^— ^^—^^^^MMaaagagagMiiaB'i Tiffin TriMiaaiS^ 
entering or leaving the lodge, since whoever goes in or 
out is quite sure to touch the calf's tail with his head. 
, The S'ellow-painted lodge, or the otter lodge, belongs to 
George Starr, aft^ English-speaking Half-breed. It shows 
at tlie ground a black band with stars,, and on the band 
ie^t mou;itains alternating with cattail rushes. At the 
front and back are two great ted rocks — that at the back 
with a mink running up either side, that at the front 
Ivith a weasel running up either side. The ground color 
t)f the lodge is yellow. Eight otters, four on either side 
Of the lodge, run from the back to the front. The male 
MterS are on the south side and the females on the north, 
stnd the Same is true of the minks and the weasels. The 
Otters are very dark brown or black, with red kidneys, and 
red and blue life-lines. The butterfly cross below the 
smoke-hole at the back is blue, with a horse-tail attached 
to it. The top and wings of the lodges are black and 
sho\v tne constellations— the Great Bear on the north 
side and the Pleiades on the south. • 
Dan Lone Chief's lodge shows at the base a band of 
ted sky with a single row of stars ; mountains rest upon 
the band. About five feet from the ground, at front and- 
back,_ are full-faced buffalo-cov/ heads with the tongues 
hanging out. Higher up is a fringe of buckskin sewed 
to the lodge-covering, and on this buckskin as a path, on 
cither side of the lodge, are five ravens walking toward 
the front of the lodge. Each raven holds in its bill a 
piece_ of red flannel representing a bit of flesh. Above, 
and just below the smoke-hole are three bands, two red 
and one yellow, which represent simrise clouds. The 
black sky (the night) shows about the smoke-hole and on 
the wings, with the Great Bear on the north wing and 
the Pleiades on the south. At the back is a blue butterfly 
cross, and five horse-tails hang down below it. 
Short Robe's lodge shows a red band below with a 
regular double row of puff balls. About two feet above 
this, and running all around from one side of the door to 
the other, is a set of double deer-tracks. The hoofs are 
blue, the dew-claws yellow, and the pasterns red. Above, 
a long female mule-deer, yellow in color, shows on the 
north side and a male on the south side. The nostrils, 
eyes, a round spot in the ear, knees, kidneys, hoofs, hocks, 
and rump patch are blue; the life-line is red and blue; 
the coloring in the two animals is the same. Above, near 
the_ smoke-hole, are bands, three in all, showing red and 
white clouds. The Dipper appears on the north wing and 
the Pleiades on the south wing. 
In this_ lodge-painting among the Blackfeet various 
sacred objects are commonly represented by certain con- 
ventional sjmibols. Red, white, and blue bands stand for 
the red morning cloud, the white cloud, and the blue sky; 
black indicates night; white circles are stars, rather tall 
cones are mountains, half-ovals are rocks. The' pine tree, 
the cattail rush, and various birds and animals are readily 
recognizable. Perhaps of all the signs used, the least ex- 
pressive are the eagle claws seen near the top of Three 
Bears' lodge. 
It is interesting to note that it is the custom of lodge 
painters always to show the male animal on the south side 
of the lodge, while the female is placed on the north side. 
I have been unable to procure from the Indians an ex- 
planation of this, but it is almost always the case except 
in the Jn-is'kim lodges, where the male is on the ea.st .jr 
front, and the female on the west or back of the lodge. 
Although the Blackfeet give us no reason for placing 
the female animal on the north and the male on the south 
side of the lodge, a story told by an allied tribe is sug- 
gestive. One of the creation tales of the Cheyenne In- 
dians states that the first people made by the Creator were 
a man and a woman, and that the woman was placed to 
the north, and the man to the south, and that the Creator 
sat between them and talked to them. He told them that 
where the woman was it should be always cold, but where 
the man was it would be warm, the grass would be green, 
and it would never snow. About the man, all through the 
winter, there would be birds in great numbers, but when 
spring came they would all spread their wings and lly 
away to the country where the woman was and would 
live there until the autumn, when they would again go 
south to the man's home. This very likely may have some 
relation to the fructifying power of the sun, which in the 
spring moved northward, warming the earth, melting the 
snow, and causing all things to grow. 
The symbols by which the different objects are shown 
are not intricate, but simple. All of them appear to be 
true copies of nature according to the Indian school of 
art. It may even be questioned, whether they should be 
called symbols rather than pictures. ' . 
The night with its journeying stars is ttiysterious. The 
Sun is the most powerful of the gods, and his daily com- 
ing the most important event of the Blackfeet's lives. The 
red cloud which, represents his rising, the Thunder-bird 
standing for the dreaded lightning, the rainbow ^symbolical 
of the clearing storm, represent the powers of the Above 
people. ' , . 
The powers of the earth are evident in the figures of 
the prairie and in the mountains, the most impressive fea- 
tures of the earth that the Blackfoot sees, and still more 
strange and mysterious to him because — true prairie 
dweller — he never ventures into them nor explores their 
narrow defiles and dark recesses. Many of the rocks and 
bowlders scattered over the prairie — especially if odd or 
unusual in shape — possess a sacred character; they are 
prayed to, and gifts are offered to them. 
Certain mountains were prayed to, and a prayer made 
by an aged Blackfoot to the chief mountain is an im- 
pressive example : 
"Hear now, you Chief of Mountains, you who stand 
foremost; listen, I say, to the mourning of the people. 
Now are the days truly become evil and are not as they 
were in ancient tiines. But you know. You have seen the 
days. Under your fallen garments the years are buried. 
Then were the days full of joy, for the buffalo covered 
the prairie, and the people were content. Warm dwellings 
had they then, soft robes for coverings, and the feasting 
was without end. 
"Hear now, you Mountain Chief. Listen, I say, to the 
mourning of the people. Their dwellings and their rai- 
ment now are made of strange thin stuff, and the long 
days come and go without the feast, for our buffalo are 
gone. Useless, indeed, the drum, for who would sing and 
dance while hunger gnawed within him. 
"Like an old blind man your people feel their way 
along, falling over unseen things, for the gods are angry. 
FOREST AND STK^iAM. 
In vain the usual oflFeting to the Sun. Where now the 
hundred tongues, the snow-white robes which always 
were his share? And because we cannot find them he 
turns away his eyes, making our medicine useless. So 
then we fall and die, even as an old blind man who can- 
not see the way. 
"Hear, now, you who stand among the clouds. Pity, I 
say, your starving people. Give back those happy days- 
Cover once more the prairies with our real food that 
your children may live again. Hear, I say, the prayer of 
your uiihappy people. Bring back those ancient days. 
Then will our medicine again be strong, then will you be 
happy and the aged die content" 
The animals which inhabit .sky and earth and water are 
potent in various ways, and their help is needed as well. 
Of all of them the buffalo has the greatest power, But that 
of the deer and the elk is also great. Birds in general 
possess power, but the eagle and the raven are especially 
strong helpers. The Under-water animals are powerful, 
as shown by the many stories told of them. Of them all 
the most sacred is the beaver, to which the otter is sup- 
posed to be related. The mink is another under-water 
animal, and the weasel is related to it. The skins of all 
these MustelidcE are extensively used for ornament. The 
muskrat is also a powerful helper. 
The paintings on the lodges represent sacred animals or 
objects which possess protective power, and the painting 
.was adopted and is continued to insure good fortune. It 
is analogous to certain acts performed to-day by some 
sects of the Christian religion, as offerings to patron 
saints. The paintings thus require no special explanation 
and need be accounted for by no elaborate theory. 
The Trapper's Thanksgiving. 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. 
"Yes, I reck'n old Parson Rogers was right, said 
Davie Miller, my old-time guide, with whom I was 
enjoying a two weeks' outing with rod and gun. "He 
said," continued the guide, and as he threw a couple 
of logs on the evening campfire that was blazing before 
our tent, and then returned to his seat beside me on the 
bed of hemlock boughs, which filled our canvas house 
with an exquisite fragrance, "that we are all wanting 
in a proper thankfulness for the marcies and blessin's 
we are all the time receivin'; that we're ungrateful 
critters to make the best of us. I allow that I'm no 
wuss nor better than my nabors, and judgin' by my- 
self, the old preacher was right. I know I've grunted 
and growled when bad luck came my way, and when 
better things happened along I didn't show a right 
spirit of thankfulness I should have; we're a poor lot 
of critters, anyhow, but I'm sartain I felt grateful 
enough onct, if I never did afore nor since; in fact I've 
never let my thanks grow dim, though the sarcum- 
stance happened five years ago. 
"If you can keep awake a half hour or so, I'll tell 
you about it, the story is not overlong." And this 
was the story: •. - • - 
I was trappin' on one or VHio streams that empty into 
Long Lake at the upper end, and had .two lines of traps 
each six miles long, good and strong, east and west 
of my camp, that I had used for sev'ral seasons; it was 
a comfort'ble log camp, and many's the good pack of 
fur I've carried away from it. There ■ wias a long 
stretch of s^mdy beach quite handy to^ the mouth of 
the larger stream, and there was an amazin' lot of clams 
bedded in it, that would be a good spot for muskrats; 
perhaps you know that the musquash, though it most- 
ly feeds on the roots and herbage of water plants and 
grasses, it often eats fresh water clams; in fact, the rats 
kill a big lot of 'em, great beds of the shells being 
often found on the shore where the clams bed. 
Yes, it's a mighty pooty trappin' kentry up there, 
mink being plentiful, and there was a good sprinklin' 
of otter, too; and up the west branch there was a 
beaver pond on a small stream that empties into it, 
and there was quite a bunch of the critters as I found 
out to my satisfaction. 
I s'p,ose you've seen a beaver dam and know some- 
thing of how it's made. I've seen a number of 'em jn 
my time, and I tell you it was hard to believe the crit- 
ters made 'em. To build one of these dams the beavers 
iDegin by felling a good-sized tree across the river, or 
a large brook, rather; they have picked out a spot for 
makin' a pond, and they cut the tree down with their 
big sharp gnawin' teeth as well as I could do it with 
an ax; they select a shaller part of the stream, and in 
some way, they know exactly how to gnaw the wood 
so that the tree will fall exactly right. By jingo! a 
lumberman couldn't chop it better to have it fall at the 
proper angle, Avhich is just a little up stream. If there 
is another tree on the opposite side that can be felled 
so as to meet it, all the better, they get it there, you 
can bet; that's the first step. The critters then begin 
cuttin' sticks of green wood 3 feet or so long and 4 or 
S inches thick. Yes, sometimes nearly a foot thick, and 
these they drag down to the upper side of the fallen 
trees, and lay 'em dost together lengthwise. Some 
people say these logs are stood on end; that the beay-' 
ers stick 'em down into the river bed, but I doubt it. 
It stands ter reason, much as I give the beaver credit 
for, that he can't handle those heavy sticks in that 
way; for my part I don't see how they manage to even 
drag 'em into the proper place in the dam, from a 
hundred feet or more away; they must be gosh mighty 
strorg beasts, anywaj'. When all the logs are packed 
togel tier just right, they are bound or withed together 
witlr liriibs of trees which the critters weave among 
'em. They are then packed. with mud, and clay, which 
the beavers fasten on, using their big,; flat tails as, 
trowels, and the whole, is >y.eighted' down with rocks 
and pebbles. You can-have solii,eVi<lee; -.hiaw hard they 
keep to work, when I say I've se^n^danjsj.^oo feet long 
and 8 feet thick, and as tight as a mill dam. 
Oh, yes! They're mighty understandin' critters, and.- 
no mistake. Some people wonder why they, builpii their 
dams; my idee is they do it so they can have a reg'Iar 
height of water all the time. It's not often they build 
their lodges in a nat'ral pond, because that might rise 
in a freshet and cover 'em; and so with a river, it 
might become too strong and sweep 'em away. No, 
they prefer small streams or brooks, which can't raise 
anyway higher than the top of their dam. 
Yes, the beaver darn is a mighty tight affair, and in 
winter it freezes as hard as stone. 
In their pond they lay up a big stock of logs for 
provender, cords of 'em are cut down and carried near 
their lodges, and their grub is ready for 'em any time 
all winter long. Oh, yes, they've got big heads, the 
beavers have for sartain. The critters are gettin" 
pooty skarce, Fm sOrry to say, for their pelts are 
allers sartain to fetch a good price, and the meat is 
good eatih', too; the Injuns eat the entire animal, but 
i don't care for anything but the hind quarters, which 
are as good as the best lamb you ever tasted; in fact, 
I doubt if you could tell it from lamb, if put before you 
at the table. As for the tail, when it's nicely stewed, it 
makes the richest dish ever eaten; there's nothin' that 
ever compares with it, unless its . a moose's muffle, 
which, when stewed, is very much like it in flavor and 
richness. But that's neither here n©r there, and nothin' 
to do with my story. As I said afore, I had two lines 
of traps, each six miles, good and strong, and I tended 
'em one day, and the other the next, and I'll tell you 
I had to hustle to take off the pelts, get back to camp 
and stretch 'em and git supper afore dark. 
Well, I had a pretty good catch and I felt rich, for 
furs were bringin' a good price then. I had been out 
nearly the four weeks that 1 had planned to put in, and 
three days afore Thanksgiving I made my last rounds, 
takin' up ray traps and bringin' 'em into camp. Of 
course I might have done well to put in a couple of 
weeks more, but I wanted to be home on Thanksgiv- 
ing sartain. 
Well, on the last trip to camp I had a pooty middlin' 
heavy pack, and as I had my rifle along, I thought, 
secin' I was so well loaded, I'd cut acrost a stretch of 
barrens to save a couple of miles, there bein' an old 
loggin' road most of the way. I had hardly got out of 
the heavy growth and started in on the path when I 
saw two animals movin' about fifty rods or so in the 
open; they were a couple of moose, one of 'em a big 
bull with a rousin' set of horns, and the other a two- 
year-old bull with nothin' on his head to brag on. You 
may be sartain it didn't take me long to drop my pack 
and begin to stalk 'em. As you very well know, a 
moose or caribou is hard to stalk in the open barren, 
'specially when there's no scrub firs or pines to get 
behind, but luck was with me, the wind was blowin' 
from them to'ard me, and I wormed and crawled along 
until I got in good shootin' distance. 
I had one of the old-fashioned breechloading cavalry 
carbines that threw a pooty heavy bullet mighty spite- 
ful, and if it hijt a moose right it knock him over, sar- 
tain. 
Well, I got up on my knees, took off my hat and 
laid it on the ground beside me, and put my cartridges 
on it. I had only five of 'em left and couldn't afford 
to lose or waste any. I got a good bead on the big 
one, aimin' just behind the fore shoulder, and pulled. 
The smoke was hardly out of the gun afore I had an- 
other cartridge in and its bullet flyin' at the other 
moose. I then got a third cartridge into the breech 
and jumped up. The big moose was lying on the 
ground about done for, but the other was tryin' to 
hobble away on three legs, the off fore shoulder havin' 
been smashed. I gave him a quartering shot along the 
back and he dropped. 
Well, I had my hands full for sartin, two moose and 
my pack and nearly a mile from camp, and only three 
or four hours of daylight left. I dressed the critters 
in first class shape, for they both were in good condi- 
tion and well worth carryin' home, and by riggin' a 
couple of poles as a sort of sledge, got both to camp 
afore dark, but I was about beat out, I'll tell you. 
That was on Monday, and I planned to be home on 
Thursday, which was Thanksgivin' day. I had two 
days left, and I had no doubt I could do it easy if I 
could continue to git all my dunnage down the lake in 
one trip. I had a good-sized row boat along, big 
enough to carry four men and my pack, and my canoe, 
but both of 'em couldn't hold traps, furs, camp oufit 
and the moose. I lay awake awhile that night until 1 
thought out a good plan, and next morning I was up 
at daybreak and makin' a raft of logs at the shore of 
the lake, a few sticks bavin' been left there by lumber- 
men or, drifted there during high water. It was quite 
a good, strong affair, and I knew it would carry the 
moose and anything I wanted -to put on it, and I had 
no doubt I could tow it with the boat, provided the 
wind was fair. 
It took me till Tiiesday noon to git the raft ready 
and the moose loaded on it, and I had the rest of the 
day to pack up my odds and ends and git everything 
ready to start early the next mornin'. 
About 2 o'clock I thought I'd take my rifle and 
cruise around a little. You know how it is when we're 
in the woods, we always want one last day's cruise 
afore we leave, and I had mine and no mistake, and 
I shall never forgit it, for it was the worst scrape I 
ever got into, and no mistake. 
I forgot to say there had been a light snow fall in 
the night, not more than an inch or so, but it was 
enough to last all day, anyhow. It was a good track- 
ing snow, and I started out with my rifle and two re- 
maining cartridges in search of somethin' in the way 
of game to top off with. I had gone hardly half a 
mile afore I saw the tracks of a bear; they were the 
biggest tracks I ever saw, and I knew the critter was a 
whopper. 
Now, I daresay you know that even when you see 
the tracks of a bear it is not allers easy to foller 'em 
up, for the critter is a mighty cute beast, and knows 
a thing or two about hidin' his trail. 1 was keen to 
foller him, for I knew those big tracks meant some- 
thin' good. To throw off anyone who is follerin' his 
tracks the bear goes through all sorts of maneuvers; 
it is a common thing for him to travel back over his 
trail, and when he comes to a windfall he'll walk along 
on that as far as he can and then jump off at one side, 
and you'd hardly think it possible for the beast to take 
such long leaps as he does. 
No, the bear never takes a bee line for his den. the 
natur' of the beast being a cautious, wary one. As I 
said afore, the tracks of my bear were so large I ktie\f 
