In the last years of the 19th century, a Young American Indian called Buffalo Child Long Lace was growing in North America. His tribe, the Blackfeet, (1) (live) in an area between Montana in the USA and Alberta in Canada; here they followed the buffalo, which they (2) (hunt) for its skins and meat. Like all the boys in the tribe, Long Lance (3) (learn) to ride, hunt, fight and dance.
No white people (4) (come) to this remote part of North America until the 1880s – but when they did, the lives of the Blackfeet (5) (begin) to change greatly. Instead of hunting Buffalo, Long Lance went to school and then (6) (fight) as a Canadian soldier in the 1914-18 war. After the war he (7) (become) a newspaper journalist.
Long Lance (8) (write) a book about his life and the life of his people. In the book he tells of an early meeting between the Blackfeet and the white man. The Blackfeet (9) (hear) that they could trade their buffalo skins for gunpowder and food at the white man’s trading post. On the way there they (10) (meet) another tribe of Indians called the Suksiseoketuk, who already traded with the white man. The Blackfeet were very interested in what the Suksiseoketuk chief told them, because they (11) (only/see) white men from a distance, and they (12) (never/see) white women or children.
He told us to beware of his food; as it would make our teeth come out. He told us about the bread and the sweets which the white man (13) (eat), and he pulled up his upper lip and said:
‘Wambadahka- Behold. My teeth (14) (be) good, and so are the teeth of our old peole; but behold’ he said, walking over to a young boy and pulling up his lip, ‘behold, these teeth of the young people are not good. Too much white man’s food. Our people, like yours, never (15) (use) to die until they (16) (be) over a hundred years old. Now, since we (17) (start) to eat that white man’s food we (18) (be) sick all of the time. We (19) (keep) getting worse and soon it (20) (kill) us all.’
From Long Lance-the Autobiography of a Blackfoot Indian Chief by Buffalo Child Long Lance
