Blackfeet Indian Tipi Legend - Beaver's Gift Of The Single Circle Otter Tipi
Single Circle of Otter Tipi of Chewing Black Bones
In the days when the people used only dogs in moving camp a man and two wives camped by the big lake north of Chief Mountain (Waterton Lake). One day the younger wife went for water and did not return. All that day and part of the next her husband and his older wife searched for the lost one until they found her tracks on the shore leading into the lake. The man told his wife, "Last night we heard drumming and singing in the water. That person must have taken my wife."
When they returned to the camp of their band the lost wife's folks accused the man of killing her. But his older wife explained how the younger one had disappeared and they had found her footprints leading into the water.
Next spring the man and wife moved back to Waterton Lake. They camped beside the lake and walked along the shore crying for the lost woman. When the beaver who lived in the lake heard them, he took pity upon them. That evening the couple heard someone coughing outside their tipi. Then they heard a voice saying, "Arrange your lodge very neatly inside. Get some Juniper boughs and make a smudge of them. Then you will see your wife again."
All night the Indian couple tidied up their lodge. Early next morning they heard people approaching their lodge singing. The husband invited them in. In they came-four of them. First came the beaver man's son wearing moccasins, a breech-clout, robe, and a single feather in his hair. Next came the beaver man bearing a pack on his back, then the younger wife of the lodge owner came carrying a baby beaver in her arms. The son told the man not to touch his wife for four days. When the lodge owner asked if he might take the beaver child, the son instructed him to make a smudge and cleanse his hands before he did so.
The son then explained that his father had requested him to help these Indians. He said, "I am going to help you. I shall give you my lodge." Finally the beaver man spoke. "I brought your wife back to you. I shall also give you the beaver bundle I am carrying on my back." He then performed the beaver bundle ritual in which he presented a pelt from every living kind of animal and bird. On the fifth day after his wife's return the husband made a sweatlodge and all of the songs of the beaver bundle and of the painted lodge of the son were transferred. Then the beaver man told the Indians to return to their people.
After they reached camp the husband invited all the men to his lodge and told them of the gifts he received from the beaver man and his son. The men gave him buffalo hides, the women dressed them, cut and fitted them, and sewed them together to make the lodge cover. During her long absence the younger wife had learned the details of the design on the son's lodge. The cover was painted in that design- which included otters that belonged in the beaver bundle-four on each side. The owners took good care of their new lodge. Their family increased, and their children grew and prospered.