254 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. IV. 



Besides the minor chiefs, one of whom presides over each gens, and 

 the sum of them constitute the council, there is a class of men known as 

 soldiers, warriors, braves or policemen. All the young men in the tribes 

 aspire to the position. When a young man is anxious to become a 

 warrior he presents himself to the war chief, who examines him, and if 

 he finds him a suitable person he is admitted, if not, he is rejected. 

 Sometimes a young man performs a brave deed which raises him so 

 much in the esteem of the people that he is honoured. Without any 

 application from him, when a brave act has been performed, he is 

 admitted as a warrior. Promotion lies with the war chief, who raises 

 his warriors to their respective grades, according to their ability and 

 the display of their bravery. No man can be elevated who does not 

 perform a warlike deed. The soldiers act as warriors in times of war, 

 and during the periods of peace they are the policemen of the camps. 

 They are therefore under the rule of the war chief in troublesome days, 

 but in the peaceful days they are under the guidance of the peace chief. 

 They keep order in the camp under his instructions. They are related 

 to the chiefs as messengers. The writer remembers a detachment of 

 black soldiers coming to Medicine Calf's lodge late one evening and 

 taking away the wife of Dog-Riinning-Back. She had been married 

 according to the native custom to an old man, but subsequently a young 

 man named Dog-Riinning-Back, son of Medicine- Calf ^ had won her 

 affections, and she escaped with him. It was an elopement, but these 

 were of such frequent occurrence that the Indians spoke of them as 

 " stealing a zvife." The old man learned of the return to the camp of 

 the guilty pair and he called in the aid of Mikasto, the peace chief, who 

 sent the black warriors to arrest the woman. It was at midnight when 

 they came to the lodge. They allowed her to ride upon her own horse 

 behind them. As they rode through the bush she slipped off her horse, 

 and under the cover of the darkness escaped. The matter was ulti- 

 mately settled to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. 



Jerry Potts told the writer that when he was war chief amongst the 

 Piegans, Running Wolf, a Piegan chief, was guilty of a misdemeanor 

 and was summarily treated, according to the laws of the tribe. The 

 peace chief had given orders one evening, as they were on the march, 

 that no one was to advance on the following day, nor at any time, with- 

 out instructions. The war chief had under him fifty men, and as he 

 was keeping guard he saw an object ahead of the camp, at a long 

 distance. Jerry and his fifty men went out to ascertain what the object 

 was, when they were surprised to see Running Wolf s,\.3,x\d'\ng beside his 

 horse, and upon the ground a dead buffalo. When asked the reason for 

 disobeying orders he pleaded in extenuation that he only went out to get 



