To the American Indian

by Lucy Thompson

A BEAR STORY.

Many years ago the Indians were warring among themselves at the village of Hop-paw, near the mouth of the river. A portion of them whipped the others and those who were defeated in the battle moved away from there and went back in the mountains to live, while the victorious warriors also left the Village for a few days’ stay at a place known as Si-alth.

While the Indians were all away, a bear strayed into the village and went into one of the Indian houses where he discovered a very large basket filled with beautiful Indian dresses and strings of Indian money and other Indian ornaments. He was very happy when he discovered this basket and began to take the things out and look them over carefully. As he came to the dresses he would try each one on and then dance, but he could not seem to find one that suited his idea of fashion. He kept on throwing the dresses aside as he pulled them off. He wanted one that rattled as he danced. At last he found the one he wanted, for when he put it on and danced the shells began to rattle, as there were a great many on the dress. As he danced, to his great delight, the shells rang like music in his ears, and well satisfied with the dress he pulled it off and put it back in the basket with all the other articles. After he had finished storing them away in the basket he began to tear up the earthen floor, and scatter things all over the house. After doing all the damage he could he shouldered the large basket and started for the woods, and traveled some distance to a large hollow redwood tree. He decided to stop here and put on the dress with many shells and put it on, and began to dance and sing, having a glorious time all by himself, as he had no comrades to join him in the fun. This is the song he sang while he danced: Ho-wen-ah-a, ho-wen-ah-a, nah-hay, nah-hay. After he had danced for some time, he became so tired that he could no longer sing. The dress began to weigh so heavily upon him that he became exhausted but he managed to keep on dancing, he loved to hear the music of the shells as he danced about.

After visiting for several days at Si-alth the Indians returned to their homes at Hop-pow. When they reached the village they discovered that everything had been turned topsy-turvey in one of the houses, and that the large basket of Indian dresses were missing. They at once suggested that some of their enemies had returned while they were away and stolen the things, and they all followed in hot pursuit to recover the stolen articles. But they could find no trace of them, and in despair gave up the chase. Some of them made a closer inspection of the house and this time they were sure they saw bear tracks in the soft ground. The Indians now followed the bear tracks closely, which led them to the large redwood tree, and as they approached it they could see that it was hollow and had a large roomy place inside, and glancing in they saw the bear dancing, dressed in one of the dresses. One of the smaller boys became tired watching the bear and asked if he might go up near the tree and the older Indians decided to let him go and asked him to try to get the dresses away from the bear. The boy agreed, and went up until he was afraid to go nearer. The bear’s attention was now attracted to the boy, and he saw at once that the Indians had discovered his hiding place, and stopped dancing and left the tree, carrying with him the Indian dresses, determined to take them to his own home, which was in a tree top near by. This tree was hollow up its trunk and in the top of this hollow the bear made his home. He tugged with all his might at the huge basket but it was so large he could not pull it through the hollow to his nest, and when he saw that he could not pull it through it made him mad and he tried to dig the tree up by the roots. He dug so rapidly that he soon found he had dug a cave under the tree, and being fatigued from his strenuous efforts he seized the basket and pulled it after him into the cave. Once in there he thought himself secure from the Indians. As the bear disappeared into the cave with the basket, all the Indians ventured up near the tree, they began talking as to what they would do, being very anxious to recover the things as it meant a great loss of riches if they could not recover them again. They finally agreed they would kindle a fire at the mouth of the cave and smoke the bear out of his den, so they gathered up a large pile of wood and dry branches and made a fire. The Indians lined up ready for him when he came out. The owner of the articles was an old man and he took his place near the cave, with his bow drawn, ready to shoot the bear, but his arrow did not wound the bear fatally and the bear seized him and crushed him to death. The enraged bear then turned upon the other Indians, but at last he sank to the ground riddled with arrows. They recovered the basket of dresses and returned home in a mournful procession, for one of their members had departed to the spirit land. The bear in his wild revelry had also lost his life.

THE WOOING OF ROBIN RED-BREAST.

Long centuries ago before the world was inhabited by very many people, Robin Red-breast lived as a handsome young man by himself in a magnificent mansion on the Klamath River. This skeptical young man always laughed mockingly at the suggestion of matrimony, as he was very rich and kept many servants about. In fact he kept a servant for each room of his splendid mansion.

He would often go by himself on moonlight strolls by the river or walk in the sunrise in early morning through the woods. The young maidens would catch a glimpse of him as he passed their windows, or as they peeked from out the bushes at him, admiring all the charms of his physical manhood. But proud young Red-breast would walk haughtily by them whenever he chanced to meet them and positively refused to accept any of their attentions that they were so eager to bestow upon him. Every maiden that chanced to catch a glimpse of him imagined herself in love with him, and her lonely heart would invariably yearn for his love that he might make her happy.

The laws of olden times were very different from the laws of today. It was the rule then that when a young maid fell in love with a youth, it was her place to go and call on him first at his home, also to propose matrimony, unless the young man preferred to do so himself, then it was proper that he should. This was true in the case of Red-breast, as in the days of yore, when a young man returned a woman’s affections he would accept her love and make her his wife. And if he did not return her affections he would refuse to consider her proposal of marriage.

Many young ladies called each day at Red-breast’s home, seeking the loving devotion that he might bestow upon them. He always kept a door usher to announce the arrival of any young lady that would call to seek his acquaintance, and desire to unite her fortune with his. The later was usually her purpose in view wishing a private interview. Red-breast gave strict orders to the usher not to admit any young lady that might call inside the door of his mansion, and besides he could never show her into his presence without consulting him first. When the usher would announce to Red-breast that a young lady was at the door wishing to interview him, Red-breast would always ask the kind and color of her dress, if the usher replied that she wore a suit of teach-ah-me-tah, he was told to send her away as he did not wish to see her.

One by one the girls came to the mansion in hopes of securing an interview, but to their great disappointment they were all turned away from the door. One can imagine how many poor broken hearts followed each other as they had been dismissed from the door of love to go forth into the lonely world to weep. Some of these girls were foolish enough to shut themselves in dark cells, that they might never be seen by the man who ruined their hopes of a happy wedded life. Other compassionate souls threw themselves into the sea, that their early sorrows and disappointments might be ended forever. Poor deluded girls, if they had only known how little Red-breast cared for their miseries and how he mocked them in his mansion they would never even have considered him as worthy of notice. However, many of the girls were not so foolish as to destroy all their future happiness but forgot the mocking Red-breast and sought other lovers whom they married and were very happy.