INDIAN BOYHOOD(印度孩提时代)

VIP免费

2024-12-26 0 0 535.73KB 146 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY

OHIYESA

(CHARLES A. EASTMAN)

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

I Earliest Recollections

I: Hadakah, "The Pitiful Last"

WHAT boy would not be an Indian for a while when he thinks of the

freest life in the world? This life was mine. Every day there was a real

hunt. There was real game. Occasionally there was a medicine dance

away off in the woods where no one could disturb us, in which the boys

impersonated their elders, Brave Bull, Standing Elk, High Hawk,

Medicine Bear, and the rest. They painted and imitated their fathers and

grandfathers to the minutest detail, and accurately too, because they had

seen the real thing all their lives.

We were not only good mimics but we were close students of nature.

We studied the habits of animals just as you study your books. We

watched the men of our people and represented them in our play; then

learned to emulate them in our lives.

No people have a better use of their five senses than the children of the

wilderness. We could smell as well as hear and see. We could feel and

taste as well as we could see and hear. Nowhere has the memory been

more fully developed than in the wild life, and I can still see wherein I

owe much to my early training.

Of course I myself do not remember when I first saw the day, but my

brothers have often recalled the event with much mirth; for it was a

custom of the Sioux that when a boy was born his brother must plunge

into the water, or roll in the snow naked if it was winter time; and if he

was not big enough to do either of these himself, water was thrown on him.

If the new-born had a sister, she must be immersed. The idea was that a

warrior had come to camp, and the other chil- dren must display some act

of hardihood.

I was so unfortunate as to be the youngest of five children who, soon

after I was born, were left motherless. I had to bear the humiliating name

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

"Hakadah," meaning "the pitiful last," until I should earn a more dignified

and appropriate name. I was regarded as little more than a play- thing by

the rest of the children.

My mother, who was known as the handsomest woman of all the Spirit

Lake and Leaf Dweller Sioux, was dangerously ill, and one of the medi-

cine men who attended her said: "Another medicine man has come into

existence, but the mother must die. Therefore let him bear the name

'Mysterious Medicine.'" But one of the by- standers hastily interfered,

saying that an uncle of the child already bore that name, so, for the time, I

was only "Hakadah."

My beautiful mother, sometimes called the "Demi-Goddess" of the

Sioux, who tradition says had every feature of a Caucasian descent with

the exception of her luxuriant black hair and deep black eyes, held me

tightly to her bosom upon her death-bed, while she whispered a few words

to her mother-in-law. She said: "I give you this boy for your own. I

cannot trust my own mother with him; she will neglect him and he will

surely die."

The woman to whom these words were spoken was below the average

in stature, remarkably ac- tive for her age (she was then fully sixty), and

possessed of as much goodness as intelligence. My mother's judgment

concerning her own mother was well founded, for soon after her death that

old lady appeared, and declared that Hakadah was too young to live

without a mother. She offered to keep me until I died, and then she

would put me in my mother's grave. Of course my other grandmother

denounced the sugges- tion as a very wicked one, and refused to give me

up.

The babe was done up as usual in a movable cradle made from an oak

board two and a half feet long and one and a half feet wide. On one side of

it was nailed with brass-headed tacks the richly-embroidered sack, which

was open in front and laced up and down with buckskin strings. Over the

arms of the infant was a wooden bow, the ends of which were firmly

attached to the board, so that if the cradle should fall the child's head and

face would be protected. On this bow were hung curious playthings--

strings of artis- tically carved bones and hoofs of deer, which rattled when

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

the little hands moved them.

In this upright cradle I lived, played and slept the greater part of the

time during the first few months of my life. Whether I was made to lean

against a lodge pole or was suspended from a bough of a tree, while my

grandmother cut wood, or whether I was carried on her back, or con-

veniently balanced by another child in a similar cradle hung on the

opposite side of a pony, I was still in my oaken bed.

This grandmother, who had already lived through sixty years of

hardships, was a wonder to the young maidens of the tribe. She showed

no less enthusiasm over Hakadah than she had done when she held her

first-born, the boy's father, in her arms. Every little attention that is due

to a loved child she performed with much skill and de- votion. She made

all my scanty garments and my tiny moccasins with a great deal of taste. It

was said by all that I could not have had more atten- tion had my mother

been living.

Uncheedah (grandmother) was a great singer. Sometimes, when

Hakadah wakened too early in the morning, she would sing to him

something like the following lullaby:

Sleep, sleep, my boy, the Chippewas

Are far away--are far away.

Sleep, sleep, my boy; prepare to meet

The foe by day--the foe by day!

The cowards will not dare to fight

Till morning break--till morning break.

Sleep, sleep, my child, while still 'tis night;

Then bravely wake--then bravely wake!

The Dakota women were wont to cut and bring their fuel from the

woods and, in fact, to perform most of the drudgery of the camp. This of

neces- sity fell to their lot, because the men must follow the game during

the day. Very often my grand- mother carried me with her on these

excursions; and while she worked it was her habit to suspend me from a

wild grape vine or a springy bough, so that the least breeze would swing

the cradle to and fro.

She has told me that when I had grown old enough to take notice, I

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

was apparently capable of holding extended conversations in an unknown

dialect with birds and red squirrels. Once I fell asleep in my cradle,

suspended five or six feet from the ground, while Uncheedah was some

dis- tance away, gathering birch bark for a canoe. A squirrel had found it

convenient to come upon the bow of my cradle and nibble his hickory nut,

until he awoke me by dropping the crumbs of his meal. My disapproval

of his intrusion was so decided that he had to take a sudden and quick

flight to another bough, and from there he began to pour out his wrath

upon me, while I continued my ob- jections to his presence so audibly that

Uncheedah soon came to my rescue, and compelled the bold intruder to go

away. It was a common thing for birds to alight on my cradle in the

woods.

My food was, at first, a troublesome question for my kind foster-

mother. She cooked some wild rice and strained it, and mixed it with

broth made from choice venison. She also pounded dried venison almost

to a flour, and kept it in water till the nourishing juices were extracted,

then mixed with it some pounded maize, which was browned before

pounding. This soup of wild rice, pounded veni- son and maize was my

main-stay. But soon my teeth came--much earlier than the white children

usually cut theirs; and then my good nurse gave me a little more varied

food, and I did all my own grinding.

After I left my cradle, I almost walked away from it, she told me.

She then began calling my attention to natural objects. Whenever I heard

the song of a bird, she would tell me what bird it came from, something

after this fashion:

"Hakadah, listen to Shechoka (the robin) call- ing his mate. He says

he has just found some- think good to eat." Or "Listen to Oopehanska (the

thrush); he is singing for his little wife. He will sing his best." When in

the evening the whippoorwill started his song with vim, no further than a

stone's throw from our tent in the woods, she would say to me:

"Hush! It may be an Ojibway scout!"

Again, when I waked at midnight, she would say:

"Do not cry! Hinakaga (the owl) is watch- ing you from the tree-top."

I usually covered up my head, for I had perfect faith in my

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

grandmother's admonitions, and she had given me a dreadful idea of this

bird. It was one of her legends that a little boy was once stand- ing just

outside of the teepee (tent), crying vigor- ously for his mother, when

Hinakaga swooped down in the darkness and carried the poor little fellow

up into the trees. It was well known that the hoot of the owl was

commonly imitated by Indian scouts when on the war-path. There had

been dreadful massacres immediately following this call. Therefore it

was deemed wise to impress the sound early upon the mind of the child.

Indian children were trained so that they hardly ever cried much in the

night. This was very ex- pedient and necessary in their exposed life. In

my infancy it was my grandmother's custom to put me to sleep, as she said,

with the birds, and to waken me with them, until it became a habit. She

did this with an object in view. An Indian must al- ways rise early. In

the first place, as a hunter, he finds his game best at daybreak. Secondly,

other tribes, when on the war-path, usually make their attack very early in

the morning. Even when our people are moving about leisurely, we like

to rise before daybreak, in order to travel when the air is cool, and

unobserved, perchance, by our enemies.

As a little child, it was instilled into me to be silent and reticent. This

was one of the most im- portant traits to form in the character of the Indian.

As a hunter and warrior it was considered abso- lutely necessary to him,

and was thought to lay the foundations of patience and self-control.

There are times when boisterous mirth is indulged in by our people, but

the rule is gravity and decorum.

After all, my babyhood was full of interest and the beginnings of life's

realities. The spirit of daring was already whispered into my ears. The

value of the eagle feather as worn by the warrior had caught my eye.

One day, when I was left alone, at scarcely two years of age, I took my

uncle's war bonnet and plucked out all its eagle feathers to decorate my

dog and myself. So soon the life that was about me had made its impress,

and already I desired intensely to comply with all of its demands.

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

II: Early Hardships

ONE of the earliest recollections of my adventurous childhood is the

ride I had on a pony's side. I was passive in the whole mat- ter. A little

girl cousin of mine was put in a bag and suspended from the horn of an

Indian saddle; but her weight must be balanced or the saddle would not

remain on the animal's back. Accordingly, I was put into another sack

and made to keep the saddle and the girl in position! I did not object at all,

for I had a very pleasant game of peek-a- boo with the little girl, until we

came to a big snow-drift, where the poor beast was stuck fast and began to

lie down. Then it was not so nice!

This was the convenient and primitive way in which some mothers

packed their children for winter journeys. However cold the weather

might be, the inmate of the fur-lined sack was usually very comfortable--at

least I used to think so. I believe I was accustomed to all the pre- carious

Indian conveyances, and, as a boy, I en- joyed the dog-travaux ride as

much as any. The travaux consisted of a set of rawhide strips secure- ly

lashed to the tent-poles, which were harnessed to the sides of the animal as

if he stood between shafts, while the free ends were allowed to drag on the

ground. Both ponies and large dogs were used as beasts of burden, and

they carried in this way the smaller children as well as the baggage.

This mode of travelling for children was possi- ble only in the summer,

and as the dogs were some- times unreliable, the little ones were exposed

to a certain amount of danger. For instance, when- ever a train of dogs

had been travelling for a long time, almost perishing with the heat and

their heavy loads, a glimpse of water would cause them to forget all their

responsibilities. Some of them, in spite of the screams of the women,

would swim with their burdens into the cooling stream, and I was thus, on

more than one occasion, made to partake of an unwilling bath.

I was a little over four years old at the time of the "Sioux massacre" in

Minnesota. In the general turmoil, we took flight into British Columbia,

and the journey is still vividly remem- bered by all our family. A yoke of

oxen and a lumber-wagon were taken from some white farmer and brought

home for our conveyance.

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

How delighted I was when I learned that we were to ride behind those

wise-looking animals and in that gorgeously painted wagon! It seemed

almost like a living creature to me, this new vehicle with four legs, and the

more so when we got out of axle-grease and the wheels went along

squealing like pigs!

The boys found a great deal of innocent fun in jumping from the high

wagon while the oxen were leisurely moving along. My elder brothers

soon became experts. At last, I mustered up courage enough to join them

in this sport. I was sure they stepped on the wheel, so I cautiously placed

my moccasined foot upon it. Alas! before I could realize what had

happened, I was under the wheels, and had it not been for the neighbor

immediately behind us, I might have been run over by the next team as

well.

This was my first experience with a civilized vehicle. I cried out all

possible reproaches on the white man's team and concluded that a dog-

travaux was good enough for me. I was really rejoiced that we were

moving away from the people who made the wagon that had almost ended

my life, and it did not occur to me that I alone was to blame. I could not

be persuaded to ride in that wagon again and was glad when we finally left

it beside the Missouri river.

The summer after the "Minnesota massacre," General Sibley pursued

our people across this river. Now the Missouri is considered one of the

most treacherous rivers in the world. Even a good modern boat is not

safe upon its uncertain current. We were forced to cross in buffalo-skin

boats--as round as tubs!

The Washechu (white men) were coming in great numbers with their

big guns, and while most of our men were fighting them to gain time, the

women and the old men made and equipped the temporary boats, braced

with ribs of willow. Some of these were towed by two or three women or

men swimming in the water and some by ponies. It was not an easy

matter to keep them right side up, with their helpless freight of little

children and such goods as we possessed.

In our flight, we little folks were strapped in the saddles or held in

front of an older person, and in the long night marches to get away from

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

the soldiers, we suffered from loss of sleep and insuf- ficient food. Our

meals were eaten hastily, and sometimes in the saddle. Water was not

always to be found. The people carried it with them in bags formed of

tripe or the dried pericardium of animals.

Now we were compelled to trespass upon the country of hostile tribes

and were harassed by them almost daily and nightly. Only the strictest

vigilance saved us.

One day we met with another enemy near the British lines. It was a

prairie fire. We were sur- rounded. Another fire was quickly made,

which saved our lives.

One of the most thrilling experiences of the following winter was a

blizzard, which overtook us in our wanderings. Here and there, a family

lay down in the snow, selecting a place where it was not likely to drift

much. For a day and a night we lay under the snow. Uncle stuck a long

pole beside us to tell us when the storm was over. We had plenty of

buffalo robes and the snow kept us warm, but we found it heavy. After a

time, it became packed and hollowed out around our bodies, so that we

were as comfortable as one can be under those circumstances.

The next day the storm ceased, and we dis- covered a large herd of

buffaloes almost upon us. We dug our way out, shot some of the

buffaloes, made a fire and enjoyed a good dinner.

I was now an exile as well as motherless; yet I was not unhappy. Our

wanderings from place to place afforded us many pleasant experiences and

quite as many hardships and misfortunes. There were times of plenty

and times of scarcity, and we had several narrow escapes from death. In

sav- age life, the early spring is the most trying time and almost all the

famines occurred at this period of the year.

The Indians are a patient and a clannish people; their love for one

another is stronger than that of any civilized people I know. If this were

not so, I believe there would have been tribes of cannibals among them.

White people have been known to kill and eat their companions in

preference to starving; but Indians--never!

In times of famine, the adults often denied themselves in order to make

the food last as long as possible for the children, who were not able to bear

INDIAN BOYHOOD BY OHIYESA

hunger as well as the old. As a people, they can live without food much

longer than any other nation.

I once passed through one of these hard springs when we had nothing

to eat for several days. I well remember the six small birds which consti-

tuted the breakfast for six families one morning; and then we had no

dinner or supper to follow! What a relief that was to me--although I had

only a small wing of a small bird for my share! Soon after this, we came

into a region where buffaloes were plenty, and hunger and scarcity were

for- gotten.

Such was the Indian's wild life! When game was to be had and the sun

shone, they easily forgot the bitter experiences of the winter before.

Little preparation was made for the future. They are children of Nature,

and occasionally she whips them with the lashes of experience, yet they

are forgetful and careless. Much of their suffering might have been

prevented by a little calculation.

During the summer, when Nature is at her best, and provides

abundantly for the savage, it seems to me that no life is happier than his!

Food is free--lodging free--everything free! All were alike rich in the

summer, and, again, all were alike poor in the winter and early spring.

However, their diseases were fewer and not so destructive as now, and the

Indian's health was generally good. The Indian boy enjoyed such a life

as almost all boys dream of and would choose for themselves if they were

permitted to do so.

The raids made upon our people by other tribes were frequent, and we

had to be constantly on the watch. I remember at one time a night attack

was made upon our camp and all our ponies stam- peded. Only a few of

them were recovered, and our journeys after this misfortune were effected

mostly by means of the dog-travaux.

The second winter after the massacre, my father and my two older

brothers, with several others, were betrayed by a half-breed at Winnipeg to

the United States authorities. As I was then living with my uncle in

another part of the country, I be- came separated from them for ten years.

During all this time we believed that they had been killed by the whites,

and I was taught that I must avenge their deaths as soon as I was able to go

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

INDIANBOYHOODBYOHIYESA1INDIANBOYHOODBYOHIYESA(CHARLESA.EASTMAN)INDIANBOYHOODBYOHIYESA2IEarliestRecollectionsI:Hadakah,"ThePitifulLast"WHATboywouldnotbeanIndianforawhilewhenhethinksofthefreestlifeintheworld?Thislifewasmine.Everydaytherewasarealhunt.Therewasrealgame.Occasionallytherewasamedicinedancea...

展开>> 收起<<

INDIAN BOYHOOD(印度孩提时代).pdf

共146页,预览30页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

INDIAN BOYHOOD(印度孩提时代)

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: