Juliet Sutherland, Thomas Hutchinson and PG Distributed Proofreaders
Blackfoot Lodge Tales
The Story of a Prairie People
We were sitting about the fire in the lodge on Two Medicine. Double Runner,Small Leggings, Mad Wolf, and the Little Blackfoot were smoking andtalking, and I was writing in my note-book. As I put aside the book, andreached out my hand for the pipe, Double Runner bent over and picked up ascrap of printed paper, which had fallen to the ground. He looked at it fora moment without speaking, and then, holding it up and calling me by name,said:—
"Pi-nut-ú-ye is-tsím-okan, this is education. Here is the differencebetween you and me, between the Indians and the white people. You know whatthis means. I do not. If I did know, I should be as smart as you. If allmy people knew, the white people would not always get the best of us."
"Nísah (elder brother), your words are true. Therefore you ought to seethat your children go to school, so that they may get the white man'sknowledge. When they are men, they will have to trade with the whitepeople; and if they know nothing, they can never get rich. The times havechanged. It will never again be as it was when you and I were young."
"You say well, Pi-nut-ú-ye is-tsím-okan, I have seen the days; and I knowit is so. The old things are passing away, and the chil