MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
ANCIENT AND MODERN
Shot-on-Both-Sides, Head Chief of the Blood tribe
and Honorary President of the Kainai Chieftainship,
was bom in the spring of 1873, four years before the
signing of Treaty Number Seven in 1877, and is a
worthy descendent from a line of famous warriors.
A son of Crop Eared-Wolf, and grandson of the
noted brave and leader, Red Crow, the robe of
head chief fell about his shoulders at the death of
his father in 1913. A member of the powerful Horn
Society, he presides with grace and innate dignity
at all tribal council meetings and has a background
of true Indianism which few possess today. A firm
believer in progressive education, he watches keenly
every endeavour of the youth movement, yet retains
the tribal characteristics of his race by maintaining
compromise with dignity and complacency with
strength.
The repository of the mythology and folklore of his
people, he has passed through the Horn Society no
less than eight times; through the Black Seizers
twice, and has passed progressively through the
soldier societies, the Doves, the Braves, the Crazy
Dogs, the Crow Carriers and the Mosquitoes.
Amongst the sacred objects entrusted to him are the
sacred bundles of the Buffalo Stone Necklace; the
wristlets of the Black Seizers; the Horn headdress; the
Weasel-tail robe; the Buffalo-head tepee; the Long-Time
-Medicine-Pipe; the Sun-Lodge Hide, and various other
articles, including an ancient sword and medicine drum.
To the Bloods stocks and bonds mean nothing, yet the
ownership of these sacred articles denotes great
wealth and much prestige.
From the white man's standpoint Shot-on-Both-Sides is
not educated, never having attended school or been
taught by white teachers. Yet, withal, his penetrating
mind and direct application to personal and tribal
problems gives evidence of a dual personality which
is both ancient in tradition and moderm in application.
Now, during the evetide of his life, he has exchanged
the bow for the ploughshare, and turned from the
buffalo of his fathers to the white man's "spotted
buffalo" and flock. In short, he is a successful
farmer, a wise and cautious administrator; a lover
of his people, and an ardent admirer and friend of
his white colleagues.
Chief Shot-on-Both-Sides, Head Chief of the Bloods,
and worthy successor to Red Crow, has led, and is
still leading, his progressive tribesmen to ideals of
greater citizenship yet to be realized.