds, and as the meat is brought in, they cut it into thin slices and hang it over the poles, and for a little while it looks as if red cloth was stretched all through the camp. Of course, after two or three hours, it gets dry and brown, but when it is first put up, it is real pretty I tell you."

"Well," said Jack, "I hope I'll see that. You can't think, Joe, how much I want to find out everything about the Indians. Everything that they do, and say, and think, is so different from anything I've ever seen before, that it just makes me pretty near crazy when I think what a chance I've got here, and how little I've learned yet."

"Oh well," said Joe, "you'll know a heap before you go away, but I don't want you to know everything, because, then maybe you'd never come back. Suppose you go away this Fall, not knowing everything, maybe you'll come back next Spring to learn the rest."