Long ago a favorite camp site of Assiniboines was south of the
present Jack Norris Coulee. It is 22 miles north of Frazier on the little
Porcupine Creek.


That night she was finishing the rendering of the
grease. Because she did not have lights to work with, she
took a long willow and made it into a torch. The torch was
made by dipping one end into grease and lighting it. She
took the unlighted end and pushed it down the back of her
dress. This gave her light to work by.

The old woman heard some
sounds outside. She looked out and
saw eight enemy warriors. She
was sure they were planning
to kill her. She thought of an idea
to escape. She put some green
wood on her fire and invited the
warriors in to eat pemmican.


When the hunters brought in buffalo, the women prepared much of
the meat for winter by drying it.

They would cut the meat into thin slices. These slices were hung on
arack. A smudge fire was built under the meat. The fire did not cook the
meat, instead the smoke kept flies and other insects away from the meat
while it was drying. It also provided a pleasant taste to the meat. Once the
meat was dry, it could be stored for several months.


This was a large encampment. The hunters hunted buffalo in a
radius of about twenty miles.


Game became scarce, and it was decided that the camp would move.
Scouts had located a place where game was abundant. Everyone began
packing to move.

An old woman in the camp was not ready to move because she was in
the process of making grease. She told the others, “Go on. Iam going to
stay and finish before I follow you.”




The old woman led them toward the high cliff. As
they got closer, she threw the torch over the cliff. She ran
to the side and hid.

The warriors did not know the cliff was there. They
were running as fast as they could toward the light and
went over the edge of the cliff.



green wood was beginning to fill the inside with smoke. She told
them she was going outside to open the flaps of the tepee to let the
smoke out. Once outside, she began running toward a high cliff.
When she didn’t return, one of the warriors looked out. He
spotted her immediately because she still had the torch on her
back. The young warrior told the others, “She’s getting away!”
They all ran after her.

The warriors accepted her invitation and came inside. The ( 1 uf
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The buffalo hide was also prepared by
the women. To prepare the hide, it was first
stretched and pegged to the ground. After
some drying, the hide was scraped by elk horn
scrapers to remove the hair and the fat. The fat
was then rendered into grease.

The grease was rubbed into
the hide on both sides and allowed
to soak into the hide. After a day or
two, the hide was softened by pull-
ing it back and forth around a pole
that stands upright. After the hide
was softened, the tanned hide was
ready for use.


This work has not as yet been published and is afforded all
protections under the U.S. Copyright Law (PL. 94-553) effective
January 1, 1978.

Copyright in the published edition will be held by and in the name of the
Members of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation.

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transcribed, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the author agency identified below.

The project presented or reported herein was performed
pursuant to a grant from the National Institute of Education,
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. However, the
opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the
position or policy of the National Institute of Education,

and no official endorsement by the National Institute of
Education should be inferred.

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
710 S.W. Second Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97204


Booklets available in the Level IV sequence are listed below. Numbers refer to the Planned Sequence of use
in the Teacher’s Manual. Materials developed by these tribes and others in the Northwest are included in
the Levels I, II and III sequences.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Warm Springs Animal Stories
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon

Snail Women at Sq*a’le

The Suquamish Tribe of the Port Madison
Reservation

Blue Jay — Star Child/Basket Woman
Muckleshoot Tribe

Assiniboine Woman Making Grease
Assiniboine Tribe of the Fort Peck Reservation
Coyote

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon

6. How the Summer Season Came

7.

Assiniboine Tribe of the Fort Belknap
Reservation
Little Weasel’s Dream

Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

8. Fort Hall Stories

9.

10.

ll.

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall
Reservation

The Bear Tepee

Northern Cheyenne Tribe

Sioux Stories and Legends

Sioux Tribe of the Fort Peck Reservation
Kootenai Stories

Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

12.

13.

14,

15.

16.

Chief Mountain’s Medicine
Gros Ventre Tribe from the Fort Belknap
Reservation

Coyote the Trickster
Burns Paiute Reservation

Running Free
Shoalwater Bay

Salish Coyote Stories
Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

Coyote and the Cowboys
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall
Reservation

17. Napi’s Journey

18.

19.

Blackfeet Tribe

Warm Springs Stories

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon

Tepee Making

Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

20. Baskets and Canoes

21.

Skokomish Tribe

Warrior People
Blackfeet Tribe


THE INDIAN READING SERIES:
Stories and Legends of the Northwest

Assiniboine Woman Making Grease
Series IV

An Assiniboine Story
As told by Jerome Fourstar

Jerome Fourstar, Coordinator
Madonna Fourstar

Joseph Clancy, Illustrator
Geraldine Clancy, Illustrator

Illustrated by Joseph Clancy

Joseph Coburn, Director
Pacific Northwest Indian Program
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory



THE INDIAN READING SERIES: Stories and Legends of the
Northwest is a collection of authentic material cooperatively devel-
oped by Indian people from twelve reservations. Development ac-
tivities are guided by a Policy Board which represents the Indian
community of the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest Indian
Reading and Language Development Program Policy Board mem-
bers are:

* Warren Clements — Warm Springs
Chairman

+ Clement Azure — Devils Lake Sioux

+ Walter Moffett — Nez Perce

+ Emmett Oliver — Quinault

+ Bob Parsley — Chippewa

+ Lloyd Smith — Warm Springs

+ Max Snow

+ Jeanne Thomas — Yakima


The next day, the old woman
packed up and joined the main camp.
She told the chiefs, “I have killed eight
enemy warriors.” She told them her
story.

Mp Mi
“aN

The chiefs did not believe her,
and they went to the cliff to see for
themselves. Sure enough, all eight
enemy warriors were dead at the bot-
tom of the cliff.

The old woman became a heroine!


i) THE INDIAN READING SERIES:
% Stories and Legends of the Northwest