  Bent Arrow was awake early the next morning. He crawled out of his buffalo robes and dressed quickly. There was a little twinge of pain in his right leg, but he knew that would be gone as soon as he had walked a few paces. He was eager for the swimming teacher to give the call for practice. He was sure that today he would dive as well as any of the boys. When he stepped out of the tepee, he lost some of his eagerness. There was a light covering of snow on the ground. Before he had a chance really to worry about how cold the water would be, Bent Arrow heard the call of the teacher and saw the boys forming a line. He trotted over and took his place. When it was Bent Arrow’s turn to dive, he dashed forward, leaped high, and went into the water with scarcely a splash. He came up gasping and sputtering, but smiling. He had made a good dive. He wouldn’t be ducked today. Sly Fox was the only boy to make a poor dive. Four boys grabbed him and shoved his head under water. Fortunately for Sly Fox, all of the boys were eager to get out of the cold water. They let him up almost at once. As soon as the last boy had dived, the teacher dismissed them. Bent Arrow was glad to get out of the cold water and race back to the tepee. As soon as they had eaten, Bent Arrow and his uncle went to the corral. Flying Arrow caught his best buffalo horse to ride on the hunt. Bent Arrow hoped that he would be given one of the faster horses, too. Instead, Flying Arrow caught Rock, one of the oldest and slowest of his horses, for Bent Arrow to ride. “Rock is dependable,” Flying Arrow explained. “He’ll make your work easier and safer.” Bent Arrow mounted Rock and helped his uncle drive two other horses out of the herd to be used as pack animals. Other boys and warriors were busy at the same task. For a time there was great confusion as the riders worked to drive the horses they wanted and at the same time make sure none of the others got out of the corral. As soon as Flying Arrow’s two horses were out of the corral, Bent Arrow was left to watch them while the warrior went back to help the others. Even after all of the horses to be used were out of the corral, it was considerable work to hold them together in a herd. At last the pack horses were quiet enough so that the party could start. Chief Barking Wolf ordered the warriors to watch the horses while he gave the boys their instructions. At his signal the boys gathered around him. “Each of you is to be given one good hunting arrow,” he told them. The boys exchanged triumphant glances. They had been afraid that they would be given the job of watching the pack horses all of the time and wouldn’t be allowed to hunt. The leader’s next words brought looks of disappointment to the boys’ faces. “You are to keep the arrows as proof that you have been on a buffalo hunt,” Chief Barking Wolf continued, “but you are to do no hunting. A dream has warned us that the Great Spirit does not want boys to hunt buffaloes today.” Bent Arrow was given an arrow by one of the warriors, while other warriors handed arrows to each of the other boys. If he hadn’t been so badly disappointed about not being allowed to hunt, Bent Arrow would have been highly elated at receiving the arrow. It was a fine one, probably the best one in the warrior’s quiver. There was a sharp stone head on it, and the arrow had been carefully balanced. Even a poor hunter should be able to kill a buffalo with so fine an arrow. When each boy had received his arrow, Chief Barking Wolf sent them back to watch the pack horses. The warriors fell into line behind the leader, each one in the place that had been assigned to him. As soon as all were ready, Chief Barking Wolf rode to the head of the party and led toward the rising sun. It was now that Rock proved Flying Arrow’s wisdom in selecting him for Bent Arrow. The pack horses seemed to want to go anywhere except where the warriors were going. First one horse would try to break out of the herd and then another. Every time one tried to break away, Rock was there to head him off. He acted as though he could guess when a horse was going to try to get away. “I was feeling sorry for you when Flying Arrow gave you Rock to ride,” Sly Fox admitted. “Now I see that you are lucky he did. Rock is making the work easier for all of us.” For a time the boys had to give all of their attention to controlling the herd of pack horses. But, by the time the party was well out of sight of the camp, Rock had so discouraged the would-be runaways that the whole herd was moving steadily after the warriors. This gave the boys a chance to ride in pairs and talk together, as the sun climbed steadily in the sky and melted the thin blanket of snow. “The sun is mad at Old-Man-of-the-North for sending snow so early,” Bent Arrow told Sly Fox. “Yes,” Sly Fox agreed. “He has taken away all of the snow. The sun is powerful.” “Old-Man-of-the-North is tricky,” Bent Arrow remarked. “Sometimes he sends snow when we aren’t ready for it. Other times he won’t send it when we want it.” “I hope that he sends much snow as soon as we have plenty of buffalo meat and are in our winter camp,” Sly Fox exclaimed. “We need snow for our winter games.” Bent Arrow nodded his agreement. Indian boys always had fun, but winter was the best time for games. It was a good time to learn new things, too. The warriors had leisure to teach the boys how to make bows and arrows. There were always stories to be told of battles and great heroes. The sun was not yet overhead when Chief Barking Wolf stopped the hunting party in a small valley. He pointed to the low hills ahead. “The herd of buffaloes is in a large valley across those hills,” he announced. “The hunters will ride across the hills and you boys will stay here with the pack horses. Wild Wind will be the last warrior. He will stay at the top of the hill until the rest of us have started to run the buffaloes. Then he will signal for you boys to bring the pack horses.” As the warriors rode ahead, the boys were kept busy holding the pack horses in a herd. It was almost as much work keeping the herd from following now as it had been before to get it started. Sometimes, when one of the pack horses broke out of the herd, Bent Arrow was tempted to pretend that he couldn’t turn it back. If he let the horse go to the top of the hill, Bent Arrow would be where he could watch all of the excitement of the hunt. He was ashamed of the thought. A Crow boy who expected to become a warrior should do his best to carry out orders. Rock seemed to realize that it was up to him to keep his rider from trouble. The horse worked even harder than he had before. It wasn’t long until the pack animals realized that they couldn’t escape as long as Rock was watching them. They quieted and began to graze. Sly Fox rode over beside Bent Arrow. “I’m going to ride over there and shoot a buffalo,” Sly Fox told Bent Arrow, speaking low so the other boys couldn’t hear him. “Don’t do it,” Bent Arrow warned. “Chief Barking Wolf will have you punished. You know how warriors are punished when they disobey orders on a hunting trip. You will be whipped in front of the whole camp.” “The punishment will be forgotten if I kill a buffalo,” Sly Fox retorted. “That won’t—,” Bent Arrow began, but at that moment Wild Wind gave the signal for the boys to bring the pack horses. Bent Arrow and Sly Fox were in front of the herd. They turned their horses and led the way. The horses followed readily. At the top of the low hill, the boys paused to watch the hunt. From their place, the boys could see far out over the wide valley. Truly the scouts had found a great herd of buffaloes. The attack of the hunters had started the herd running, but even yet a fourth of the valley was covered with buffaloes lumbering in flight ahead of the hunters. Many lay where the hunters’ arrows had slain them. Bent Arrow noticed that the hunters were riding into the herd, selecting the younger animals. As the boys watched, one old buffalo broke from the herd, turned back, and started running up the hill. “Here’s my chance to get a buffalo,” Sly Fox shouted excitedly. “Stay here,” Bent Arrow warned. “We are forbidden to hunt.” If Sly Fox heard the warning, he was too excited to heed it. He kicked his heels against his horse’s side and started it running to the right so that he could turn and get behind the buffalo. Bent Arrow hesitated. If he rode after Sly Fox, the warriors might think that he, too, was disobeying orders. He remembered his dream of the night before. The next moment he sent Rock racing after the other horse. He had to stop Sly Fox before it was too late. Rock tried his best, but it wasn’t good enough. Sly Fox’s horse had carried its rider alongside the buffalo while Rock and Bent Arrow were still several paces behind. Sly Fox had his bow ready. He leaned toward the buffalo, taking careful aim. As Sly Fox drew the bow back, the buffalo swung its head wildly. Sly Fox’s startled horse dodged aside, missed his footing, stumbled, and fell. Sly Fox jumped clear of the falling horse, his bow flying out of his hands as he lit. He leaned over to grab the bow. Bent Arrow shouted a warning. The buffalo had hesitated a moment as though it were completely confused. Now it charged at Sly Fox. Sly Fox glanced toward his horse, but the buffalo was between them. The boy turned and ran. When the buffalo hesitated, it gave Rock a chance to close the gap between them. As the buffalo turned to charge at Sly Fox, Rock whirled to follow. Bent Arrow’s heart stood still as he felt the horse’s hoofs slip on the wet grass. Somehow Rock kept from falling. In two strides the horse was alongside the crazed buffalo. One more jump and the buffalo would be upon Sly Fox. Bent Arrow leaned toward the buffalo, took quick aim, and fired the arrow for the point just back of the buffalo’s foreleg. It was a good shot. The arrow sank in to the shaft, but it seemed to have no effect on the buffalo. The animal leaped forward. Its head struck Sly Fox and sent him flying. The buffalo half turned to charge again and then suddenly slumped to the ground and lay still. {Bent Arrow leaned toward the buffalo and fired the arrow} Before Bent Arrow could reach him, Sly Fox jumped to his feet. “You saved my life, Bent Arrow!” Sly Fox exclaimed. “Are you all right?” Bent Arrow demanded anxiously. “I seem to be,” Sly Fox answered. Two warriors came dashing up to the boys. Bent Arrow’s heart sank when he saw that one of the warriors was Chief Barking Wolf. The chief looked sternly at Bent Arrow. “I gave orders that no boy was to hunt buffaloes today,” he said sternly. Bent Arrow hung his head. For a moment he had hoped that he would make his uncle happy by acting bravely; instead, he had brought disgrace because he had disobeyed orders. “It was my fault,” Sly Fox explained quickly. “I hunted the buffalo. Bent Arrow killed it to save my life.” “Explain,” Chief Barking Wolf ordered gruffly. Sly Fox told of how he had chased the buffalo and how his horse had fallen. “If Bent Arrow and his horse hadn’t acted quickly, the buffalo would have killed me,” Sly Fox finished. Chief Barking Wolf turned toward Bent Arrow. “You did well,” he praised, a smile replacing the stern look on his face. “I like an almost-warrior who doesn’t make excuses. A good Crow knows when orders must be disobeyed.” Bent Arrow felt a lump rising in his throat as it had done when his uncle praised his running. He bent his head so the chief couldn’t see his face. Chief Barking Wolf jumped from his horse. He and the warrior stepped over to the slain buffalo. Together they rolled the animal over on its other side. The shaft of the arrow had been broken off as the animal fell on it. Barking Wolf studied the broken arrow for a moment. “That was a very good shot,” he said, turning toward Bent Arrow, “well aimed, and powerfully driven. But you have lost your good arrow. It is broken.” “He is to have mine,” Sly Fox said, offering it to Bent Arrow. Bent Arrow hesitated. The arrow had been given to Sly Fox to keep as a token that he had been on a buffalo hunt. Sly Fox would want it to show to younger boys. “Take it,” Chief Barking Wolf commanded. “If Sly Fox had not offered it to you, I would have ordered him to break it.” Chief Barking Wolf mounted his horse. “You are to go back to camp alone,” he told Sly Fox. “You have disobeyed orders. You are not in this hunting party.” Without a word, Sly Fox mounted his horse and started back to camp. Bent Arrow felt sorry for his friend, yet he knew that Sly Fox was lucky. Chief Barking Wolf might have ordered a far more severe punishment for the boy’s disobedience. “Bring the pack horses,” the chief ordered. “The men are ready.” As many buffaloes as could possibly be taken back to camp had been slain. The hunters had turned back and were butchering the animals. As the boys came to a hunter, they would stop the herd of pack horses and leave those belonging to that warrior. When they came to Flying Arrow, Bent Arrow drove his two horses from the herd and dismounted to help his uncle. Butchering was done swiftly. The hide was removed and the carcass dressed. The meat was cut into large pieces and then wrapped in the hides to make two bundles. The bundles were laid across the pack horses’ backs in such a way that they balanced each other. The greatest difficulty was in preparing the head. First the tongue was removed. Every Crow knew that the tongue was one of the best parts of the buffalo. Next the head was cut from the carcass and beaten against a rock until the bone shattered. Then the brain was removed. Crow squaws would need the brain to rub on the underside of the hide. Without it, the hide could not be properly tanned. Bent Arrow and his uncle were the first to have their buffaloes butchered and the meat loaded on pack horses. “We’ll take the hide from the buffalo you killed,” Flying Arrow said. “Since killing that buffalo saved the life of a Crow, the hide should be good medicine for you.” Bent Arrow nodded. Every Crow carried a small pouch in which he had his medicine. The medicine wasn’t carried as something to cure sickness; it was to help guard the warrior from danger. Not all warriors had the same things in their medicine bags. Usually a warrior learned in a dream what he should put in his medicine bag to protect him. In Flying Arrow’s medicine bag there were the claw of a bear, a piece of the fur of a wolf, and a hawk’s feather. In a dream a bear had told Flying Arrow to get a hawk’s feather to carry with a bear’s claw and a piece of wolf fur. It must have been powerful medicine. Since he had had it, Flying Arrow had made many successful raids. Bent Arrow hoped his would prove as powerful. When Flying Arrow saw the buffalo that Bent Arrow had killed, he seemed pleased. “Besides the skin, we shall take the buffalo’s heart,” he told Bent Arrow. “It was a brave buffalo. By eating its heart, you will become braver.” It was a triumphant band of hunters that rode back into camp as the sun was sinking in the western sky. Here was a great supply of meat to be added to the tribe’s winter store. In a few days the hunting party could start back toward the big winter camp of all the Crow tribes. As soon as the pack horses were unloaded and put back into the corral, Flying Arrow cooked fresh buffalo steaks. “You must take a gift to Clawing Bear,” he told Bent Arrow. “The medicine man will want to know about your hunting. It may be that he will have found another message in the dream you had last night.” Flying Arrow selected the choicest tongue, wrapped it carefully, and handed it to Bent Arrow. As he made his way toward the medicine man’s tepee with the gift in his hands, Bent Arrow had the feeling that this was to be a very happy visit for him. |
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