A Blackfoot Cheyenne. 
It was winter. The people were camped on 
Lodgepole Creek, near the Big Horn Mountains. 
Buffalo were close and small game was plenty. 
The snow was very deep, and the people did not 
watch their horses closely, for they thought no 
war parties would be out in such cold and in 
such deep snow. 
The chief of this camp was also a medicine 
man. On the ground at the right of his bed 
in his lodge was always a space where red- 
painted wooden pegs were set in the ground in 
a circle. Above this hung the medicine bundles. 
No one was allowed to step or sit in this circle. 
No one might throw anything on the ground 
near it. No one might pass between it and the 
fire. It was sacred. 
It was a very cold night. The wind blew the 
snow about so that one could hardly see. The 
chief had gone to a feast in a lodge near his 
own, and his wives were in bed, but one was 
still awake. The fire had burned down, so that 
the lodge was almost dark. Suddenly the curtain 
of the doorway was thrown back. A person 
entered, passed around to the back of the lodge, 
and sat down in the medicine circle. 
“Now, what is this?” the woman thought; 
“why does this person sit in the medicine 
circle?” 
She said to him, “You know that this is the 
medicine circle? Quick! get up and sit down 
somewhere else. My husband will be angry if 
he sees you there.” 
The person did no't speak nor move, so the 
woman got up and put wood on the fire, and 
when it was light she saw that the man was a 
stranger, for his clothing was different from the 
Cheyennes’, but she could not see his face, which 
he kept covered, all but his eyes. The woman 
went out and ran to the lodge where her hus¬ 
band was, and said to him, “Come quickly. A 
stranger has entered our lodge. He is sitting 
in the medicine circle.” 
The chief went to his lodge and many with 
him, for all the chiefs and warriors had been 
feasting together, and they carried in more wood 
and built a big fire. Then the stranger moved 
toward the fire, nearer and nearer, and they saw 
he was shaking with cold. His moccasins and 
leggins were torn and covered with ice and his 
robe was thin and worn. The chief was greatly 
troubled to see this person sitting in his medicine 
circle, and he asked him in signs, “Where did 
you come from?” 
He made no answer. 
Again he asked, “Who are you?” 
The stranger did not reply. He sat as close 
to the fire as he could get, still shivering with 
cold. 
The chief told a woman to feed him and she 
warmed some soup and meat over the fire and 
set it before the stranger. Then he threw off 
his robe and began to eat like a dog that is 
starved, and all the people sat and looked at 
him.* He was a young man, his face was good 
*When an enemv has e^^ten or drunk iw a lodge he is 
safe for the time being. He will not be harmed. 
and his hair very long, but he looked thin and 
his clothes were very poor. 
The stranger ate all the soup and meat and 
then he said in signs, “I came from the north. 
I was with a large party. We traveled south 
many days and at last saw a big camp by a river. 
At night we went down to it to take their horses, 
but I got none and my party rode off and left 
me. They told me to go with them and they 
would give me some of the horses they had 
taken, but I was ashamed. I had taken no horses 
and I could not go back to my people without 
counting a coup, so I came on alone, and it is 
now many days since I left my party. I used 
up all my arrows and could kill no food. I 
began to starve. To-day I saw your camp. I 
thought to take some horses from you, but my 
arrows are gone; I should have starved on the 
road. My clothes are thin and torn; I should 
have frozen. So I made up my mind to come 
to your camp and be killed. 
“Come, I am ready. Kill me! I am a Black- 
foot.” 
A pipe was filled, lighted and passed around, 
but the chief sat thinking. Everyone was wait¬ 
ing to hear what he would say. 
At last he spoke. “An enemy has come into 
our camp. The Blackfeet are our enemies. They 
kill us when they can. We kill them. This man 
came here to steal our horses and he ought to 
be killed; but you see he has come into my lodge 
and sat down in the medicine circle. Perhaps 
his medicine led him to the place. He must have 
a powerful helper. 
“There are many lodges in this camp, and in 
each of these lodges many seats, but he has 
come to my lodge and has sat down in my 
medicine circle. I believe my medicine helped 
him, too; so now I am afraid to kill this man, 
for if I do it may break my medicine. I have 
said.” 
Every one said the chief’s talk was good. The 
chief turned to the Blackfoot and said, “Do not 
be afraid, we will not kill you. You are tired. 
Take off your leggins and moccasins and lie 
down in that bed.” 
The Blackfoot did as he was told, and as soon 
as he lay down he slept, for he was very tired. 
Next morning when he awoke there by his 
bed were new leggins for him and warm hair 
moccasins and a soft new cow’s robe, and he 
put these on and his heart was glad. Then he 
ate and the chief told him about the medicine 
circle and why they had not killed him. 
In the spring a party of Cheyennes went to 
war against the Crows, and the Blackfoot went 
with them and he took many horses. He went 
to war often and soon had a big band of horses. 
He married two Cheyenne women and stayed 
with the Cheyennes. Sometimes they asked him 
if he would ever go back to his people, and he 
would say: “Wait. I want to get more horses, 
and when I have a big band, a great many, I 
will take my lodge and my women and children 
and we will go north and I will make a peace 
between the Cheyennes and Blackfeet.” 
One summer the people were running buffalo. 
They were making new lodges. One day the 
men went out to hunt. At sunset they came 
back, but the Blackfoot did not return. Next 
day the men went out to look for him and they 
searched all over the country. Many days they 
hunted for the Blackfoot, but he was never seen 
again. Some said he had gone back to his peo¬ 
ple ; others said that a bear might have killed 
him, or he might have fallen from his horse and 
been killed, and still others thought a war party 
must have killed him and taken the horse with 
them. Neither man nor horse was seen again. 
G. B. G. 
Boone Relics. 
Raleigh, N. C., May 8 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Inquiries in regard to timber lands 
have been very numerous and an index now 
being prepared of all grants made in this State 
since 1660 reveals some very curious facts. One 
is as to boundaries. In the old days the people 
carried boundaries “in their heads” and so in 
a county near the coast one corner is named as 
the place at which William Allen and his friends, 
while returning from a canoe trip to the Mussel¬ 
shell Shoal, killed an immense bear. It seems 
strange in these days to think of such an identi¬ 
fication for a boundary, but then it was well 
known. Another boundary is more historic, this 
being the big poplar tree near which Daniel 
Boone killed a bear. Upon this tree, as late as 
i860, was a rude carving which set out that “D. 
Boon Cild a Bar here.” There was also the 
date. 
The last Legislature formed the Boone Memor¬ 
ial Commission which will mark the spot where 
his home was in one of the Piedmont counties 
and where his father is buried. A brownstone 
slab marks the grave of Boone the elder and 
this has been chipped by relic hunters. It is on 
the border of one of the hunting preserves in 
Davie county. There were originally some other 
slabs, but they have been taken away and used 
for hearth stones. The remaining one bears an 
inscription showing that Boone’s father was 
there buried, giving the date of his birth and 
death. This stone is to be placed in the State 
Historical Collection. A very striking picture 
secured in Canada is in this collection, showing 
Boone, his wife and friends crossing the Blue 
Ridge at Warrior Gap, in Watauga county. In 
this gap are the remains of a fort which Boone 
and his men built to keep back the Cherokee 
Indians and their allies. On one occasion they 
made an attack on the fort from both sides. 
Boone had mined the mountain north and south 
of the fort and at the proper time exploded both 
mines with deadly effect. The foundation of 
this fort, which was like a large block house, 
yet remains and is of a kind of blue stone, rather 
like slate. Fred A. Olds. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
