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McLaughlin, Marie L., 1842-

"Myths and Legends of the Sioux"

When the crow had mastered these different
languages the chief would send him on long journeys to ascertain
the location of the camps of the different enemies.
When the crow would find a large Indian camp he would alight and
hop about, pretending to be picking up scraps, but really keeping
his ears open for anything he might hear. He would hang around all
day, and at night when they would all gather in the large council
tent (which always stood in the center of the village) to determine
upon their next raid, and plan for a horse stealing trip, Mr. Crow
was always nearby to hear all their plans discussed. He would then
fly away to his master (the Chief) and
tell him all that he had learned.
The Chief would then send a band of his warriors to lie in ambush
for the raiding party, and, as the enemy would not suspect anything
they would go blindly into the pitfall of death thus set for them.
Thus the crow was the scout of this chief, whose
reputation as a Wakan (Holy man) soon reached all of the different
tribes. The Chief's warriors would intercept, ambush and
annihilate every war party headed for his camp.
So, finally learning that they could not make war on this chief's
people unbeknown to them, they gave up making war on this
particular band. When meat was running low in the camp this chief
would send the crow out to look for buffalo.


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