The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-05-15

she spoke of the rivers, and of the
mountains. She spoke of the buffalo
long vanished from the plains the
Blackfoot used to roam, and of the
deer and the bears in the hills. Their
she asked his own name, and unhesi
tatingly he spoke it:
"Spo-pe."
AS the name fell from his lips the
stoical men of the party started and
looked at each other with murmur
of surprise. Their fathers had known
Spo-pe, but to the people of the tribe
he had been reckoned as dead years
ago.
The little woman, her face close to
that of the aged warrior, continued
asking, asking, asking; question after
question came from her lips in the
grooming accents of mother talking
to her babe, and over and over she
repeated his name.
"Spo-pe," she crooned; you are
Spo-pe, the warrior, the mighty hunt
er. You are Spo-pe the man who
walked the mountains. You are Spo-
pc, the hunter who killed the buffalo.
Spo-pe, what of the deer you hunted?
Spo-pe, remember the bears in the
mountains. Spo-pe, did you kill the
bears?"
From the sphynx like brave came
the question, at this:
Where is three bears?"
1t was the first question he had
asked in all his long years at the hos
pital. At the words a member of the
party, startled out of his indian
stolidity, exclaimed:
HE died 26 years ago."
But the words meant nothing to
Spo-pe. The death sign he knew,
however, and he understood when his
visitor counted rs SHOWS. Thus he
learned of the death of his brother.
By this time DR.. Click and others
of the hospital staff were in eager at
tention. AS DR.. Click declared, they
were witnesses of the most wonder
full scene student of psychology may
hope to observe-the return of hui
man mind, the rebirth of memory,
restoration of the coordination of
the faculties. And as the man of
science watched, always the voice of
the little woman, crooned on, sweet
and sole as the notes of meadow
Ilark, persuasive as the tender voice
Iof mother, calling, calling to the
mind of Spo-pe to come back from
the empty void, calling to Spo-pe to
return to the land of those who live.
Silent Years Roll Away
The talk of the little children at
last awakened the dormont faculties;
the years of silence rolled away, and
before the party left eDo-pe, no long
err silent, was - king in full food
the barriers of f0rgetfu'n IS broken
down by the c""oning syllabes of the
little half-bloCd woman. Then the
Blackfoot learned FROM his lips the
story their fathers and m~+hers used
to tell-the story of Spo-na the fear
less, the tirless, the hunter and war
rior, the pious aveneer.
It was 35 years ago, they learned
that an officer in command of an
army post in northern Montana led
his troop one morning to Blackfoot
encampment and wiped out the entire
village. The braves were all away
on buffalo hunt, and only a few
helpless old men remained behind
with the women and children. In
the battle" the most of these squaws
and papooses were slain, the mother
of Spo-pe among them.
The officer reprimanded, as the
records show, but a reprimand could
not bring back to life those whom he
and his men had butchered. And the
braves came back from the hunt, to
find only the dead ashes of the camp
fires, the charred sticks and bits OF
skins and canvas that had been wig
vans. and the bodies of the slain
Through the world wandered the
spirits of wives and children, fathers
and mothers, and the moaning winds
were their voices, calling to be aveng
ed, or so the Blackfeet believed. MOI
could the restless spirits find peace
until one of the tribe who had murd
cred them was sent to his account.
AN eye for an eye, tooth for E
tooth, and life for life" Such was
the Blackfoot belief-a belief as ole
as the law of Moses. And so Spo-pt
took upon himself the VOWS that de-
manded a blood atonement.
He BACKED his face with ashes
from the dead campfires, sang the
Blackfoot song of morning for the
dead, and set out on his mission Of
duty to the spirit of the mother who
bore him.