DExgMORE] TETON SIOUX MUSIC 379 



Personal Narrative by Eagle Shield 



An individual war expedition was described by Eagle Shield, 

 Mrs. Jas. McLaughlin acting as interpreter. Eagle Shield said: 



Many years ago, in the middle of the ^vinter, I wanted to get up a war party, so I 

 cooked food and invited some men to a feast. While they were eating I said, ' ' 1 want 

 to go somewhere; tJiat is why I invited you here." They asked where I wished to 

 go, and I replied, "On the warpath." "Why do you go on the warpath?" they 

 asked; and I answered: "It is winter. The Crows do not tie their horses so near 

 the tipis as in summer, so we can get them more easily. We will ask the women to 

 make moccasins for us all day tomorrow, and we will start in the evening. ' ' 



The next day, toward evening, 3 men came to my lodge, then more came until 

 there were 16 men, though I had asked only 10. We sat in a circle and smoked in 

 my lodge until the village was asleep. Then we started away. The snow was 

 deep, and walking was slow and difficult. At our first camp we cut low plum trees 

 and made a bed of branches in the snow. As we journeyed we sometimes saw a herd 

 of buffalo. Then we killed one for food, cooking the meat on pointed sticks. We 

 used the hide for a bed, but left it when we went on our way. 



After camping the tenth night I said, "Two of us will go ahead and see if we can 

 see the enemy's village." A third man asked to go with us, and early the next morn 

 ing we started. We had traveled some distance when my companion said, "Let us 

 climb that butte and look over." We climbed the butte, and looking over the 

 top, we saw a very large Crow settlement, and beyond the tipis was a herd of horses 

 like a cloud. My companion said, "Let us take two horses and go back." But I 

 replied: "No. The Crows ^vill follow us, and as we will be the only ones on horse- 

 back the others will be killed." 



We at once turned back toward our camp, traveling a little way at a dogtrot, 

 then stopping to rest, and then taking up the dogtrot again. It was just daybreak 

 when we approached the camp. I gave the wolf howl by which a war party announces 

 its return, and I heard our friends cry: "The scouts are coming back. The scouts 

 are coming back. Come and meet them." 



The people stood in a line to receive us. In front of them a stick was placed upright 

 in the ground, and I knocked do\vn this stick as a guaranty that I would tell the 

 truth. [See p. 441.] My companions joined me in the long-drawn wolf howl. After 

 I had knocked down the stick the people all sat down. Then a man filled a pipe, 

 offered it to the cardinal points, to the sky, and to the earth, and gave it to me and 

 my companion. He did this four times, and then we smoked awhile together. 



At length the man who had offered the pipe asked: "What have you done? Have 

 you looked across the prairie or climbed a butte? Did you see a four-legged animal 

 [meaning a wolf]? Do not deceive me, but tell the truth." 



I said: "I went on a butte, looked over and saw nothing. Then I went farther, 

 and what did I see but buffalo coming toward me. I looked again, and it was at 

 Crow village wliich I saw. There were many horses. I beg that you give us some- 

 tiling to eat, for we must start at once and travel far. We must reach there at night 

 and take the horses in the dark." 



They hastened and brought us food . We kept our blankets tied down as we ate and 

 only waited to put on dry moccasins. As we journeyed toward the Crow village we 

 hung food in trees, so that we would find it on our return. We could see our tracks in 

 the snow when we started, and we came in sight of the Crow village at daybreak. 

 All that day we stayed on the butte. We had no food that day. When night came we 

 went in and out of a creek, and so reached a second butte, from which we had a full 

 view of the Crow camp. The smoke was thick above the tipis. We put on fresh 



