When the tree flowered

by John G. Neihardt

“And I was surprised,” I remarked, “that you seemed a little sorry for the old Crow woman bouncing on the drag when her son was killed and her pony ran away. Also, you could have killed her grandson, but you let him go. Were they not enemies?”

“They were enemies,” the old man answered slowly, regarding me with his crinkled, quizzical look. “We were boys and maybe we were thinking of our grandmothers. I could tell you a story about the time when a war party of our people felt sorry for some Crow warriors. They had no horses. They were starving and freezing in the deep snow, and they could not fight any more. So our war party did not kill them. It is a true story. But I will tell you about the time when the Crows were sorry for the Arapahoes. It also happened. The Arapahoes tell it themselves. We know their stories and they know ours, for we are friends. While the people are getting ready for the sun dance, I will tell you.

“It was many snows ago, before I was born. There is a place we call Hide Butte, because the Lakotas once found there many hides staked out to dry by the Crows, and no people anywhere around. It is in the big bend of Duck River, not far from where the Niobrara heads. A whole band of the Arapahoes had a winter camp there, and one morning when they awoke, all their horses were gone. There was not a hoof left. It was very bad. They knew it was the Crows who did it, so they organized a war party and started out maka mani, following the trail of their horses. It was very cold, the snow was dry and deep. Afterwhile a wind began to blow, getting stronger. So they stopped to talk about it, and they said, ‘We shall freeze looking for horses in this snow. Maybe it is better to wait awhile until it is warmer, and then we can go.’ Sharp Nose was the only one who did not say it was better to do that. He said, ‘You can go back, and I will go on. If I find where the horses went, I can come back and tell you. I will do my best.’ When he said this, he thought some would be brave and say, ‘You are not going on alone, for we are going with you’; but nobody said that, and the party turned back towards the village.

“So Sharp Nose went on alone. He came to a ridge, and when he looked back to see the others going yonder, there was one lone man coming. He waited, and it was his woman’s younger brother, hardly old enough for war yet. We can call him Little Bear. And Sharp Nose said, ‘Brother-in-law, why are you coming?’ And Little Bear answered, ‘I wanted to come before, but I thought some older men would come and I would go with them; but nobody came, so I am here. I will go wherever you go. I will die wherever you die. That is why I am here.’ And Sharp Nose said, ‘You are a brave young man.’ So they went on in the deep snow, Little Bear behind Sharp Nose, following the trail of the horses. Sometimes it was covered with blowing drifts, but they would find it again. That night they made a shelter of pine bows in a bend of a creek against a high bank that broke the wind, and made a fire; and when they had roasted some papa and eaten, they slept.

“When they awoke, the snow was drifted deep about them; and when they had eaten again and started walking, they could not find the trail at all. Then Sharp Nose said, ‘The crows have our horses, and we will go on to where the Crows are.’ So they went, Little Bear behind Sharp Nose. The wind was strong and cold; the snow was deep; it was hard walking, and it was hard to see for the flying snow.

“When the day was getting old and it was time to make a camp for the night, all at once they could see big dim bodies about them in the blowing snow, and it was a stray band of buffalo just standing there with their heads down. It was like dreaming about buffalo to see them, for the air was like a whirling fog, and night was coming. They did not seem to notice the men, and when Sharp Nose shot a cow back of the shoulder so that she dropped and did not get up, the others drifted away with the wind and were not there any more. It was like dreaming, but the dead cow was there anyway. So they had to skin the cow, and it was hard to do that because the wet hide froze their fingers. But before it was black dark, the skinning was done, and when they had taken some of the hump meat, the liver, and the bladder, they rolled the cow off the hide, and that was very hard for them to do. Then they found a bank that broke the wind, for they were following a creek that ran towards Crow country so that they might not get lost. There they dragged the fresh hide into a clump of brush and made a shelter of it. That helped them to make a fire, and when they had eaten all they wanted of the raw liver they felt good and slept. The wind died in the night, and in the still cold morning they walked again, taking the bladder, some hump meat and some tallow with them. I do not know how many camps they made, but afterwhile they came to the Greasy Grass [Little Big Horn] which is the Crow country. By now a great warm wind was coming from beyond the mountains, roaring all day and all night, and snow was melting on the slopes towards the sun. It was like the time when the tender grasses appear, but it was winter yet. And Sharp Nose said, ‘We will go on down the Greasy Grass, and maybe the Crows are camping on the Big Horn yonder; but we must be very careful.’ So they made a camp; and when they had eaten, they rested and slept until it was dark. Then they started walking again, Little Bear behind Sharp Nose. And when the day was coming, there was a ridge, and they went up there to look. It was the Big Horn yonder, and in the valley among trees there was a big Crow village, and the tepee tops were beginning to smoke. They were careful to keep from being seen, and when they had found a deep gully full of brush, with the big ridge between them and the village, they made a camp and even had a little fire. Then Sharp Nose said to the boy: ‘We have come to get back our horses; but you have seen that there are many people yonder. We have come a long way, and it would not be good to go back with only a story. We cannot steal all the horses we have lost. If we steal any, the Crows will follow us, and we shall die. So it will be just as well to die in there among them, and in the morning when we have gotten ready, we will go in there. And Little Bear said, ‘I came to go wherever you go and to die wherever you die.’ And Sharp Nose said to the boy, ‘You are a brave man. Now we will get ready.’

“So he began making a medicine bundle, and that was the first time the boy knew why Sharp Nose wanted the bladder and the tallow. Maybe he was too bashful to ask, because he was only a boy and Sharp Nose was a great warrior. Of course, Sharp Nose had his pipe with him, also some tobacco mixed with red willow bark. He kept these in a sack made of red flannel that he got from a trader, and he would need that also. So he mixed some sacred tobacco and red willow bark with the buffalo tallow, which was sacred too, because in his vision quest he had seen a spirit buffalo. Then he placed this in the buffalo’s bladder, and around the bladder he tied the red flannel; and red, you know, is a sacred color. This is the way he made a medicine bundle, and all tribes know that it is a very sacred thing. But when he had done this, he was not yet ready, for he had to take off his clothes and paint his body with sacred red paint. This he made by mixing tallow with some red paint dust that he always had with him. Last of all he fastened one eagle feather in his hair, so that it would hang down over the back of his neck.

“When he had done all this and was ready, the sun was high; and he said to Little Bear, ‘We will go into the village now. You will carry my clothes and gun and the bow and arrows, and you will follow after me.’ So they started.

“When they had crossed the top of the ridge, they saw many horses grazing on the slope and in the valley, and some of these they knew for the horses that had been stolen from their people. When they were about halfway down to the village, a Crow, who was out looking for some ponies, came riding out of a gulch all at once, and when he saw the naked man all painted red and the boy following after, he yelled and rode back fast to the village. But Sharp Nose went on walking towards the village with the medicine bundle on his back and his pipe in front of him, and behind him came Little Bear with the clothes and the gun and the bow and arrows in a bundle.

“Then there was shouting down yonder, and they saw that many Crow warriors were charging up the hill. When these came close and saw the naked man all painted red with the sacred bundle on his back and the pipe held out in front, they swung to one side and rode around him in a circle, for he was a mysterious man painted so and carrying the sacred bundle and the pipe; and each feared to strike him first. The boy was not mysterious, so they rode around him, crowding in to coup him many times, and the clothes and gun and bow and arrows they took away from him. They wanted to kill him because he was an enemy, but they were afraid to do that because he was the mysterious man’s helper and maybe something very bad might happen. While they were doing this, a chief who was among them got off his horse and went up to Sharp Nose, who just stood there holding the pipe in front of him with both hands. When the warriors saw the chief do this, they swarmed around the mysterious man. They were hungry dogs yelping and snarling because they smelled fresh meat; but somebody was keeping them away from it with a big club. The chief looked hard into the eyes of Sharp Nose for a while. Sharp Nose held the pipe tight and looked back just as hard. Then the chief reached for the pipe and took it; and when he held it up before the warriors, they quit yelling and fell back behind the boy, for there is sacred power in the pipe.