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Updated: May 29, 2025
I spoke to my father, and he talked of the visit of Deerfoot as he would have talked of the visit of one of our own Blackfeet. I told him I had forgotten the Shawanoe's words and asked him to tell them to me again. He replied that God did not wish me to remember them and he denied my request, which I respected him too much ever to repeat. "Chief Taggarak lived several years longer.
With every muscle and nerve yearning for action, they became impatient and sometimes fretful. When they spoke of themselves as prisoners it was the truth. Taggarak acted kindly toward George and Victor, but never showed any special friendship for them. It may have been because they belonged to another race.
From what I afterward learned, I am sure that if my father had attacked the Shawanoe, the chief would have been quickly overcome, if not killed. "Within two paces of Deerfoot, Taggarak wheeled about, faced his people and made an impassioned avowal of his belief in the Christian religion.
It was easy to understand the iron will with which he ruled the turbulent and warlike Blackfeet. He had thrown aside his blanket and sat in a close-fitting shirt of deerskin, with girdle at the waist, and with leggings and moccasins. Taggarak was not a handsome Indian, but he was of striking mien.
Enough of the Blackfeet were astir to notice him moving at a moderate pace past the lodges toward the clearing at the rear of the village. He greeted all in their own language, and did not show by anything in his manner that he had any important matter in hand. He stealthily glanced here and there, on the lookout for Taggarak, but saw nothing of him.
The seed had been sown on good ground and was bearing fruit. The young Shawanoe was tactful. For him to attempt to add anything to the words of Taggarak would be to weaken them. They were the climax, and silence was golden.
Instead of commenting upon the rude beauty of the story that had been told to his friend many years before, he asked the practical question: "What has the Spirit Circle to do with Deerfoot and Taggarak?"
After waiting for several minutes, Victor said: "Deerfoot, you can't know how much we are worried. We understand how you feel and that no danger can scare you into denying the true religion, any more than it can scare George and me, but you may as well be careful and avoid rousing the anger of Taggarak, so long as there is no need of provoking him."
"Now let my brothers tell of what happened to them when Deerfoot was through with Taggarak." "You needn't worry; I didn't forget that. Well, Jack, you see Deerfoot forbade me and George to come anywhere near, but we couldn't stay away. He found it out, cut a big gad and splintered it over our shoulders and we couldn't help ourselves."
There was something in this fact that appealed to that chivalric feeling which is never wholly lacking in the most degraded and cruel race. Taggarak had little to say, but the path to his magnanimity had been paved. One of the chief causes of this relaxation of sternness on his part was the accounts which he heard of the Indian youth.
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