The dogs belonging to an Indian camp or village are numerous and often nearly starved. Whenever a stranger makes his appearance, his coming is announced by furious barks and howls of these hungry sentinels. The white hunter has reason to dread the attacks of these dogs, for they are much like the coyotes and wolves of the forests. Unless his gun is ready, or their masters call them back, it is usually best for the stranger to find refuge in a tree; but the braves, squaws, and children give the white visitor a kind welcome as soon as they know that his visit is friendly. [[35]]
MEANING OF INDIAN TOTEMS AND NAMES
An Indian, while hunting, followed a bear a long way into the forest. The rain came and he was lost, so he cut the bark from a tree and made with his tomahawk a picture of a fox. He put a ring under one foot in the picture. He belonged to the Fox tribe and had been lost one day. He made more such marks on the trees as he went on.
Another hunter from the same tribe found him after three days. He had trailed him by the little marks on the trees; by bent twigs and branches; by his footprints in the mud or sand. He knew the lost one was very weak and hungry, for the last fox picture had three circles to show that he had been lost three days, and other marks to show that he had shot nothing. An untrained white hunter would not have seen one sign of the lost Indian. [[36]]
If the Fox Indian had been asked why he used the fox picture, he would have said, if ready to talk: “My grandfather was a fox.” This would mean to us that his totem or first ancestor was a fox.
Other tribes believe they are descended from bears, wolves, cranes, or other creatures. They nearly all have their totems, or sign-pictures. We write our names with letters; they use pictures. It is their coat-of-arms. Our names also have meanings.
The tall, curiously carved totem poles of Alaska are really carved family histories. Where two or more animals are pictured on one pole it shows the marriage or other union of different bands to which the family belongs. These totem poles are usually put up before each native house. The natives will not sell them, for they are valuable family records.
A Dakota warrior shot an arrow into the sky; the clouds parted just as his arrow turned to fall. He was thought to have shot the clouds; he was called Hole-in-the-sky.