The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-06-13
RISING WOLF
A. D. 1913

densed from the beautiful narrative in
MY Life as an Indian" by ]. B.
Schultz
81 had heard much of a certain
white man named Hugh Monroe and,
in Blackfoot, Rising Wolf One after
noon I was told that he had arrived
! in camp with his numerous family, and
a little later met him at a feast given
by Big Lake. In the evening invited
him over to, my lodge and had long
talk with him while he ate bread and
pipefuls of tobacco" White mans
food is good after years without any.
"We eventually became firm friends.
Even in his old age, Rising Wolf was
! the quickest, most active man l ever
saw. He was about five feet six in
| height, fair-haired, blue-eyed, and his
| firm, square chin and rather prominent
nose betokened what he was, a man of
| courage and determination. His ia
Their, Hugh Monroe, was colonel in
| the British army, his mother a member
of the La Roches, noble family of
French emigres, bankers of Montreal
and large land owners in that vicinity.
Hugh, junior, was born on the fam
| lily estate at Three Rivers, Quebec.
and attended the parish school just
| long enough to learn to read and write.
| All his vacations and many truant
| days from the classroom were spent
] in the great forest surrounding his
home. The love of nature, of adven-
ture and wild life were born in him.
He first saw the light In July, 1877.
In 1913, when but fifteen years of age,
he persuaded his parents to allow him
to enter the service of the Hudson's
Bay company and started westward
with a hotilla of that company's ca
noes that spring. His father gave him
a fine English smoothbore, his mother
a pair Of the famous La Roche dueling
pistols and prayer book. The family
! priest gave him a rosary and cross and
enjoined him to pray frequently. Trav-
cling all summer, they arrived at Lake
! Winnipeg in the autumn and wintered
there. AS soon as the ice went out in
the spring the journey was continued,
|
held Mountain Fort, new post Of the
c0mpany's not far from the Rocky
mountains.
Around about 1t were encamped
| thousands Of Blackfeet waiting TO
trade for the goods the f1otilla had
brought up and to obtain on credit am
munitiOn, fukes Grade guns), traps
and tobacco. AS yet the company had
no Blackfoot interpreter. The factor,
| perceiving that Monroe was a youth
of more than ordinary intelligence, at
once detailed him to live and travel
with the Piegans Ga Blackfoot tribe)
and learn their language; also to see
that they returned to Mountain Fort
with their furs the succeeding summer.
| Word had been received that, follow
| ing the course of Lewis and Clarke,
American traders were yearly pushing
farther and farther westward and had
| even reached the mouth Of the Yellow
stone. The company feared their COM
petition. Monroe was to do his best
to prevent it.
t "'At last Monroe told me, the day
! came for our departure, and / set out
with the chiefs and medicine men at
the head Of the long procession. There
were eight hundred lodges of the
Piegans there, about eight thousand
souls. They owned thousands of
horses. Oh, but 1t was a grand sight
to see that long column of riders and
pack animals, and loose horses troop
/ ing over the plains. We Travelled on
southwark all the long day, and about
4 an hour or two before shutdown we
came to the rim of valley through
which flowed a cottOnwood-bordere
stream. We dismounted at the top
| Of the hill and spread our robes, in
tending to sit there until the process
sion passed by into the bottom and
put up the lodges. A medicine man
produced a large sstone pipe, filled 1t
and attempted to light 1t with flint and
steel and bit of punk (rotten woody,
but somehow he could get no spark
1 motioned to him to hand it to me
and, drawing my sun-glass from my
pocket, 1 got the proper focus and set
the tobacco afire, drawing several
mouthfuls Of smoke through the long
STEM
As one man, all those round about
I sprang to their feet and rushed toward
me, shouting and gesticulating as if
they had gone crazy. / also jumped
up, terribly frightened, for I thought
| they were going to do me harm, per-
haps kill me. The pipe was wrenched
out Of my grasp by the chief himself,
who eagerly began to smoke and pray.
He had drawn but Whit or two when
another seized it, and from him 1t was
taken by still another. Others turned
| and harangued the passing column
men and women sprang from their
| horses and joined the group, mothers
pressing close and rubbing their babes
against me, praying earnestly mean
while. recognized word that had
| already learned - Natos = Sun-and
suddenly the meaning Of the commo-
ton became clear; they thought that
was Great Medicine; that had
called upon the Sun himself to light
| the pipe, and that he had done so.
The mere act Of holding up my hand
| above the pipe was a supplication TO