Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1914 — BLACKFEET'S SACRED FESTIVAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BLACKFEET'S SACRED FESTIVAL

ICTURE to yourself a vast treeless plain with high jpSr's snow capped mountains I in the distance. On this ypr } level stretch of ground Inill/<B>i dian te P ees are arranged in a semi-circle. Some | I are white, others are i(vv\ yellow or red or brown. 11l I At one side two tall trees are stripped of their {branches. This is for the ceremonies of the medicine lodge. There is •a motley crowd of Indians on (foot and on horseback. Mingling {With them are white men and women ifrom the adjoining country. All are massed around a circular rope fence, Inside of which the Blackfeet Indians •re holding their annual festival with stories and sacred dances. If you were in Montana last June this is what you would have witnessed when 2,000 Piegan Indians from Canada and this country held at Browning, the Indian reservation just outaide of the Glacier National Park, their remarkably festival. The varicolored tepees held members of many rtribes of The dances which were witnessed are old, old, so ancient that the Indian cannot tell when •they started. The beaded jackets, etrange feathered headdress, medicine (bags and deerskin suits which Indian chiefs wear cannot be purchased for {money and the strange chants are jhanded down from father to son. If you press closer to the rope IJTence and mingle more freely with |the onlookers you will see among the crowd white men in khaki suits, high boots, sombreros, and white women {watching the dances, which last for four or five days and which afford the Indian an opportunity to renew 4tequalniances and go through religious ceremonies. Perhaps by your side is a young '.lndian girl on a pony with trappings sos beadwork; next ter brer is a New 'York society woman, and jogging elTk>ws with her is an old Indian •squaw with blanket or beaded cape •and black hair braided down her back. In her arms she holds a blinkling Indian baby, strapped to the back board and swathed in embroidered .and beaded blankets which lace together. On the Outskirts of the crowd are Indians sitting on horses to which are attached the travels for carrying burdens, for they may have come a long distance. Over all, the onlookers, the dancing chiefs, the ißinging and swaying IndiStns, the hot tsun beats down. Then suddenly the chiefs cease to chant. Several other leaders of the tribe push into the circle and begin a rhythmic song. Tomtoms are beaten, •the Indian braves shout ard leap, coming down always on the gorund «n a certain beat of the music. The {lndian women, leaping to their feet, ijoln in a circle that retolves and reTolves and produces a hypnotic influence which in some cases seizes the white onlookers. These Blackfeet Indians with their love songs, their wolf songs, Sioux celebration songs, game eongs and tribal hymns fascinate you. Their dances, the sun dance, the (grain dance, the grass dance, are

among the most interesting given by the Indians. Though some of these redmen may ordinarily dress in the store clothes of the white man they are all interested enough in their tribal dances to assume their ancestral garb when the dance and song festivals occur. They look upon many of these ceremonies as having religious character expressive of their beliefs. The sun dance as given by them always has its beginning in a woman’s prayer for the recovery of the, sick and the whole tribe come together to fulfil vows, to fast and to pray, as well as to seek what diversion dancing affords. The chief dancer of these Indians is Chief Fish Wolf Robe. He has many handsome costumes. Some of them are of buckskin with necklace of many strands of beads and leggins and moccasins ornamented with porcupine quills. Another chief may wear a war bonnet of feathers tipped with stained horsehair. Otter and mink skins are woven in and out and the animals’ tails hang down behind. Bracelets and leggins of tanned deer skin ornamented with porcupine quills are common. The Blackfeet Indians have from time immemorial known of a wonderful trail which runs north and south along the Rocky mountains. According to authorities who have gained the confidence of the chiefs, no one knows bow old this trail is. It is called the “Old North Trail” and is worn deep by the feet of travelers. Though it is not used much now since railroads have come, the deep ruts still show amid weeds and mosses. This trail runs at a uniform distance from the Rockies, passes near where the city of Helena now stands and extends south as far as Mexico. The road has been frequented by Canadian Indians as well as American redmen and it forks where Calgary stands in Canada. This Old North trail has many traditions connected with it and stories are told of expeditions of Canadian Indians who went south to the dark skinned people (Mexicans), It took 12 moons of steady traveling. There are many legends in Glacier National Park connected with the early life of the Blackfeet tribe. One of these is associated with the beautiful Two Medicine lakes. Here Is the story as told by a Blackfeet chief: “Many years ago there was a famine in the land of the Blackfeet, which is set down by my father from 1835 to 1837. At that time the Blackfeet Indians owned everything from Hudson bay to the Rocky mountains, and In all that land there was no green spot except in the valley that is called Two Medicine. Even the buffalo left the country because there was no food for them and the Indians that sought refuge in the mountains found no game or anything to eat except berries. “Then the old men of the tribe with? drew to the vallpy that Is now called Two Medicine and built there two medicine lodges, so great was their need. They worshiped the Great Spirit and prayed to be told what they should do to be saved from the

famine. And the Great Spirit heard them and directed them to send seven of their patriarchs to the Chief mountain, where the, wind god was then residing. “They followed these directions and seven of their oldest men retired to Chief mountain, and there surely was the wind god. He stood at the summit of the mountain and the wings extending from his shoulders spread wide over the valleys. He faced north, east, south and west and his wings quivered as he stood. The old men worshiped him from afar but were afraid to come near him to make their prayers, and after their long journey they went back empty handed to their people. “Then the medicine men directed them to send 14 of their strongest and bravest young warriors to intercede with the wind god. These young men also when they reached the mountain and saw the wind god were afraid, but they drew nearer and nearer to him and finally they dared to touch the skins he was wearing. They made their prayer to him and he listened and his wings quivered and quivered and gradually clouds began to gather over the plains and the rain fell a 3 if in a deluge. He stretched one wing wide over the plain telling them to go back there and they would find the buffalo. “The warriors then descended to the valley and brought the good news to their people, and they found that already the buffalo had come back and the famine was broken. And ever afterward the valley was called the Valley of the Two Medicine in memory of the medicine lodges that were there erected to the Great Spirit in the time of famine.”