Harry Hand entered Hampton in 1889 at eighteen, after spending six years at the Crow Creek Agency School, and was a regular contributor to Talks and Thoughts. He wrote stories about war and hunting that were passed down from elders, including “The Brave War-Chief and the Ghost” and “A Buffalo Hunt,” both reprinted here. He also wrote about trickster figures like the spider in “The Spider, the Panther, and the Snake.” Besides highlighting the importance of the art of storytelling to Native education, Hand’s writings and illustrations bring into focus how some boarding school students used the periodical press to preserve in print the oral and pictorial traditions of Native American culture. Hand not only celebrates and affirms his indigenous oral and pictorial heritage but also illustrates the humanity of Native Americans to readers of Talks and Thoughts.
After leaving Hampton in 1894 Hand returned to the Crow Creek reservation, where he founded his own newspaper, the Crow Creek Herald. Hand and another Hampton alumnus edited the newspaper. In April 1898 Hand founded the Crow Creek Chief, which published news about Crow Creek returnees and commented on broader issues that influenced Indian affairs in South Dakota. He died just over a year later, in the summer of 1899. (Fear-Segal, White Man’s Club, 130–34; Littlefield and Parins, Biobibliography: Supplement, 223)
I don’t know whether this story is true or not, but some Indians say it is a true story.
Well, many years ago, when there were no white people in the west, the tribes of Indians used to make war against each other. At one time, a chief picked out nearly all the young men of an Indian village and said he wanted to go to war with the Crow Indians. These Indians that wanted to go to war were Sioux Indians. Well, there were about 40 young men under that brave chief. They were all under the age of 30.
They started from their village on foot, for they expected to take the ponies away from the Crows. At the end of the four days’ journey they came to a place, where, they said, a ghost lived. They said that was a very horrible place, for even more than 100 brave warriors were scared and driven away from that place by that ghost. That was a very beautiful place with many trees and plenty of water, for there was a large creek too. Every time the Indians go to war they stopped at that place, but the ghost always bothered them at night and scared them so they always had to flee.
Well, they put up a very large wigwam made of small trees and leaves. As soon as it was dark they built a fire and sat around it, ready to enjoy their pipes. But as they began to talk about what they were going to do when they reached the Crows’ camp, they heard someone crying in the woods. Then they began to feel frightened, for they were not much acquainted with ghosts or ever go to war before, so they were coward fellows. They heard strange stories about that ghost before they started on their journey. The ghost kept coming closer and closer to the wigwam. He screamed and did all sorts of things to scare them. Nearly all the young men lay senseless on top of each other, because the ghost frightened them. The brave chief, as he was called, sat calmly by the fire enjoying his big pipe.
When the ghost came to the door the chief told him not to make such noise but to come in quietly. The ghost came in. He was nothing but a skeleton of a man and had a blanket wrapped around him. The chief handed his pipe to him, but while he was smoking the chief laughed hard for the smoke came out of every hole in the skull of the ghost. One of the young men recovered his sense and the chief told him to get a piece of meat for his friend. He took a kind of membrane of fat which was nearly as large as a blanket. He said he was going to cook it for his friend, the ghost. He held it over the fire and when it was burning he took the ghost’s blanket away and wrapped the burning fat around him. The poor ghost cried out and fled, but the chief took his war-club and chased him. The moon began to shine just at the time so the chief kept on chasing him and broke all the bones to pieces. The next morning all the young men determined to go home. The chief had to go on by himself. He reached the Crows’ village. Two men were guarding the horses at night but while they were sleeping he killed and scalped both of them and drove all the horses home. When he came home they had a war-dance and he gave some of the horses away. The people gave another war-bonnet to the chief, for they said, he was a brave man. It was a very dangerous thing to wear a war-bonnet during a battle. The enemies would shoot first at the man that wore a war-bonnet. They always wanted to kill the most brave men and they had to wear war-bonnets.2
Once upon a time two Indian families went out to hunt. At the end of two days’ journey from their village, they camped at a place where [there] was plenty of grass for their ponies and plenty of water. These two men were brothers. Their grandfather, the old war chief, was a medicine man too, and when they camped he put up his medicine flag and hung his drum and things on the staff so that his sons would have good luck in their hunting. They had only a little meat left hanging on the iwotkeyapi, or pole laid across two forked sticks to dry the meat on, and were very anxious to see a big fat buffalo come that way. By and by one came very near and the young men chased it on their horses. One of them used a spear and the other used a bow and arrow. Their grandfather stood outside the tipi watching them, and the women were ready to help at any time. After they had killed the buffalo they took the skin off, which was used for a blanket afterwards. In those days buffaloes were very useful. The Indian used to make spoons out of the buffalo’s horns and some of the horns were used as a cup to drink out of. Some skins, with the hairs on, were used as blankets. Others were tanned and made into moccasins and something like a satchel called in Indian unksuna.
Well, while the two were killing that buffalo they saw a large rattlesnake. They killed it and one of the men took the rattle off and carried it into his tipi. The next morning they woke up and were very much frightened by rattlesnakes that were lying around the tipi. It is said that whenever the rattle of a rattlesnake is taken into a tipi all the other rattlesnakes come at night and lie around.
After that the man who killed the buffalo took most of the meat and returned home to his village; the other went out to hunt some more and camped with his wife in another place. One day as he was making arrows in his tent he asked for some soup, so his wife put some in a cup and set it down by him. While the man was whittling an arrow he happened to look into the soup and there he saw the reflection of a man’s face in the grease that stood on top of the soup. The man was a medicine man and in some way he had got up on top of the tipi without making any noise and was looking down at him. He was a Crow man and a great enemy to the Sioux. The man told his wife not to look, but to hand his bow to him. When she handed it to him he made believe try[ing] the arrow into the bow, then looked up suddenly and shot the man in the head and killed him. They then scalped him and carried his scalp home, and had a great rejoicing in the village.3
The picture here presented is from a sketch by one of our students, Harry Hand. The picture shows something that is very often seen among Indian homes.
In the evening, after supper, the men would get together, bring their pipes with their long stems and kinnikinick bags, sit in a circle and smoke; while one of the group would tell a story of war or hunting. When they have this, if there are any children present, the old Indian would say, “Now children, you listen, so that you will see what I ought to have done and what I ought not to have done, so that if you ever meet with the same thing you can remember what I said so that you can improve on them.” It is very interesting to listen to them. We have read of many adventures of white people among Indians, but we never read of adventures told by Indians among white people. Why? Because the Indians have no newspaper through which to let the reading public know their side of many stories.
They usually put the pipes and kinnikinick and some matches in the center of the circle so that whoever wishes can fill a pipe up and have a smoke. The true stories they tell are free for all but when they tell fairy stories the story teller has to be given something by some of the listeners. Only those who give something have the right to tell the stories; but they must not tell them unless something is given to them. We think if the Indian fairy stories were gathered and translated by a good translator and published in book form they would compare favorably with “Arabian Nights.”
On the right of the picture will be seen something hanging very much like washed clothes hung on clothesline. In olden times when there were plenty of buffaloes the Indians did not salt the meat they wanted to keep, like white people do at Chicago and other places, but they sliced the meat into thin pieces and then hung out in the sun or above the fire to dry. This way was very good as it kept [a] long time.4
Once upon a time there was a man living with his five sons in a place by themselves. One of the sons was a rock, one a buffalo, one a bear, one an owl, and the fifth one, an eagle.
One day they wanted to select places to live in. They determined to scatter themselves so each one could select the place that he wanted. Well, they started out on their journey with their father. When they came to a high rocky hill, the eagle told his father that he wanted to live there. So the eagle stayed there while the others went on.
When they came to another hill that had trees on its side, the owl wanted that place, so he stayed there. One of the trees had a hole in it.
The others came to another hill that was not rough or rocky. The rock made up his mind to stay there on the hill. So the others kept on their journey. They came to a beautiful valley where there was plenty of grass and water. The buffalo determined to stay there, so he did.
The man and the bear went on their way. The bear selected his place on the side of a hill, where there was plenty of trees and a cave. His home was thus near a watering place of the animals that would come to drink there.
Last of all the father went alone on his journey. When he had gone quite a long distance, he saw a deer and he killed it with his bow and arrows. While he was dressing the meat an old woman came to him. The man asked her if she wanted the forelegs of the deer. She said she did not want them. Then the man asked her if she would like to have the hind legs. But she said she didn’t want them, the hind legs. Then the man told the woman to select the kind of meat that she did want. While the man was cutting up the meat the old woman all at once took the quiver and the bow, saying that she wanted those, and went off with them. It was so unexpectedly done that though the man ran after the old woman, she, being a swift runner, escaped and disappeared in the woods.
The man kept on looking for the old woman. After a while he came to a smoky lodge in the woods. The old woman was in that lodge. The man stood outside and asked her to give him his bow and quiver back, but she told him to get away or else she would cut off his head. Then the man turned himself into a mouse by magic and went inside the lodge and took his bow and the quiver. He then made himself a man again and ran off. The old woman took out her sword and said, “Where are you going? You have to die today.” She ran after the man.
When the man came back to the place where the bear was, he called to the bear to come out and help him. The bear came out and cut the sides of the woman with his claws. The old woman said, “You old rascal, you hurt me. What did you do that for?” Then she cut the bear’s head off. Meanwhile the man had gained quite a long distance. When the old woman was within a few yards of him, the man called to the buffalo for help as he had then reached the place where the buffalo lived. The buffalo came and hurled the woman in the air with its horns.
The old woman called the buffalo names and cut its head off. The man called for help again when he came back to the rock. The rock rolled itself down the hill and knocked the old woman down. The old woman got up and called the rock names and cut it into two parts with her sword.
He called for help again when he reached where the owl was. The owl flew up in the air and then swooped down. The old woman had a blue mark on her forehead. She would die even if the smallest insect touched it. The owl tried to hit that spot with its beak but missed it. The owl tried it again, but this time its head was cut off.
Last of all the eagle came out to help his father. If the eagle should fail to hit the mark on her forehead, he and his father would surely die. The eagle flew way up in the air and swooped down and hit right in the center of the blue round mark and cracked the old woman’s head. So she died; and the man and his son, the eagle, came back to their old home and lived there.5