to drink were herds of elk, while the willow thickets,
the brushy ravines, and the lower timbered foot-hills sheltered
deer. The naked Bad Lands, the rocky slopes of the mountains, and
the tall buttes that often rise above the level prairie were the
refuge of the mountain sheep, which in those days, like all the
other grass eaters of the region, grazed on the prairie and sought
the more broken, higher country only when alarmed or when they
wished to rest.

These were the animals which the Blackfeet killed for food before
the white men came, and of these the buffalo was the chief. Buffalo,
more than any other animals, could be captured in numbers, and the
Blackfeet, like the other Indians of the plains, had devised a
method for taking them, so that when the buffalo were near the
Blackfeet never suffered from hunger. Yet sometimes it happened that
the buffalo went away, and that the lonely far travelling scouts
sent out by the tribe could not find them. Then the people had to
turn to the smaller animals--the elk, deer, antelope, and wild
sheep.

In those old days, before they had horses, they did not make long
marches when they moved. Their only domestic animal was the dog,
which was used chiefly as a beast of burden, either carrying loads
on its back or hauling a travois, formed by two long sticks crossing
above the shoulders and dragging on the ground behind. Behind the
dog these two sticks were united by a little platform, on which was
lashed some small burden--sometimes a little baby.

In those days, when the people moved from one place to another, all
who were large enough to walk and strong enough to carry a burden on
the shoulders, were laden. Usually men, women, and children alike
bore loads suited to their strength. Yet sometimes the men carried
no loads at all, for if journeying through a country where they
feared that some enemy might attack them, the men must be ready to
fight and to defend their wives and children. A man cannot fight
well if he is carrying a burden; he cannot use his arms readily, nor
run about lightly--forward to attack, backward in retreat. If he is
not free to fight well, his family will be in danger. White men who
have seen Indians journeying in this way, and who have not
understood why some women carried heavy loads and the men carried
nothing, have said that Indian men were idle and lazy, and forced
their women to do all the work. Those who wrote those things were
mistaken in what