Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-01-22
Indian
Lodge Tales
By
Ford C.. Frick
Observation-Disclosures
THE STORY OF THE
COLUMBINE

MANY, many years ago, when the
AVA world was young, and the Chosen
People lived in happiness in the
shadow of the Great Peak which Point
ed the way to Heaven. there was born
TO the Chief of the Tribe daughter
This daughter grew to womanhood,
and was much loved by all the mem
bers of the tribe. for she was the most
beautiful girl in all the world. Her
hair was rs black as the clouds of
night; her eyes as deep and as blue as
the sky. Her skin was white-and not
red like that of the Indians who knew
her. Her voice was as soft as the
south wind and as sweet as the voice
of the birds that sang to her from the
trees. And from al around from near
and far, came the warriors Of the
tribes to WOO her and claim her for
their wife.
AS she grew older her fame spread,
and even distant tribeSmen came TO
look upon her and to love her. Her
fathers lodge was filed with precious
gifts which they brought-bows and
arrows and skins and wampum and
beads and war jackets and all the
other precious things which they pos
sessed
But the maiden loved all the war;
riors alike, and none of them would
she marry though they asked her
many times; until finally there came
to the tribe a Dakotah from the North.
and when he had Wooed the maiden
f0r many moons, and she still refused
him, he became angry. One night he
crept to the chiefs lodge, where the
maiden was sleeping, and stole the
maiden away and mounted on his
horse and rode into the East.
When the tribesmen discovered
what had happened, they mounted on
their ponies and started in pursuit
and for many days and many nights
they continued the chase, until at last
they came upon the warrior as he was
crossing the Great River to the east
ward. When the warrior saw that he
was captured he drew his knife from
its sheath and plunged it into the
maidens heart, and so she died. And
then the warrior himself fell upon the
knife.
( So the tribesmen, with sorrow and
/ tears, carried the maiden home and
laid her down at the door to her fa-
! theirs lodge, and the whole tribe wept
and would not be comfOrted. Finally
the Manitou, seeing their grief, ap-
peared to the fathers of the tribe and
to them he said:
& "Grieve not my children, that your
daughter is lost to you. For / am
Your father and win look over you,
T, and your daughter I will take with me
4 to live in the Happy Hunting Ground
+ where she can look down upon you
and see you and love you. And as a
token Of my promise, will leave with
you signify which you will know
sthat the beautiful maiden is with me
forever
AS he spoke he stopped to a stream
and drew a gourd of water and this
he sprinNed upon the dead body Of
the maiden; and when the water fell
there. was a great cloud came down
upon the earth, and from the cloud
came two birds and these picked up
the body of the maiden and flew awar
with it to the westward where was the
summit of the great peak where live3
the Manitou. And where the body had
lain, there sprang up three flowers,
. and in their center they We're blue as
the eyes of the maiden who had CONS.
and at their outer edges they were az
white and beautiful as her skin
And all about other flowers spraHg
f. up, until the hills and the plains wcsa
dotted with them, and so was the COZ
F: umbine born Now each Indian kuowS
that the columbine is the flower OF
Manitou, telling his promise to the In
dams, and they know too. chat Il
sprang from the spirit Of the beautiful
maiden who was killed by the fierce
J Dakotah.