The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-27

She talks f1uently about her life
among the Indians.
II don't remember anything before l
was with the Indians" she said. "All
/ know about it is what 1 have been
told since / was brought here
Il remember Sitting Bull of course.
He was very nice to me, and when /
was very little girl he used to tell me
stories. He told me about I-o-wi, the
dove, whose baby was stolen by the
witch for a husband. And the eagle
and the rattlesnake who got the baby
back and locked up the witch in a SER
penis skin. He used to tell me that the
echo was the witch calling
Everybody used to tell us stories
like that, and ] remember my mother
that is Quiet Water-used to sing to me
something about
The poor little bee
Carries but one arrow
In his CULVER
Another story she told me was
about the stone-shirt man who stole the
wife of ST Kor the crane. A ghost told
her son about it and her son had him.
self cut in half. Then there were two
of him and the One-Two boy led the
people and the wolf and the rattlesnake
against the Stone-Shirt man. They
changed themselves into mice and
gnawed Stone Shirts bow string and
then rattlesnake bit him in the leg and
killed him.
Two times we made long journeys to
the West. This was when we We're on
the warpath. Before we started the
medicine man made war medicine and
then all the men danced. l was very
small the first time and the medicine
men scared me. They had buffalo horns
on their heads and made a lot of noise
Then we started off. First we went
to road. A team came along and the
young men shot the driver. One of the
horses was hurt by a bullet so they
killed it and built big fire and roasted
the horse whole. Quiet Water gave me
two buckles from the harness and
made belt out of buckskin and wore
the buckles.
Il do not remember much about the
war. Whenever we came to a house
the women and children were left on
the hill and the men went down and
killed the people and burned the house.
Their clothes and jewelry the squaws
took and sometimes they gave the little
girls some of them, but the men kept
all the money they found and played
games with wooden sticks and plum
stones for money.
las soon as l was big enough I had
TO work like the other girls. ] used to
gather wood and grind corn and acorns
and pine nuts to make bread of. 1t is
not soft like the bread l get here; it is
very hard, and when you put it in stew
with meat it is soft and good.
THE next thing / learned was to
dress deer skin and wolf skin. That is
hard work. You have to scrape the skin
on the inside and rub it with fat until
1t stays soft. If you scrape too much
the hair falls out. When this happened
to the skins / was dressing my mother
would strike me. She never hurt me
very much, but / was more careful.
She showed me how to make fringe for
leggings and embroider with beads on
moccaSins.
Il learned to sew with sinew and
bone needle. and sometimes | used to
catch fish.
There was a girl about my own age
who was my best friend. We used to
do our sewing together and gathered
firewood together. She was Deer too,
Spotted Fawn, her name was. She died
of consumption three winters ago.
Il was II years old when they
brought me to the Cheyenne agency,
and then went to school at the agency.
We did not have much work to do while
we went to school, so the girls were
glad to go. But l was getting too old
for school and Quiet Water told me
some day | would have to get married
Soon after that Black Dog came
around. He used to walk UP and down
in front of our camp and trail his
blanket behind him. If l took up the
blanket that would mean | would marry
him.
He talked with my mother. because
it is the mothers who say if you are to
marry anybody, and she told me Black
Dog was good hunter and had two
horses She talked about it to the
council women, and they said l should
marry him.
They did not ask me if | wanted
him; that does not make any difference.
He made presents to my mother. He
her cloth md a MIC She fhnnObf
he ought to give her a buffalo robe, but
/ did not because buffalo robes are
scarce now and they are very warm,
and I wanted the buffalo robe for my
self when it was winter.
Then Mr. Sproul came and said we
must not marry because l was a white
girl, and they took me away.
II guess Black Dog did not care very
much. There are plenty of girls and
my mother will give him back the
clothes and pay him for the pig.
My people always kept me out of
the way of white men and told me |
must look out for them or they would
kill me. So whenever white men were
about l stayed in the wickyup. A man
once told me that when / went to
school | should study about Montana
because / came from there / asked
Slow Deer if it was so, and he told me
| must never talk about that, so / did
not.
we lived in tents in the summer
and in cabins in the winter. When we
were UP north we lived in tents all the
time and kept moving from one camp
to another. The first thing that I
remember was when l was carried
around by my Indian mother. She
carried me just like all babies are car
tied and | was treated like other chill
dren. When | was big enough to work,
when | was or s years old I had to
carry packages and pick berries and
carry wood. tan hides and do other
work like the women did. l did not
mind it. We We're up north in Manito-
ba, where the snow was very deep, and
sometimes we went south and were
gone two or three months. / think We
went to the Turtle mountains. / have
heard the Indians talk of fights they
had with the white men. and once they
brought a white woman and a girl into
camp. They gave the woman to a man
for his squaw. but she died. and | don't
know what became of the little girl.