Before we got our first horses, we used to tie grass into our hair. We built a fire with fir and cedar wood and we walked in the smoke. Then we went creeping through the grass against the wind, and we waited for the buffalo to raise.
We always hit the buffalo where there were no bones, in its flesh, so it would die quickly.
The buffalo must fall on its knees and not on its side.
When the buffalo fell on its knees, it was easier for us to cut it open in the back, separate the flesh from the bones, then we placed the flesh inside the body again, and covered it with the skin of the animal. We pierced the skin, and tied it together so the buffalo was whole again. Then we pulled it towards our encampment. At the beginning it was very hard, but as we pulled it across the ground, the hair was shaved off and the buffalo slid easily, like a sled.
When we got horses, we rode side by side with the buffalo and shot an arrow into its heart with a small bow, so that our love for the buffalo went into its body and made it die fast. It never suffered. Then we cut their bellies open.
When the buffalo has been killed, we ask its forgiveness and we pray that the Creator takes it back home with its fear and its sickness, and that it leaves behind its courage, its speed and its strength.
We never get sick when we eat meat.
Even today, it’s very important to ask the forgiveness of the meat that we feed upon, so that the fear of the animal doesn’t get inside us as we eat it.
Nowadays our people still hunt in this manner during the whole year, except when the hunt season opens for the White man, because the White man shoots first and then asks : « What was that ? »

White Quiver, Blackfoot horse raider, as painted by Charles M. Russell

The pipe

The sacred pipe is like a child. You can’t just have a pipe at home without knowing what it means and how to treat it with respect. You have to go undergo different ceremonies to earn the right to own a pipe. It must be given to you by the elders and you must deserve that honor. You have to be told first about its origin and its history.
When you own a pipe, all people become your children. You must treat everyone as you would your own child.
It is wrong to keep a pipe at home, hanging on the wall. When both parts of the pipe are assembled, you open a connection to the Creator. Only a person who has learned about the tradition of the pipe can understand the significance of putting together both parts, and how to use the pipe in that moment. The pipe should be assembled only when it is to be used in a sacred ceremony. It is like an altar and should not be exposed because it is a sacred thing.

The origin of the sweatlodge

A long time ago in an Indian village lived a young man whose face was disfigured by a long scar, and a woman who was very beautiful not only on the outside, but inside as well. She was so special that she was allowed to choose her own husband, which was not usually the case for other women.
All the young men of the tribe came to see her and ask her to marry them, but she refused them all. They were angry, and they told Man with the scar to go and see her as well, because they thought that it would make them feel better when the beautiful woman would refuse him as well.
The young man went to see the woman. She said that she would marry him if he could get rid of his scar.
He took his buffalo robe and went on a vision quest. The animal spirits asked him what he wanted. He answered that he would like his scar to disappear.
The spirits told him that this was impossible, because he had been born with that scar and it was a part of him. But they offered him the power to heal other people. He was not interested and returned home.

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