Jack the Young Canoeman: An Eastern Boy's Voyage in a Chinook Canoe

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER VI

  OF INDIANS IN ARMOR

  The next morning was a busy one for all hands. A messenger had beensent across the Inlet to summon Seammux and another Indian, and Mr.Fannin's camp outfit was brought down from the loft, got together andcleaned; and provisions were bought. By the middle of the day, Seammux,and an Indian named Sillicum, had crossed the Inlet, and anchored theircanoes close to the shore. Then the blankets, the food, and the messkit were carried down and stowed in the boat, and by that time it wasnoon. Immediately after the midday meal the party set out.

  Mr. Fannin had proposed that he and Jack should go in the small canoewith the lighter load, and that Hugh should go in the canoe with thetwo Indians, who, being stronger and far more used to paddling than thewhite men, could move along at a better rate.

  "You and I," said Fannin, "although our canoe is smaller and lighter,will have a good deal harder time in getting along than the Indians. Isuppose that you have never paddled much, and I haven't either, for anumber of years. But now that you are going to make a canoe trip youmust learn to paddle and must be able to do your share of the work."

  "Of course I have paddled some," said Jack, "in a birch-bark canoe, butI have never done much of it."

  "No," said Fannin, "I suppose you have just paddled around a few milesfor the fun of the thing, but you will find that if you undertake topaddle here for hours, or for a whole day, that it gets to be prettytiresome work before the sun has set."

  "Yes," said Jack, "I should think it would be tiresome. Quite differentfrom riding a horse along over the prairie."

  Mr. Fannin turned to Hugh, saying: "Mr. Johnson, it won't be necessaryfor you to paddle at all, unless you feel like doing so. The Indianswill do all that. They are both good canoemen, and all you will have todo is to sit in the boat and smoke your pipe."

  "Well," said Hugh, "I can certainly do that without much trouble. Onthe other hand, I think it might be well to take along another paddlefor me, in case we are in water that is running strongly against us."

  Another paddle having been secured, they stepped on board the canoes,pushed off, and were soon on their way up the inlet.

  The tide was running strongly in from the sea and for an hour or twotheir progress was very good. At first Jack was a little awkward withhis paddle, for the canoe was wider than any that he had ever seenbefore; and he was thus obliged to paddle with straighter arms. Mr.Fannin told him not to pay any attention at present to the directionof the canoe, but to leave all that to the stern paddle, which he,himself, wielded. So Jack paddled steadily on one side of the canoe,but kept his eyes straight ahead and watched the direction towardwhich the bow pointed. They reached the North Arm, and turning north,followed the westerly bank, and about six o'clock reached and passedup by the island just below the head of the Arm. Here Fannin spoke tothe Indians, and after some little talk they turned toward the shore;and, when the bank was reached, unloaded their canoes, and preparedtheir camp. The top of the bank was four or five feet above the water'slevel, and the soil was quite dry.

  Mr. Fannin, looking carefully about for a camp, chose a somewhatelevated spot; and explained to the Indians where the fire should bemade and the beds placed. The Indians each took an axe, went intothe woods and presently returned, dragging a number of poles, two ofwhich had crotched ends, and were already sharpened at the bottom.These were driven into the soil so that the crotches stood about sixfeet from the ground. Between these crotches a pole was laid, and,resting on this pole, and running down to the ground at a low angle,were a dozen or twenty other poles, the whole forming the sloping roofof what was to be a brush leanto. Then the Indians went off againand presently returned with armfuls of cedar boughs with which theyproceeded to thatch this roof, laying the butts up and the points down.It was not long before they had a thatched shelter, which would shed apretty heavy rain. In the meantime, Mr. Fannin had kindled a fire, infront of the shelter and Hugh and Jack had brought in a good pile ofwood. It was not easy here to find good fire-wood, however. So greatis the prevalence of rain and fog in these coast forests that all thefallen tree trunks seemed to Jack too wet to burn. However, Hugh tookan axe and began to cut and split some rather large logs, that, afterthe outer spongy layer of moist rotten wood had been passed, werefound to be perfectly sound and dry. The Indians now began to cookthe evening meal of fried bacon, fried potatoes, and coffee; whilethe others brought the blankets from the canoes and spread their bedsunder the leanto so that their feet would be towards the fire. By thetime this had been done, Seammux announced that the food was ready,and before long the members of the party were sitting about the fire,highly enjoying their meal. After they had eaten, Jack said: "I see,Mr. Fannin, that you have brought your shot-gun along, this time, justas you did yesterday, when we came out here. Do you carry it with youeverywhere?"

  "No," said Fannin, "not everywhere; but I generally mean to have itwith me whenever I go any great distance from home, and am so fixedthat I can carry it and a few shells. Of course, I often go out huntingjust to get meat, and then I leave the shot-gun at home; but when I goout hunting for pleasure, and especially when I go into a new country,I always try to carry it; for one never knows when he may see a newbird, or at all events a bird that he cannot recognize. I would ratherget hold of a bird that I've never seen before, than kill almost anygame that can be found in the country. Of course, if I were up inVancouver Island in the country where the elk range, I would not carrythe shot-gun, because I would want to get an elk more than any birdthat I should be likely to see. A good many of those elk have beenkilled, of course, but I don't know that any of them have ever falleninto the hands of a naturalist; and we none of us know what they are.They may be the same elk that are found on the plains and in the RockyMountains, or they may be something quite different. I should like tobe the man to bring out a skin of one of those animals and to have itcompared with the elk that we know so well. I have seen two or threeheads of the Island elk, and to me they don't look like the elk of theEast, but it's a long time since I saw an eastern elk, and maybe I haveforgotten just how it looks."

  "Are those elk plenty?" asked Jack. "Mr. James spoke about them, but hedidn't seem to know much more than the fact that there were elk up onthe Island, back of Comox."

  "No one knows much about them," replied Fannin. "They live in the thicktimber, high up on the mountains, and mainly on the western slope. TheIndians kill them sometimes, and bring in the skins and sell them, butnot often. Most of the skins they use to make clothing of, or else forceremonial robes, or for armor."

  "Armor?" queried Jack; "that is something new to me. I never knew thatIndians wore armor. They have shields, of course; and I've seen plentyof these; and a very good protection they are, for they will stop anarrow, and are likely to turn a ball from an old-fashioned trade gun.Isn't that so, Hugh?"

  "Yes, son," replied Hugh, "that's all true enough; but Indians do weararmor sometimes; or, at least, there are stories told of their wearingarmor, but it was always something that they had got from the whitemen, and not anything that they had made themselves."

  "Why, how's that, Hugh? That's something that you never told me, and Idon't think I ever heard the Indians speak about it."

  "Maybe not," said Hugh, thoughtfully. "When I come to think of it, Idon't believe the Blackfeet ever had anything of that kind; but thePawnees did, and so did the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes. I will have totell you that story some time."

  "Tell it now," said Fannin; and Jack added: "Yes, tell it now, Hugh."

  "Well," said Hugh, "it's quite a long story, but I'll tell it to you ifyou like. But before I begin I'll tell you how I first heard about thisarmor. Way back, more than twenty years ago, I used to hear the Pawneestalk about an iron shirt that they had. They talked about it prettyfreely, but I never got to see it. As near as I could tell, it wassomething to be worn on the body; perhaps hung around the neck and tiedaround the waist and under the arms. In other wo
rds, it didn't cover upthe whole body, but was something like a breastplate,--something thatwould just protect a man's breast and belly if he were shot at or cutat from the front.

  "Years after that, when with the Cheyennes, I heard about a shirt,an iron shirt, that they had; and when they talked about it, as theyoften did, I found out that this shirt that the Pawnees had they hadcaptured from the Cheyennes, who once owned that and a lot more thingslike it; in fact, a regular suit of iron clothes. There was a cap madeof steel, with a kind of a mask that let down in front over the face;and a sort of a cape from behind that covered the neck. There was acoat that covered the whole body and the upper part of the arms, andlaced up on one side; while there was a pair of leggings that coveredthe legs from the waist down to the ankles. According to the Cheyenne'stell, the man that had this suit of clothes on could stand up and letpeople shoot at him all day long and he never would be hurt. But theysaid that these clothes were so powerful heavy that they were very hardto wear; that a man dressed up in them could hardly mount his horse,and that if he tumbled off and fell down, it was all that he could doto get on his legs again. For this reason they never wore the wholesuit of clothes; but they would take a part of it and wear it intobattle, and of course the man who wore it could go right into the thickof the shooting, and the arrows and the bullets would not hurt him atall, unless he happened to be hit on some part of his body that was notcovered.

  "Now, I think it was along about 1852 that the Cheyennes and thePawnees had a big fight on Republican River. A big war party ofCheyennes, Sioux, and Apaches, Kiowas and Comanches had gone out tokill all the Pawnees; they were going to wipe the Pawnees off theearth. They found the Pawnees hunting buffalo on the Republican River,and attacked them, and they had a big fight, in which quite a numberwere killed on both sides, and among them a lot of the bravest of theCheyennes. A big chief, 'Touching the Cloud,' wore a part of this ironclothing--only the leggings, they say, spread out over the breast. Hehad been very brave, and the Pawnees hadn't been able to hit him atall. During the fight he charged on a single Pawnee, who ran away.The Pawnee and Touching the Cloud were both mounted, and Touching theCloud, who, notwithstanding his armor, wasn't taking any chances,rode up on the right-hand side of the Pawnee to strike him. Of courseyou can understand, that coming up on the right-hand side the Pawneecould not turn around on his horse far enough to shoot back with hisbow; whereas, if the Cheyenne had ridden up on the left-hand side,the Pawnee could have turned around, and, pulling the bowstring withhis right hand, could shoot at the Cheyenne. But as bad luck wouldhave it, this Pawnee that Touching the Cloud was going to strike wasa left-handed man; so just as the Cheyenne was going to strike him hewhirled around on his horse and shot an arrow which, more by good luckthan skill, I reckon, struck the Cheyenne in the right eye and wentthrough his brain.

  "That about ended the fight, and the Cheyennes and their party went offlicked.

  "That was one of the biggest misfortunes that the Cheyennes ever had,for Touching the Cloud was a brave warrior, a wise man, and one ofthe handsomest among the Cheyennes. He had been the orator for theCheyennes at the Horse Creek Treaty in 1851; and later had gone toWashington; and then, soon after his return, was killed, as I tell you."

  "Well," said Fannin, "that's an interesting story, and that Indian wascertainly in mighty hard luck. I guess it was fated that he should die."

  "Well, Hugh," remarked Jack, "that's one of the best stories I everheard, and it's queer that you never told it to me before. I guessthere are lots of interesting things that you have seen and know thatyou have never let me hear about."

  "Maybe there are, son; but it does seem to me that I've done a heap oftalking since I've known you; more maybe than I've done in a good manyyears before."

  "But where did this armor come from, Hugh?" asked Jack.

  "Well, I was going to come to that. You see, after Touching the Cloudwas killed, the Pawnees captured the armor that he had, and have keptit ever since. The rest of the clothes the Cheyennes had a few yearsago. I don't know what has become of them.

  "I asked particularly where these clothes came from, and the story theCheyennes tell is something like this: A good many years ago, I don'tknow whether it was fifty or a hundred years, one of them Mexicans thatused to come up trading from the South brought this suit of clotheswith him, packed in a box. After he had been trading for a while inthe Arapahoe and Cheyenne camps, he opened the box one day and tookout these iron clothes, and showed them to the Indians. Pretty soonthere were two or three of them that came to understand that an arrowor a bullet could not go through these clothes, and then they wantedto trade for them; but the Mexican let on that he didn't want to sellthem, and packed them again in the box and put them away. You see, theMexican could count on getting a big price for these things, for theIndian who owned them could figure on being a pretty big man. In thefirst place, he would be safe in going into battle; and in the secondplace, he could do such brave things that he'd get up an almighty bigname for himself right away; and in the third place, all the tribesthat he went to war against, would soon learn that he could not behurt in battle and would think that he had some powerful medicine orhelper, and so they would always run away when he was with a partythat attacked them. So the possession of these iron clothes would makea man famous for bravery, and that is the thing of all others thatIndians are eager for. Well, the upshot of it was that these Indiansbegan bidding against each other for the iron clothes; and at lastan Arapahoe gave the Mexican three or four buffalo horses for them,and got them. After a little while, however, he found out that therewere some things about the suit that made it a less desirable pieceof property than he had supposed; and when a Cheyenne offered him agreat price for it, he sold it to him; and so it passed from hand tohand, parts of it often being worn in battle, and always, or almostalways protecting the wearer from any harm. That's all I know about theiron shirt. I expect it was one of those old coats of mail which theSpaniards used to wear in early days when they first came to America."

  Hugh stopped, refilled his pipe, which had gone out while he wastalking, leaned over and took up a coal out of the ashes and deftlyapplied it to the bowl of the pipe; and then, after getting the tobaccowell alight, turned to Fannin and said: "Now tell us, friend, aboutthis armor that your Indians out here use."

  "Well," said Fannin, "this armor is not of white man's make. TheIndians fix it up themselves. They make long shirts of elk-skin, andsew into them straight pieces of wood, sometimes round, and as thick asyour finger, sometimes flat and a little wider than a common lath. Theelk-skin and the wood make an armor that will stop an arrow or a knifethrust. It's a pretty clumsy article of clothing, and an Indian whowears one of these coats of mail can't get around very easily; but he'spretty well protected, and I guess feels a whole lot braver with such ashirt on than he would feel if he were naked."

  "I guess he does," said Hugh. "It's curious the way they worked thatthing out for themselves. Now, I can remember when I first came out onthe plains that sometimes the trappers, if they were in a bad placeand surrounded, used to wear shirts of the skins of two black-taildeer,--one in front and one behind and tied under the arms. They saidthat those skins, when wet, would turn an arrow. I wonder if they gotthat from the Indians? I wouldn't be a mite surprised.

  "I have heard, too," he added, "that there are some other Indians thatuse armor of this kind; and that the Pueblo Indians that live downSouth in Arizona and New Mexico use a sort of basket work to protectthemselves in war. Somebody told me once, but I can't remember who itwas, that some of the Southwest people wore shirts lined with cottonthat would stop an arrow; and I know for sure that some of the plains'Indians wadded their shields with buffalo hair or with feathers, whichalso helped to stop the arrows. I expect likely there's a good dealmore of this armor business than we know anything about. For all Iknow, maybe there have been books written about it."

  "Well," said Fannin, "we ought to get an early start to-morrowmorning if we are going to go up to t
he head of the Arm and climb themountains. I guess we'd better turn in."

  "I reckon we had," said Hugh; while Jack said: "I'm not a bit sleepy,and I wish you'd both go ahead and tell some more Indian stories."

  "Too late now," said Fannin. "I guess we'll have plenty of time forIndian stories a little later;" and before long they had all turnedinto their blankets.