Chapman Schanandoah (born 1870) attended Hampton in 1888 and left a year later. He reentered the school in 1892 and stayed for two years. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1897, and in 1904 he served aboard the USS Raleigh. After leaving the navy in 1912 he moved to Buffalo. (Littlefield and Parins, Biobibliography: Supplement, 282).
It may seem rather strange, come to inquire about this story among the different tribes of Indians. We seem to know it so alike, even if we do speak different languages. This story must have happened when we spoke the same language.
As we know such as prairie dogs, rattlesnakes, and owls live together and don’t quarrel; so some of the animals first lived together and spoke the same language, until they got quarreling and cheating each other, when they parted for good.
The Bear and the Fox once lived together in the same place. Mr. Fox always depended on Mr. Bear very much. Especially when he got in trouble with someone else, he would call on Mr. Bear sure. So one winter Mr. Bear thought that he was so wise and strong, and everybody was afraid of him that he would get Mr. Fox to support him all that winter.
Mr. Fox thought that he had to work very hard to get his own living and so he was not going to do all the work. Mr. Bear had brought home a nice fat deer one day; so he told Fox that he would not share with him anymore, as he used to. “Very well,” said Fox. All the more Mr. Fox would get such good things to eat that Bear could not get. One day he brought home a nice mess of fish. He had picked them up along the river. Mr. Bear wished very much to have a taste of those nice fishes. Mr. Fox told him that he might get all the fish he wanted if he would do what he did. Bear asked him very kindly just how he got them. He would be friends with him again. So Fox said, “You go with me some cold night and do what I did, you shall get all you want.” The night came and it was very cold. Mr. Bear was very anxious to go. They started at last and they came to the place where some fisherman had been through the day and there were nice holes to fish in. So Mr. Fox told Bear that he would have to wait some time before he could get a fish. Fox said, “You put your tail in that ice hole until it gets hard and you will see that you can get all the fish you want.” Bear did just as he was told, not to lift up his tail till Fox came back. Mr. Bear patiently waited nearly all night. At last Fox came back with a party of dogs to scare the bear. Bear had no more than heard the cries of the dogs, before he jumped with all his might, leaving his nice long tail in the frozen ice.
Mr. Fox never forgot this and he never went back home to see how his old friend Bear got along.6