"Proofs of our Courage" By Andrew Knez Junior.
The
sixth day we traveled about thirty miles, and had nothing to eat
that
day.
The
seventh day we traveled about twenty-five miles; they killed a doe that
day. She had two fawns in her, not yet haired. They stopped about four
o'clock in the evening, and cooked the doe and her two fawns, and eat the
whole up that night. They gave me part of a fawn to eat, but I could
not eat it, it looked too tender. I eat part of the doe.
The
eighth day we traveled about twenty-five miles, and had nothing to
eat
that day.
The
ninth day we traveled about fifteen miles. We then arrived at an Indian
hunting camp, where they made sugar that spring. About 11 o'clock in the
forenoon, we had not yet anything to eat that day. The Indians that
lived there had plenty of meat, hominy grease and sugar to eat. They
gave us plenty of everything they had to eat. We were very hungry and ate
like hungry dogs. When we were satisfied eating, the warriors went
into a large cabin and I went with them, and immediately several of their
friends came in to see them, both men and squaws, to hear the news.
It is a custom with that nation for the squaws to demand presents of the
warriors if they have been successful. After some little inquiry the
squaws began to demand presents of the warriors; some would ask for
a
blanket, some for a shirt, some for a tomahawk; one squaw asked for a gun.
The warriors never refused anything that was demanded. The manner in
which they made their demand was, they would go up to an Indian and take
hold of what they wanted. When the squaws were done with the warriors,
there came a squaw and took hold of my blanket; I saw how the game
was played, I just threw it off and gave it to her; then there came up a
young squaw about eleven or twelve years old and took hold of my shirt,
I did not want to let that go, as it was very cold day, and I let on I
did not understand what she wanted. She appeared to be very much ashamed
and went away. The older squaws encouraged and persuaded her to try it
again; she came up the second time and took hold of my shirt again,
I still pretended to be ignorant, but she held fast. I knew it
would
have to go. One of the warriors then stepped up and told me to let her have
it. I then pulled it off and gave it to her. The old squaws laughed
very much at the young squaw. I was then quite naked and it was a very
cold day; I had nothing on me but moccasins, leggings and breachcloth.
We remained there about 3 or 4 hours. The warriors then went
out to the post to dance, they invited me to go with them to dance.
I did
so, they sung and danced around the war-post for half an hour. The old
Indians would sing and dance sometimes out of the ring and appeared very
lively. The warriors then marched right off from their dance on their
journey. We had not got more than about 50 or 60 yards when I looked
back and saw a squaw running with a blanket; she threw it on my shoulders,
it fell down. I turned round and picked it up, it was a very
old,
dirty, lousy blanket, though it was better than nothing, as the day was
very cold. We travelled about five or six miles that evening, then encamped
in the woods. I suffered very much that night from the cold.
I am sorry, but I found the formatting to be rather disconcerting.
ReplyDeleteYes Jerry, I see what you mean. I will have to correct after on the blog, as it is not originally like this.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Regards, Keith.