Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1876-03-02
Written for the IIerald.l
MEDICINE LODGE.
BY MRS. HELEN f. TAYLOR.

II have read somewhere, but where don't remem-
ber that formerly the Shoshones were the most able
tribe of the Northwest, their hunting grounds being
the choicest lands the headwatcrs of the Missouri.
Spanish traders, however, coming among the Black
feet and furnishing them with firearms, they soon
decimated the Shoshones, and drove the miserable
remnant into the mountans]
Know We the mountain range, the Medicine Lodge,
That bends to the prairie, and lowers its crest,
Where sparkles the sreamet that leaps from the W est
The bow and the quiver of Medicine Lodge?
Where broad swelling prairics enameled with flowers
Are lost where the thcket the blue wave embowers,
And lite seems dream in the march of the hours.
Where midsummer herds standing deep in the clover,
With startled eyes gazing the stranger glance over
Half minded to hasten, then turning to look,
Their shaggy named leader defying rebuke;
And then if each the alarm quickly took,
They wheel, they are off, with bellOW-llke cheer,
Like a rocket of fame in its mad career.
And pillows of mountains on every hand
Grey mists in the distance, that seem as if spanned
BY valleys whose silence is sombre and grand:
The hills FAR outsprcading sunbrowned and bare
Save bunch-grass in tufts, not at intervals rare,
And cactus points bristing, like foes in their lair.
Grand store-house of legends ye mountains reveal!
Ye valleys! whose silence, dark secrets conceal
Where willows bend silently over the stream,
$50 many years passing, it seems like dreamy
A few Indian lodges by moonlight did CLEAN;
And one just apart, DER the long gentle swell,
Of the hilI which, in passing, examine it WELL
Twas the lodge of the Seeress, rude it might be-
Whose visions were laws to the wild Shoshonee
Reduced to remnant once boldly they stood,
Untarnished in courage, and peerless in mood,
Nor fearing the challenge to contest of blood:
Their realm the broad valleys where sweepeh the flood
Like high metted courser unbridled and free,
Missouri fast urg ing its waves to the sea.
The Blackfeet have rumphed and mountains and caves
Must now shield in fear the Shoshone braves.
The eagle when torn from his aerie, the rock,
Doth sulenly spurnng. defy the rude shock,
Beats the bars of his cage with impotent rage,
As living in moments the cycles OF age;
He pines to the last, and with taltering breath,
Doth yield to thee only, oh, sovereign death!
So warning, desparing, defiant in hate,
The Shoshone nation have yielded to fate.
The bright hunters moon in the zenith appears;
That lone lodge in fancy through vistas of years,
Impatient watching-a shadow uprears.
Like statue she seems, save that far-away look,
To the eyes whose spendor hope long since forsook.
SO young and so slight do then mortal grefs sped,
Impress on the living the tears of the dead?
With wild incanations and half murmured prayer
She seems to commune with the spirits OF air.
INCARNATION.
Hear me, Manitou.*
The white fiends came from the far away,
They've taught the Blackfoot the power to slay-
Our braves fallen;
Not by swift arrows or spears erring thrust,
BY voices of flame, they laid them in DUST
All, woes unspoken
The old trees shiyer
The young limbs culver.
The boughs, the boughs are broken
Pity Manitou!
The mowi,cht speeds on the wings of winds.
And trembling leaves the gaunt hunter behind,
My people perish
Diseases have swept, what the Blacktoot spared.
And famine and death, like thunder-bolts shared.
Ah fearful token
Our bows unbendng.
No shafts are sending
Tie spears spears are broken.
lere seen DER the prairie the storm ghtnings play
Or hush Of the whrl-wind as seeming at bay
Ere rolling in splendor, it sweeps its prey.
So the form of the Sceress towers in height
spell is upon her, scanning Alright.
She sees for her nation, Its last final blight;
And her words half muttered thick spoken and hurried
Like voleys at random, unceasing and furried.
Woe. woe. Manitou.
Ana what forms of dread do see.
Like white winged birds seems their motion to be,
smoke is rising;
Pale faces are with them are everywhere
ihey smite ye my people, these shades of air.
All woes unspoken.
Like fires consuming,
The dry grass looming
Our strength, our power is broken
The heart that is saddened the life that is wasted
May live on through tears,
The dread silence of years.