Reading Notes Week 10: Blackfeet Indian Stories, Part B, "The Smart Woman Chief"

• "The Smart Woman Chief"
• in this story it says that in the beginning women and men were made separately
• women were made first and had the most intelligence
• knew how to tan hides and make good clothing like moccasins
• were the first to use the piskun (an enclosure on the edge of a cliff that they drove buffalo into so that they would fall off of the cliff and die - a hunting method) 
• men were made second and were not as smart as the women but were physically stronger
• men and women did not know the other existed for a time
• lived in separate camps and never saw one another
• Old Man stopped at a men's camp and stayed there for awhile
• he was the first to discover women
• in his wanderings he came across two women herding some buffalo through their piskun over a cliff
• As Old Man drew closer to the women they became afraid because they did not know what he was - so they played dead
• when Old Man reached them he thought they were really dead and searched all over to find what wounds had killed them
• he did not want to leave them lying on the prairie so he picked one of them up and intended to come back for the other
• as he carried the woman - still playing possum - she let her arm fall limp and every step Old Man took caused her limp arm to swing up and hit him in the nose causing it to bleed
• Old Man eventually set the woman down and went to get the other one but while he was away she had gotten up and ran away - as did the one he was carrying when he had left for the other one
• this is how women found out there were men
• one day Old Man found the women's camp and stood staring down at the women who had driven a herd of buffalo over a cliff and were skinning and cleaning the meat 
• the chief of the women called to Old Man and told him to come down to the camp
• she told him to ask the other men if they wanted wives and to invite them to a feast at her lodge
• the Chief Woman asked how many chiefs the men had and Old Man answered 4, but the true chief would be wearing a red painted robe with a double-headed lance with a skull on each end - Old Man wanted to marry the Chief Woman so he intended to be the one dressed this way
• but Old Man had no good moccasins because his were worn out - the women gave him some new moccasins for himself and to take back to the men to wear
• the day of the feast arrived and the men headed to the women's camp to be married
• Old Man was dressed the way he had described to the Chief Woman
• the Chief Woman had been making dried meat before the men arrived and was covered in blood and grease - Old Man did not recognize her
• she chose him as her husband but he refused because she was dirty 
• She went back to her camp and told the other women that she had been refused because of her dirty clothes 
• she told them all to choose a husband but that no one should chose the man with the red robe and double-headed lance
• All the women went up the hill and chose a husband but no one chose Old Man
• Chief Woman, now dressed in her nicest clothes also went to choose a husband
• Old Man kept getting in front her her to make her choose him but she ignored him and instead took the man standing next to him as her husband 
• now all the men had wives but Old Man was left standing there by himself
• Old Man was angry because the Chief Woman hadn't chosen him 
• he went to the women's village and started to destroy their piskun
• Chief Woman was not pleased with his actions so she turned him into a pine tree
• Storytelling Ideas: I like the contrast of this story with the one from  reading A, "The Wolf Man." In "The Wolf Man," the women are portrayed as wicked and lazy while in this story the women are the smart ones and outsmart Old Man for denying the Chief Woman simply because she had been working before he arrived. This story seems to promote the value of women while "The Wolf Man" seems to devalue women. I am thinking about combining these two stories to make the women be in charge and the man from "The Wolf Man" be the antagonist instead of his wives. 
• Bibliography: Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915)

(Blackfeet Women from "Indian Country Today")