War and the Warrior Code
Little Mouse Counting Coup
[Brule Sioux]
This is a childern's song which Lame Deer made up and from time to time improved upon. It was composed in the old style of warrior songs, with archaic words, and translated as well as Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes could manage.
Ho! Kola pila, friends! it has come to pass.
Friends, Igmu, the great Cat; I fought him.
{In Igmu's stomach. Friends, pity me!}
Black face paint I crave; horses I crave.
Friends, I, Itunkala the Mouse, on the warpath I go.
Behold my steed, Washin the Bullfrog,
Behold me, Itunkala, on the far-jumping frog!
Me, Mouse, myself riding; me, Itunkala, first in war!
Friends, a grass-blade; as a coupstick I carry it,
A stiff grass-blade to count coup; on Igmu the Cat.
Igmu, I am coming; in a warlike manner I ride.
Igmu, your horses, your scalp, I am craving.
Friends, kola pila; Igmu I feared not.
My long tail, friends, I pinned to the ground,
Sash wearer I, Fox warrior I; I Itunkala, Mouse.
First coup I counted; first strike on Igmu.
For a scalp, friends, one of his whiskers I took;
Behold! Igmu's whiskers I bring; long whiskers I am bringing.
Nice-looking girls: prepare a feast!
Friends, Hoka-hey! Igmu I vanquished,
But friends, were is my tail?
Two Bullets and Two Arrows
[Brule Sioux]
This is Henry Crow Dog speaking. Here is how my
grandfather, the first Crow Dog, got his name. He was a
chief about to lead a raiding party into Hante Paha
Wakan-now called Cedar Valley in South Dakota. Before riding out, he had a vision; he saw a white horse in the clouds that gave him the sacred horse power. As a result, his pony becameshunkaka-luzaham, the swiftest horse in the band.
But that wasn't all of the vision. The chief heard the
voice of shunk-manitu, the coyote, saying: "I am
the One!" Then his horse suddenly pricked up his ears, and
the wind whistled through the two eagle feathers the chief
was wearing. The feathers spoke, telling him: "There's a
man stamding on the hill over there, between the two
trees." The chief and his companions clearly saw the man,
who raised his hands and then was gone. The chief
dispatched two scouts, one to the north and one to the
south, but they returned saying that they had seen no one.
"This man on the hill must of been a wanagi, a
ghost," the chief said. "He tried to warn us, but what did
he warn us of? I don't know. I'm a warrior about to lead a
raid, and I can't bother over much about ghosts." So they
rode out and came to a river. The chief decided to camp
there so that if enemies came, the riverbank would prevent
them from surrounding his party.
During the night the chief heard the coyote howl four times. Shunk-manitou was telling him: "Something bad is going to happen to you!" The chief understood and gathered the men of this party together. There were some Tokala, some Kit Fox warriors, there. They sang a strongheart song:
I am a Fox.
Something daring,
They painted their faces black. They made themselves
sacred. They prepared to fight and to die. They said that
it would be a good day for a man to give his life.
At dawn the enemy attacked. There were some wasichu, some
white settlers, led by a blue-coated soldier, and many Crow
scouts and Absaroka warriors helping them. Indians helping
whites to fight Indians! This was indeed a bad thing.
In the chief's party, however, were manny famous warriors.
there was Two Strikes-Numpa Kachpa-who got his name
when he shot with one bullet two white sholders riding on
the same horse. Kills-in-Water was there, and Hollow Horn
Bear's son, and Kills-in-Sight. Two Crow scouts wounded
Kills-in-Sight and shot his horse from under him. The chief
went to him at a dead run, killed the traitors, counted
first coup on them, and put Kill-in-Sight on his own fast
horse. Kill-in-Sight whipped the horse, which took off with
him hanging onto it. The horse was so fast that no enemy
could come near, and it carried Kill-in-Sight safely home.
On foot now, the chief was looking around, hoping to catch
himself one of the riderless Crow horses, when he took two
enemy arrows, one high on his chest right under the collar
bone, the other in his side. The second arrow went deep,
right into his bladder. He broke off the arrows with his
hand, and Hollow Horn Bear's son and two others of the band
came to help, though they to had been wounded. Their horses
all had at least one arrow in them.
The chief told them: "No use bothering with me; I'm hurt
bad. I can't live, so save yourselves!" Still, they caught a fallen man's horse and put the chief on it, saying: "Be
strong. Hold on!" Then the Absaroka and some wasichu
swooped down upon them and they had a hard time forcing
their way though. Fighting for their lives against many,
they lost sight of their chief. They thought he must have
been killed and rode home talking of the bad things that
had happened.
The chief had been riding, but he soon became so weak from loss of blood that he fell off the pony. Lying in the snow in great pain, he hardly had the strength to sing his death
song. He was all alone, with neither friend no enemy in
sight.
Suddenly two coyotes came, growling but gently. They said:
"We know you!" and keep him warm during the night by lying
on either side of him. They licked the blood off his face.
They brought him deer meat to make him strong and a sacred
wound medicine which they told him to apply where the
arrows had hit him. The medicine made his flesh tender and
caused it to open up so he could pull out the arrowheads
and what was left of the shafts. The medicine brought by
the coyotes cured the chief, and the meat they gave him
made him strong. When he was able to walk, a crow came
flying and guided him home. All the people marveled on
seeing him and hearing his story.
Sometime after the chief had recovered, he went out alone
to hunt and was ambushed by a war party of Pahanis. These
enemies had guns, and the chief took two bullets, one in
the arm and one in the ribs. The second touched his lungs
so that in later life he was always somewhat weak in the
chest.
He managed to get far enough away on his fast horse to be
safe from the Pahanis, but then he could ride no further.
He got down from his horse and streched himself on the
ground. "This time I die for sure," he said to himself.
But again the two coyotes came, bringing meat and bullet
medicine, nursing and warming him for four days until his
strength returned and his wounds were a little better. And
again the crow came flying, watching over the man, warning
him when enemies were close, guiding him to the place where
his horse had strayed. So once more the chief came back
alive from the dead.
Then he made himself a shield from the neck skin of a
buffalo and, using sacred procedures, painted two arrowheads and two circles representing bullets on it. This was his wotawe, his chest and protection. because after he had survived these four wounds, and after he had made the shield, nothing further could ever hurt him.
And then also he took his last name-Kangi Shunka,Crow
Coyote-which the white census takers misunderstood and made
into Crow Dog. You can stand on a name like this.
---Told by Henry Crow Dog on Rosebud Indian Reservation,
South Dakota, in 1969, and recorded by Richard Erdoes.
I am supposed to die.
I already threw my life away.
Someting dangerous,
I wish to do.
