There was once a great chief on the Plains who had very tender
feet. Other mighty chiefs laughed at him; little chiefs only
smiled as he hobbled past; and though they did not dare to
smile, the people of the tribe also enjoyed the big chief's
discomfort. All of them were in the same canoe, having no
horses and only bare feet, but luckily very few of them had
tender feet. The unhappily medicine man who was advisor to the
Chief-of-the-Tender-Feet was afraid and troubled. Each time he
was called before the chief he was asked, 'What are you going to
do about it?" The 'it' meant the chief's tender feet. Forced by
fear, the medicine man at last hit upon a plan. Though he knew
that it was not the real answer to the chief's foot problem,
nevertheless it was a good makeshift. The medicine man
had some women of the tribe weave a long, narrow mat of reeds,
and when the big chief had to go anywhere, four braves unrolled
the mat in front of him so that he walked in comfort. One day,
the braves were worn out from seeing that the chief's feet were
not worn out. They carelessly unrolled the mat over a place where
flint arrowheads had been chipped. The arrowheads
had long ago taken flight, but the needle-sharp chips remained.
When the big chief's tender feet were wounded by these chips,
he uttered a series of whoops which made the nearby aspen tree
leaves quiver so hard that they have been trembling ever since.

That night the poor medicine man was given an impossible
task by the angry chief: "Cover the whole earth with mats so
thick that my feet will not suffer. If you fail, you will die
when the moon is round." The frightened maker of magic crept back
to his lodge. He did not wish to be put to death on the night of
the full moon, but he could think of no way to avoid it.
Suddenly he saw the hide of an elk which he had killed pegged
to the ground, with two women busily scraping the hair from
the hide, and an idea flashed into his groping mind. He sent
out many hunters; many women were busy for many days; many braves
with hunting knives cut, and women sewed with bone needles and
rawhide sinews. On the day before the moon was round, the
medicine man went to the chief and told him that he had covered
as much of the earth as was possible in so short a time. When
the chief looked from the door of his lodge, he saw many paths of
skin stretching as far as he could see. Long strips which
could be moved from place to place connected the main
leather paths. Even the chief thought that this time the magic
of the medicine man had solved tenderfoot transportation for all
time - but this was not to be!

One day, as the big chief was walking along one of his smooth,
tough leather paths, he saw a pretty maiden of the tribe gliding
ahead of him, walking on the hard earth on one side of the chief's
pathway. She glanced back when she heard the pitter patter of
his feet on the elk hide pathway and seemed to smile.
The chief set off on the run to catch up with her, his eyes fixed
on the back of She-Who-Smiled, and so his feet strayed from
the narrow path and landed in a bunch of needle-sharp thorns!
The girl ran for her life when she heard the hideous howls of the
chief, and Indians in the distant village thought that they
were being attacked by wildcats.

Two suns later, when the chief was calm enough to speak again,
he had his medicine man brought before him and told the unhappy
man that next day, when the sun was high, he would be sent with
all speed to the land of shadows.

That night, the medicine man climbed to the top of a high
hill in search of advice from friendly spirits on how to cover
the entire earth with leather. He slept, and in a dream vision
he was shown the answer to his problem. Amid vivid flashes
of lightning, he tore down the steep hillside, howling louder
than the big chief at times, as jagged rocks wounded his bare
feet and legs. He did not stop until he was safely inside his
lodge. He worked all night and until the warriors who were to
send him on the shadow trail came for him, just before noon the
next day. He was surrounded by the war-club armed guards.
He was clutching close to his heart something tightly rolled
in a piece of deerskin. His cheerful smile surprised those
who saw him pass. 'Wah, he is brave!' said the men of the tribe.
'He is very brave!' said the women of the tribe. The big chief
was waiting just outside his lodge. He gave the guards swift,
stern orders. Before the maker of magic could be led away,
he asked leave to say a few words to the chief.
'Speak!' said the chief, sorry to lose a clever medicine man
who was very good at most kinds of magic. Even the chief knew
that covering the entire earth with leather was an impossible task.
The medicine man quickly knelt beside the chief, unrolled the
two objects which he took from his bundle and slipped one of
them on each foot of the chief. The chief seemed to be wearing
a pair of bear's hairless feet, instead of bare feet, and he was
puzzled at first as he looked at the elk hide handicraft of his
medicine man. 'Big chief,' the medicine man exclaimed joyfully,
"I have found the way to cover the earth with leather! For you,
O chief, from now on the earth will always be covered with
leather."
And so it was.

A Plains Indian Tale

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