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There are various other ways of hunting, trapping and fishing but these will serve as specimens.

CHAPTER VI
MATTHEW BRAYTON'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED

Is recognized as a white man – War dance – Fight with Blackfeet Indians – Tomahawking and burning captives.

In 1861 the winter in the north was exceedingly severe and the game was compelled to seek a more southern latitude to get something to eat. We followed them down but were in great danger of perishing of famine. In this strait our only hope was in obtaining some additional supplies from the trading posts. A large detachment was therefore sent off to the post of the Hudson Bay Company for the purpose of obtaining supplies. With this band I traveled.

We arrived at the post after a long journey and were received with kindness. The few furs and skins we were able to gather up we traded for provisions but we were still in great want. That night we camped near the trading post and waited to plead our cause with the agent next day.

In the morning whilst the chief of our party and some of the leading warriors were talking to the agent and explaining to him the deplorable condition of the tribe one of the traders came into our camp. Whilst looking around and talking he came close to me and something seemed to attract his attention. Looking me in the eyes he suddenly spoke in French. I did not understand him but he immediately addressed me in Indian language, saying: "You are no Indian." I replied that I was for I never remembered anything of a life different from the one I was leading. He insisted that I was no Indian but a pale face and demanded that I should come before the agent. I was about to do so, when some of the tribe interfered to prevent me. An angry discussion now took place between the trader and the Indians, ending in my being taken before the agent himself.

On my entering the circle where the chiefs and principal warriors were conferring with the agent I was brought before the latter by the trader, and my white birth stated by him. The agent examined my features closely and endeavored to get from me by conversation whether I was a white or not. I was surprised by these statements but replied that I always considered myself an Indian. The members of the tribe present in the council were greatly disturbed when I was brought before the agent and on being appealed to strongly asserted my Indian parentage. I could not fail to remark their alarm lest I should be claimed as a white, and pondered over it for some time.

The agent was quieted for a time but was not satisfied and all the post continued to watch our movements narrowly. Next day whilst getting some provisions from the post, our chief was again asked about me and was told that no more provisions would be given the party unless I was surrendered to the whites. At this the chief returned to the camp in dismay and a brief council was held from which I was excluded. The result was that our camp was suddenly broken up and the trail immediately struck for the main body of the tribe leaving the rest of the needed supplies behind us.

On our homeward march we fell in with a party of Blackfeet who wished to rob us of our ponies and provisions. After a short skirmish the enemy was driven back, but continued to hover on our trail in order to find out our destination.

A busy scene presented itself at the camp on our arrival. Our hunters in their excursions in pursuit of game had come on traces of the Blackfeet Indians, and had followed the trail until they discovered the camp of a large war party which had evidently come out with the intention of meeting and driving us back to the north again. A grand council of the tribe was gathered and the warriors were giving their opinions as to the proper course to be pursued. Two alternatives presented themselves. One was to go back to the snows and starvation of the northern winter, and the other to meet the opposing Blackfeet and endeavor to force our way through them to the hunting grounds farther south. There was a general disposition to take the latter course, and several chiefs made stirring appeals to the pride and vengeance of the warriors. The numerous battles with the Blackfeet in former years were referred to, and the blood of the slain invoked to stir up the hearts of the warriors to revenge. Finally one of the chiefs sprang to his feet and commenced chanting an account of his warlike deeds, and boasted of what he would do in the approaching fight. Whilst he sang he danced around in a circle, stamping fiercely on the ground at every step. Every now and then he stopped to raise his war-cry.

In a few minutes another warrior sprang up and joined the dance and song, to the music of a small drum and rattle. Then another and another leaped up, until all the fighting men of the tribe signified their intention of attacking the enemy. During the dance the utmost excitement existed, and the piercing yells worked the warriors up to mad frenzy. Knives and tomahawks were waved in the air, and all the movements of fighting and scalping an enemy gone through with.

Next day a large war party set out in the direction of the Blackfeet camp. I accompanied the party. In a short time we struck the trail of one of their bands, and followed it up till evening, when we discovered ourselves in the vicinity of the enemy's camp. A hurried council was held, and it was decided to conceal ourselves in the woods until morning, and make the attack at sunrise. After placing sentinels to keep watch of the camp, our party lay down among the brush and waited for day.

At the first dawn of day we were all awake and creeping stealthily towards the edge of the wood, beyond which the camp was pitched. As we neared the opening the Blackfeet discovered our approach and raised an alarm. In an instant there was great confusion in the camp, and their warriors were rushing backwards and forwards, snatching up their weapons and attempting to seek a place of shelter from the coming attack.

At this moment our war chief blew a blast on a horn carried by him, and at the signal a volley of shot and arrows was fired into the camp. Several of the Blackfeet were killed and wounded, and the others ran to the woods for protection. Some of our warriors dashed into the opening, cut down the wounded and rapidly scalped them, raising a terrible war whoop as each bloody scalp was snatched from the head of the prostrate foe. As soon as the work was done they again sought the protection of the trees.

The fight was now conducted from behind the trees and every one fought after his own fashion. Sometimes one side appeared to gain the advantage, and then the fortune would change. Hours passed away, and both parties were very much scattered, but the Blackfeet were generally in retreat. At last they broke up and fled, when our warriors returned, plundered the camp of what little was left in it, and took the trail homewards. A number of scalps were borne home in triumph.

Three captives were taken and their arms tied firmly to their sides, after which they were driven before us to the camp. On arriving there the party was received with shouts of triumph, and the women and children made a tremendous noise. Some of the squaws who had lost husbands in battle came up to the captives and loaded them with insults and abuse, shaking their fists in the faces of the victims and acting like mad women. The captives remained perfectly indifferent to these insults, and made no sign of being aware that the women were in existence.

When the party entered the camp, the prisoners were tied to different posts. The warriors then indulged in a great rejoicing. "Snakyeye" or whisky was brought out and drank. The warriors boasted of their deeds in battle and divided the captives. Then they sprang up in a wild dance, and menaced the captives with their knives and tomahawks. One of the Blackfeet replied in contemptuous words to the taunts of the Copper-Heads, which so exasperated them that several of the latter at once rushed to the posts and tomahawked two of the captives. The third was saved by a chief of our tribe, who proposed that he should be burned instead of tomahawked.

This proposal met with favor, and preparations were at once made for carrying it into execution. Wood was brought and piled up around the victim until it ascended above his knees. He was then tormented by descriptions of the horrible sufferings that he was to endure, but the threats failed to shake his constancy in the least.

As soon as all the preparations were complete, a large number of warriors and squaws encircled the victim and commenced a wild dance. Fire was applied to the pile, and in a few moments the flames ascended around the body of the captive Blackfoot. He commenced chanting a deathsong, and did not stop till life was extinct. The dance was kept up around the stake until the body was consumed, when a yell was given and the assemblage dispersed to their lodges.

Next day another council was held, and it was decided not to go any farther to the south, but to return and get through the winter as well as possible in a territory where we should be out of the Blackfeet range. Accordingly our tents were struck and packed, the ponies loaded, and we once more took the northward trail.

CHAPTER VII
MATTHEW BRAYTON'S NARRATIVE

Marries the Chiefs Daughter – Tattooing – Packing for the south – Camping out – Crossing the Mountains – Skirmish with Blackfeet – Wounded – The Red River Settlements.

The fact that the traders at the Hudson Bay Company's post had claimed me to be of white birth was communicated to the principal chief after the war excitement of the latter was over, and caused considerable anxiety on his part. Nothing was said to me about it but I could see that the old chief feared my escape and that the tribe would be made to suffer some punishment at the hands of the whites for my captivity. I had always considered myself as an Indian captured from some other tribe and could not yet think it possible that I was one of the pale faces.

With the return of Summer the tribe again sought the Northern regions and I had almost forgotten the affair at the trading post. The old chief, Owash-kah-ke-naw, appeared to have taken a great liking to me and in September of that year (1851) he gave me his youngest daughter, Tefronia (Tame Deer) to be my squaw. She was then nineteen and a handsome Indian woman. My own name in Copper-Head language is Owah-owah-kish-me-wah. By this squaw I have two children, Tefronia, a girl now over five years of age, and Tululee, a boy over two years old.

After marrying his daughter I was kept by the old chief around the village and was not allowed to join any expeditions in the lower country. Three years passed in this manner and my girl was born. The tribe once more moved farther south and the old chief become anxious about my being claimed by the whites. One day he told me that if I went south with the tribe I must be tattooed, so that I could be identified by them in case I should be carried off by the traders under pretence that I was of white parentage. I did not consent to this but was then told that there was no choice left me as it was the will of the chief that it should be done.

Next day I was seized by two men of the tribe and made to lie on my back along a log. I was next bound down so that I could neither move my head, body, hands or feet. My breast was bared and one of the Indians came forward to do the work of tattooing.

First he took a sharp knife and made some light incisions down my breast so that small strips of skin were cut. These he peeled off and threw on one side. My agony was intense but I did not wish to be considered a coward so I held my tongue, though the pain made me bite my lips till the blood came; other similar strips were next taken off at the distance of about an inch, but parallel with the first marks. I now suffered tortures and was racked with an intense thirst. The attendant Indians brought me water and poured it into my mouth and over my head to keep me from fainting.

Parallel strips were now cut at right angles to the first incisions and then other strips at right angles to the second series of cuts. Some other incisions were also made but by this time I was almost insensible to pain. During these operations a smooth stone had been remaining in a strong fire and as the marks were all cut the stone was taken up and applied to my lacerated breast. The pain for the moment was maddening but the effect was to sear the wounds and stop the bleeding. I was now released from my fastenings and sought my lodge, with marks on breast that I still carry and shall to my dying day.

After this time I was allowed to go with the rest of the tribe in the excursions to the southern part of the territory over which we ranged. About two years since I joined the half yearly train that left for the Selkirk settlement on the Red River and for St. Paul's.

As I stated before, the train starts twice a year – in the Spring and Fall, laden with furs and brings back supplies of various kinds. The journey occupies about six "moons" each way and one "moon" is allowed for stoppage at St. Paul's, so that the trains meet about half way on the journey. A large number of Indians travel in these trains so as to fight their way down in case of resistance by hostile Indians.

Previous to starting on the journey all the furs, skins and other articles intended to be taken down together with dried meats for the journey, were packed in readiness to be carried by ponies and elks, or by the squaws in the manner already described. When everything was ready a grand Council was held, at which the old men of the tribe sat around the council fire, smoking their pipes in silence. Then the principal chief arose and appointed one of the subordinate chiefs to the command of the party, giving him in a few words some general instructions relative to the policy to be adopted in dealing with the whites and exhorting the warriors attached to the party to drive from the face of the earth all who should oppose their progress. Particular charge was given that I should be kept away from the whites as much as possible, and watch kept that I might not be stolen from them by the pale faces.

The old chief sat down, and the newly appointed chief of the expedition rose and made a speech, as did some others of the tribe. Then there were some dances, after which the Council broke up and all retired to their lodges.

Early next morning the party set out on their journey. The ponies and elks were loaded with packs, the squaws carried some articles attached to the straps passed across their forehead, and the men rode or walked in single file. The journey was long and tedious, day after day passing with but few incidents to change the monotony of our progress. Hunting parties started off occasionally in pursuit of game for the support of the band, and met at appointed places, but the main body kept advancing steadily in the one direction.

Only four hours was allowed for sleep, when fires were lit and we all lay around in our blankets, with our feet to the fire, and heads outward. There are two reasons for adopting this mode of sleeping: it keeps the feet warm, which is very important, and it allows more people to sleep around one fire than would be possible in any other position. On stopping for sleep the ponies were hobbled in such a manner that they could feed or sleep, but could not run away. Sentinels were posted to prevent the camp being surprised either by wild animals or by hostile Indians.

As soon as the time was up the signal was given and the whole camp was speedily awake and ready for resuming the journey. A hasty meal was despatched, and then, after determining the course to be taken, the band set forward. There were no fixed hours for meals, and no stoppage for that purpose, but each person took a piece of dried meat whenever he became hungry, and gnawed away as he felt disposed.

The country through which we passed changed from dense forests to barren plains, and then again to rolling prairies, high hills, and grassy valleys. When large streams opposed our progress there was a halt on the banks, and preparations were made for swimming across. The packs were disposed of so as not to be wetted and then each animal, led by an Indian, was brought to the stream and swam across to the other side. When the animals and their burdens had all safely been got over, the remaining men and squaws plunged in and swam over. The very young children were carried on the backs of the swimmers or floated across on boards, which the mothers pushed before them.

At the North Pass of the Rocky Mountains the band crossed from the west to the east side. The crossing was the work of time and difficulty, both animals and Indians having to creep slowly up the rugged heights of the Pass. Sometimes we were many hours making half a mile progress, and great caution was requisite to prevent serious accidents among the precipices around which we crept. At times we wound our way through a deep gorge, on either side of which the enormous walls of rock towered far overhead. Then a toilsome ascent brought us on an elevation from which we looked down on rugged peaks and deep clefts below. At length the difficulties and dangers of the pass were over, and we emerged on the rolling land to the east of the mountains.

Up to this time we had met with no hostile Indians, or, at least, none that attempted to molest us. We were now in the territory hunted by the Bloods and Blackfeet, and were therefore not without fears of an attack. On the second day after leaving the Pass I joined a hunting party and set out in pursuit of buffalo. The party consisted of thirty hunters, all well armed either for the chase or war. A herd of bulls was discovered at a distance, and we rode quietly towards them.

As we rose on a ridge that commanded a wide view of the country, we became aware of a party of mounted Indians at no great distance from us, in pursuit of the same herd of buffalo. They appeared to have discovered us at the same time, and both parties drew up to reconnoitre. In numbers both were nearly equal, and there appeared to be little doubt that the opposing band were some of our old enemies, the Blackfeet. A short council was held without dismounting, and there was a question as to the policy of fighting them on the spot, or of falling back on the main body and keeping prepared for the larger band of Blackfeet that probably lay in our course towards the Selkirk settlement.