CHAPTER V
THE FRIENDLY PAWNEES CAMP ON THE OXHIDE--OLD "YELLOW CALF," THE CHIEF--JOE IS NAMED "THE WHITE PANTHER"--JOE GOES HUNTING WITH THE BAND--HE LEARNS THE LANGUAGE--HUNTING WITH THE BOYS OF THE TRIBE
THE Pawnees and Kaws, tribes of Indians long at peace with the whites,and whose reservations were in the eastern part of the state, frequentlymade incursions into the buffalo region two hundred miles from theirhome in the valley of the Neosho, on their annual hunt for theirwinter's supply of meat. The valley of the Oxhide was one of theirfavorite camping-grounds, and from thence they radiated in bands to theplains, where the vast herds of the great shaggy animals grazed in theautumn months, on their curious elliptical march from the Yellowstone tothe southern border of Texas.
Every autumn these Indians camped in the timber only about a mile fromErrolstrath ranche, and it was very natural that the boys, especiallyJoe, should often visit their temporary village, as it was decidedly anew sensation for them. The tepees, or lodges, built in a conical shapeout of long poles covered with well-tanned buffalo hides, were anever-ending curiosity to Joe. The chief of the band, Yellow Calf, anold man nearly eighty years of age, took a great fancy to Joe from themoment he first saw him. As soon as he became acquainted with hischaracter he called him "White Panther," after the strange nomenclatureof the North American savage. The Indians noticed immediately that Joewas different from the majority of white children they had met, and hisquickness of motion was the reason they named him as they did. Hisreadiness in acquiring their language, which he almost mastered in a fewmonths, astonished them. Then Joe was always kind and gentle to theband, often bringing food from his mother's table when she could give itto him, especially bread or biscuit, of which old Yellow Calf wasinordinately fond. At the suggestion of the chief, the closest warriorsof his council took great delight in showing their new boy friend theuse of the bow and arrow. They taught him how to prepare the skins ofanimals he shot; how to make the robe of the buffalo as soft as adoeskin, and they taught him how to trap beaver, otter, and muskrat, inwhich valuable fur-bearing animals all the streams abounded. Yellow Calfwould sit for hours talking with Joe, learning from him all about thestrange inventions of the white man, and their uses. He in turn taughtthe boy the mysteries of the beautiful sign language, so wonderful inits symbolism; and the manner of trailing, so that in a few months hewas as well versed in the methods of following an enemy on the warpathas the savages themselves.
The Indians frequently took Joe with them far up the Arkansas valley ontheir grand hunts after the buffalo. His parents readily gave theirconsent to his going with his red friends, though he was sometimesabsent from home for more than a week. For three seasons the same bandof Pawnees had their village on the creek, remaining there during themonths of September and October of each year. All that time Joecontinued his intimacy with them, and became more perfect in hisknowledge of their savage methods. He could follow the blindest trailby day or night, and the signs of the various hostile tribes were asfamiliar to him as the alphabet.
He had been carefully trained to all this knowledge by the Pawnees, whowere the hereditary enemies of the Cheyennes who still claimedsovereignty over the great plains. Once, in fact, when he had been outfor a fortnight with his Indian friends on a buffalo hunt, the party wassuddenly met by a band of Cheyennes, and, of course, a battle ensued towhich Joe was a witness. After the fight that night, when the bandcamped on the Walnut, he saw the dances of the victorious Pawnees andlearned a great deal about savage warfare.
Shortly after the advent of the Pawnees on the Oxhide, and when Joe hadestablished his friendly relations with them, although he could shootfairly well previously, he now began to take a special delight inhunting. Every moment he could get to himself, he was off in the timberor out on the prairie with his rifle or shot-gun. He never carriedthese, however, unless he hunted alone, as on many occasions he wasaccompanied by one or two of the Pawnee boys about his own age whom theband had brought with them; young bucks, not yet old enough to havereached the dignity of warriors. They had to do the work generallyassigned to the women, for no squaws were with the band. It is beneath awarrior to do anything but hunt, eat, smoke, and go to war; for idlenessis the predominant characteristic of the men of every savage race, andthe Pawnees were no exception.
While they were encamped on the Oxhide the warriors scarcely ever leftthe delightful place except, of course, when summoned by their chief tothe hunt. They sat all day in the shadow of their lodges, puffing lazilyat their pipes and relating over and over again the stories of theirfeats in personal encounters with their enemies, the Cheyennes.
The North American Indians are very assiduous in teaching their boys allthat becomes a great warrior,--how to ride the wildest horses, and howto hunt and trap every variety of animal used in the domestic economy oftheir families. The very moment a son is large enough to handle them,bows and arrows are constantly in his hands.
As the Indians had only a few poor rifles, whenever Joe went out withhis dusky young companions on a hunt, he, too, took nothing but his bowand arrows which the Pawnees had given him, for he did not want his boyfriends to feel his superiority when armed with the white man's weapons.The number of squirrels, rabbits, and game birds he killed in a singleday would have astonished a city-bred boy.
The Pawnee warriors, flattered by Joe's preference for their society tothat of his white neighbors, made him the very finest bows and arrows ofwhich their skill was capable. They looked forward to the day when heshould develop into a great warrior, and hoped, too, that the time wouldcome when, becoming tired of civilization, he would let them adopt himinto the tribe. One morning, to the surprise of Joe, the old chiefdespatched a runner back to the reservation with orders to his squaws tomake a complete suit of buckskin for his young white friend. In abouttwo weeks when the messenger returned to the camp with the savage dress,Joe, of course, was delighted with his quaint and really beautifulcostume. It was made out of the finest doeskin, elegantly embroideredwith beads; the seams of the coat-sleeves and trousers were fringed inthe most approved savage fashion, while the moccasins were exquisitelywrought with the quills of the porcupine, gayly colored. There were alsogiven the boy all the adjuncts of a warrior,--a tomahawk, medicine-bag,tobacco-pouch, powder-horn, bullet-sack, flint and steel, and, last ofall, a magnificent calumet manufactured of the red stone from the sacredquarry in far-off Minnesota.
Joe had never mentioned to any of the family, not even to Rob, what wasin store for him from the Pawnees. To make the surprise greater to thehousehold, when he was ready to put on the new suit, he got one of thewarriors to decorate his face in royal savage style, and thusmetamorphosed, he walked into the cabin one noon, just as the familywere about to sit down to dinner. None of them recognized him, and whenhe began to talk in the Pawnee language, not a word of which any of themcould understand, his father motioned him to take a seat at the tableand eat, as he had often done to the real Pawnees on their many visitsto the ranche.
At last Joe could contain himself no longer, and he cried out in hisexultation over the farce he had enacted: "Father, mother, Rob, and yougirls, don't you know me?"
"No!" they all answered simultaneously, but immediately recognizing hisvoice, now that he spoke English, his mother said that she had neversuspected for a moment that the horrid-looking, paint-bedaubed creaturebefore her could be her own child.
Then all had a good laugh over the manner in which Joe had deceivedthem, but his father insisted that he must go and wash the paint fromhis face before he thought of sitting down to eat with Christian people;he could allow it in the case of a real savage, because they did notknow any better.
Joe was very hungry, for he had been out hunting grouse on the hills allthe morning, and was tired, too, so he hastily obeyed his father'sinjunction. He ran to the spring, and by vigorously rubbing at thevarious colors, he at last succeeded in getting his face clean. In a fewmoments he returned to the dining-room looking like himself again, butve
ry stately, by reason of his brand-new suit; and the family could nothelp staring at and admiring him. Then, when he had taken his place atthe table, he was obliged to tell how he had happened to acquire such afantastic dress, and explain the use of each curious article belongingto it.
Gertrude and Kate both hoped that he would not wear the handsome clothesevery day, and his mother suggested that he must never go to the villagein such a savage dress. His father said nothing, but evidently regardedhis boy with pride.
In reply to the various comments, Joe told the family that he intendedto wear the Indian costume only on extraordinary occasions. If ever theCheyennes, Kiowas, Comanches, or Arapahoes broke out, he would certainlywear it, for when those savages saw him, they would think he was a greatwarrior, and be careful how they bothered him. The family littlethought, as he uttered his playful remarks, how soon that uniform wouldbe worn on a mission fraught with danger to themselves and the wholesettlement.