Calendar of Moons
“The first moon of winter (November) is the ‘wind-moon,’ or ‘time of the first big snow.’
“Last of December and early January, ‘moon of the first warm wind’ (chinook).
“January, ‘moon when the jack rabbit whistles at night.’
“February, ‘moon of heavy snows,’ or ‘when buffalo calves are black.’
“March, ‘moon of sore eyes,’ or ‘moon when the geese fly north.’
“April, ‘moon when ice breaks up in the rivers.’
“The spring moon has different names—‘time when the trees are budding,’ ‘when buffalo calves are yellow,’ ‘when the buffalo plant is in flower,’ ‘when the grass begins to grow.’
“May, ‘moon when the leaves come out.’
“June, ‘moon of high water.’
“Late June and July, ‘moon of flowers,’ ‘when strawberries get ripe.’
“We call August, ‘home days.’
“September, ‘moon when the leaves turn yellow.’
“October, ‘moon when the leaves fall.’
“Last of October and early November, ‘moon when the geese fly south.’
“My father used to sit by the lodge-fire on long winter evenings and tell us stories and the wonderful things that happened in his life. He told about the Stars and the Sun and the Moon, saying:
The Bunched Stars
“There is a family of small stars in the sky; we call them Bunched Stars. They are some children that got lost from an Indian camp on the plains long ago.
“This happened in the spring, the moon when the buffalo [[229]]calves are yellow. Some hunters were driving buffalo over a cliff. When they went back to camp, they gave the little yellow skins of the buffalo calves to their children, who wore them in playing.
“There was a poor family in the camp, whose children did not get any of the calfskins; and the others made fun of them.
“Then the poor children were ashamed, because they were not dressed like the others. They ran away from the camp and got lost on the plains. They had no place to go, so they went up to the sky. We know they are the Bunched Stars (Pleiades), because they never show themselves in the spring—the time buffalo calves are yellow. But, in the fall, when the calves are brown, you can see the Bunched Stars in the sky every night.”
The Seven Stars (Ursa Major)
“There is a constellation in the north sky we call the Seven Stars. They belonged to a family of nine children, two girls and seven boys. The oldest girl had many suitors, but she would not marry. She went every day into the forest to gather wood.
“One day her little sister followed; and when they were in the forest together, the older girl left her and went off alone. She stayed a long while and came back with her clothes covered with earth and leaves. The younger girl said to herself: ‘There is something my sister does when she goes alone; and now I shall find out.’ Next day she followed secretly; she saw her sister having a good time with a big grizzly bear; and came home and told her father.
“Then the father was angry. He said to his oldest daughter: ‘Now I know why you do not marry any of our young men; you have a grizzly bear for your lover.’
“He went through the camp and called to the people: ‘I have a grizzly bear for a son-in-law; he waits near by in the [[230]]forest; let us all go forth and kill him.’ So they went out and killed him.
“Then the girl stood by the body of her bear lover and mourned. His spirit came to her in a dream and bestowed his supernatural power upon her. After that she wore a piece of his skin for a charm and could do wonderful things.
“One day she suddenly changed herself into a big grizzly bear. She went through the camp and killed all the people; she spared only her little brother and sister. And the three of them lived together. But all this time the six older brothers were away on the warpath.
“One day the little sister went to the river with her water pails and met the brothers coming home from war. She told them about Bear-Skin-Woman—how she had killed all the people and would surely kill them too.
“Then the brothers planned to save their little brother and sister. They gathered prickly pears and scattered them in the dark, leaving only a narrow path from the tepee. That night the two children ran away in the dark and joined their waiting brothers by the river.
“As soon as Bear-Skin-Woman knew they had gone, she turned herself into a grizzly bear and followed them. But the prickly pears got into her feet and she had to stop to pull them out.
“It turned out that the little brother, whose name was Body Chief, was a medicine man with great power. He carried a bow with magical arrows and wore an eagle feather in his hair. When he heard their bear sister coming, he took his feather and made a lake between them and the bear; again he made a thicket to hold her back; and another time they all climbed into a tree.
“When the bear came to the tree, she said: ‘Now where can you go? I am going to kill all of you.’
“She climbed into the tree and knocked six of the brothers [[231]]down; only Body Chief and his little sister were left. Then a little bird lighted in the tree near Body Chief and sang:
“ ‘Shoot her in the top-knot.
Shoot her in the top-knot.
You must shoot the top of her head.’
“By this time the bear was near Body Chief, so he took one of his magical arrows and shot her. She fell dead, and Body Chief came down from the tree.
“Now six of the brothers were dead. But Body Chief shot six of his arrows into the air. Each time he brought a brother back to life, until they were all alive again.
“Then Body Chief said: ‘Now what shall we do? Our relatives and friends are all dead and we have no place to go.’
“The oldest brother said: ‘Let us go to the sky and become seven stars in the north. Then people will always know that the morning comes from us.’
“So Body Chief took one of his eagle feathers. He waved it over his head, and the brothers went up to the sky one after the other. They took the same places they had in the tree, with the four oldest at the bottom. Body Chief, the medicine man, is the end star in the constellation, and their little sister the small star at one side. Every night you can see the brothers move around the sky, until their heads are up in the morning. And that is how the Seven Stars (Ursa Major) came to be.”
Then Brings-Down-the-Sun arose and pointing to the bright constellation in the north, said: “Behold! The last brother is pointing down towards the prairie and the light of day will soon come.” [[232]]
CHAPTER XXXIII
LEGENDS OF STAR BOY AND SCARFACE
Our last evening in the North Piegan camp many Indians came to visit. So we gathered logs and built up the fire, until the flames lighted up our white tepees and the surrounding woods.
Brings-Down-the-Sun took his customary seat on a log by our fire and silently smoked his redstone pipe. The fire burned low and there came a silence. I heard the last birds chirping in the thickets and frogs croaking in a near-by swamp. Finally I asked the old chief to tell about two bright stars (Venus and Jupiter) then in conjunction; they rose in the early morning before the sun. He knocked the ashes from his pipe, and for a moment gazed meditatively into the fire. Then he said:
“The things I am going to tell you happened long ago, long before we had the Sun Dance; when our people used stone weapons and had dogs instead of horses for beasts of burden.