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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Sheep Eaters, by W. A. Allen
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sheep Eaters, by William Alonzo Allen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sheep Eaters
+
+Author: William Alonzo Allen
+
+Release Date: September 9, 2008 [EBook #26565]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHEEP EATERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Dring and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i002-400.jpg" width="400" height="608" alt="W. A. ALLEN, AUTHOR" title="W. A. ALLEN, AUTHOR" />
+<span class="caption">W. A. ALLEN, &nbsp; AUTHOR</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>THE SHEEP EATERS</h1>
+
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h2>W. A. ALLEN, &nbsp; D.D.S.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<br />
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;">
+<img src="images/i003-100.jpg" width="100" height="93" alt="decoration" title="decoration" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+<br />
+<br />
+THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS,<br />
+114-116 <span class="smcap">East 28th Street</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">New York</span>.<br />
+1913.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1913,<br />
+<i>by</i><br />
+W. A. ALLEN
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+<i>This Book Is Affectionately<br />
+Dedicated To My Friend</i><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Clara Dallas.</span></span>
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr>
+  <td class="r">Chapter</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td>Page</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></td>
+  <td class="l">AN EXTINCT MOUNTAIN TRIBE</td>
+  <td class="r">7</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></td>
+  <td class="l">THE OLD SQUAW'S TALE</td>
+  <td class="r">12</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></td>
+  <td class="l">THE GOLD SEEKER IN THE MOUNTAINS</td>
+  <td class="r">21</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td>
+  <td class="l">STARTING FOR THE PAINT ROCKS</td>
+  <td class="r">30</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></td>
+  <td class="l">A TALK WITH LITTLE BEAR</td>
+  <td class="r">35</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></td>
+  <td class="l">CURIOSITIES AROUND PAINT ROCK</td>
+  <td class="r">45</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></td>
+  <td class="l">THE STORY OF AGGRETTA AND THE RED ARROW</td>
+  <td class="r">54</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="r"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></td>
+  <td class="l">CLOSING WORDS</td>
+  <td class="r">72</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="THE_SHEEP_EATERS" id="THE_SHEEP_EATERS"></a>THE SHEEP EATERS</h2>
+
+<p>
+<br />
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<h5>AN EXTINCT MOUNTAIN TRIBE</h5>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+The Sheep Eaters were a tribe of Indians that became extinct about fifty
+years ago, and what remaining history there is of this tribe is
+inscribed upon granite walls of rock in Wyoming and Montana, and in a
+few defiles and canyons, together with a few arrows and tepees remaining
+near Black Canyon, whose stream empties into the Big Horn River. Bald
+Mountain still holds the great shrine wheel, where the twenty-eight
+tribes came semi-annually to worship the sun, and in the most
+inaccessible places may still be found the remains of a happy people.
+Small in stature and living among the clouds, this proud race lived a
+happy life far removed from all other Indians.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+The Shoshones seem to be a branch of the Sheep Eaters who afterwards
+intermarried with the Mountain Crows, a tall race of people who gave to
+the Shoshones a taller and better physique. From what can be gleaned,
+the Sheep Eater women were most beautiful, but resembled the Alaskan
+Indians in their shortness of stature.</p>
+
+<p>These people drew their name from their principal article of food,
+Mountain Sheep, although, when winter set in, elk and deer were often
+killed when coming down before a driving snow storm.</p>
+
+<p>Their home life was simple. They lived in the grassy parks of the
+mountains which abounded in springs of fresh water, and were surrounded
+by evergreens and quaking asps and sheltered by granite walls rising
+from fifty to a thousand feet high. Their tepees were different from
+those of all other tribes, and were not covered with rawhide but
+thatched with quaking asp bark, and covered with a gum and glue made
+from sheep's hoofs. Another variety were covered with pitch pine gum.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i012-500.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="WHEEL OF THE HOLY SHRINE, BALD MOUNTAIN, WYO." title="WHEEL OF THE HOLY SHRINE, BALD MOUNTAIN, WYO." />
+<span class="caption">WHEEL OF THE HOLY SHRINE, BALD MOUNTAIN, WYO.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+In this manner lived the twenty-eight tribes of Sheep Eaters, carving
+their history on granite walls, building their homes permanently among
+the snowy peaks where they held communion with the sun, and worshipping
+at their altar on Bald Mountain, which seems likely to remain until the
+Sheep Eaters are awakened by Gabriel's trumpet on the morning of the
+resurrection.</p>
+
+<p>Never having been taught differently, they believed in gods, chief of
+which was the sun, and consecrated their lives to them; and their
+eternal happiness will be complete in the great Happy Region where all
+is bright and warm. The great wheel, or shrine, of this people is eighty
+feet across the face, and has twenty-eight spokes, representing the
+twenty-eight tribes of their race. At the center or hub there is a house
+of stone, where Red Eagle held the position of chief or leader of all
+the tribes. Facing the north-east was the house of the god of plenty,
+and on the south-east faced the house of the goddess of beauty; and due
+west was the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+beautifully built granite cave dedicated to the sun god,
+and from this position the services were supposed to be directed by him.
+Standing along the twenty-eight spokes were the worshippers, chanting
+their songs of praise to the heavens, while their sun dial on earth was
+a true copy of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>A short time ago I learned that among the Mountain Crows there lived an
+old woman, who was the very last of her tribe, and who was so old she
+seemed like a spirit from another world. She had outlived her people and
+had wandered away from her home on the mountains into the valleys,
+living on berries and wild fruit as she wandered. She alone could read
+the painted rocks and tell their meaning, and could relate the past
+glories of the tribe and the methods of the arrow makers, who
+transformed the obsidian into the finished arrows ready to kill the
+mountain ram.</p>
+
+<p>I was very anxious to see this creature, who had outlived her race and
+her usefulness, and so one day I saddled my horse, Billie, put on
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> my
+cartridge belt, took my rifle in my hand, and set out for the mountains
+where I knew a small band of Mountain Crows were hunting buffalo on Wind
+River.</p>
+
+<p>After a long ride I passed Bovay Creek and struck the Buffalo Trail,
+which led directly toward the mountains. It soon headed toward the south
+and I crossed a mountain stream and headed toward the Big Horn Canyon. I
+had gone about two miles when I discovered something to my right sitting
+on the remains of a mountain cedar, and in a moment I was on the scene.
+I pulled up my horse and dismounted and discovered that I had found the
+object of my search, the Sheep Eater squaw.
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<h5>THE OLD SQUAW'S TALE</h5>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+Passing the Big Horn Canyon, where the rushing waters were beaten into
+spray, and where granite walls were shining like great sapphires
+reflected in the sun's bright rays, I wondered how many centuries it
+took to chisel that mighty water way fifty-two miles through this
+tortuous mountain. Perpendicular walls of fully 2000 feet are standing
+sentinels above this silvery water which goes roaring and foaming
+through the narrow abyss.</p>
+
+<p>The golden eagle closes its wings and falls through space like a rocket
+from some unknown world, uttering a scream that resounds like a crash of
+lightning. The Big Horn, proudly perched on yonder crag, bids defiance
+to all living creatures. For fifteen miles this box canyon has cut
+through the backbone of the mountains and holds the clear waters as in
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+palm of one's hand. At the mouth of the canyon, where the waters
+flow calm as a summer lake, as though tired from their terrible journey,
+the rounded boulders, the white sands and quartz that have passed
+through, are resting, peaceful as the wild rose which waves to and fro
+in the spring zephyrs.</p>
+
+<p>In the sand lies a dead cedar. Torn from the mountain top and crashing
+down the canyon, it was carried by the rushing waters out on to the
+beach and deposited in the sand. Sitting on a branch of this cedar is an
+old woman. Her white locks hang crisp and short on her bony shoulders;
+her face is covered with a semi-parchment, brown as the forest leaves,
+and drawn tight over her high cheek bones; her eyes are small and sunken
+in her head, but the fire has not yet gone out. An old elk skin robe,
+tattered and torn, is thrown across her shoulders, with its few
+porcupine quills still hanging by the sinew threads where they were
+placed a century ago. The last of her race! Yes, long ago her people
+have become extinct,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+passed away leaving her to die. But alas, death
+does not claim her, and she wanders alone until picked up by the
+mountain Absarokees.</p>
+
+<p>I sat down by her side and asked her by sign talk: "Are you a Sioux?"
+She shook her head. "Are you a Blackfoot?" Again she shook her head, and
+the effort seemed to tire her. I made many signs of the different
+tribes, but in the Crow sign she said "No" to them all. Her form seemed
+to be of rawhide, and on her fingers were still a few old rings made
+from the horn of the bighorn ram.</p>
+
+<p>I gave her some of my lunch, as I ate, and she munched it with a set of
+old teeth worn to the gums. She ate in silence until all was gone; then
+I told her I was a medicine man, and asked her how old she was. She held
+up ten stubs of fingers, all of which had been partly cut off while
+mourning for dead relatives, then took them down until she had counted
+one hundred and fifteen years. Her eyes brightened, and she fronted away
+to the main range to a towering crag of granite, facing
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+the north,
+where Bull Elk Canyon empties into the Big Horn. She held her withered
+arm high above her head and said in sign language:</p>
+
+<p>"My people lived among the clouds. We were the Sheep Eaters who have
+passed away, but on those walls are the paint rocks, where our
+traditions are written on their face, chiseled with obsidian arrow
+heads. Our people were not warriors. We worshipped the sun, and the sun
+is bright and so were our people. Our men were good and our women were
+like the sun. The Great Spirit has stamped our impressions on the rocks
+by His lightnings; there are many of our people who were outlined on
+those smooth walls years ago; then our people painted their figures, or
+traced them with beautiful colored stones, and the pale face calls them
+"painted rocks." Our people never came down into the valleys, but always
+lived among the clouds, eating the mountain sheep and the goats, and
+sometimes the elk when they came high on the mountains. Our tepees were
+made of the cedar, thatched with grey moss and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+cemented with the gum
+from the pines, carpeted with the mountain sheep-skins, soft as down.
+Our garments were made from the skins of the gazelle, and ornamented
+with eagle feathers and ermine and otter skins.</p>
+
+<p>"We chanted our songs to the sun, and the Great Spirit was pleased. He
+gave us much sheep and meat and berries and pure water, and snow to keep
+the flies away. The water was never muddy. We had no dogs nor horses. We
+did not go far from our homes, but were happy in our mountain abode.
+Then came the Sioux, who killed the elk and buffalo in the valleys. They
+had swarms of dogs and horses, and ran the game until it left the
+valleys and went far away. Their people were always at war and stealing
+horses, which was very wrong in the sight of our people, who never stole
+anything. Our men were fearless and brave, and could bring down all
+kinds of game with their bows and arrows, and were contented; but the
+Sioux were not contented with fighting their enemies, but came to our
+mountain home and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+began to try to ascend the trail. Our chief met
+them on the steep precipice and ordered them to stop where they were,
+but they murmured and made signs of battle. Our people had great masses
+of rock as large as houses, where they could let them loose down the
+trail and crush the Sioux into the earth as they were all down in a deep
+canyon.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i021-400.jpg" width="400" height="630" alt="
+SHEEP EATER SQUAW 115 YEARS OLD
+&quot;THE WOMAN UNDER THE GROUND&quot;" title="SHEEP EATER SQUAW 115 YEARS OLD
+&quot;THE WOMAN UNDER THE GROUND&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">
+SHEEP EATER SQUAW 115 YEARS OLD
+&quot;THE WOMAN UNDER THE GROUND&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"The Sioux stopped and began a war council, and began to paint and get
+ready for battle. Our chief got the great rocks ready, and then sent a
+runner to tell the Sioux that our people never went into the valleys nor
+killed the buffalo, and that we wished to be apart from all other
+people. After a long council the Sioux fired a volley of arrows at our
+runner, and wounded him in the thigh. He came to the chief greatly
+alarmed at the dreaded Sioux as they were many.</p>
+
+<p>"The ponies in the valley below were strange looking creatures to us; we
+had never seen them before. The dogs were howling and the valley rang
+with the wild warwhoop. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+time had come for action, and the Sheep
+Eaters assembled at the narrow trail, headed by their chieftain, Red
+Eagle, with his bow six feet long, made from the mountain ram's horn,
+and bound with glue and sinew from the sheep's neck. Great excitement
+prevailed. The squaws and children had hidden among the rocks with all
+their robes and earthly possessions. The wild and savage Sioux knew no
+fear and were pressing up the narrow trail with war paint and feathers,
+their grim visages scowling in the sunlight as they came.</p>
+
+<p>"Red Eagle, with that bravery known only to his tribe, waited until they
+had reached the most dangerous precipice. Then with a great lever that
+had been prepared years before, he loosened the great rock from its
+moorings, and with one crash it sped down the canyon like a cyclone,
+tearing the trees from their roots, and starting the rocks, until the
+canyon became one great earthquake. The screams of the terrified
+Indians, the howling of dogs and the neighing of horses were heard in
+one awful roar. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+battle was over. The canyon was a mass of blood,
+and death was abroad in the valley. Not a living thing was to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Red Eagle took a horn made of red cedar, and gave one long quivering
+blast which echoed and reechoed through the alps and was carried across
+the glaciers to every part of the mountain. Then the women and children
+came back and once more took shelter in their comfortable homes."</p>
+
+<p>I arose and gave the old crone the balance of my lunch, and told her I
+was going to see that mountain some day and see their houses, but she
+held up her hand and said, "Away up mountain long time ago, maybe so, no
+tepee now."</p>
+
+<p>And I went and left her sitting alone on the old tree, waiting for the
+Great Spirit to come take her to her tribe, over on the happy hunting
+ground, where scenes of warfare and savage Sioux would never molest them
+again. As I left her alone on the bank of the Big Horn I could not help
+feeling a pang of pity for the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+wild woman of the Rockies, whose life
+had been spent among the canyons, and on the streams whose waters had
+chiseled great passages through those granite walls centuries ago. She
+who was once a belle in her tribe and had lived to see the extermination
+of her people, and now wandered alone wishing to die and pass beyond.
+The earth was not to her as it had been in her youth.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the spell that came over me as she raised her
+palsied arm and showed me where she had lived a hundred years ago.
+Something seemed to tell me she was speaking the truth and my trip to
+that mountain became a living passion from that day.
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+<h5>THE GOLD SEEKER IN THE MOUNTAINS</h5>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+On the apex of Medicine Mountain, whose rugged cliffs hold communion
+with the fleeting clouds, and where the winds sing dismal songs among
+the cedar boughs, there the forked lightnings at intervals light up the
+panorama and a thousand beautiful springs and waterfalls sparkle like
+myriads of diamonds. The mountain ash and the golden leaves of the
+mountain quaking asp cast their shadows to make perfect this great
+wonderland, whose colors are more splendid than the rainbow or the
+golden setting of the western sun.</p>
+
+<p>Among such scenery one could live away from the gilded vices and the
+artificial lives of the crowded cities, and it was close to the god of
+nature these people lived and carved their history on the mountains and
+rocks, worshipped the sun because it was warm and bright, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> because
+it lighted the narrow trail through the defiles of the mountains, across
+the streams and through the cool green forests, along the rugged cliffs
+where the horny hoofs of the elk, deer, and mountain sheep had blazed a
+trail so narrow and so steep that none but the Sheep Eaters dare travel
+its rugged heights.</p>
+
+<p>Along these trails could be seen at the four seasons of the year, all of
+the Sheep Eaters, wending their way to the sacred shrine, the great
+wheel, with its gates and its gods of plenty and light. Here on an
+elevated spur a thousand feet above the Porcupine Basin, standing out to
+the east, is a great look-out, where the great sun dial with its
+twenty-eight spokes representing the twenty-eight tribes of the Sheep
+Eaters, overlooking the great Grey Bull country, the Ten Sleep Mountains
+and the Teton Peaks sweeping down toward the Big Horn Canyon. There the
+Grey Bull and Wind River and Sage Creek are sweeping through Big Horn
+Canyon, with its chiseled walls, more than a third of a mile in height,
+and its serpentine
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+trail fifty-two miles into the Big Horn River, and
+thence into the Yellowstone and Missouri and on to the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Here nature's god had spread with lavish hand the richest and the
+greatest blessings to the Sheep Eaters. The buffalo down in the valleys,
+the antelope on the plains, the gazelle along the streams, and the elk,
+black-tail and big horn on the mountains, the mountain grouse, and the
+streams filled with trout, camas root for bread, cherries, raspberries,
+and strawberries, made a Garden of Eden for these people until a
+thousand years had passed, and the tribes increased to twenty-eight
+before the onward march of the Sioux across and beyond the Mississippi
+and Missouri brought them into the Sheep Eaters' country.</p>
+
+<p>Around the base of these mountains were many alluring deposits of gold,
+and small gold camps had started at Fire Springs, Bear Creek and on the
+east and west forks of the historical Little Big Horn, all in or near
+the beautiful Porcupine Basin. But the alluring grains of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+the precious
+metal could not be found in paying quantities and the miners had quietly
+packed their plunder and "hiked the trail" to more plentiful paying
+"diggins."</p>
+
+<p>The entire village was deserted except for the venerable Captain Jack,
+who still drew a pension from the English Government which, small as it
+was, supported him in this beautiful country.</p>
+
+<p>As we swung down the trail which passed near his cabin door, we were
+hailed by the old veteran, coming wet from his claim with a pan of sand,
+which showed many grains of bright gold.</p>
+
+<p>"Just took up a small pan, it's sure rich," he said, "get down and we
+will have supper and some deer steak."</p>
+
+<p>This was too much, for we were all hungry and tired, and the large
+black-tail deer hanging in the corner of his cabin told only too well
+that venison was in the larder. Our horses were soon picketed, the packs
+stored away, and we
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+were all straining our eyes to see the precious
+gold.</p>
+
+<p>There were many colors, but all but two or three were very fine. They
+had lured thousands to the Basin, but the yellow metal could not be
+found in anything like paying quantities. Mr. McKensey told the Captain
+that I was quite an expert in placer mining and had been in the Black
+Hills, Virginia City, and Old Alder Gulch. This was enough and I had to
+agree to stay over a day and see a wonderful clean-up, which would be
+tomorrow. I wanted to see more of the wonderful Basin and so decided to
+stay over and see the Captain make his week's clean-up, which should run
+from seventy-five to a hundred dollars, all told.</p>
+
+<p>The Captain was seventy years of age, rheumatic, and slightly bent. Only
+when speaking of the English Army he straightened his shoulders and was
+all soldier. His eyes were a steel grey, and his hair was long and
+white, hanging on his shoulders, and he wore a long thin beard. He was
+well educated and loved
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+the mountains with a love only known to the old
+pioneer and miner. With assurances of a fine clean-up in the morning we
+retired.</p>
+
+<p>Morning brought the sweet refreshed feeling only known to the tired
+mountaineer, and after our breakfast of venison, coffee, fried potatoes
+and bacon, we were off for the sluice-boxes laden with the precious
+metal.</p>
+
+<p>As we walked along, the Captain told me that the geological formation
+was something wonderful in that region, but with my lifetime of
+experience I could see no reason for placer gold in the mountains. The
+decomposed mountains showed considerable erosion but the rocks seemed
+entirely devoid of granite or quartz, and there was no volcanic action
+to be seen. There was considerable iron and sandstone, but no sign
+whatever of gravel wash. The small particles of gold had surely been
+deposited by some glacial wash from the north in the early formation of
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Soon we reached the cut where the Captain had done some wonderful work
+in the shale
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+rock. Where a large spring came out of the ground he had
+piled the rock ten feet high on either side, and his dump where he had
+piled tons of dirt was in splendid shape. Here was a notice framed in
+the miner's style describing the veins, lodes, dips and spurs, running
+fifteen hundred feet to the north-west and south-east, corner posts,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>The sluice-boxes were soon cleaned and the sand and gravel reduced until
+we could almost see the bottom of the pan&mdash;but no gold. After the entire
+contents was retorted with quicksilver and burned out there was not
+twenty-five cents worth of gold. The Captain assured me that his partner
+had taken several ounces out of the claim and had sent it to the assay
+office for melting and refining.</p>
+
+<p>I said, "Captain, you are an old man and should go to the settlements
+and enjoy the remainder of your life." He replied, "There is no place on
+this earth so dear to me as these mountains. Here is where I have lived
+and here is where I shall die&mdash;close to the nature
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+god and his
+beautiful works, among the flowers and birds of summer and the storms
+and evergreens of winter."</p>
+
+<p>It was enough. I caught the inspiration and could have remained with him
+had I been so unconventional. But life held something dearer and I was
+soon headed toward the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Captain," I said, "you will never find gold in these mountains,
+but if you love the crags, and the wild winds and the deer, nature in
+all its purity, the bursting of the buds in springtime, the flowers on a
+thousand hills, the cold pure water, the frisking squirrels, the pure
+air; then stay in the home of the miner, the prospector, the hunter and
+the nature lover, until you cross the great divide which is allotted to
+all men."</p>
+
+<p>Our visit with the Captain was at an end, and we must say good-bye,
+perhaps forever. Our horses were ready and our packs were lashed on with
+the diamond hitch. I got my saddle horse and we moved down the trail,
+the Captain talking about his placer. At last
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+we came to the steep
+trail, and he straightened up and said, "Well, when the snow flies I
+will see you at your home in the city of Billings, and then I will show
+you some gold that will convince you that I am right."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," I said, "the latch-string hangs out for you, and if you will
+only come and spend the winter with me I shall then endeavor to even up
+the score with you for this favor, as I know I can do it in no other
+way."</p>
+
+<p>He replied, "Well, I am glad that you know it, and when you photo the
+great paint rocks of the Sheep Eaters, their Wheel or Holy Shrine, their
+tepees and landmarks, send me a copy of their wonderful works. And may
+the Great Spirit keep you until we meet again. So long, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"So long, Captain, and may your days be full of sunshine."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+
+<h5>STARTING FOR THE PAINT ROCKS</h5>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+Slowly we traveled down the trail full of rounded boulders and stone,
+our horses scarcely able to keep their feet, and finally we walked and
+led our horses until we reached a valley far below the apex of the
+mountain. Here a clear cold stream of water went tumbling down the
+valley, and here we unpacked and made our camp for the night.</p>
+
+<p>While McKensey cooked supper I went after a black bear, whose tracks I
+had noticed on the sand at the water's edge. I took a course as near
+north-west as possible, and was soon among the trees and rocks which I
+loved so well, and which brought remembrance of other days among the
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>After some wandering I struck a heavy game trail, and could see deer and
+bear tracks not over a day old. I filled the magazine of my
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+rifle and
+plunged along at a fast pace. Here and there were thick clumps of
+quaking asp, mountain birch, and on the creek banks were choke cherries
+and plum trees. Great springs of water bubbled out of the earth, and by
+one of these springs I found some of the Sheep Eaters' lodges. They were
+decayed and fallen to the earth, but the rounded stones with which they
+warmed the water were there, where the great medicine lodges had stood
+years before, and where, unmolested, they had passed happy days among
+the hills and valleys.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman's stories of her people were being proved true, and as I
+passed onward mile after mile I was entranced with the richness of the
+land, the abundance of game that had once held sway among the hills,
+shown by the antlers of the elk parched white by the suns, which lay on
+every side and the rams' horns often seen by the stream. A few bones of
+the little gazelle were among the remains, and a heavy buffalo trail cut
+the mountains where once the buffalo
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+passed through this land out onto
+the Yellowstone.</p>
+
+<p>I had wandered a long way and now cut across the country to the camp
+through rocky canyons and dense cedar growth. I started a bear from his
+bed but could not find him, and then found that the bear had started a
+large band of black-tail deer, which ran about a half a mile and then
+walked leisurely along, cropping the bunch grass here and there. About a
+mile from camp I jumped a bunch of fourteen of all kinds, and when they
+broke cover out of a plum thicket I shot a two-year-old spike buck, cut
+off his hams and carried him to camp, where I found the boys waiting for
+some venison.</p>
+
+<p>Our camp fire already lit up the valley, and the clear running stream
+glistened as it passed over the granite and quartz of the Porcupine
+Basin. Great shadows were thrown among the trees like the ghosts and
+goblins on the ride of Tam O'Shanter, who reveled among the witches and
+warlocks. But we were hungry and happy
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+and turned our attention to the
+broiling venison and brewing coffee.</p>
+
+<p>After supper we began a study of the mountains and the probable cause of
+gold being distributed all along the streams in such small quantities.
+Some said it was deposited by a great glacier from the north, or some
+volcanic action on or near the natural park, but no theory seemed wholly
+satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun illumined a thousand peaks the next morning, after a
+delightful rest, we rode away from this Holy Grail of the Sheep Eaters,
+and it was not hard to imagine the character of the little men who lived
+among these hills and valleys.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached the top of the divide we took a south-eastern course for
+the famous Paint Rock country, near Shell Creek and its tributaries. Our
+route lay through the sage brush of the Bad Lands, and some of the party
+were very anxious to stop at a mountain stream and catch some trout.
+There were some old
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+sluice-boxes and deserted cabins, which were very
+interesting to the average sightseer.</p>
+
+<p>But we pulled on for the Paint Rock, and after ten hours hard ride we
+arrived on this sacred and historic ground. We picketed our tired
+horses, piled our packs under a cottonwood tree, and were soon trying to
+unravel the mysteries of an extinct race. Strange to say no horses were
+visible on the great calendar of rocks, but men, women, children, and
+hieroglyphics were crowded on all available places that one could get to
+register some fact or fancy of this tribe.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i042.jpg" width="500" height="297" alt="SHEEP EATERS PASS TO THE HOLY SHRINE" title="SHEEP EATERS PASS TO THE HOLY SHRINE" />
+<span class="caption">SHEEP EATERS PASS TO THE HOLY SHRINE</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h3>
+
+<h5>A TALK WITH LITTLE BEAR</h5>
+
+<p>The term Paint Rocks will convey various meanings to the average reader.
+A description seems in order to make more plain what these rocks are
+like.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+Just imagine a stream of clear, pure water running through a canyon,
+small and narrow, with a smooth-surfaced rock face, cut by the water
+when the earth and stone were young and tender, on which one could write
+as on a black-board in a school room. Here the Sheep Eaters came to
+record their history. Here father and son came to write the traditions
+of their tribe; and here came that old squaw, whose name in her own
+tribe, as translated by the Crow chief, Pretty Eagle, was,
+"Under-The-Ground." Emblems, original with their tribe, were cut with
+the obsidian arrowhead in irregular semicircles. The outlines of men
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+women were about three feet in height. In some places the storms,
+the wind and the water, had erased parts of the engraving. In other
+places hunters had built their smoking camp-fires against the face of
+the rock and blurred the markings, or had wantonly fired bullets into
+the faces and destroyed the work of the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>As I was getting my camera arranged to get a picture of one group, an
+old Indian came riding up the creek on a pinto pony. Soon came dogs, and
+squaws dragging their tepee poles, and without so much as a "How," they
+began tearing off their packs and setting up their lodges. The packs
+consisted of old kettles, stale meat, old elk skins made into robes,
+parflesakes filled to the brim with pemmican, made of elk fat, choke
+cherries, and jerked elk half dried and half horsehair. Several young
+puppies, too young to walk, were tied with soft thongs just under the
+fore legs of the ponies.</p>
+
+<p>Within half an hour the whole Little Basin
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+was filled with the smell of
+spoiled meat and musty old blankets, spread in the sun to dry, and the
+whole camp looked like the dump ground of a small town.</p>
+
+<p>The old chief turned the entire care of the horses, dogs, provisions and
+camp over to the squaws, and while they were busy, he came slowly toward
+the camera, watching every move I made in trying to get a picture of the
+Paint Rocks. He was about five feet tall, heavy set and rather dark. His
+good, round head well set on fine shoulders, was covered with long,
+heavy hair, carefully braided in small braids, which hung below his
+waist. At intervals these braids were cemented with some wax and painted
+red and green, which gave them the appearance of being bound with
+straps. The sternness of his large mouth, square chin, and heavy jaw was
+relieved by the large, brown eyes. Three scars on his face told of a
+battle fought many years ago, as also did the knife scar on his breast
+and the old gun-shot wound. On his wrist were brass wristlets, and
+three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+missing finger joints told of mournings for his dead. A medicine
+bag and a half dozen elk teeth swung at his throat; these and beaded
+moccasins and leggings showed him to be a chief. An Indian he was all
+through.</p>
+
+<p>As I turned to look at him he straightened himself to his full height,
+and I had taken him in from head to heel when he put his right arm out
+in front of him closed his hand, and gave it three rapid motions up and
+down, which, in sign talk, is "How do you do." Quick as a flash I
+straightened my arm out, laying my thumb across my little finger, made a
+half curve, out from the body inward, then an angling sweep down, which
+means "Good." A twinkle came in his eye, and he answered by giving me
+the same sign.</p>
+
+<p>I knew him, but twenty years had passed over his head since I last saw
+him, and it was twenty-eight years since he and Sitting Bull fought a
+duel with knives, on the Big Horn.</p>
+
+<p>I gave him a challenge and called him a Sioux, which is done by
+straightening the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+fingers of the right hand, laying the thumb close
+into the palm, making a rounded curve outward, then a quick sweep across
+the throat. He found and gave me the answer "No." Then he came very
+close to me, and when he saw the powder in my face, he gave a grunt of
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>I took off my glove and held out my hand. He grasped it quickly and said
+in the Crow language, "Long time ago," then paused&mdash;"long&mdash;time&mdash;ago,
+many moons, you heap good to me and my braves."</p>
+
+<p>"How many moons?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped and his mind was busy running over the many years, many
+camp-fires, the wrongs he had sustained from the British Government
+which compelled them to leave their homes and come to the United States.
+With a sigh he held up one hand, and with the other hand pulled down
+three fingers, saying, "Ten, ten, ten."</p>
+
+<p>I gave him the sign of correct, then his face
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+brightened, and as the
+boys gathered around us, he said, "Do you know who it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I replied, "I know you, you are Little Bear, the chief of the
+Cree Nation." He held up his hands and began making rapid signs. "It was
+you," he said, "who were our friend when our braves were arrested for
+killing buffalo on Razor Creek."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"We never forget our friends," said he. He then gave me a beautiful
+peace pipe. The stem was two feet long, with animals engraved on it; and
+the bowl was made from Minnesota pipe-stone rock, inlaid with silver.</p>
+
+<p>Our camp fire was going, and we all sat around it and smoked the pipe of
+peace, which is done as follows: The pipe is filled with the bark of a
+red willow, and when lighted is handed to the highest or head chief. He
+takes one or two long whiffs; then, as he raises his head and blows the
+smoke in clouds toward the heavens and the Great Spirit, he passes the
+pipe to his guest on the right. This is continued
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+until the pipe is
+empty, and all is done with the greatest reverence toward the Great
+Spirit.</p>
+
+<p>After the peace smoke, Little Bear, with his squaw and his son, took
+dinner with us. We had fresh venison, potatoes, onions, hot pancakes and
+maple syrup, canned pineapple and coffee. Little Bear ate a hearty
+dinner and said it was good, and to meet friends made him very happy.</p>
+
+<p>After the meal I took some pictures of the rocks, and Little Bear asked
+me what I wanted them for. I told him those marks were a history of an
+ancient tribe of people.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "many, many, moons. Our tribe knew nothing of them.
+Long, maybe so, heap years, much old squaw live with Mountain Crows.
+Crows call her 'Under-The-Ground.' She tell much of little folks way up
+mountain. Much eat Big Horn sheep. Much pray sun and heap Great Spirit.
+Old squaw say, little squaw much good face, all time good, bucks no
+fight, yes."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I told him I had been upon the Medicine and Bald mountains and had seen
+their shrine wheel, and where they had lived in the Big Horn mountains.
+I told him I had also been far up Clark's Fork, where their sheep pens
+were, "Yes," I said, "they are all gone. Great chief, Pretty Eagle, and
+I were old friends, and he told me all about the little Indians, their
+bows and arrows, and many things the old squaw had told him about their
+lives on the mountains; but Sheep Eaters, all gone now."</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh," he replied, "by and by, maybe so, Crees all gone, Crows all. Heap
+bad for Injins."</p>
+
+<p>I told him it would be a long time before that happened, and that some
+day perhaps the Government would let the Crees come and live with the
+Crows, on the beautiful Little Horn.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "that would be very nice. If the Great Father at
+Washington would only say the word, we would come and work very hard. We
+do not like our reservation in the north-west. It is too cold and the
+land is poor
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+and the Red Coats are not good to Injins."</p>
+
+<p>When our visit was over and the Indians were preparing to move, I turned
+the camera on the camp. A squaw who was watching me, gave a grunt,
+turned her back, and ran; and the others, alarmed scattered like dry
+leaves before a wind. They did not return until I had taken the camera
+down and put it away. Little Bear explained that they were afraid,
+because they thought the camera a bad spirit.</p>
+
+<p>As the little band moved off toward the north, Chief Little Bear came
+and grasped my hand and said, "You have always been my friend,
+good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>As they rode away with all their worldly goods packed on a few poor
+cayuses, I could not help contrasting their present condition with that
+of thirty years ago. Then the red man owned the country. The plains, the
+rivers, the trees were his; and his, too, were the wild horse, the
+buffalo, the elk, the deer, and the fish. Self reliant, free, happy, he
+was then; today, a beggar. Everything taken from him,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+his tribal
+relations broken, left alone. The hardest stroke of all was to have the
+tribal relations broken, and to be forced under the control of the hated
+and despised pale face. Happy indeed were the Sheep Eaters never to have
+been driven from their mountain home and never to have known the power
+of the pale face!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+
+<h5>CURIOSITIES AROUND PAINT ROCKS</h5>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+For two days we camped among the Paint Rocks, studying them, but could
+find nothing that indicated battle or fighting. Neither did we find any
+dead, nor graves, nor even bones. If, like the Crows, they buried in the
+trees, the last trace was gone. There were no mounds of earth, or
+indications of earth burials. The rocks were mostly covered with
+likenesses of nude men, women, and children, and with emblems. In places
+the artist evidently stood on some elevation of wood or stone, for the
+carving was higher than the average man could reach. Along a crest of
+sandstone I saw some very odd formations; they looked like huge inverted
+cones, that some giant sculptor had carved there. Perhaps they were
+formed by the erosion of centuries, or it may have been the wear caused
+by the rubbing of the buffaloes,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+for we found many of their bones
+there, and I have often seen telegraph poles rubbed to the breaking
+point. When the buffalo is annoyed by buffalo gnats and his great coat
+is filled with mud and sand, he soon wears away a pretty strong pole.</p>
+
+<p>This was a strange place, and in our search we found geodes, petrified
+snakes, and short sections of fish. We also found several petrified
+jaw-bones, of what looked to be wolves, still containing the teeth, and
+fossils of many kinds. Some looked like vegetables, some were hexagonal,
+and some looked as though made of floor tiling. We found many water and
+moss agates of various sizes. The ground was covered with some meteoric
+rock full of iron.</p>
+
+<p>Here we passed the day hunting for some graves, but it was no use. Tree
+burial seems to have been their method of disposing of the dead. In this
+method of burial the body is taken to some low bushy tree, rolled in
+fine robes and blankets, and with green strips of elk hide, wrapped to
+two or more limbs. This
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+secures it very firmly, and as the sun and wind
+dry out the skin the thongs tighten, until only years of sun and rain,
+mice and bugs, eat away the thongs, and the blankets, bones, and skins
+are carried away by the wind. In this method of burial the body lasts
+about twenty years or less.</p>
+
+<p>We were tired and hungry when we returned to camp, but we soon had a
+blazing fire with all the odors of good things on the breeze. Just as we
+sat down to eat, I heard a horse's footfall, and turned to see who it
+was. A young brave rode into the trail, and I caught up my gun. His
+hands went up like a flash giving me the sign of a Crow. As all the
+hunters and trappers in the west, north and south of the Yellowstone
+River, know the Crows to be peaceful, I put up my gun and gave him the
+sign that I understood what he said.</p>
+
+<p>Young braves are always the very hardest members of the tribe to engage
+in conversation, except a young girl of marriageable age. Both
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> do all
+their courting by making eyes at each other.</p>
+
+<p>I knew him. He was a chief's son. Years before I had got some papers to
+Washington for his father. Also I knew he could talk some broken English
+and Crow, and was a superb sign talker.</p>
+
+<p>We began to eat and I made signs for him to picket his horse and join us
+at supper. I knew he was trailing the camp outfit, which had gone and
+was many miles away by this time. He pretended not to understand, but
+looking much disappointed, started to ride away. I hailed him and told
+him to go back and get his packs, and come have supper with us, and
+picket his horses with ours. His face remained blank, and he showed no
+sign of understanding till I added that I was a friend of the Little
+Bear chief, and had kept the officers from arresting his braves at Razor
+Creek many moons ago. Then his face lighted up. "Ugh, me see you before.
+How you know me got pack horses? You no see 'em."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, I know Injin," I replied, "I heap plenty see."</p>
+
+<p>He turned down the trail and soon returned with three good looking
+packs, well loaded. I showed him a good place to unpack and he made
+short work of it. And then what a supper that Indian did eat!</p>
+
+<p>After supper I told him the story of the Reil rebellion in Canada, and
+how when they got whipped the halfbreeds and Indians came across the
+line into the United States; and the history of his grandfather, the Big
+Bear, and his father, the Little Bear. All of this amused him and put
+him on very easy terms for the night. I asked him why he would not talk
+with me when he first came up.</p>
+
+<p>He said, "Sometimes Injin say too much. Me no talk much. Better so. Some
+white man want to know heap too much. You my friend. You Little Bear
+friend, my papa."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said, "I understand, but you can talk like the pale face some,
+and you have a Cree alphabet."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Me no can say what you mean," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>I took a paper and showed him
+some of the letters which ran like this
+<img src="images/i058-75.jpg" width="75" height="17" alt="Triangular Symbols" title="Triangular Symbols" />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, me heap understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I got some letters from Canada, which were written to your father. Your
+sister read them to me in English, and I sent letters to the Great
+Father at Washington, to get a place for your tribe with the Crows."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, me heap savy now," he said.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i059-500.jpg" width="500" height="388" alt="ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIG HORN" title="ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIG HORN" />
+<span class="caption">ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIG HORN</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h3>
+
+<h5>THE STORY OF AGGRETTA AND RED ARROW</h5>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+On my return I passed the Little Horn, swung to the west, and traveled
+up the Big Horn to the canyon, where I found some mixed Indians who were
+busy catching and drying white fish. There were River Crows, Shoshones,
+and a few Mountain Crows camped along the river in their summer homes or
+wickyups.</p>
+
+<p>After I had dismounted, taken off my packs, and turned my horses loose
+to eat the bountiful bunch grass with which the ground was carpeted, I
+went up the river to where some rocks projected into the water and soon
+caught a dozen fine trout, and began getting my supper. Just as all was
+ready, I saw the old Sheep Eater squaw sitting on the ground not far
+away. I went over to her and, taking her by the arm, led her to my camp
+fire and helped her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+to a portion of my broiled trout, potatoes, and
+coffee. She kept her eyes on me for a while as she ate, then said in
+sign talk, "I know you now."</p>
+
+<p>I answered, "Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>When she had finished eating, she drank her coffee and setting the tin
+cup down, said with a sigh, "Heap good." Then, after giving me a long
+and earnest look, "Me heap know you, yes, long time ago; heap talk about
+mountains and Sheep Eaters, yes."</p>
+
+<p>This was my chance, and I was not slow to take it. "Yes," I said, "and I
+should like to know more of your people," and as she made no reply I
+went on, "about the young people, about how they get married."</p>
+
+<p>Still without looking at me, she answered: "Me all time know about young
+Chief Red Arrow, Papoose, and the beautiful young squaw, Aggretta; face
+all time like sun, all time beautiful eyes like stars, Aggretta bring
+springtime and flowers, heap. Yes I tell pale face about Red Eagle
+Papoose and Aggretta."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>By this time many braves were standing around the camp-fire listening to
+the old Sheep Eater, who rarely talked of her people. She settled
+herself more comfortably, pulled her blanket around her shoulders, and
+began her tale in a dull, listless way, but as scene after scene came
+before her mind, she forgot her audience and herself and lived again
+those days of her girlhood. As I watched the flush come to her cheeks
+and the light kindle in her eyes, I lost sight of the withered old relic
+of a tribe now passed away, and saw only the beautiful girl of the past
+taking part in the scenes she so vividly described.</p>
+
+<p>This is the story she told: "Red Eagle papoose no name yet. He never do
+anything to get name. Papoose boy must do something good, save some
+life, do some great act before he can be great man. Aggretta get name
+because she so beautiful. Papoose go see Aggretta, stay long time, give
+her beautiful eagle feathers and beads, but Aggretta no make beautiful
+eyes at him. Come summer time, Aggretta
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+go to mountain top to pray to
+sun. Come dark night, storm, Aggretta get lost among clouds. The great
+storm swept all over mountains and snow fell on ground, on mountain top.</p>
+
+<p>"When Red Eagle papoose find out Aggretta lost on mountain, his heart on
+ground. He get dried sheep and roots and great bow and arrows, flint
+arrows, and go to Aggretta."</p>
+
+<p>Fascinated, I listened, oblivious to everything but her story, which I
+shall have to put into my own words: "Swift as the mountain ram he
+climbs the rugged rocks and takes the trail to the great shrine wheel.
+Soon he finds her moccasin tracks, and with all the fleetness of an
+Indian runner he climbs the rocky trail, here and there stooping to find
+a footmark, the breaking of a piece of moss, or the displacing of a
+small stone. The bent grass in places showed the direction in which
+Aggretta had gone. With bow and arrow he glided on and up. Soon he came
+to the snow line, where the trail became more precipitous and the snow
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+deeper. He stopped and wildly blew his cedar horn, but no answer came.
+The storm had abated and the sun's warm rays were making the snow soft.
+All impressions and trails were obliterated. The reflection of the sun
+on the snow was blinding. After a careful survey, he struggled on up the
+trail, whose serpentine twists wound in and out through trees and
+canyons and dazzling snow until he was almost blinded.</p>
+
+<p>"Entering a narrow canyon filled with fir and spruce trees, he stopped
+in this haven to rest his tired eyes. When his vision had cleared, his
+heart gave a bound; he thought he could see a moccasin track ahead in
+the trail. He was off like a deer, and in a moment he was scraping the
+soft snow away to find&mdash;the tracks of a terrible grizzly. Now he knew
+there was trouble ahead, for he felt sure the bear would follow
+Aggretta's trail. His suspicions proved correct, and mile after mile he
+followed the trail, until he came to the camping ground where the Sheep
+Eaters met twice a year to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+worship. Just as he reached an elevated spot
+he heard the scream of his Aggretta, and starting in the direction from
+which it came, he saw the grizzly coming straight for him. He brought
+his long bow to his face and placed the great jagged arrow against the
+sinew. Dropping on his back, with both feet against the bow and both
+hands on the sinew, he bent the bow until the arrow was just at full
+length and the flint touched the bow; then, letting the bear have the
+shaft full in the breast, he jumped like a cat to one side, and the bear
+passed. One terrible roar told that the grizzly had been hit in a vital
+place.</p>
+
+<p>"The bear turned and started after the young brave, who was bounding
+along toward the scrub fir tree where Aggretta was perched. On came the
+bear, with the blood streaming from his mouth, steadily gaining on the
+brave, until it seemed certain he would catch him before the tree was
+reached. Aggretta, watching the race, gave a cry of warning, and the
+brave turned suddenly and bounded away down the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+hill. The bear,
+infuriated with pain, rushed after him. When the distance between them
+was short, the brave leaped aside with the agility of a coyote, while
+the weight of the great monster carried it down the mountain side.
+Before the bear could make the turn, the brave was beside his Aggretta
+in the tree. But no sooner had he cleared the ground than the monster
+was underneath the tree, tearing at the lower limbs, while the shaft
+remained buried in his vitals.</p>
+
+<p>"The brave took another arrow from his quiver and with deliberate aim he
+drove the arrow with its obsidian shaft into one of the bear's eyes,
+cutting it entirely out. The great brute rolled over and with his paws
+tore the arrow from his eye, but the inward bleeding was fast filling
+his powerful lungs.</p>
+
+<p>"The two lovers sat together trembling like forest leaves, as the
+grizzly rolled over the snow with his life blood oozing away. The young
+brave drew another shaft and was about to send it home, when Aggretta
+said, 'Wait, he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+will not live long now, and you may need your arrows.
+We are far from our people and there are many wild beasts between us and
+our lodge.'</p>
+
+<p>"He replaced the arrow in his quiver, saying, 'Aggretta speaks wisely,
+like her father, Black Raven.'</p>
+
+<p>"At last the lovers came slowly down from the tree. Cautiously the brave
+crept forward and made sure the bear was dead. Then he grasped the
+shaft, and exerting all his strength pulled it from the breast of the
+dead brute, whose lungs it had penetrated. Holding the bloody arrow in
+his hand, the young brave told Aggretta this was his first great bear.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' said Aggretta, 'now you have won a name, and Aggretta the
+daughter of chief Black Raven, will name you the Red Arrow.'</p>
+
+<p>"After taking the claws of the bear to make a necklace for himself, they
+started down the trail in their homeward journey. Young and fleet of
+foot, they went, at a swift pace down the mountain, hand in hand. After
+covering many
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+miles, Red Arrow called a halt at a mountain spring,
+where he took from his buckskin shirt some dried sheep, and they ate
+heartily while they talked of the great rejoicing there would be in the
+Sheep Eaters' lodges when they returned.</p>
+
+<p>"After lunch they started on down the trail, Aggretta keeping pace with
+Red Arrow. Once the stillness was broken by the faint blast of a red
+cedar horn; but it was not until they had stopped to rest in a great
+park, where the snow had melted away, that they heard a blast that
+echoed and reechoed through the wild hills and canyons and the farthest
+glen. Red Arrow recognized the blast as coming from his father's horn,
+and took from his belt a horn made from the mountain ram's horn. Filling
+his powerful lungs, he placed it carefully to his lips, and blew one
+long quivering blast which burst through the air like a rocket,
+penetrating the canyons and the forests, echoing far down through the
+valleys where the Sheep Eaters had built their lodges among the crags.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As they rested under a great tree with the sunlight filtering through
+its branches, making lacy patterns on the moss at their feet, and the
+magpies and squirrels scolding and chattering in the nearby trees,
+Aggretta told of her wanderings on the mountains, and her escape from
+the bear, the despair she felt of ever being rescued, and her joy when
+she saw him, Red Arrow, coming. Red Arrow's heart was too full for
+utterance, and when she had finished, he sat looking into her beautiful
+brown eyes, while his heart throbbed almost aloud. At last he said, 'Red
+Arrow look heap on Aggretta?'</p>
+
+<p>"Casting her eyes around like a frightened fawn, she moved closer to her
+lord of the forest.</p>
+
+<p>"'Aggretta much good, and great father say me have Aggretta,' he
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>"She nestled still closer and he slipped his arm around the trembling
+maiden and drew her to him. His pleading eyes looked straight into hers,
+and through into her very soul, as he said,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+'You give me much good
+name, now do you give me Aggretta?'</p>
+
+<p>"Softly her arm stole round his neck, the black head went down on his
+shoulder while tears of joy slipped down her cheeks. Words could not add
+to the rapture of these two hearts drawn together by the wonderful love
+known only to the children of nature, and they sat in silence until the
+cedar horn was heard again. This was the signal to move on. Down through
+the beautiful ferns and wild flowers the lovers sped, leaving behind the
+mountains and the snow. Hand in hand they pressed forward down the
+winding trail, beaten deep into the earth by the buffalo, the elk, the
+deer, the sheep. The goldenrod nodded in the breeze. Little squirrels
+went frisking up the nut pines, gathering the rich nuts, and the ruffed
+grouse safely hidden among the brown leaves, quietly viewed the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Tired and breathless the two Sheep Eaters reached the park a few miles
+above the village and were met there by the rescuing party. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> great
+chief, Red Eagle, folded Aggretta in his arms. Then taking his son, he
+embraced them both and blessed them with his richest blessings. The
+horns were brought forth, and their notes bursting upon the air apprised
+the waiting villagers of the finding of Aggretta. When the royal pair
+had been escorted from the mountain park to their lodges, the whole
+village joined in song and praise for the young chief. Then all the
+chiefs assembled, and before them and the young brave, Aggretta
+bashfully told the story of how she was driven to the forest by the
+storm, lost among the great fir trees, followed by the bear, escaped
+into the fir tree, and her rescue by the young papoose when she had
+given up all hope. She described his race for life and the courage and
+ingenuity with which he outwitted the bear, and of his sending the arrow
+to the creature's heart. She told how, when he had pulled the arrow from
+the brute's heart all dripping with blood, she had named him Chief Red
+Arrow.</p>
+
+<p>"The chiefs, after listening to her story,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+agreed that the papoose had
+won the right to a name; and he was then and there christened Chief Red
+Arrow.</p>
+
+<p>"The next day Chief Red Arrow selected a beautiful tepee, made of the
+best of lodge poles, cemented together with pine pitch and glue from the
+mountain ram's hoofs, and in it he stored his earthly stock of goods. He
+carpeted the floor of his new lodge with the skins of the mountain ram,
+the cougar, the red deer, the elk, and the bear, while the walls were
+hung with robes from the mountain bison, the otter, the beaver, the
+mink, and the martin. The villagers watched with interest while he
+worked. He drew a rawhide thong across the center of his lodge, facing
+the door. On this he hung the prize trophies of the chase, making a
+partition for his lodge. In the center he left a door-way, over which he
+hung a beautiful spotted elk calf robe for a door. The lodge was located
+in an ideal spot, where the green mountain ferns covered the ground and
+a spring of clear water sparkled and bubbled close at hand. On either
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+side stood a large, low, spreading pine, protecting the lodge from the
+summer suns and winter storms.</p>
+
+<p>"While Red Arrow was still busy decorating his lodge for his young
+bride-to-be, sixteen of the best hunters were sent into the forest and
+mountains and directed to bring in the choicest game to be found and the
+skin of the great bear that had come so near killing Aggretta.</p>
+
+<p>"All this time Aggretta was nowhere to be seen. It was a custom among
+the Sheep Eaters that the prospective bride must seclude herself and
+prepare for the coming ceremonies.</p>
+
+<p>"Four days later the lodge was completed and all but three of the
+hunters had returned loaded with mountain sheep, elk, and deer. On the
+fifth day came the three with the skin of the great bear which had given
+Red Arrow his name.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i075-500.jpg" width="400" height="644" alt="A SUMMER HOUSE OR LOVERS&#39; RETREAT" title="A SUMMER HOUSE OR LOVERS&#39; RETREAT" />
+<span class="caption">A SUMMER HOUSE OR LOVERS&#39; RETREAT</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"The great skin was placed on the ground. Red Arrow brought Aggretta
+out, and before the whole village she repeated the story of her terrible
+experience on the mountain and her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+rescue by Red Arrow. Then the
+great Red Eagle, in all his splendor, stepped upon a rock and announced
+that his son, Red Arrow, now had a name, won by bravery shown in the
+saving of the life of Aggretta, and in ten sleeps the Red Arrow would
+bring this beautiful maiden, daughter of the Black Raven, to his lodge,
+at which time there would be great rejoicing and feasting among the
+Sheep Eaters. When he had concluded three blasts were blown on the cedar
+horns and the crowd quietly dispersed to their lodges.</p>
+
+<p>"The next ten days were busy ones in the village. Every Indian had his
+share in the preparations for the great event.</p>
+
+<p>"On the morning of the tenth sleep, before even the birds had begun
+their morning chants, thirty braves in their gala dress, stole silently
+forth from their lodges and assembled in the open space before the
+village. When the first faint blush of dawn appeared in the east, a
+blast from thirty cedar horns broke the stillness of the beautiful
+mountain village. As the last
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+notes died away two processions from
+opposite ends of the village started toward the bridal lodge. Aggretta,
+in her bridal gown of skins and beads, black hair down to her moccasin
+tops, came with the step of a queen from her father's lodge, attended by
+twenty-eight lovely maidens, each the choice of her tribe. From the
+other end of the village came Red Arrow out of the lodge of Chief Red
+Eagle, attended by twenty-eight braves, all splendid in their wedding
+garb.</p>
+
+<p>"Never bride pledged her troth amid greater beauty. Overhead a canopy of
+blue, with here and there a fleecy cloud daintily edged with pink. Round
+about were walls of massive, towering rock, stately evergreens and the
+thousand surrounding lodges, and under foot a carpet of grass and ferns
+and flowers.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as the sun's rim cleared the horizon, the lovers met at the door
+of the lodge and stood side by side on the great bear skin, while the
+blowing of horns and the chanting of twenty-eight maidens and
+twenty-eight braves
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+made the mountains ring with joy. Then a thousand
+voices swelled the chorus of praise to the young aristocrats.</p>
+
+<p>"The great medicine chief came forward and performed the rites of the
+tribe. The pair knelt on the bear skin with their faces to the sun,
+while he joined them together in marriage. The ceremonies finished, the
+brave and his bride entered the lodge he had prepared, while the
+villagers went to their tepees, chanting songs of praise to the new made
+bride.</p>
+
+<p>"At evening, when the sun had gone to rest and the stately peaks had
+changed from pink to lavender, from gold to copper, and from purple to
+gray, when the evening star had cleared the horizon and had begun to
+wink and beckon to the laggard moon, then again the village awoke to
+life, and the royal feast began. Fires were kindled and great flat
+stones were heated. Choice cuts of elk, the tenderloin and tongues and
+hams of sheep were roasted. Venison steak and ribs were broiled to a
+turn. The bridal couple came forth and once more took
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+their place on
+the bear skin. The singers and dancers in the center of the great throng
+began their weird chants and slow rhythmical steps. The tom-tom burst
+forth, the chants became louder, the dance swifter. The maidens took up
+the chant, first low and sweet, and as it grew higher and louder, the
+young braves added their voices, then the older people joined the
+chorus. Torches of cedar, burning like rockets, were thrown into the
+air, the tom-toms pealed out their muffled notes, and from a thousand
+throats rolled the great wedding song, until the tepees shook, and the
+hills and valleys echoed with the sounds of rejoicing. They danced and
+chanted and feasted while the stars came out till the sky seemed
+crowded, while the camp-fires leaped and blazed. They danced and feasted
+and sang, until the camp-fires smouldered and died out, and the night
+birds made their last faint twitterings before seeking rest. They sang
+and feasted and danced when all else was still save the Grey Bull River,
+murmuring as it swept along over its gravelly bed, the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+far off hoot of
+an owl, or the cry of the coyote still lingering for his share of the
+wedding feast. When the little stars had gone to rest and the larger
+ones were beginning to slip away, then quietly, in groups, the throng
+dispersed, wishing the newly married pair good night and happy days, as
+they passed.</p>
+
+<p>"When the last one had gone, Red Arrow turned to his bride, and taking
+her by the hand, led her into his lodge. Looking into her brown eyes, so
+full of love and trust, he said, 'This is our home, and I know we shall
+always be happy here, for our people all love us and the great spirit is
+well pleased.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then he let the skin fall loosely over the door, and the great day of
+the Sheep Eaters had passed. The silent night became more silent, the
+owl ceased calling to his mate, the coyote skulked into his lair, the
+birds ceased their chirping, the great forest trees seemed in a trance,
+not a flower or fern moved, all nature was at rest.</p>
+
+<p>"The Great Red Eagle, chief of the twenty-eight
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+tribes, sent runners to
+all his people with the message that in the spring, when the warm sun
+should come again, all the tribes were to assemble at the great Sun Dial
+to worship and rejoice over the wedding of his son to the beautiful
+Aggretta.</p>
+
+<p>"The warm sun came, and a great camp-fire was kept burning for two
+nights on Bald Mountain, where it could be seen by the tribes many miles
+away, even into Wyoming. Then came the greatest gathering that had ever
+assembled in the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"Day after day came the people, eager to see the young chieftain and his
+squaw, who were to rule the people when the great Red Eagle was no
+longer able to rule. Songs to the sun began to rise from the great
+rock-ribbed mountains, and the royal family, with Red Arrow and the
+beautiful Aggretta, took their places on the great stone spokes of the
+wheel, facing the east. They began their worship by moving along until
+they came to the rim, when the men turned to the right and the squaws to
+the left, singing
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+their chants to the sun. The sun chant begins very
+low, but as they go around the wheel it becomes louder and louder until
+the climax is reached, then a new company takes the wheel, and the first
+worshippers retire to their seats, watching and joining in the chants
+until the foothills and canyons and plains resound with the music.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus the days and nights were passed until the end of their fourteen
+day holiday had come. The chief and his squaw had become acquainted with
+the leaders of the twenty-eight tribes, and after the annual worship was
+over and the customary gifts had been made to the young chief, Red
+Arrow, and his bride, each tribe, headed by the subchief went to their
+homes among the mountains."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+
+<h5>CLOSING WORDS</h5>
+
+<p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+One evening, when the old squaw seemed to be in a friendly mood, I made
+some inquiries as to where the several tribes had lived, and she said:
+"You white man want to know heap about Sheep Eaters. Why for you know so
+much?"</p>
+
+<p>I told her I was very much interested in her people. Then I gave her a
+pretty bead necklace of regular crow beads, ornamented with paint. She
+put them on and a smile lighted the wrinkled old face.</p>
+
+<p>"White man heap good," she said, patting the beads; then after admiring
+the beads for a time, she turned her attention to me. "White man find
+many camps of Sheep Eaters on Paint Rocks. Sheep Eaters make much squaw
+and papoose on rocks. On Great Mountain, white man find many tepees and
+sheep pens where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> Indian catch much sheep to eat. Many rivers away up in
+mountain, find much Indian work. Away up close to bad spirit country,
+you find many tepee, much rich plenty. (National Park.) Our people think
+bad spirits always at war in the earth, so our people scarcely ever went
+into that country, although our great men fetch obsidian from there to
+make arrows. Our men make arrows of the most beautiful design. We were
+called the arrow makers. We made the most beautiful fur garments and our
+tanned skins were the best."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me who you are, are you a chief's daughter?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>She turned her eyes away at the question, and sat for a long time with
+that vacant look on her face as though seeing all her past; then
+suddenly she turned, and looking squarely at me, she said, "Me Red
+Arrow's squaw."</p>
+
+<p>I was amazed, but could not doubt her word, as she had told me the truth
+so far as I had investigated. It seemed impossible that this most
+haggard of old women could have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> the most beautiful girl of her
+tribe. But a hundred and fifteen years of life can change much, even the
+beautiful curves of the human body and the roses on the cheek and lip. A
+hundred and fifteen years! But this was the chance of a lifetime, I must
+not let it slip away while I dreamed.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did your people go?" I asked; "what became of your tribe?"</p>
+
+<p>"One beautiful day," she replied, "when sun warm and earth green, white
+man got lost and his ponies come into our camp. White man very sick.
+Medicine man put him in big tepee and take care of him, give him much
+bath in hot water. Man got very red like Indian man, face much all over
+spots. By and by he die. Then sickness all over camp. Sheep Eater run
+off in forest and die. Some run to other villages, they all die. Sheep
+Eater all much scared and run away. Many tepee standing alone, all dead
+inside. Red Eagle die, Red Arrow die, me no die, me very much scare, go
+off in mountains, eat berries, cherries, root.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+Me find many Sheep Eater
+dead in woods. By and by Sheep Eaters not many. They go to other Indian
+tribes down in valley on river, where much big water runs, and eat heap
+buffalo, ride pony, marry heap squaw. Sheep Eater have one squaw, other
+Indians many. Then Sheep Eater no more, no more papoose, no more squaw,
+all gone. Cold winds go, spring come, wild geese come back to lakes.
+Sheep Eater no come back, all gone. Tepee rot, rain, wind, snow, sun, on
+bones, on blanket, tepees, skins, bows, arrows. By and by all gone too.
+Indian no go there long time, many moon."</p>
+
+<p>So passed away the proudest race of Indians that ever lived on earth.
+They left behind no trace of history except the Paint Rocks among the
+canyons of Wyoming, near Basin City, and in Crandle Creek Basin,
+Montana, on which we might read of a thousand historical deeds if we
+could but find the key. These, and the great shrine wheel on Bald
+Mountain, the sheep pens where the wary sheep were caught, and here
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> and
+there along the mountain trails, stone blinds behind which the hunter
+lay in ambush for game, are all that is left to remind us of a tribe now
+extinct.</p>
+
+<p>From those visible signs, and the tales of the old squaw and stories
+extant among other tribes, we find the Sheep Eaters were a strong,
+brave, peaceable race of people, clean morally and physically. Provident
+and inventive, excelling in all the Indian arts. They lived as brothers.
+No poor were ever known among them, all sharing alike except the chiefs,
+who had larger tepees and more robes that they might care for visitors.
+Death was meted out to the woman who broke her marriage vows, and after
+death she was condemned to live in darkness and never again to see the
+sun they worshipped.</p>
+
+<p>They never knew the use of alcohol in any form. It was left to the
+<i>proud, civilized whites</i> to bring that curse to the Indians. This
+favored people never saw but the one white man, and he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+only brought
+death to their bodies, leaving their souls unashamed to face their
+Maker.</p>
+
+<p>It seems very fitting that this most perfect tribe of which we know
+should have lived out their little span of life among the most perfect
+surroundings, building their homes in the crags and rocks among those
+towering mountains, whose lofty heads are covered with perpetual snow,
+on whose sides great glaciers lie half hidden, like monsters of the
+deep. Dark stretches of timber fringe the canyons where the bald eagle,
+silent as the grave, seeks its prey. To the south the black forest
+clings to the shoulders of the mountains where the snow goes whirling
+across the peaks, along the table land, and into the valleys. Always and
+always the silent Rockies towering among the clouds on the one side and
+the majestic Big Horn on the other. Sentinel peaks, capped with the
+eternal snows, stand like hoary-headed giants. Great piles of God's
+masonry wall in this emerald vale with one ever-astounding, sometimes
+appalling, always changing vista of mountain,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+forest, river, lake,
+crest, gorge, and peak. Crouched in this empire of solemnity by night
+and grandeur by day, was the home of the Sheep Eaters.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Sheep Eaters, by William Alonzo Allen
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+</body>
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@@ -0,0 +1,1697 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sheep Eaters, by William Alonzo Allen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sheep Eaters
+
+Author: William Alonzo Allen
+
+Release Date: September 9, 2008 [EBook #26565]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHEEP EATERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Dring and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: W. A. ALLEN, AUTHOR]
+
+
+
+
+  THE SHEEP EATERS
+
+  BY
+
+  W. A. ALLEN, D.D.S.
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+  THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS,
+  114-116 EAST 28TH STREET,
+  NEW YORK.
+  1913.
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1913,
+  _by_
+  W. A. ALLEN
+
+
+  _This Book Is Affectionately
+   Dedicated To My Friend_
+
+  MRS. CLARA DALLAS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  Chapter                                        Page
+
+     I  AN EXTINCT MOUNTAIN TRIBE                   7
+
+    II  THE OLD SQUAW'S TALE                       12
+
+   III  THE GOLD SEEKER IN THE MOUNTAINS           21
+
+    IV  STARTING FOR THE PAINT ROCKS               30
+
+     V  A TALK WITH LITTLE BEAR                    35
+
+    VI  CURIOSITIES AROUND PAINT ROCK              45
+
+   VII  THE STORY OF AGGRETTA AND THE RED ARROW    51
+
+  VIII  CLOSING WORDS                              72
+
+
+
+
+THE SHEEP EATERS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AN EXTINCT MOUNTAIN TRIBE
+
+
+The Sheep Eaters were a tribe of Indians that became extinct about fifty
+years ago, and what remaining history there is of this tribe is
+inscribed upon granite walls of rock in Wyoming and Montana, and in a
+few defiles and canyons, together with a few arrows and tepees remaining
+near Black Canyon, whose stream empties into the Big Horn River. Bald
+Mountain still holds the great shrine wheel, where the twenty-eight
+tribes came semi-annually to worship the sun, and in the most
+inaccessible places may still be found the remains of a happy people.
+Small in stature and living among the clouds, this proud race lived a
+happy life far removed from all other Indians.
+
+The Shoshones seem to be a branch of the Sheep Eaters who afterwards
+intermarried with the Mountain Crows, a tall race of people who gave to
+the Shoshones a taller and better physique. From what can be gleaned,
+the Sheep Eater women were most beautiful, but resembled the Alaskan
+Indians in their shortness of stature.
+
+These people drew their name from their principal article of food,
+Mountain Sheep, although, when winter set in, elk and deer were often
+killed when coming down before a driving snow storm.
+
+Their home life was simple. They lived in the grassy parks of the
+mountains which abounded in springs of fresh water, and were surrounded
+by evergreens and quaking asps and sheltered by granite walls rising
+from fifty to a thousand feet high. Their tepees were different from
+those of all other tribes, and were not covered with rawhide but
+thatched with quaking asp bark, and covered with a gum and glue made
+from sheep's hoofs. Another variety were covered with pitch pine gum.
+
+[Illustration: WHEEL OF THE HOLY SHRINE, BALD MOUNTAIN, WYO.]
+
+In this manner lived the twenty-eight tribes of Sheep Eaters, carving
+their history on granite walls, building their homes permanently among
+the snowy peaks where they held communion with the sun, and worshipping
+at their altar on Bald Mountain, which seems likely to remain until the
+Sheep Eaters are awakened by Gabriel's trumpet on the morning of the
+resurrection.
+
+Never having been taught differently, they believed in gods, chief of
+which was the sun, and consecrated their lives to them; and their
+eternal happiness will be complete in the great Happy Region where all
+is bright and warm. The great wheel, or shrine, of this people is eighty
+feet across the face, and has twenty-eight spokes, representing the
+twenty-eight tribes of their race. At the center or hub there is a house
+of stone, where Red Eagle held the position of chief or leader of all
+the tribes. Facing the north-east was the house of the god of plenty,
+and on the south-east faced the house of the goddess of beauty; and due
+west was the beautifully built granite cave dedicated to the sun god,
+and from this position the services were supposed to be directed by him.
+Standing along the twenty-eight spokes were the worshippers, chanting
+their songs of praise to the heavens, while their sun dial on earth was
+a true copy of the sun.
+
+A short time ago I learned that among the Mountain Crows there lived an
+old woman, who was the very last of her tribe, and who was so old she
+seemed like a spirit from another world. She had outlived her people and
+had wandered away from her home on the mountains into the valleys,
+living on berries and wild fruit as she wandered. She alone could read
+the painted rocks and tell their meaning, and could relate the past
+glories of the tribe and the methods of the arrow makers, who
+transformed the obsidian into the finished arrows ready to kill the
+mountain ram.
+
+I was very anxious to see this creature, who had outlived her race and
+her usefulness, and so one day I saddled my horse, Billie, put on my
+cartridge belt, took my rifle in my hand, and set out for the mountains
+where I knew a small band of Mountain Crows were hunting buffalo on Wind
+River.
+
+After a long ride I passed Bovay Creek and struck the Buffalo Trail,
+which led directly toward the mountains. It soon headed toward the south
+and I crossed a mountain stream and headed toward the Big Horn Canyon. I
+had gone about two miles when I discovered something to my right sitting
+on the remains of a mountain cedar, and in a moment I was on the scene.
+I pulled up my horse and dismounted and discovered that I had found the
+object of my search, the Sheep Eater squaw.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE OLD SQUAW'S TALE
+
+
+Passing the Big Horn Canyon, where the rushing waters were beaten into
+spray, and where granite walls were shining like great sapphires
+reflected in the sun's bright rays, I wondered how many centuries it
+took to chisel that mighty water way fifty-two miles through this
+tortuous mountain. Perpendicular walls of fully 2000 feet are standing
+sentinels above this silvery water which goes roaring and foaming
+through the narrow abyss.
+
+The golden eagle closes its wings and falls through space like a rocket
+from some unknown world, uttering a scream that resounds like a crash of
+lightning. The Big Horn, proudly perched on yonder crag, bids defiance
+to all living creatures. For fifteen miles this box canyon has cut
+through the backbone of the mountains and holds the clear waters as in
+the palm of one's hand. At the mouth of the canyon, where the waters
+flow calm as a summer lake, as though tired from their terrible journey,
+the rounded boulders, the white sands and quartz that have passed
+through, are resting, peaceful as the wild rose which waves to and fro
+in the spring zephyrs.
+
+In the sand lies a dead cedar. Torn from the mountain top and crashing
+down the canyon, it was carried by the rushing waters out on to the
+beach and deposited in the sand. Sitting on a branch of this cedar is an
+old woman. Her white locks hang crisp and short on her bony shoulders;
+her face is covered with a semi-parchment, brown as the forest leaves,
+and drawn tight over her high cheek bones; her eyes are small and sunken
+in her head, but the fire has not yet gone out. An old elk skin robe,
+tattered and torn, is thrown across her shoulders, with its few
+porcupine quills still hanging by the sinew threads where they were
+placed a century ago. The last of her race! Yes, long ago her people
+have become extinct, passed away leaving her to die. But alas, death
+does not claim her, and she wanders alone until picked up by the
+mountain Absarokees.
+
+I sat down by her side and asked her by sign talk: "Are you a Sioux?"
+She shook her head. "Are you a Blackfoot?" Again she shook her head, and
+the effort seemed to tire her. I made many signs of the different
+tribes, but in the Crow sign she said "No" to them all. Her form seemed
+to be of rawhide, and on her fingers were still a few old rings made
+from the horn of the bighorn ram.
+
+I gave her some of my lunch, as I ate, and she munched it with a set of
+old teeth worn to the gums. She ate in silence until all was gone; then
+I told her I was a medicine man, and asked her how old she was. She held
+up ten stubs of fingers, all of which had been partly cut off while
+mourning for dead relatives, then took them down until she had counted
+one hundred and fifteen years. Her eyes brightened, and she fronted away
+to the main range to a towering crag of granite, facing the north,
+where Bull Elk Canyon empties into the Big Horn. She held her withered
+arm high above her head and said in sign language:
+
+"My people lived among the clouds. We were the Sheep Eaters who have
+passed away, but on those walls are the paint rocks, where our
+traditions are written on their face, chiseled with obsidian arrow
+heads. Our people were not warriors. We worshipped the sun, and the sun
+is bright and so were our people. Our men were good and our women were
+like the sun. The Great Spirit has stamped our impressions on the rocks
+by His lightnings; there are many of our people who were outlined on
+those smooth walls years ago; then our people painted their figures, or
+traced them with beautiful colored stones, and the pale face calls them
+"painted rocks." Our people never came down into the valleys, but always
+lived among the clouds, eating the mountain sheep and the goats, and
+sometimes the elk when they came high on the mountains. Our tepees were
+made of the cedar, thatched with grey moss and cemented with the gum
+from the pines, carpeted with the mountain sheep-skins, soft as down.
+Our garments were made from the skins of the gazelle, and ornamented
+with eagle feathers and ermine and otter skins.
+
+"We chanted our songs to the sun, and the Great Spirit was pleased. He
+gave us much sheep and meat and berries and pure water, and snow to keep
+the flies away. The water was never muddy. We had no dogs nor horses. We
+did not go far from our homes, but were happy in our mountain abode.
+Then came the Sioux, who killed the elk and buffalo in the valleys. They
+had swarms of dogs and horses, and ran the game until it left the
+valleys and went far away. Their people were always at war and stealing
+horses, which was very wrong in the sight of our people, who never stole
+anything. Our men were fearless and brave, and could bring down all
+kinds of game with their bows and arrows, and were contented; but the
+Sioux were not contented with fighting their enemies, but came to our
+mountain home and began to try to ascend the trail. Our chief met
+them on the steep precipice and ordered them to stop where they were,
+but they murmured and made signs of battle. Our people had great masses
+of rock as large as houses, where they could let them loose down the
+trail and crush the Sioux into the earth as they were all down in a deep
+canyon.
+
+[Illustration: SHEEP EATER SQUAW 115 YEARS OLD "THE WOMAN UNDER THE
+GROUND"]
+
+"The Sioux stopped and began a war council, and began to paint and get
+ready for battle. Our chief got the great rocks ready, and then sent a
+runner to tell the Sioux that our people never went into the valleys nor
+killed the buffalo, and that we wished to be apart from all other
+people. After a long council the Sioux fired a volley of arrows at our
+runner, and wounded him in the thigh. He came to the chief greatly
+alarmed at the dreaded Sioux as they were many.
+
+"The ponies in the valley below were strange looking creatures to us; we
+had never seen them before. The dogs were howling and the valley rang
+with the wild warwhoop. The time had come for action, and the Sheep
+Eaters assembled at the narrow trail, headed by their chieftain, Red
+Eagle, with his bow six feet long, made from the mountain ram's horn,
+and bound with glue and sinew from the sheep's neck. Great excitement
+prevailed. The squaws and children had hidden among the rocks with all
+their robes and earthly possessions. The wild and savage Sioux knew no
+fear and were pressing up the narrow trail with war paint and feathers,
+their grim visages scowling in the sunlight as they came.
+
+"Red Eagle, with that bravery known only to his tribe, waited until they
+had reached the most dangerous precipice. Then with a great lever that
+had been prepared years before, he loosened the great rock from its
+moorings, and with one crash it sped down the canyon like a cyclone,
+tearing the trees from their roots, and starting the rocks, until the
+canyon became one great earthquake. The screams of the terrified
+Indians, the howling of dogs and the neighing of horses were heard in
+one awful roar. The battle was over. The canyon was a mass of blood,
+and death was abroad in the valley. Not a living thing was to be seen.
+
+"Red Eagle took a horn made of red cedar, and gave one long quivering
+blast which echoed and reechoed through the alps and was carried across
+the glaciers to every part of the mountain. Then the women and children
+came back and once more took shelter in their comfortable homes."
+
+I arose and gave the old crone the balance of my lunch, and told her I
+was going to see that mountain some day and see their houses, but she
+held up her hand and said, "Away up mountain long time ago, maybe so, no
+tepee now."
+
+And I went and left her sitting alone on the old tree, waiting for the
+Great Spirit to come take her to her tribe, over on the happy hunting
+ground, where scenes of warfare and savage Sioux would never molest them
+again. As I left her alone on the bank of the Big Horn I could not help
+feeling a pang of pity for the wild woman of the Rockies, whose life
+had been spent among the canyons, and on the streams whose waters had
+chiseled great passages through those granite walls centuries ago. She
+who was once a belle in her tribe and had lived to see the extermination
+of her people, and now wandered alone wishing to die and pass beyond.
+The earth was not to her as it had been in her youth.
+
+I shall never forget the spell that came over me as she raised her
+palsied arm and showed me where she had lived a hundred years ago.
+Something seemed to tell me she was speaking the truth and my trip to
+that mountain became a living passion from that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE GOLD SEEKER IN THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+On the apex of Medicine Mountain, whose rugged cliffs hold communion
+with the fleeting clouds, and where the winds sing dismal songs among
+the cedar boughs, there the forked lightnings at intervals light up the
+panorama and a thousand beautiful springs and waterfalls sparkle like
+myriads of diamonds. The mountain ash and the golden leaves of the
+mountain quaking asp cast their shadows to make perfect this great
+wonderland, whose colors are more splendid than the rainbow or the
+golden setting of the western sun.
+
+Among such scenery one could live away from the gilded vices and the
+artificial lives of the crowded cities, and it was close to the god of
+nature these people lived and carved their history on the mountains and
+rocks, worshipped the sun because it was warm and bright, and because
+it lighted the narrow trail through the defiles of the mountains, across
+the streams and through the cool green forests, along the rugged cliffs
+where the horny hoofs of the elk, deer, and mountain sheep had blazed a
+trail so narrow and so steep that none but the Sheep Eaters dare travel
+its rugged heights.
+
+Along these trails could be seen at the four seasons of the year, all of
+the Sheep Eaters, wending their way to the sacred shrine, the great
+wheel, with its gates and its gods of plenty and light. Here on an
+elevated spur a thousand feet above the Porcupine Basin, standing out to
+the east, is a great look-out, where the great sun dial with its
+twenty-eight spokes representing the twenty-eight tribes of the Sheep
+Eaters, overlooking the great Grey Bull country, the Ten Sleep Mountains
+and the Teton Peaks sweeping down toward the Big Horn Canyon. There the
+Grey Bull and Wind River and Sage Creek are sweeping through Big Horn
+Canyon, with its chiseled walls, more than a third of a mile in height,
+and its serpentine trail fifty-two miles into the Big Horn River, and
+thence into the Yellowstone and Missouri and on to the ocean.
+
+Here nature's god had spread with lavish hand the richest and the
+greatest blessings to the Sheep Eaters. The buffalo down in the valleys,
+the antelope on the plains, the gazelle along the streams, and the elk,
+black-tail and big horn on the mountains, the mountain grouse, and the
+streams filled with trout, camas root for bread, cherries, raspberries,
+and strawberries, made a Garden of Eden for these people until a
+thousand years had passed, and the tribes increased to twenty-eight
+before the onward march of the Sioux across and beyond the Mississippi
+and Missouri brought them into the Sheep Eaters' country.
+
+Around the base of these mountains were many alluring deposits of gold,
+and small gold camps had started at Fire Springs, Bear Creek and on the
+east and west forks of the historical Little Big Horn, all in or near
+the beautiful Porcupine Basin. But the alluring grains of the precious
+metal could not be found in paying quantities and the miners had quietly
+packed their plunder and "hiked the trail" to more plentiful paying
+"diggins."
+
+The entire village was deserted except for the venerable Captain Jack,
+who still drew a pension from the English Government which, small as it
+was, supported him in this beautiful country.
+
+As we swung down the trail which passed near his cabin door, we were
+hailed by the old veteran, coming wet from his claim with a pan of sand,
+which showed many grains of bright gold.
+
+"Just took up a small pan, it's sure rich," he said, "get down and we
+will have supper and some deer steak."
+
+This was too much, for we were all hungry and tired, and the large
+black-tail deer hanging in the corner of his cabin told only too well
+that venison was in the larder. Our horses were soon picketed, the packs
+stored away, and we were all straining our eyes to see the precious
+gold.
+
+There were many colors, but all but two or three were very fine. They
+had lured thousands to the Basin, but the yellow metal could not be
+found in anything like paying quantities. Mr. McKensey told the Captain
+that I was quite an expert in placer mining and had been in the Black
+Hills, Virginia City, and Old Alder Gulch. This was enough and I had to
+agree to stay over a day and see a wonderful clean-up, which would be
+tomorrow. I wanted to see more of the wonderful Basin and so decided to
+stay over and see the Captain make his week's clean-up, which should run
+from seventy-five to a hundred dollars, all told.
+
+The Captain was seventy years of age, rheumatic, and slightly bent. Only
+when speaking of the English Army he straightened his shoulders and was
+all soldier. His eyes were a steel grey, and his hair was long and
+white, hanging on his shoulders, and he wore a long thin beard. He was
+well educated and loved the mountains with a love only known to the old
+pioneer and miner. With assurances of a fine clean-up in the morning we
+retired.
+
+Morning brought the sweet refreshed feeling only known to the tired
+mountaineer, and after our breakfast of venison, coffee, fried potatoes
+and bacon, we were off for the sluice-boxes laden with the precious
+metal.
+
+As we walked along, the Captain told me that the geological formation
+was something wonderful in that region, but with my lifetime of
+experience I could see no reason for placer gold in the mountains. The
+decomposed mountains showed considerable erosion but the rocks seemed
+entirely devoid of granite or quartz, and there was no volcanic action
+to be seen. There was considerable iron and sandstone, but no sign
+whatever of gravel wash. The small particles of gold had surely been
+deposited by some glacial wash from the north in the early formation of
+the earth.
+
+Soon we reached the cut where the Captain had done some wonderful work
+in the shale rock. Where a large spring came out of the ground he had
+piled the rock ten feet high on either side, and his dump where he had
+piled tons of dirt was in splendid shape. Here was a notice framed in
+the miner's style describing the veins, lodes, dips and spurs, running
+fifteen hundred feet to the north-west and south-east, corner posts,
+etc.
+
+The sluice-boxes were soon cleaned and the sand and gravel reduced until
+we could almost see the bottom of the pan--but no gold. After the entire
+contents was retorted with quicksilver and burned out there was not
+twenty-five cents worth of gold. The Captain assured me that his partner
+had taken several ounces out of the claim and had sent it to the assay
+office for melting and refining.
+
+I said, "Captain, you are an old man and should go to the settlements
+and enjoy the remainder of your life." He replied, "There is no place on
+this earth so dear to me as these mountains. Here is where I have lived
+and here is where I shall die--close to the nature god and his
+beautiful works, among the flowers and birds of summer and the storms
+and evergreens of winter."
+
+It was enough. I caught the inspiration and could have remained with him
+had I been so unconventional. But life held something dearer and I was
+soon headed toward the cabin.
+
+"Well, Captain," I said, "you will never find gold in these mountains,
+but if you love the crags, and the wild winds and the deer, nature in
+all its purity, the bursting of the buds in springtime, the flowers on a
+thousand hills, the cold pure water, the frisking squirrels, the pure
+air; then stay in the home of the miner, the prospector, the hunter and
+the nature lover, until you cross the great divide which is allotted to
+all men."
+
+Our visit with the Captain was at an end, and we must say good-bye,
+perhaps forever. Our horses were ready and our packs were lashed on with
+the diamond hitch. I got my saddle horse and we moved down the trail,
+the Captain talking about his placer. At last we came to the steep
+trail, and he straightened up and said, "Well, when the snow flies I
+will see you at your home in the city of Billings, and then I will show
+you some gold that will convince you that I am right."
+
+"Captain," I said, "the latch-string hangs out for you, and if you will
+only come and spend the winter with me I shall then endeavor to even up
+the score with you for this favor, as I know I can do it in no other
+way."
+
+He replied, "Well, I am glad that you know it, and when you photo the
+great paint rocks of the Sheep Eaters, their Wheel or Holy Shrine, their
+tepees and landmarks, send me a copy of their wonderful works. And may
+the Great Spirit keep you until we meet again. So long, Doctor."
+
+"So long, Captain, and may your days be full of sunshine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+STARTING FOR THE PAINT ROCKS
+
+
+Slowly we traveled down the trail full of rounded boulders and stone,
+our horses scarcely able to keep their feet, and finally we walked and
+led our horses until we reached a valley far below the apex of the
+mountain. Here a clear cold stream of water went tumbling down the
+valley, and here we unpacked and made our camp for the night.
+
+While McKensey cooked supper I went after a black bear, whose tracks I
+had noticed on the sand at the water's edge. I took a course as near
+north-west as possible, and was soon among the trees and rocks which I
+loved so well, and which brought remembrance of other days among the
+mountains.
+
+After some wandering I struck a heavy game trail, and could see deer and
+bear tracks not over a day old. I filled the magazine of my rifle and
+plunged along at a fast pace. Here and there were thick clumps of
+quaking asp, mountain birch, and on the creek banks were choke cherries
+and plum trees. Great springs of water bubbled out of the earth, and by
+one of these springs I found some of the Sheep Eaters' lodges. They were
+decayed and fallen to the earth, but the rounded stones with which they
+warmed the water were there, where the great medicine lodges had stood
+years before, and where, unmolested, they had passed happy days among
+the hills and valleys.
+
+The old woman's stories of her people were being proved true, and as I
+passed onward mile after mile I was entranced with the richness of the
+land, the abundance of game that had once held sway among the hills,
+shown by the antlers of the elk parched white by the suns, which lay on
+every side and the rams' horns often seen by the stream. A few bones of
+the little gazelle were among the remains, and a heavy buffalo trail cut
+the mountains where once the buffalo passed through this land out onto
+the Yellowstone.
+
+I had wandered a long way and now cut across the country to the camp
+through rocky canyons and dense cedar growth. I started a bear from his
+bed but could not find him, and then found that the bear had started a
+large band of black-tail deer, which ran about a half a mile and then
+walked leisurely along, cropping the bunch grass here and there. About a
+mile from camp I jumped a bunch of fourteen of all kinds, and when they
+broke cover out of a plum thicket I shot a two-year-old spike buck, cut
+off his hams and carried him to camp, where I found the boys waiting for
+some venison.
+
+Our camp fire already lit up the valley, and the clear running stream
+glistened as it passed over the granite and quartz of the Porcupine
+Basin. Great shadows were thrown among the trees like the ghosts and
+goblins on the ride of Tam O'Shanter, who reveled among the witches and
+warlocks. But we were hungry and happy and turned our attention to the
+broiling venison and brewing coffee.
+
+After supper we began a study of the mountains and the probable cause of
+gold being distributed all along the streams in such small quantities.
+Some said it was deposited by a great glacier from the north, or some
+volcanic action on or near the natural park, but no theory seemed wholly
+satisfactory.
+
+When the sun illumined a thousand peaks the next morning, after a
+delightful rest, we rode away from this Holy Grail of the Sheep Eaters,
+and it was not hard to imagine the character of the little men who lived
+among these hills and valleys.
+
+When we reached the top of the divide we took a south-eastern course for
+the famous Paint Rock country, near Shell Creek and its tributaries. Our
+route lay through the sage brush of the Bad Lands, and some of the party
+were very anxious to stop at a mountain stream and catch some trout.
+There were some old sluice-boxes and deserted cabins, which were very
+interesting to the average sightseer.
+
+But we pulled on for the Paint Rock, and after ten hours hard ride we
+arrived on this sacred and historic ground. We picketed our tired
+horses, piled our packs under a cottonwood tree, and were soon trying to
+unravel the mysteries of an extinct race. Strange to say no horses were
+visible on the great calendar of rocks, but men, women, children, and
+hieroglyphics were crowded on all available places that one could get to
+register some fact or fancy of this tribe.
+
+[Illustration: SHEEP EATERS PASS TO THE HOLY SHRINE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A TALK WITH LITTLE BEAR
+
+
+The term Paint Rocks will convey various meanings to the average reader.
+A description seems in order to make more plain what these rocks are
+like.
+
+Just imagine a stream of clear, pure water running through a canyon,
+small and narrow, with a smooth-surfaced rock face, cut by the water
+when the earth and stone were young and tender, on which one could
+write as on a black-board in a school room. Here the Sheep Eaters
+came to record their history. Here father and son came to write the
+traditions of their tribe; and here came that old squaw, whose name
+in her own tribe, as translated by the Crow chief, Pretty Eagle, was,
+"Under-The-Ground." Emblems, original with their tribe, were cut with
+the obsidian arrowhead in irregular semicircles. The outlines of men
+and women were about three feet in height. In some places the storms,
+the wind and the water, had erased parts of the engraving. In other
+places hunters had built their smoking camp-fires against the face of
+the rock and blurred the markings, or had wantonly fired bullets into
+the faces and destroyed the work of the Indians.
+
+As I was getting my camera arranged to get a picture of one group, an
+old Indian came riding up the creek on a pinto pony. Soon came dogs, and
+squaws dragging their tepee poles, and without so much as a "How," they
+began tearing off their packs and setting up their lodges. The packs
+consisted of old kettles, stale meat, old elk skins made into robes,
+parflesakes filled to the brim with pemmican, made of elk fat, choke
+cherries, and jerked elk half dried and half horsehair. Several young
+puppies, too young to walk, were tied with soft thongs just under the
+fore legs of the ponies.
+
+Within half an hour the whole Little Basin was filled with the smell of
+spoiled meat and musty old blankets, spread in the sun to dry, and the
+whole camp looked like the dump ground of a small town.
+
+The old chief turned the entire care of the horses, dogs, provisions and
+camp over to the squaws, and while they were busy, he came slowly toward
+the camera, watching every move I made in trying to get a picture of the
+Paint Rocks. He was about five feet tall, heavy set and rather dark. His
+good, round head well set on fine shoulders, was covered with long,
+heavy hair, carefully braided in small braids, which hung below his
+waist. At intervals these braids were cemented with some wax and painted
+red and green, which gave them the appearance of being bound with
+straps. The sternness of his large mouth, square chin, and heavy jaw was
+relieved by the large, brown eyes. Three scars on his face told of a
+battle fought many years ago, as also did the knife scar on his breast
+and the old gun-shot wound. On his wrist were brass wristlets, and
+three missing finger joints told of mournings for his dead. A medicine
+bag and a half dozen elk teeth swung at his throat; these and beaded
+moccasins and leggings showed him to be a chief. An Indian he was all
+through.
+
+As I turned to look at him he straightened himself to his full height,
+and I had taken him in from head to heel when he put his right arm out
+in front of him closed his hand, and gave it three rapid motions up and
+down, which, in sign talk, is "How do you do." Quick as a flash I
+straightened my arm out, laying my thumb across my little finger, made a
+half curve, out from the body inward, then an angling sweep down, which
+means "Good." A twinkle came in his eye, and he answered by giving me
+the same sign.
+
+I knew him, but twenty years had passed over his head since I last saw
+him, and it was twenty-eight years since he and Sitting Bull fought a
+duel with knives, on the Big Horn.
+
+I gave him a challenge and called him a Sioux, which is done by
+straightening the fingers of the right hand, laying the thumb close
+into the palm, making a rounded curve outward, then a quick sweep across
+the throat. He found and gave me the answer "No." Then he came very
+close to me, and when he saw the powder in my face, he gave a grunt of
+satisfaction.
+
+I took off my glove and held out my hand. He grasped it quickly and said
+in the Crow language, "Long time ago," then paused--"long--time--ago,
+many moons, you heap good to me and my braves."
+
+"How many moons?" I asked.
+
+He stopped and his mind was busy running over the many years, many
+camp-fires, the wrongs he had sustained from the British Government
+which compelled them to leave their homes and come to the United States.
+With a sigh he held up one hand, and with the other hand pulled down
+three fingers, saying, "Ten, ten, ten."
+
+I gave him the sign of correct, then his face brightened, and as the
+boys gathered around us, he said, "Do you know who it is?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, "I know you, you are Little Bear, the chief of the
+Cree Nation." He held up his hands and began making rapid signs. "It was
+you," he said, "who were our friend when our braves were arrested for
+killing buffalo on Razor Creek."
+
+"Yes," I replied.
+
+"We never forget our friends," said he. He then gave me a beautiful
+peace pipe. The stem was two feet long, with animals engraved on it; and
+the bowl was made from Minnesota pipe-stone rock, inlaid with silver.
+
+Our camp fire was going, and we all sat around it and smoked the pipe of
+peace, which is done as follows: The pipe is filled with the bark of a
+red willow, and when lighted is handed to the highest or head chief. He
+takes one or two long whiffs; then, as he raises his head and blows the
+smoke in clouds toward the heavens and the Great Spirit, he passes the
+pipe to his guest on the right. This is continued until the pipe is
+empty, and all is done with the greatest reverence toward the Great
+Spirit.
+
+After the peace smoke, Little Bear, with his squaw and his son, took
+dinner with us. We had fresh venison, potatoes, onions, hot pancakes and
+maple syrup, canned pineapple and coffee. Little Bear ate a hearty
+dinner and said it was good, and to meet friends made him very happy.
+
+After the meal I took some pictures of the rocks, and Little Bear asked
+me what I wanted them for. I told him those marks were a history of an
+ancient tribe of people.
+
+"Yes," he said, "many, many, moons. Our tribe knew nothing of them.
+Long, maybe so, heap years, much old squaw live with Mountain Crows.
+Crows call her 'Under-The-Ground.' She tell much of little folks way up
+mountain. Much eat Big Horn sheep. Much pray sun and heap Great Spirit.
+Old squaw say, little squaw much good face, all time good, bucks no
+fight, yes."
+
+I told him I had been upon the Medicine and Bald mountains and had seen
+their shrine wheel, and where they had lived in the Big Horn mountains.
+I told him I had also been far up Clark's Fork, where their sheep pens
+were, "Yes," I said, "they are all gone. Great chief, Pretty Eagle, and
+I were old friends, and he told me all about the little Indians, their
+bows and arrows, and many things the old squaw had told him about their
+lives on the mountains; but Sheep Eaters, all gone now."
+
+"Ugh," he replied, "by and by, maybe so, Crees all gone, Crows all. Heap
+bad for Injins."
+
+I told him it would be a long time before that happened, and that some
+day perhaps the Government would let the Crees come and live with the
+Crows, on the beautiful Little Horn.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that would be very nice. If the Great Father at
+Washington would only say the word, we would come and work very hard. We
+do not like our reservation in the north-west. It is too cold and the
+land is poor and the Red Coats are not good to Injins."
+
+When our visit was over and the Indians were preparing to move, I turned
+the camera on the camp. A squaw who was watching me, gave a grunt,
+turned her back, and ran; and the others, alarmed scattered like dry
+leaves before a wind. They did not return until I had taken the camera
+down and put it away. Little Bear explained that they were afraid,
+because they thought the camera a bad spirit.
+
+As the little band moved off toward the north, Chief Little Bear came
+and grasped my hand and said, "You have always been my friend,
+good-bye."
+
+As they rode away with all their worldly goods packed on a few poor
+cayuses, I could not help contrasting their present condition with that
+of thirty years ago. Then the red man owned the country. The plains, the
+rivers, the trees were his; and his, too, were the wild horse, the
+buffalo, the elk, the deer, and the fish. Self reliant, free, happy, he
+was then; today, a beggar. Everything taken from him, his tribal
+relations broken, left alone. The hardest stroke of all was to have the
+tribal relations broken, and to be forced under the control of the hated
+and despised pale face. Happy indeed were the Sheep Eaters never to have
+been driven from their mountain home and never to have known the power
+of the pale face!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CURIOSITIES AROUND PAINT ROCKS
+
+
+For two days we camped among the Paint Rocks, studying them, but could
+find nothing that indicated battle or fighting. Neither did we find any
+dead, nor graves, nor even bones. If, like the Crows, they buried in the
+trees, the last trace was gone. There were no mounds of earth, or
+indications of earth burials. The rocks were mostly covered with
+likenesses of nude men, women, and children, and with emblems. In places
+the artist evidently stood on some elevation of wood or stone, for the
+carving was higher than the average man could reach. Along a crest of
+sandstone I saw some very odd formations; they looked like huge inverted
+cones, that some giant sculptor had carved there. Perhaps they were
+formed by the erosion of centuries, or it may have been the wear caused
+by the rubbing of the buffaloes, for we found many of their bones
+there, and I have often seen telegraph poles rubbed to the breaking
+point. When the buffalo is annoyed by buffalo gnats and his great coat
+is filled with mud and sand, he soon wears away a pretty strong pole.
+
+This was a strange place, and in our search we found geodes, petrified
+snakes, and short sections of fish. We also found several petrified
+jaw-bones, of what looked to be wolves, still containing the teeth, and
+fossils of many kinds. Some looked like vegetables, some were hexagonal,
+and some looked as though made of floor tiling. We found many water and
+moss agates of various sizes. The ground was covered with some meteoric
+rock full of iron.
+
+Here we passed the day hunting for some graves, but it was no use. Tree
+burial seems to have been their method of disposing of the dead. In this
+method of burial the body is taken to some low bushy tree, rolled in
+fine robes and blankets, and with green strips of elk hide, wrapped to
+two or more limbs. This secures it very firmly, and as the sun and wind
+dry out the skin the thongs tighten, until only years of sun and rain,
+mice and bugs, eat away the thongs, and the blankets, bones, and skins
+are carried away by the wind. In this method of burial the body lasts
+about twenty years or less.
+
+We were tired and hungry when we returned to camp, but we soon had a
+blazing fire with all the odors of good things on the breeze. Just as we
+sat down to eat, I heard a horse's footfall, and turned to see who it
+was. A young brave rode into the trail, and I caught up my gun. His
+hands went up like a flash giving me the sign of a Crow. As all the
+hunters and trappers in the west, north and south of the Yellowstone
+River, know the Crows to be peaceful, I put up my gun and gave him the
+sign that I understood what he said.
+
+Young braves are always the very hardest members of the tribe to engage
+in conversation, except a young girl of marriageable age. Both do all
+their courting by making eyes at each other.
+
+I knew him. He was a chief's son. Years before I had got some papers to
+Washington for his father. Also I knew he could talk some broken English
+and Crow, and was a superb sign talker.
+
+We began to eat and I made signs for him to picket his horse and join us
+at supper. I knew he was trailing the camp outfit, which had gone and
+was many miles away by this time. He pretended not to understand, but
+looking much disappointed, started to ride away. I hailed him and told
+him to go back and get his packs, and come have supper with us, and
+picket his horses with ours. His face remained blank, and he showed no
+sign of understanding till I added that I was a friend of the Little
+Bear chief, and had kept the officers from arresting his braves at Razor
+Creek many moons ago. Then his face lighted up. "Ugh, me see you before.
+How you know me got pack horses? You no see 'em."
+
+"Never mind, I know Injin," I replied, "I heap plenty see."
+
+He turned down the trail and soon returned with three good looking
+packs, well loaded. I showed him a good place to unpack and he made
+short work of it. And then what a supper that Indian did eat!
+
+After supper I told him the story of the Reil rebellion in Canada, and
+how when they got whipped the halfbreeds and Indians came across the
+line into the United States; and the history of his grandfather, the Big
+Bear, and his father, the Little Bear. All of this amused him and put
+him on very easy terms for the night. I asked him why he would not talk
+with me when he first came up.
+
+He said, "Sometimes Injin say too much. Me no talk much. Better so. Some
+white man want to know heap too much. You my friend. You Little Bear
+friend, my papa."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I understand, but you can talk like the pale face some,
+and you have a Cree alphabet."
+
+"Me no can say what you mean," he replied.
+
+I took a paper and showed him some of the letters which ran like this
+[Illustrations: Triangular Symbols]
+
+"Yes, me heap understand."
+
+"I got some letters from Canada, which were written to your father. Your
+sister read them to me in English, and I sent letters to the Great
+Father at Washington, to get a place for your tribe with the Crows."
+
+"Yes, me heap savy now," he said.
+
+[Illustration: ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIG HORN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE STORY OF AGGRETTA AND RED ARROW
+
+
+On my return I passed the Little Horn, swung to the west, and traveled
+up the Big Horn to the canyon, where I found some mixed Indians who were
+busy catching and drying white fish. There were River Crows, Shoshones,
+and a few Mountain Crows camped along the river in their summer homes or
+wickyups.
+
+After I had dismounted, taken off my packs, and turned my horses loose
+to eat the bountiful bunch grass with which the ground was carpeted, I
+went up the river to where some rocks projected into the water and soon
+caught a dozen fine trout, and began getting my supper. Just as all was
+ready, I saw the old Sheep Eater squaw sitting on the ground not far
+away. I went over to her and, taking her by the arm, led her to my camp
+fire and helped her to a portion of my broiled trout, potatoes, and
+coffee. She kept her eyes on me for a while as she ate, then said in
+sign talk, "I know you now."
+
+I answered, "Yes?"
+
+When she had finished eating, she drank her coffee and setting the tin
+cup down, said with a sigh, "Heap good." Then, after giving me a long
+and earnest look, "Me heap know you, yes, long time ago; heap talk about
+mountains and Sheep Eaters, yes."
+
+This was my chance, and I was not slow to take it. "Yes," I said, "and I
+should like to know more of your people," and as she made no reply I
+went on, "about the young people, about how they get married."
+
+Still without looking at me, she answered: "Me all time know about young
+Chief Red Arrow, Papoose, and the beautiful young squaw, Aggretta; face
+all time like sun, all time beautiful eyes like stars, Aggretta bring
+springtime and flowers, heap. Yes I tell pale face about Red Eagle
+Papoose and Aggretta."
+
+By this time many braves were standing around the camp-fire listening to
+the old Sheep Eater, who rarely talked of her people. She settled
+herself more comfortably, pulled her blanket around her shoulders, and
+began her tale in a dull, listless way, but as scene after scene came
+before her mind, she forgot her audience and herself and lived again
+those days of her girlhood. As I watched the flush come to her cheeks
+and the light kindle in her eyes, I lost sight of the withered old relic
+of a tribe now passed away, and saw only the beautiful girl of the past
+taking part in the scenes she so vividly described.
+
+This is the story she told: "Red Eagle papoose no name yet. He never do
+anything to get name. Papoose boy must do something good, save some
+life, do some great act before he can be great man. Aggretta get name
+because she so beautiful. Papoose go see Aggretta, stay long time, give
+her beautiful eagle feathers and beads, but Aggretta no make beautiful
+eyes at him. Come summer time, Aggretta go to mountain top to pray to
+sun. Come dark night, storm, Aggretta get lost among clouds. The great
+storm swept all over mountains and snow fell on ground, on mountain top.
+
+"When Red Eagle papoose find out Aggretta lost on mountain, his heart on
+ground. He get dried sheep and roots and great bow and arrows, flint
+arrows, and go to Aggretta."
+
+Fascinated, I listened, oblivious to everything but her story, which I
+shall have to put into my own words: "Swift as the mountain ram he
+climbs the rugged rocks and takes the trail to the great shrine wheel.
+Soon he finds her moccasin tracks, and with all the fleetness of an
+Indian runner he climbs the rocky trail, here and there stooping to find
+a footmark, the breaking of a piece of moss, or the displacing of a
+small stone. The bent grass in places showed the direction in which
+Aggretta had gone. With bow and arrow he glided on and up. Soon he came
+to the snow line, where the trail became more precipitous and the snow
+deeper. He stopped and wildly blew his cedar horn, but no answer came.
+The storm had abated and the sun's warm rays were making the snow soft.
+All impressions and trails were obliterated. The reflection of the sun
+on the snow was blinding. After a careful survey, he struggled on up the
+trail, whose serpentine twists wound in and out through trees and
+canyons and dazzling snow until he was almost blinded.
+
+"Entering a narrow canyon filled with fir and spruce trees, he stopped
+in this haven to rest his tired eyes. When his vision had cleared, his
+heart gave a bound; he thought he could see a moccasin track ahead in
+the trail. He was off like a deer, and in a moment he was scraping the
+soft snow away to find--the tracks of a terrible grizzly. Now he knew
+there was trouble ahead, for he felt sure the bear would follow
+Aggretta's trail. His suspicions proved correct, and mile after mile he
+followed the trail, until he came to the camping ground where the Sheep
+Eaters met twice a year to worship. Just as he reached an elevated spot
+he heard the scream of his Aggretta, and starting in the direction from
+which it came, he saw the grizzly coming straight for him. He brought
+his long bow to his face and placed the great jagged arrow against the
+sinew. Dropping on his back, with both feet against the bow and both
+hands on the sinew, he bent the bow until the arrow was just at full
+length and the flint touched the bow; then, letting the bear have the
+shaft full in the breast, he jumped like a cat to one side, and the bear
+passed. One terrible roar told that the grizzly had been hit in a vital
+place.
+
+"The bear turned and started after the young brave, who was bounding
+along toward the scrub fir tree where Aggretta was perched. On came the
+bear, with the blood streaming from his mouth, steadily gaining on the
+brave, until it seemed certain he would catch him before the tree was
+reached. Aggretta, watching the race, gave a cry of warning, and the
+brave turned suddenly and bounded away down the hill. The bear,
+infuriated with pain, rushed after him. When the distance between them
+was short, the brave leaped aside with the agility of a coyote, while
+the weight of the great monster carried it down the mountain side.
+Before the bear could make the turn, the brave was beside his Aggretta
+in the tree. But no sooner had he cleared the ground than the monster
+was underneath the tree, tearing at the lower limbs, while the shaft
+remained buried in his vitals.
+
+"The brave took another arrow from his quiver and with deliberate aim he
+drove the arrow with its obsidian shaft into one of the bear's eyes,
+cutting it entirely out. The great brute rolled over and with his paws
+tore the arrow from his eye, but the inward bleeding was fast filling
+his powerful lungs.
+
+"The two lovers sat together trembling like forest leaves, as the
+grizzly rolled over the snow with his life blood oozing away. The young
+brave drew another shaft and was about to send it home, when Aggretta
+said, 'Wait, he will not live long now, and you may need your arrows.
+We are far from our people and there are many wild beasts between us and
+our lodge.'
+
+"He replaced the arrow in his quiver, saying, 'Aggretta speaks wisely,
+like her father, Black Raven.'
+
+"At last the lovers came slowly down from the tree. Cautiously the brave
+crept forward and made sure the bear was dead. Then he grasped the
+shaft, and exerting all his strength pulled it from the breast of the
+dead brute, whose lungs it had penetrated. Holding the bloody arrow in
+his hand, the young brave told Aggretta this was his first great bear.
+
+"'Yes,' said Aggretta, 'now you have won a name, and Aggretta the
+daughter of chief Black Raven, will name you the Red Arrow.'
+
+"After taking the claws of the bear to make a necklace for himself, they
+started down the trail in their homeward journey. Young and fleet of
+foot, they went, at a swift pace down the mountain, hand in hand. After
+covering many miles, Red Arrow called a halt at a mountain spring,
+where he took from his buckskin shirt some dried sheep, and they ate
+heartily while they talked of the great rejoicing there would be in the
+Sheep Eaters' lodges when they returned.
+
+"After lunch they started on down the trail, Aggretta keeping pace with
+Red Arrow. Once the stillness was broken by the faint blast of a red
+cedar horn; but it was not until they had stopped to rest in a great
+park, where the snow had melted away, that they heard a blast that
+echoed and reechoed through the wild hills and canyons and the farthest
+glen. Red Arrow recognized the blast as coming from his father's horn,
+and took from his belt a horn made from the mountain ram's horn. Filling
+his powerful lungs, he placed it carefully to his lips, and blew one
+long quivering blast which burst through the air like a rocket,
+penetrating the canyons and the forests, echoing far down through the
+valleys where the Sheep Eaters had built their lodges among the crags.
+
+"As they rested under a great tree with the sunlight filtering through
+its branches, making lacy patterns on the moss at their feet, and the
+magpies and squirrels scolding and chattering in the nearby trees,
+Aggretta told of her wanderings on the mountains, and her escape from
+the bear, the despair she felt of ever being rescued, and her joy when
+she saw him, Red Arrow, coming. Red Arrow's heart was too full for
+utterance, and when she had finished, he sat looking into her beautiful
+brown eyes, while his heart throbbed almost aloud. At last he said, 'Red
+Arrow look heap on Aggretta?'
+
+"Casting her eyes around like a frightened fawn, she moved closer to her
+lord of the forest.
+
+"'Aggretta much good, and great father say me have Aggretta,' he
+continued.
+
+"She nestled still closer and he slipped his arm around the trembling
+maiden and drew her to him. His pleading eyes looked straight into hers,
+and through into her very soul, as he said, 'You give me much good
+name, now do you give me Aggretta?'
+
+"Softly her arm stole round his neck, the black head went down on his
+shoulder while tears of joy slipped down her cheeks. Words could not add
+to the rapture of these two hearts drawn together by the wonderful love
+known only to the children of nature, and they sat in silence until the
+cedar horn was heard again. This was the signal to move on. Down through
+the beautiful ferns and wild flowers the lovers sped, leaving behind the
+mountains and the snow. Hand in hand they pressed forward down the
+winding trail, beaten deep into the earth by the buffalo, the elk, the
+deer, the sheep. The goldenrod nodded in the breeze. Little squirrels
+went frisking up the nut pines, gathering the rich nuts, and the ruffed
+grouse safely hidden among the brown leaves, quietly viewed the scene.
+
+"Tired and breathless the two Sheep Eaters reached the park a few miles
+above the village and were met there by the rescuing party. The great
+chief, Red Eagle, folded Aggretta in his arms. Then taking his son, he
+embraced them both and blessed them with his richest blessings. The
+horns were brought forth, and their notes bursting upon the air apprised
+the waiting villagers of the finding of Aggretta. When the royal pair
+had been escorted from the mountain park to their lodges, the whole
+village joined in song and praise for the young chief. Then all the
+chiefs assembled, and before them and the young brave, Aggretta
+bashfully told the story of how she was driven to the forest by the
+storm, lost among the great fir trees, followed by the bear, escaped
+into the fir tree, and her rescue by the young papoose when she had
+given up all hope. She described his race for life and the courage and
+ingenuity with which he outwitted the bear, and of his sending the arrow
+to the creature's heart. She told how, when he had pulled the arrow from
+the brute's heart all dripping with blood, she had named him Chief Red
+Arrow.
+
+"The chiefs, after listening to her story, agreed that the papoose had
+won the right to a name; and he was then and there christened Chief Red
+Arrow.
+
+"The next day Chief Red Arrow selected a beautiful tepee, made of the
+best of lodge poles, cemented together with pine pitch and glue from the
+mountain ram's hoofs, and in it he stored his earthly stock of goods. He
+carpeted the floor of his new lodge with the skins of the mountain ram,
+the cougar, the red deer, the elk, and the bear, while the walls were
+hung with robes from the mountain bison, the otter, the beaver, the
+mink, and the martin. The villagers watched with interest while he
+worked. He drew a rawhide thong across the center of his lodge, facing
+the door. On this he hung the prize trophies of the chase, making a
+partition for his lodge. In the center he left a door-way, over which he
+hung a beautiful spotted elk calf robe for a door. The lodge was located
+in an ideal spot, where the green mountain ferns covered the ground and
+a spring of clear water sparkled and bubbled close at hand. On either
+side stood a large, low, spreading pine, protecting the lodge from the
+summer suns and winter storms.
+
+"While Red Arrow was still busy decorating his lodge for his young
+bride-to-be, sixteen of the best hunters were sent into the forest and
+mountains and directed to bring in the choicest game to be found and the
+skin of the great bear that had come so near killing Aggretta.
+
+"All this time Aggretta was nowhere to be seen. It was a custom among
+the Sheep Eaters that the prospective bride must seclude herself and
+prepare for the coming ceremonies.
+
+"Four days later the lodge was completed and all but three of the
+hunters had returned loaded with mountain sheep, elk, and deer. On the
+fifth day came the three with the skin of the great bear which had given
+Red Arrow his name.
+
+[Illustration: A SUMMER HOUSE OR LOVERS' RETREAT]
+
+"The great skin was placed on the ground. Red Arrow brought Aggretta
+out, and before the whole village she repeated the story of her terrible
+experience on the mountain and her rescue by Red Arrow. Then the
+great Red Eagle, in all his splendor, stepped upon a rock and announced
+that his son, Red Arrow, now had a name, won by bravery shown in the
+saving of the life of Aggretta, and in ten sleeps the Red Arrow would
+bring this beautiful maiden, daughter of the Black Raven, to his lodge,
+at which time there would be great rejoicing and feasting among the
+Sheep Eaters. When he had concluded three blasts were blown on the cedar
+horns and the crowd quietly dispersed to their lodges.
+
+"The next ten days were busy ones in the village. Every Indian had his
+share in the preparations for the great event.
+
+"On the morning of the tenth sleep, before even the birds had begun
+their morning chants, thirty braves in their gala dress, stole silently
+forth from their lodges and assembled in the open space before the
+village. When the first faint blush of dawn appeared in the east, a
+blast from thirty cedar horns broke the stillness of the beautiful
+mountain village. As the last notes died away two processions from
+opposite ends of the village started toward the bridal lodge. Aggretta,
+in her bridal gown of skins and beads, black hair down to her moccasin
+tops, came with the step of a queen from her father's lodge, attended by
+twenty-eight lovely maidens, each the choice of her tribe. From the
+other end of the village came Red Arrow out of the lodge of Chief Red
+Eagle, attended by twenty-eight braves, all splendid in their wedding
+garb.
+
+"Never bride pledged her troth amid greater beauty. Overhead a canopy of
+blue, with here and there a fleecy cloud daintily edged with pink. Round
+about were walls of massive, towering rock, stately evergreens and the
+thousand surrounding lodges, and under foot a carpet of grass and ferns
+and flowers.
+
+"Just as the sun's rim cleared the horizon, the lovers met at the door
+of the lodge and stood side by side on the great bear skin, while the
+blowing of horns and the chanting of twenty-eight maidens and
+twenty-eight braves made the mountains ring with joy. Then a thousand
+voices swelled the chorus of praise to the young aristocrats.
+
+"The great medicine chief came forward and performed the rites of the
+tribe. The pair knelt on the bear skin with their faces to the sun,
+while he joined them together in marriage. The ceremonies finished, the
+brave and his bride entered the lodge he had prepared, while the
+villagers went to their tepees, chanting songs of praise to the new made
+bride.
+
+"At evening, when the sun had gone to rest and the stately peaks had
+changed from pink to lavender, from gold to copper, and from purple to
+gray, when the evening star had cleared the horizon and had begun to
+wink and beckon to the laggard moon, then again the village awoke to
+life, and the royal feast began. Fires were kindled and great flat
+stones were heated. Choice cuts of elk, the tenderloin and tongues and
+hams of sheep were roasted. Venison steak and ribs were broiled to a
+turn. The bridal couple came forth and once more took their place on
+the bear skin. The singers and dancers in the center of the great throng
+began their weird chants and slow rhythmical steps. The tom-tom burst
+forth, the chants became louder, the dance swifter. The maidens took up
+the chant, first low and sweet, and as it grew higher and louder, the
+young braves added their voices, then the older people joined the
+chorus. Torches of cedar, burning like rockets, were thrown into the
+air, the tom-toms pealed out their muffled notes, and from a thousand
+throats rolled the great wedding song, until the tepees shook, and the
+hills and valleys echoed with the sounds of rejoicing. They danced and
+chanted and feasted while the stars came out till the sky seemed
+crowded, while the camp-fires leaped and blazed. They danced and feasted
+and sang, until the camp-fires smouldered and died out, and the night
+birds made their last faint twitterings before seeking rest. They sang
+and feasted and danced when all else was still save the Grey Bull River,
+murmuring as it swept along over its gravelly bed, the far off hoot of
+an owl, or the cry of the coyote still lingering for his share of the
+wedding feast. When the little stars had gone to rest and the larger
+ones were beginning to slip away, then quietly, in groups, the throng
+dispersed, wishing the newly married pair good night and happy days, as
+they passed.
+
+"When the last one had gone, Red Arrow turned to his bride, and taking
+her by the hand, led her into his lodge. Looking into her brown eyes, so
+full of love and trust, he said, 'This is our home, and I know we shall
+always be happy here, for our people all love us and the great spirit is
+well pleased.'
+
+"Then he let the skin fall loosely over the door, and the great day of
+the Sheep Eaters had passed. The silent night became more silent, the
+owl ceased calling to his mate, the coyote skulked into his lair, the
+birds ceased their chirping, the great forest trees seemed in a trance,
+not a flower or fern moved, all nature was at rest.
+
+"The Great Red Eagle, chief of the twenty-eight tribes, sent runners to
+all his people with the message that in the spring, when the warm sun
+should come again, all the tribes were to assemble at the great Sun Dial
+to worship and rejoice over the wedding of his son to the beautiful
+Aggretta.
+
+"The warm sun came, and a great camp-fire was kept burning for two
+nights on Bald Mountain, where it could be seen by the tribes many miles
+away, even into Wyoming. Then came the greatest gathering that had ever
+assembled in the mountains.
+
+"Day after day came the people, eager to see the young chieftain and his
+squaw, who were to rule the people when the great Red Eagle was no
+longer able to rule. Songs to the sun began to rise from the great
+rock-ribbed mountains, and the royal family, with Red Arrow and the
+beautiful Aggretta, took their places on the great stone spokes of the
+wheel, facing the east. They began their worship by moving along until
+they came to the rim, when the men turned to the right and the squaws to
+the left, singing their chants to the sun. The sun chant begins very
+low, but as they go around the wheel it becomes louder and louder until
+the climax is reached, then a new company takes the wheel, and the first
+worshippers retire to their seats, watching and joining in the chants
+until the foothills and canyons and plains resound with the music.
+
+"Thus the days and nights were passed until the end of their fourteen
+day holiday had come. The chief and his squaw had become acquainted with
+the leaders of the twenty-eight tribes, and after the annual worship was
+over and the customary gifts had been made to the young chief, Red
+Arrow, and his bride, each tribe, headed by the subchief went to their
+homes among the mountains."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+CLOSING WORDS
+
+
+One evening, when the old squaw seemed to be in a friendly mood, I made
+some inquiries as to where the several tribes had lived, and she said:
+"You white man want to know heap about Sheep Eaters. Why for you know so
+much?"
+
+I told her I was very much interested in her people. Then I gave her a
+pretty bead necklace of regular crow beads, ornamented with paint. She
+put them on and a smile lighted the wrinkled old face.
+
+"White man heap good," she said, patting the beads; then after admiring
+the beads for a time, she turned her attention to me. "White man find
+many camps of Sheep Eaters on Paint Rocks. Sheep Eaters make much squaw
+and papoose on rocks. On Great Mountain, white man find many tepees and
+sheep pens where Indian catch much sheep to eat. Many rivers away up in
+mountain, find much Indian work. Away up close to bad spirit country,
+you find many tepee, much rich plenty. (National Park.) Our people think
+bad spirits always at war in the earth, so our people scarcely ever went
+into that country, although our great men fetch obsidian from there to
+make arrows. Our men make arrows of the most beautiful design. We were
+called the arrow makers. We made the most beautiful fur garments and our
+tanned skins were the best."
+
+"Tell me who you are, are you a chief's daughter?" I asked.
+
+She turned her eyes away at the question, and sat for a long time with
+that vacant look on her face as though seeing all her past; then
+suddenly she turned, and looking squarely at me, she said, "Me Red
+Arrow's squaw."
+
+I was amazed, but could not doubt her word, as she had told me the truth
+so far as I had investigated. It seemed impossible that this most
+haggard of old women could have been the most beautiful girl of her
+tribe. But a hundred and fifteen years of life can change much, even the
+beautiful curves of the human body and the roses on the cheek and lip. A
+hundred and fifteen years! But this was the chance of a lifetime, I must
+not let it slip away while I dreamed.
+
+"Where did your people go?" I asked; "what became of your tribe?"
+
+"One beautiful day," she replied, "when sun warm and earth green, white
+man got lost and his ponies come into our camp. White man very sick.
+Medicine man put him in big tepee and take care of him, give him much
+bath in hot water. Man got very red like Indian man, face much all over
+spots. By and by he die. Then sickness all over camp. Sheep Eater run
+off in forest and die. Some run to other villages, they all die. Sheep
+Eater all much scared and run away. Many tepee standing alone, all dead
+inside. Red Eagle die, Red Arrow die, me no die, me very much scare, go
+off in mountains, eat berries, cherries, root. Me find many Sheep Eater
+dead in woods. By and by Sheep Eaters not many. They go to other Indian
+tribes down in valley on river, where much big water runs, and eat heap
+buffalo, ride pony, marry heap squaw. Sheep Eater have one squaw, other
+Indians many. Then Sheep Eater no more, no more papoose, no more squaw,
+all gone. Cold winds go, spring come, wild geese come back to lakes.
+Sheep Eater no come back, all gone. Tepee rot, rain, wind, snow, sun, on
+bones, on blanket, tepees, skins, bows, arrows. By and by all gone too.
+Indian no go there long time, many moon."
+
+So passed away the proudest race of Indians that ever lived on earth.
+They left behind no trace of history except the Paint Rocks among the
+canyons of Wyoming, near Basin City, and in Crandle Creek Basin,
+Montana, on which we might read of a thousand historical deeds if we
+could but find the key. These, and the great shrine wheel on Bald
+Mountain, the sheep pens where the wary sheep were caught, and here and
+there along the mountain trails, stone blinds behind which the hunter
+lay in ambush for game, are all that is left to remind us of a tribe now
+extinct.
+
+From those visible signs, and the tales of the old squaw and stories
+extant among other tribes, we find the Sheep Eaters were a strong,
+brave, peaceable race of people, clean morally and physically. Provident
+and inventive, excelling in all the Indian arts. They lived as brothers.
+No poor were ever known among them, all sharing alike except the chiefs,
+who had larger tepees and more robes that they might care for visitors.
+Death was meted out to the woman who broke her marriage vows, and after
+death she was condemned to live in darkness and never again to see the
+sun they worshipped.
+
+They never knew the use of alcohol in any form. It was left to the
+_proud, civilized whites_ to bring that curse to the Indians. This
+favored people never saw but the one white man, and he only brought
+death to their bodies, leaving their souls unashamed to face their
+Maker.
+
+It seems very fitting that this most perfect tribe of which we know
+should have lived out their little span of life among the most perfect
+surroundings, building their homes in the crags and rocks among those
+towering mountains, whose lofty heads are covered with perpetual snow,
+on whose sides great glaciers lie half hidden, like monsters of the
+deep. Dark stretches of timber fringe the canyons where the bald eagle,
+silent as the grave, seeks its prey. To the south the black forest
+clings to the shoulders of the mountains where the snow goes whirling
+across the peaks, along the table land, and into the valleys. Always and
+always the silent Rockies towering among the clouds on the one side and
+the majestic Big Horn on the other. Sentinel peaks, capped with the
+eternal snows, stand like hoary-headed giants. Great piles of God's
+masonry wall in this emerald vale with one ever-astounding, sometimes
+appalling, always changing vista of mountain, forest, river, lake,
+crest, gorge, and peak. Crouched in this empire of solemnity by night
+and grandeur by day, was the home of the Sheep Eaters.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Sheep Eaters, by William Alonzo Allen
+
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:29:43 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:29:43 -0700
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tree	292720eefb35742e01d2e8453cbf3b9ca2172b6f