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Show i HLv? 'K . : .-, ; . 'i'v! J- l r a..'J''f : , v jr ' 1 T'" ' 4 ' ' - o -i- A f' faraine- An3 the Great Spirit heard i ''v ''i i y. SSt' them and directed them to send seven ' :''"., v? ' " S'l-i of 'b6'1" patriarchs to the Chief dioud- 1 ' -' ' J . TTif 7V7lfrzJe?1 J V tain, where the wind god was then " N residing. i 019. IC.T':RIZ to yourself a vast treeless plain with high snow capped mountains Py i" the distance. On this K.ii j level stretch of ground In--'ifi '";U1 ,,'l;j'3 are arranged r I' tl' a sem'"eircle. Some I are white, others are A i", yellow or red or brown. I I At one side two tall trees ' are stripped of their brunches. 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 from the adjoining country. All are massed around a circular rope fence, iaside of which the Blackfeet Indians are 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 W'gan Indians from Canada Can-ada and this country held at Browning, Brown-ing, the Indian reservation just outside out-side of the Glacier National Park, their remarkably festival. The varicolored vari-colored tepees held members of many tribes of Indians. The dances which were witnessed are old. old, so ancient an-cient that the Indian cannot tell when they started. The beaded jackets, Btrange feathered headdress, medicine bags and deerskin suits which Indian chiefs wear cannot be purchased for money and the strange chants are handed down from father tc son. If you press closer to the rope fence and mingle more freely with the onlookers you will see among the crowd white men in khaki salts, high boots, sombreros, and white women watching the dances, which last for four or five days and which afford the Iudian an opportunity to renew acquaintances and go through religious religi-ous ceremonies. Perhaps by your side is a young Indian girl on a pony with trappings i of beadwork: next to her is a Ntw York society woman, and jogging elbows el-bows with her is an old Indian squaw wun Dianket or Deaded cape and black hair braided down her back. In her arms she holds a bllnk-fng bllnk-fng Indian baby, strapped to the back board and swathed in embroidered and beaded blankets which lace together. to-gether. On the outskirts of the crowd are Indians sitting on horses to which are attached the travois for carrying burdens, for they may have come a long distance. Over all. the J onlookers, the dancing chiefs, the j singing and swaying Indians, the hot sun 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 and lea, j coming down always on the gorund ; on a certain beat of the music. The j Indian women, leaping to their feet. J Join in a circle that revolves and re- j volves and produces a hypnotic influ- j ence which in some cases seizes the ! white onlookers. I These F'.ackfeet Indians with their ! love songs, their wolf songs. Sioux i celebration songs, children's game : songs and tribal hymns fascinate yon. . Their dances, the sun dance, the grain dance, the grass dance, are j 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 ail interested enough in their tribal dances to assume their ancestral ances-tral 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-gether to fulfil vows, to fast and to pray, as well as to seek what diversion diver-sion dancing affords. The chief dancer of these Indians Is Chief Fish Wolf Robe. lie has many handsome costumes. Some of them ! are of buckskin ' with necklace of j many strands of beads and leggins and moccasins ornamented with porcu-I porcu-I pine quills. Another chief may wear s war bonnei Cf feathers tipped with stained horsehair. Otter and mink skins are woven in and out and the animals' tails hang down behind. Bracelets and leggins x.f tanned deer skin ornamented with porcupine quills are common. The Blackfeet Indians have from time immemorial known of a wonderful wonder-ful trail which runs north and south along the Rocky mountains. According Accord-ing to authorities w-ho have gained the confidence of the chiefs, no one knows how 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 o Helena now stands and extends south as far as Mexico. The road has been frequented by Canadian Indians as well as American Ameri-can redmen and it forks where Calgary Cal-gary stands in Canada. This Old North trail has many traditions con nected with it and stories are told of expeditions of Canadian Indians who went south to the dark skinned people peo-ple (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 fs associated with the beautiful beau-tiful Two Medicine lakes. Here is the story as told by a Blackfeet chief: "Many years ago there was a famine fa-mine in the land of the Blackfeet, which' is set down by my father from 1S35 to I83T. At that time the Blackfeet Black-feet 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 In-dians that sought refuge In the mountains moun-tains found no game or anything to eat except berries. "Then the old men of the tribe withdrew with-drew to the valley that is now called Two Medicine and built there two ! medicine lodges, so great was their ' need. They worshiped the Great j Spirit and prayed to be told what j they should do to be saved from the I famine. And the Great Spirit heard i them and directed them to send seven of their patriarchs to the Chief mountain, moun-tain, where the wind god was then residing. "They followed these directions ant seven of their oldest men retired to Chief mountain, and there surely was the wind god. He stood at the summit sum-mit 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 as 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 Spir-it in the time of famine." |