Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
The Blackfoot Indian Confederacy comprises the Piegan, Blood,and Blackfoot tribes. Each tribe is located on its own reservation,and the three reservations are within the provisional district ofAlberta. The separation of the tribes, the rapid settlement of thecountry by the white people, the death of many of the old chiefs,and the depressed spirits of the people have seriously impaired thepurity of the folk-lore of the natives. The following fragments weregathered from the lips of the Blood Indians, as I sat in their lodgeswith note-book in hand. The younger members of the tribe couldnot be relied upon to relate these myths accurately. Those I havegiven have been repeatedly verified by the aged members of thetribe.
Napioa, the Old Man, floated upon a log in the waters, and hadwith him four animals: Mameo, the fish; Matcekûpis, the frog;Maniskeo, the lizard; and Spopeo, the turtle. He sent them downinto the waters in the order named, to see what they could find.The first three descended, but never returned; the turtle, however,arose with his mouth full of mud. Napioa took the mud from themouth of the turtle, rolled it around in the hollow of his hand, andin this manner made the earth, which fell into the waters, and afterwardgrew to its present size.
There was only one person named Napioa. He lived in the worldwhen the people who dwelt with him had two heads. He did notmake these people, although he made the world, and how they cameupon the earth no one knows. The Bloods do not know whereNapioa came from. They do not know whether he was an Indianor not. He was not the ancestor of the Blackfeet, but the Creatorof the Indian race. He was double-jointed. He is not dead, but166is living in a great sea in the south. He did not make the whitepeople, and the Indians do not know who made them.
After he made the earth, he first made a woman. Her mouth wasslit vertically, and he was not satisfied, so he closed it, and recutit in the same shape as it has remained till to-day. Afterward hemade several women, and then he made several men. The menlived together, but separate from the women, and they did not seethe women for some time. When the men first saw the women theywere astonished and somewhat afraid. Napioa told them to takeone woman each, but they were afraid. He encouraged them, andthen they each took a wife.
Napioa made the buffalo. They were quite tame. He gave bowsand arrows to the Indians and told them to shoot the buffalo. Theydid so; and as the buffalo were tame, they killed a large number.
The stories differ. Some say that it is caused by a very largedeer which dwells in the mountains; others, that there are largecattle in the mountains, who roar loudly and thus cause the windto blow; and again others, that it is caused by a large bird flappingits wings in the mountains. The prevailing form is the following:
Napioa at one time had with him the wolf as his companion. Healso had with him an owl, which he emplo