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Chapter 2. Chauncey Yellow Robe
- University of Nebraska Press
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[First Page] [13], (1) Lines: 0 to ——— 2.0pt Pg ——— Normal Pag PgEnds: TE [13], (1) 2 Chauncey Yellow Robe Chauncey Yellow Robe remembered his childhood fondly, with a good dose of nostalgia.1 He was born in the southern part of Montana, where his people were hunting buffalo. Among his early memories he recalled that his mother, Tachcawin (Deer Woman), had carried him on her back and that as her firstborn he was her favored child.2 While he was still an infant, his family “gave a big feast”3 and named him Kills in the Woods in memory of his father’s victory over the Crow chief from whom he took the name Yellow Robe. Chauncey remembered his grandfather and his grandmother, both of whom he characterized as “giant in stature and strength.” He wrote of them: They were my tutors in legends. Many hours I used to spend in their buffalohide tepees beside the bright campfire, listening to their strange stories that had been handed down for generations. I was expected to commit to memory all these stories that I might be able to relate them to my children. I was taught to respect and reverence the Great Spirit, which was an essential to this life, to know the importance of the past history of the tribe and to study the great and inspiring deeds of the famous chiefs, warriors and medicine men. Chauncey recalled as well his training in the necessities of life for a Lakota male: making bows and arrows, riding ponies bareback, foot racing, wrestling, and swimming. It was important, he wrote, to learn to endure all kinds of hardships: “Sometimes during a morning of winter blizzard my father used to wake me up out of my warm bed of buffalo robes and dare me to go out and lay down in the deep snow and roll in it ‘as I had 14 chauncey yellow robe [14], (2 Lines: 48 ——— 6.5pt ——— Normal PgEnds: [14], (2 come in the world.’ This was not as a punishment, but a test in endurance.” He learned the art of hunting by accompanying his father. “Many times,” Chauncey remembered, “I have helped him to lift a deer on his back or drag one home on the snow. Living next to nature and by close observation, I became familiar with the peculiar characteristics and habits of the animals and the birds.” For a Lakota boy, killing his first buffalo was a major step toward manhood . Chauncey killed his first buffalo one autumn near the Black Hills when he was staying with his uncle Iron Plume and his aunt Catch the Bear. The camp was on the Belle Fourche River, where Chauncey’s duty was to look after the family’s large pony herd. Chauncey recounted the event: One day while my uncle was away, it was announced throughout the camp that a large herd of buffaloes was moving towards it, and all the able-bodied men as well as boys were preparing for the chase. I could not resist from going. I kept my eyes on Aunt and when she went out of the tepee to hang up some buffalo meat to dry, I picked up my arrow quiver and a piece of buffalo rawhide rope and, running to the ponies on the field, caught my fleet-footed pony and joined the hunting party. When we were out five or six miles from the camp we saw the buffalo herd, something like two or three thousand, calves and all, grazing on a broad stretch of low land. We made an advance towards the buffaloes behind the hills and then we made a charge upon them, shouting our war whoops as we went. The great buffalo herd stampeded toward the west, a thick cloud of dust rising behind them. My pony was so excited that I could not control him. Reaching the buffaloes through the smoke of dust, I was right among them. They rubbed against my side as they ran. My pony turned his ears down and raced with the herd. I was afraid at first, thinking if I fell off my pony I would be trampled to death by the buffaloes. Finally I gained confidence in myself and drew my bow and arrows out from the quiver at my belt and sent the first arrow into a yearling buffalo on my right. She staggered and dropped out of the stampede, and so I shot another arrow into her...