Indian Old-Man Stories: More Sparks from War; Eagle’s Lodge-Fire (1920)

The Indians of the northwestern plains always laughed at the tales about Old-man, heard around a campfire after the sun set. For a powerful character, he was comically flawed. Old-man made the world but sometimes forgot the names of things. Victim and victimizer, he seemed closer to common experience than the awesome god Manitou. Frank B. Linderman thought Old-man was, under different names, an undergod for all Indian tribes. These stories-collected from Blackfeet, Chippewa, and Cree elders and first published in 1920-are full of wonder at the way things are. Why children lose their teeth, why eyesight fails with age, why dogs howl at night, why some animals wear camouflage-these and other mysteries, large and small, are made vividly sensible. Ohio-born Frank B. Linderman (1869-1938) spent his adult life in Montana, first as a trapper and then as a publisher, politician, and businessman. He was intimately associated with the Flathead, Blackfeet, Crow, and other Indian tribes in the region. His acclaimed writing career began in middle age with Indian Why Stories also available as a Bison book.