A war party visits an old blind man, suspecting he is part of a troublesome band they’ve been seeking. The blind man, aware of their intentions, prepares to defend himself with a concealed knife. His son-in-law, sensing danger, flees. The old man attempts to attack the intruders but mistakenly stabs a blanket. The visitors then kill him and his wives, acknowledging that his blindness made their assault possible.
Source:
The Beaver Indians
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 4
New York, 1912
► Themes of the story
Cunning and Deception: The elder attempts to deceive the intruders by hiding his weapon and pretending to be hospitable, aiming to catch them off guard.
Tragic Flaw: The elder’s blindness, while not a moral failing, serves as a vulnerability that leads to his downfall.
Revenge and Justice: The attackers seek retribution against the elder’s band, whom they consider troublesome, leading to the elder’s death.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Dane-zaa people
Once a party went to war. After they had been traveling some time they came where people were living. Thinking they had found the people they were seeking, they went into the tipi to visit them. An old man [this old blind man’s name was deskj, a “Rocky Mountain” Indian, (tsa’t’u) that is, Fort St. John Beaver] sitting there asked them where they were going. They replied that they were just camping about. The old man, suspecting they were not telling the truth, asked a boy if there were children in the party. The boy told his grandfather, “No.” “That is what I thought,” the old man replied. “If they were camping about there would be children along.”
► Continue reading…
Then those who were visiting him said, “Grandfather, what did you say? You talk a foreign language all the time.” The old man sat with one foot on a knife with which he was intending to kill them. He was blind and did not know the knife was partly in sight. He reached behind his back and found some choice pieces of meat which he took out and roasted. He ate it by himself thinking that it was his last meal. He did not offer food to his guests.
Just then his son-in-law came back and entered the tipi. “I want a drink,” he said to his wife. “I think the water is all gone.” “You are not an old man, get it yourself,” the old man said. He took up the vessel and went for the water. He had left his snowshoes and bow and arrows at some distance from the camp because he did not recognize the visitors and suspected they were only pretending to pay a visit. Instead of getting the water he went back where he had left his things, and taking them, started to run away. When the strangers saw him, they called to him, “What are you doing, my friend? You are running away and we are paying you a visit.” The young man ran on until he was out of sight.
The old man was holding his foot on the knife so that the knife was projecting a little. “He will do something,” the guests said in Cree. They folded up a blanket and put it between themselves and him, saying he would mistake it for a man. The old man did as they thought he would. He stabbed the blanket thinking it was a man. The men then ran out and began to shoot at him from a distance. They killed him. He too was shooting at the strangers and nearly killed a man although he could not see them. “If he had not been blind we would not have succeeded in killing him,” they said to each other.
They killed all his wives. They were hunting for that man for his band was bad and had been annoying the Indians.
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