Then White Calf went to the Sioux camp and told them to remain. He warned the Government agent that his tribe would go on the warpath if their visitors were not allowed to stay; and the venerable head-chief had his way.
For sixty years White Calf roamed the plains, happy in his freedom. His tribe were free to wander from the Saskatchewan River to the Yellowstone in the south. Their hunting-grounds extended over thousands of square miles, and their war expeditions roamed as far south as Mexico. The conquering white men came. The herds of buffalo suddenly disappeared; and the Indians were confined to a reservation by the white men. Then White Calf advised his people not to fight, but to adapt themselves to their new conditions of living.
White Calf had three wives who were sisters. When I first met him, two of his wives were living, Catches-Two-Horses and Black-Snake-Woman. His first wife, the oldest of the sisters, was dead. Her grave was on a high hill near his home.
One day I went with Little Creek to White Calf’s lodge and found Catches-Two-Horses. She was a fine type of Indian woman, a good mother, industrious and conscientious. She had been sacred woman in the Sun Dance and was beloved by all for her generosity and kindness of heart.
When we entered the lodge, Little Creek said: “Our white brother wants you to tell about the past.” And Catches-Two-Horses answered: “Tales of the past should only be told after dark. I might become blind if I tell them in the daytime.”
Her son Two Guns and his wife, a daughter of Little Dog the war chief, were also at home. She was young and lively; [[87]]like her father, she was always smiling. There were also visitors present from the north—a Blood Indian and his wife whom they called Sarcee Face. She was a wit and kept them laughing. She told about a swarm of bees attacking her while in the middle of a river; her face was still swollen from their stings. So I advised her to go to the river bank and cover the wounds with soft mud. She came back astonished at the success of my strange remedy. Then she made the rest laugh by saying: “I have a brother who is always being stung by bees. I am going to roll him in the mud when I get home.”
I asked Catches-Two-Horses to tell about the Sun Dance. The lively young wife of Two Guns laughed and said:
“He wants to find out about the Sun Dance, because he thinks of taking an Indian wife and will want to give the ceremony himself.” Sarcee Face made them laugh again by saying to me:
“You would make a funny medicine man. They would take off your clothes and paint you black all over; your white skin would show through and you would be a pink-looking medicine man.”
By this time Catches-Two-Horses was ready to talk. She made an end of the joking when she said: