Sheep Eater – Story of their Lives
22 January 2002
The Woman Under the Ground
Extracted from The Sheep Eaters, pages 15-19
The Shakespeare Press, 1913
W.A. Allen, D.D.S.
William Allen interviewed this woman, reported to 115 years old, and used sign language to translate her words. The words are as stated on the pages.
"My people lived among the clouds. We
were the Sheep Eaters who have passed away, but on those walls are the paint
rocks, where our traditions are written on their face, chiseled with obsidian
arrow heads. Our people were not warriors. We worshipped the sun,
and the sun is bright and so were our people. Our men were good and our
women were like the sun. The Great Spirit has stamped our impressions on
the rocks by His lightning’s; there are many of our people who were
outlined on those smooth walls years ago; then our people painted their
figures, or traced them with beautiful colored stones, and the paleface calls
them "painted rocks." Our people never came down into the
valleys, but always lived among the clouds, eating the mountain sheep and the
goats, and sometimes the elk when they came high on the mountains. Our
tepees were made of the cedar, thatched with grey moss and cemented with the
gum from the pines, carpeted with the mountain sheepskins, soft as down.
Our garments were made from the skins of the gazelle, and ornamented with eagle
feathers and ermine and otter skins.
"We chanted our songs in the sun, and the Great
Spirit was pleased. He gave us much sheep and meat and berries and pure
water, and snow to keep the flies away. The water was never muddy.
We had no dogs nor horses. We did not go far
from our homes, but were happy in our mountain abode. Then came the Sioux, who killed the elk and buffalo in the
valleys. They had swarms of dogs and horses, and ran the game until it
left the valleys and went far away. Their people were always at war and
stealing horses, which was very wrong in the sight of our people, who never
stole anything. Our men were fearless and brave, and could bring down all
kinds of game with their bows and arrows, and were contented, but the Sioux
were not contented with fighting their enemies, but came to our mountain home
and began to try to ascend the trail. Our chief met them on the steep
precipice and ordered them to stop where they were, but they murmured and made
signs of battle. Our people had great masses of rock as large as houses,
where they could let them loose down the trail and crush the Sioux into the
earth as they were all down in a deep canyon.
"The Sioux stopped and began a war council, and
began to paint and get ready for battle. Our chief got the great rocks
ready, and then sent a runner to tell the Sioux that our people never went into
the valleys nor killed the buffalo, and that we wished to be apart from all
other people. After a long council the Sioux fired a volley of arrows at
our runner, and wounded him in the thigh. He came to the chief greatly
alarmed at the dreaded Sioux, as they were many.
"The ponies in the valley below were strange
looking creatures to us; we had never seen them before. The dogs
were howling and the valley rang with the wild war whoop. The time had
come for action, and the Sheep Eaters assembled at the narrow trail, headed by
their chieftain, Red Eagle, with his bow six feet long, made from the mountain
ram's horn, and bound with glue and sinew from the sheep's neck. Great
excitement prevailed. The squaws and children had hidden among the rocks
with all their robes and earthly possessions. The wild and savage Sioux
knew no fear and were pressing up the narrow trail with war paint and feathers,
their grim visages scowling in the sunlight as they came.
"Red Eagle, with that bravery known only to his
tribe, waited until they had reached the most dangerous precipice. Then
with a great lever that had been prepared years before, he loosened the great
rock from its moorings, and with one crash it sped down the canyon like a
cyclone, tearing the trees from their roots, and starting the rocks, until the
canyon became one great earthquake. The screams of the terrified Indians,
the howling of dogs and the neighing of horses were heard in one awful
roar. The battle was over. The canyon was a mass of blood, and
death was abroad in the valley. Not a living thing was to be seen.
"Red Eagle took a horn made of red cedar, and
gave one long quivering blast which echoed and reechoed through the