Many years ago
there lived in the Blood camp a boy named Screech Owl
(A'-tsi-tsi). He was rather a lonely boy, and did not
care to go with other boys. He liked better to be by
himself. Often he would go off alone, and stay out all
night away from the camp. He used to pray to all kinds
of birds and animals that he saw, and ask them to take
pity on him and help him, saying that he wanted to be a
warrior. He never used paint. He was a fine looking
young man, and he thought it was foolish to use paint to
make oneself good looking.
When Screech Owl was about fourteen
years old, a large party of Blackfeet were starting to
war against the Cree and the Assinaboine. The young man
said to his father: "Father, with this war party many of
my cousins are going. I think that now I am old enough
to go to war, and I would like to join them." His father
said, "My son, I am willing; you may go." So he joined
the party.
His father gave his son his own war
horse, a black horse with a white spot on its side a
very fast horse. He offered him arms, but the boy
refused them all, except a little trapping axe. He said,
"I think this hatchet will be all that I shall need."
Just as they were about to start, his father gave the
boy his own war headdress. This was not a war bonnet,
but a plume made of small feathers, the feathers of
thunder birds, for the thunder bird was his father's
medicine. He said to the boy, "Now, my son, when you go
into battle, put this plume in your head, and wear it as
I have worn it."
The party started and traveled
north-east, and at length they came to where Fort Pitt
now stands, on the Saskatchewan River. When they had got
down below Fort Pitt, they saw three riders, going out
hunting. These men had not seen the war party. The
Blackfeet started around the men, so as to head them off
when they should run. When they saw the men, the Screech
Owl got off his horse, and took off all his clothes, and
put on his father's war plume, and began to ride around,
singing his father's war song. The older warriors were
getting ready for the attack, and when they saw this
young boy acting in this way, they thought he was making
fun of the older men, and they said: "Here, look at this
boy! Has he no shame? He had better stay behind."
When they got on their horses, they told him to stay
behind, and they charged the Cree. But the boy, instead
of staying behind, charged with them, and took the lead,
for he had the best horse of all. He, a boy, was leading
the war party, and still singing his war song.
The three Cree began to run, and
the boy kept gaining on them. They did not want to
separate, they kept together; and as the boy was getting
closer and closer, the last one turned in his saddle and
shot at the Screech Owl, but missed him. As the Cree
fired, the boy whipped up his horse, and rode up beside
the Cree and struck him with his little trapping axe,
and knocked him off his horse. He paid no attention to
the man that he had struck, but rode on to the next
Cree. As he came up with him, the Cree raised his gun
and fired, but just as he did so, the Blackfoot dropped
down on the other side of his horse, and the ball passed
over him. He straightened up on his horse, rode up by
the Cree, and as he passed, knocked him off his horse
with his axe. When he knocked the second Cree off his
horse, the Blackfeet, who were following, whooped in
triumph and to encourage him, shouting, "A-wah-heh'"
(Take courage). The boy was still singing his father's
war song.
By this time, the main body of the
Blackfeet were catching up with him. He whipped his
horse on both sides, and rode on after the third Cree,
who was also whipping his horse as hard as he could, and
trying to get away. Meantime, some of the Blackfeet had
stopped to count coup on and scalp the two dead Cree,
and to catch the two ponies. Screech Owl at last got
near to the third Cree, who kept aiming his gun at him.
The boy did not want to get too close, until the Cree
had fired his gun, but he was gaining a little, and all
the time was throwing himself from side to side on his
horse, so as to make it harder for the Cree to hit him.
When he had nearly overtaken the enemy, the Cree turned,
raised his gun and fired; but the boy had thrown himself
down behind his horse, and again the ball passed over
him. He raised himself up on his horse, and rushed on
the Cree, and struck him in the side of the body with
his axe, and then again, and with the second blow, he
knocked him off his horse.
The boy rode on a little further,
stopped, and jumped off his horse, while the rest of the
Blackfeet had come up and were killing the fallen man.
He stood off to one side and watched them count coup on
and scalp the dead.
The Blackfeet were much surprised
at what the young man had done. After a little while,
the leader decided that they would go back to the camp
from which they had come. When he had returned from this
war journey this young man's name was changed from A'-tsi-tsi
to E-k[=u]s'-kini (Low Horn). This was his first war
path.
From that time on the name of E-k[=u]s'-kini
was often heard as that of one doing some great deed.
E-k[=u]s'-kini started on his last
war trail from the Black-foot crossing (Su-yoh-pah'-wah-ku).
He led a party of six Sarcees. He was the seventh man.
On the second day out, they came to
the Red Deer's River. When they reached this river, they
found it very high, so they built a raft to cross on.
They camped on the other side. In crossing, most of
their powder got wet. The next morning, when they awoke,
E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "Well, trouble is coming for us. We
had better go back from here. We started on a wrong day.
I saw in my sleep our bodies lying on the prairie,
dead." Some of the young men said: "Oh well, we have
started, we had better go on. Perhaps it is only a
mistake. Let us go on and try to take some horses
anyhow." E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "Yes, that is very true.
To go home is all foolishness; but remember that it is
by your wish that we are going on." He wanted to go
back, not on his own account, but for the sake of his
young men to save his followers.
From there they went on and made
another camp, and the next morning he said to his young
men: "Now I am sure. I have seen it for certain. Trouble
is before us." They camped two nights at this place and
dried some of their powder, but most of it was caked and
spoilt. He said to his young men: "Here, let us use some
sense about this. We have no ammunition. We cannot
defend ourselves. Let us turn back from here." So they
started across the country for their camp.
They crossed the Red Deer's River,
and there camped again. The next morning E-k[=u]s'-kini
said: "I feel very uneasy today. Two of you go ahead on
the trail and keep a close lookout. I am afraid that
today we are going to see our enemy." Two of the young
men went ahead, and when they had climbed to the top of
a ridge and looked over it on to Sarvis Berry
(Saskatoon) Creek, they came back and told E-k[=u]s'-kini
that they had seen a large camp of people over there,
and that they thought it was the Piegans, Bloods,
Blackfeet, and Sarcees, who had all moved over there
together. Saskatoon Creek was about twenty miles from
the Blackfoot camp. He said: "No, it cannot be our
people. They said nothing about moving over here; it
must be a war party. It is only a few days since we
left, and there was then no talk of their leaving that
camp. It cannot be they." The two young men said: "Yes,
they are our people. There are too many of them for a
war party. We think that the whole camp is there." They
discussed this for some little time, E-k[=u]s'-kini
insisting that it could not be the Blackfoot camp, while
the young men felt sure that it was. These two men said,
"Well, we are going on into the camp now." Low Horn
said: "Well, you may go. Tell my father that I will come
into the camp tonight. I do not like to go in the
daytime, when I am not bringing back anything with me."
It was now late in the afternoon,
and the two young men went ahead toward the camp,
travelling on slowly. A little after sundown, they came
down the hill on to the flat of the river, and saw there
the camp. They walked down toward it, to the edge of the
stream, and there met two women, who had come down after
water. The men spoke to them in Sarcee, and said, "Where
is the Sarcee camp?" The women did not understand them,
so they spoke again, and asked the same question in
Blackfoot. Then these two women called out in the Cree
language, "Here are two Blackfeet, who have come here
and are talking to us." When these men heard the women
talk Cree, and saw what a mistake they had made, they
turned and ran away up the creek. They ran up above camp
a short distance, to a place where a few willow bushes
were hanging over the stream, and pushing through these,
they hid under the bank, and the willows above concealed
them. The people in the camp came rushing out, and men
ran up the creek, and down, and looked everywhere for
the two enemies, but could find nothing of them.
Now when these people were running
in all directions, hunting for these two men, E-k[=u]s'-kini
was coming down the valley slowly with the four other
Sarcees. He saw some Indians coming toward him, and
supposed that they were some of his own people, coming
to meet him, with horses for him to ride. At length,
when they were close to him, and E-k[=u]s'-kini could
see that they were the enemy, and were taking the covers
off their guns, he jumped to one side and stood alone
and began to sing his war song. He called out, "Children
of the Crees, if you have come to try my manhood, do
your best." In a moment or two he was surrounded, and
they were shooting at him from all directions. He called
out again, "People, you can't kill me here, but I will
take my body to your camp, and there you shall kill me."
So he advanced, fighting his way toward the Cree camp,
but before he started, he killed two of the Crees there.
His enemies kept coming up and clustering about him:
some were on foot and some on horseback. They were thick
about him on all sides, and they could not shoot much at
him, for fear of killing their own people on the other
side.
One of the Sarcees fell. E-k[=u]s'-kini
said to his men, "A-wah-heh'" (Take courage). "These
people cannot kill us here. Where that patch of
choke-cherry brush is, in the very centre of their camp,
we will go and take our stand." Another Sarcee fell, and
now there were only three of them. E-k[=u]s'-kini said
to his remaining men: "Go straight to that patch of
brush, and I will fight the enemy off in front and at
the sides, and so will keep the way open for you. These
people cannot kill us here. There are too many of their
own people. If we can get to that brush, we will hurt
them badly." All this time they were killing enemies,
fighting bravely, and singing their war songs. At last
they gained the patch of brush, and then with their
knives they began to dig holes in the ground, and to
throw up a shelter.
In the Cree camp was K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s
(Round), the chief of the Crees, who could talk
Blackfoot well. He called out: "E-k[=u]s'-kini, there is
a little ravine running out of that brush patch, which
puts into the hills. Crawl out through that, and try to
get away. It is not guarded." E-k[=u]s'-kini replied:
"No, Children of the Crees, I will not go. You must
remember that it is E-k[=u]s'-kini that you are fighting
with a man who has done much harm to your people. I am
glad that I am here. I am sorry for only one thing; that
is, that my ammunition is going to run out. Tomorrow you
may kill me."
All night long the fight was kept
up, the enemy shooting all the time, and all night long
E-k[=u]s'-kini sang his death song. K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s
called to him several times: "E-k[=u]s'-kini, you had
better do what I tell you. Try to get away." But he
shouted back, "No," and laughed at them. He said: "You
have killed all my men. I am here alone, but you cannot
kill me." K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, the chief, said:
"Well, if you are there at daylight in the morning, I
will go into that brush and will catch you with my
hands. I will be the man who will put an end to you."
E-k[=u]s'-kini said: "K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, do not try
to do that. If you do, you shall surely die." The patch
of brush in which he had hidden had now been all shot
away, cut off by the bullets of the enemy.
When day came, E-k[=u]s'-kini
called out: "Eh, K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s, it is broad
daylight now. I have run out of ammunition. I have not
another grain of powder in my horn. Now come and take me
in your hands, as you said you would." K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s
answered: "Yes, I said that I was the one who was going
to catch you this morning. Now I am coming."
He took off all his clothes, and
alone rushed for the breastworks. E-k[=u]s'-kini's
ammunition was all gone, but he still had one load in
his gun, and his dagger. K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s came on
with his gun at his shoulder, and E-k[=u]s'-kini sat
there with his gun in his hand, looking at the man who
was coming toward him with the cocked gun pointed at
him. He was singing his death song. As K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s
got up close, and just as he was about to fire, E-k[=u]s'-kini
threw up his gun and fired, and the ball knocked off the
Cree chiefs forefinger, and going on, entered his right
eye and came out at the temple, knocking the eye out.
K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s went down, and his gun flew a
long way.
When K[)o]m-in'-[)a]-k[=u]s fell,
the whole camp shouted the war whoop, and cried out,
"This is his last shot," and they all charged on him.
They knew that he had no more ammunition.
The head warrior of the Cree was
named Bunch of Lodges. He was the first man to jump
inside the breastworks. As he sprang inside, E-k[=u]s'-kini
met him, and thrust his dagger through him, and killed
him on the spot. Then, as the enemy threw themselves on
him, and he began to feel the knives stuck into him from
all sides, he gave a war whoop and laughed, and said,
"Only now I begin to think that I am fighting." All the
time he was cutting and stabbing, jumping backward and
forward, and all the time laughing. When he was dead,
there were fifteen dead Crees lying about the
earthworks. E-k[=u]s'-kini body was cut into small
pieces and scattered all over the country, so that he
might not come to life again.
That morning, before it was
daylight, the two Sarcees who had hidden in the willows
left their hiding-place and made their way to the
Blackfoot camp. When they got there, they told that when
they had left the Cree camp E-k[=u]s'kini was
surrounded, and the firing was terrible. When E-k[=u]s'-kini's
father heard this, he got on his horse and rode through
the camp, calling out: "My boy is surrounded; let us
turn out and go to help him. I have no doubt they are
many tens to one, but he is powerful, and he may be
fighting yet." No time was lost in getting ready, and
soon a large party started for the Cree camp. When they
came to the battle-ground, the camp had been moved a
long time. The old man looked about, trying to gather up
his son's body, but it was found only in small pieces,
and not more than half of it could be gathered up.
After the fight was over, the Crees
started on down to go to their own country. One day six
Crees were travelling along on foot, scouting far ahead.
As they were going down into a little ravine, a grizzly
bear jumped up in front of them and ran after them. The
bear overtook, and tore up, five of them, one after
another. The sixth got away, and came home to camp. The
Crees and the Blackfeet believe that this was the spirit
of E-k[=u]s'-kini, for thus he comes back. They think
that he is still on the earth, but in a different shape.
E-k[=u]s'-kini was killed about
forty years ago. When he was killed, he was still a boy,
not married, only about twenty-four years old.
Blackfoot Mythology |