The life of Bull Lodge, healer and pipe keeper, as told by his daughter, Garter Snake
This is the story of a great visionary healer — Bull Lodge of the Gros Ventre or White Clay People (Ha'ananin) of northeast Montana. It was narrated by his daughter, Garter Snake, in 1941, and recently uncovered by George Horse Capture, who has edited it here for his tribe's permanent use. Nothing more faithfully connects us with the high purposes of Plains Indian culture in the buffalo days. Garter Snake presents her father's life the way he understood it, as a gradual revelation of spiritual gifts. His adventures pass into vision and ritual. In the telling as in the living, personal experience becomes traditional experience. Thus it is also the story of the Feathered Pipe, whose miraculous powers are fulfilled in Bull Lodge in accordance with ancient prophecies.
Fred Gone, who transcribed these narratives, notes that Bull Lodge "never lost a case." He cured gunshot wounds, tuberculosis. tumors and many other disorders, using the knowledge granted him as a youth in seven visions. Thanks to Garter Snake's devotion and powers of mind, her accounts of traditional healing ceremonies are as accurately detailed as anything we have. The four sections of her narrative correspond to the stages of Bull Lodge's life. In the first and longest part, Garter Snake describes the youth's astonishing visions on seven buttes. Part two covers the transition from warrior to healer at the age of forty, when Bull Lodge was first permitted to use his powers. In part three Garter Snake recalls his skillful balancing of responsibilities as father, healer and pipe keeper. Finally, in a moving account of her father's last days, she reveals the calm strength of his trust in Those Who Watch Over Him. This volume also includes Garter Snake's story of the origin and rituals of the Feathered Pipe, told exactly as Bull Lodge had prepared her to do long before.