Long ago, down where Two Medicine and Badger Creeks came together, there lived an old man. He had but one wife and two daughters. One day there came to the camp a man who was very brave and strong and he was a good hunter. The old man said "Ai! I will have this young man to help me. I will give him my daughters as wives." So he gave him his daughters. He also gave this son-in-law all his wealth, keeping for himself only a little lodge, in which he lived with his old wife. The son-in-law lived in the lodge that was big and fine.
At first the son-in-law was very good to the old people. Whenever he killed anything, he gave them part of the meat and furnished plenty of buffalo robes and skins for their bedding and clothing. But after a while he began to be very mean to them.
Now the son-in-law kept the buffalo hidden under a big log jam in the river. Whenever he wanted to kill anything he would have the old man go to help him; and the old man would stamp on the log jam and frighten a buffalo, and when they ran out, the young man would shoot one or two, never killing wastefully. But often he gave the old people nothing to eat, and they were hungry all the time and began to grow thin and weak.
One morning, the young man called his father-in-law to go down to the log jam and hunt with him. They started, and the young man killed a fat buffalo cow. Then he said to the old man, "Hurry back now, and tell your children to get the dogs and carry this meat home, then you can have something to eat." And the old man did as he had been ordered thinking to himself, "Now, at last my son-in-law has taken pity on me. He will give me part of this meat." When he returned with the dogs, they skinned the cow, cut up the meat and packed it on the dog travois, and went home. Then the young man had his wives unload it, and told his father-in-law to go home. He did not even give him a piece of liver. Neither would the older daughter give her parents anything to eat, but the younger woman took pity on the old people and stole a piece of meat, and when she got a chance she threw it into the lodge of the old people.
The son-in-law told his wives not to give the old people anything to eat. The only way they got food was when the younger woman would throw them a piece of meat unseen by her husband and sister.
Another morning, the son-in-law got up early, and went and kicked on the old man's lodge to wake him, and called him to get up and help him, to go and pound on the log jam to drive out the buffalo, so that he could kill some. When the old man pounded on the jam, a buffalo ran out, and the son-in-law shot it, but only wounded it. It ran away but at last fell down and died. The old man followed it, and came to where this clot of blood was lying on the ground. He stumbled and fell, and spilled his arrows out of his quiver; and while he was picking them up, he picked up also the clot of blood, and hid it in his quiver.
"Now what are you picking up?" called out the son-in-law.
"Nothing," said the old man. "I just fell down and spilled my arrows, and am putting them back.
"Curse you, you old man" said the son-in-law. "You are lazy and useless. Go back and tell your children to come with the dogs and get this dead buffalo." He also took away the bow and arrows from the old man.
The old man went home and told his daughters, and then went to his own lodge and said to his wife, "Hurry now, and put the kettle on the fire. I have brought home something from the butchering."
"Ah!" said the old woman. "Has our son-in-law been generous, and given us something nice?"
"No," answered the old man. "Hurry up and put the kettle on." When the water began to boil, the old man tipped his quiver up over the kettle, and immediately there came from the pot a noise as of a child crying, as if it were being hurt or scalded. They looked in the kettle and there was a boy and they quickly took it out of the water. They were very surprised. The old woman made a lashing to put the child in, and then they talked about it. They decided that if the son thought it was a girl he would not kill it as he would think he was getting another wife. They named the child Kut o yis (Clot of Blood).
The son-in-law and his wives came home, and after a while he heard the child crying. He told his youngest wife to go and find out whether it was a boy or a girl. If it was a boy, to tell them to kill it. She came back and told him it was a girl. He did not believe this, and sent his older wife to find out the truth of the matter. When she came back she told him the same thing. Then he was glad, for he thought that when the child was grown up, he would have another wife. He said to his youngest wife, "Take some pemmican over to your mother; not much, just enough so there will be plenty of milk for the child."
Now on the forth day the child spoke, and said, "Lash me in turn to each of the lodge poles, and when I get to the last one, I will fall out of my lashing and be grown up." The old woman did so, and as she lashed him to each lodge pole, he could be seen to grow, and finally when they lashed him to the last pole, he was a man. After Kut o yis had looked about the inside of the lodge, he looked out through a hole of the lodge covering, and then turning round, he said to the old people, "How is it there is nothing to eat in this lodge? I see plenty of food over by the other lodge?"
"Hush up," said the old woman, "you will be heard. That is our son-in-law. He does not give us anything at all to eat."
"Well," said Kut o yis, "where is your piskan?
The old woman said, "It is down by the river. We pound on it and the buffalo come out."
Then the old man told him his son-in-law abused him. "He has taken my weapons from me, and even my dogs; and for many days we have had nothing to eat except now and then a small piece of meat our daughter steals for us."
"Father," said Kut o yis, "have you no arrows?"
"No, my son," he replied, "but I have yet four stone points."
"Go out then and get some wood," said Kut o yis. "We will make a bow and arrows. In the morning we will go down and kill something to eat."
Early in the morning Kut o yis woke the old man and said, "Come, we will go down and kill when the buffalo come out." When they reached the river, the old man said: "Here is the place to stand and shoot. I will go down and drive them out." As he pounded on the jam, a fat cow ran out and Kut o yis killed it.
Meantime the son-in-law had gone out, and as usual knocked at old man's lodge, and called out to get up and go down to the help him kill. The old woman called to him that her husband had already gone down. This made the son-in-law angry. He said, "I have a good mind to kill you right now old woman. I guess I will by and by."
The son-in-law went down to the jam, and as he drew near, he saw the old man bending over, skinning a buffalo. "Old man," said he, "stand up and look all around you. Look well, for it will be your last look." Now when he had seen the son-in-law coming, Kut o yis, had lain down and hidden himself behind the buffalo carcass. He told the old man to say to his son-in-law, "You had better take your last look for I am going to kill you right now." The old man said this.
"Ah!" said the son-in-law, "You make me angrier still, by talking back to me." He put an arrow to his bow and shot it at the old man, but it did not hit him. Kut o yis, told the old man to go and pick up the arrows and shoot it back at him, and he did so. Now they shot at each other four times, and the old man said, "I am afraid now. Get up and help me." So Kut o yis, got up on his feet and said: "Here, what are you doing? I think you have been badly treating this old man for a long time"
Then the son-in-law smiled pleasantly, for he was afraid of Kut o yis. "Oh no," he said, "no one thinks more of this old man than I do. I have always taken great pity on him."
Then Kut o yis said, "You lie. I am going to kill you now." He shot him four times, and the man died. Then Kut o yis told the old man to go and bring down the daughter who had acted badly towards him. He did so, and Kut o yis killed her. Then he went up to the lodges and said to the younger woman, "Perhaps you loved your husband."
"Yes," she said, "I did love him." So he killed her too. The he said to the old people, "Go there now, and live in that lodge. There is plenty to eat and when there is no more I will kill more. As for myself I will make a journey around about. Where are there people? In what direction?"
"Well," said the old man, "up above here in Badger Creek and Two Medicine, where the piskan is there are people."
Kut o yis, went up to where the piskan was, and saw there many lodges of people. In the centre of the camp was a large lodge with a figure of a bear painted on it. He did not go into this lodge, but went to a very small one near by, and asked them for something to eat. They sat before him some lean dried meat and some belly fat. "How is this?" he asked. "Here is a piskan with plenty of fat meat and back fat. Why do you not give me some of that?"
"Hush," said the old woman. "In that big lodge near by, lives a big bear and his wives and children. He takes all those nice things and leaves us nothing. He is the chief of this place."
Early in the morning, Kut o yis told the old women to get their dog travois and harness it and go over to the piskan, and that he was going to kill for them some fat meat. He reached there just about the time the buffalo were being driven in, and shot a cow, which looked very scabby, but was really very fat. Then he helped the old women to butcher, and when they had taken the meat to camp, he said to them, "Now take all the choice fat pieces and hang them up so that those who live in the bear lodge will notice them."
They did this, and pretty soon the old chief bear said to his children: "Go out now, and look around. The people have finished killing by this time. See where the nicest pieces are, and bring back the nice back fat." A young bear went out of the lodge, stood up and looked around and when he saw the meat close by, at the old women's lodge, it went over to pull it down. "Hold on there," said Kut o yis. "What are you doing here, taking the old women's meat?" And he hit him over the head with the stick that he had.
The young bear ran home crying, and said to his father, "A young man hit me on the head." Then all the bears, the father, the mother, and the uncles and the aunts, and all the relations, were very angry and all rushed out toward the old women's lodge.
Kut to yis killed them all, except one little child bear, a female which escaped. "Well," said Kut o yis, "you can go and breed bears, so there will be more."
Then said Kut o yis to the old women, "Now grandmothers where are there more people? I want to travel around to see them."
The old women said: "The nearest ones are at the point rocks (On Sun River). There is a piskan there. " So Kut o yis traveled toward this place, and when he reached the camp, he entered an old women's lodge.
The old women sat before him a plate of bad food.
"How is this?" he asked, "Have you nothing better than this to set before a stranger? You have a piskan down there, and must get fat meat. Give me some pemmican."
"We cannot do that," the old women replied, "because there a big snake here who is chief of the camp. He not only takes the best pieces, but often he eats a handsome young woman when he sees one." When Kut to yis heard this he was angry and went and entered the snake's lodge. The women were cooking up some service berries. He picked up the dish and ate the berries and threw the dish on the floor. Then he went over to where the snake lay sleeping, pricked him with his knife, and said: "Here, get up. I have come to see you." This made the snake angry. He partly raised himself up and began to rattle when Kut o yis cut him into pieces with his knife. Then he turned around and killed all his wives and children, except one little female snake, which escaped by crawling into a crack in the rocks. "Oh well," said Kut o yis, "you can go and breed young snakes, so there will be more. The people will not be afraid of little snakes." Kut o yis said to the women, "Now you go into this snake's lodge and take it for yourselves, and everything that is in it."
Then he asked them where there were some more people. They told him that there were some people down by the river, and some in the mountains. But they said, "Do not go there, for it is bad because Wind Sucker lives there. He will kill you."
It pleased Kut o yis, to know that there was such a person, and he went to the mountains. When he got to the place where Wind Sucker lived, he looked into his mouth, and could see many dead people there – some skeletons and some just dead. He went in; there he saw a fearful sight. The ground was white as snow with the bones of those who had died. There were bodies with flesh on them; some where just dead and some still living. He spoke to a living person and asked, "What is hanging down above us?" The person answered that it was Wind Suckers heart. Then said Kut o yis: "You who still draw a little breath, try to shake your heads, and those who are still able to move, get up and dance. Take courage now, we are going to have the ghost dance."
So Kut o yis bound his knife, point upward, to the top of his head and began to dance, singing the ghost song, and all the others danced with him; and as he danced up and down, the point of the knife cut Wind Sucker's heart and killed him. Kut o yis, took his knife and cut through Wind Sucker's ribs and freed those who were able to crawl out, and said to those who could still travel to go tell the people that they should come here for the ones who were still alive but unable to walk.
Then he asked some of the people: "Where are there any other people? I want to visit all the people."
They said to him: "There is a camp to the west, up the river, but you must not take the left-hand trail going up, because on the trail lives a woman, a handsome woman, who invites men to wrestle with her and then kills them. You must avoid her." This was what Kut o yis was looking for. This was his business in the world, to kill off bad things. So he asked the people just where this woman lived, and asked where it was best to go to avoid her. He did this because he did not wish the people to know that he wanted to meet her.
He started on his way, and at length saw this woman standing on the trail. She called to him, "Come here, young man, come here; I want to wrestle with you."
"No," replied the young man. "I am in a hurry. I cannot stop."
But the woman called again, "No, no, come now and wrestle at once with me." When she had called him four times Kut o yis went up to her. Now on the ground, where this woman wrestled people, she had placed many broken and sharp flints, partly hiding them by the grass. They seized each other and began to wrestle over these broken flints, but Kut o yis looked at the ground and did not step on them. He watched his chance and suddenly gave the woman a wrench and threw her down on a large sharp flint, which cut her in two, and the parts of her body fell asunder.
Then Kut o yis went on, and after a while came to where a woman kept a sliding place; and at the far end of it there was a rope, which would trip people up, and when they were tripped, they would fall over a high cliff into deep water, where great fish would eat them. When this woman saw him coming, she cried out, "Come over here young man, and slide with me."
"No," he replied, "I am in a hurry." She kept calling him, and when she called the fourth time, he went over to slide with her.
"This sliding," said the woman, "is a very pleasant pastime."
"Ah!" said Kut o yis, "I will look at it." He looked at the place, and, looking carefully, he saw the hidden rope. So he started to slide, and took out his knife, and when he reached the rope which the woman raised, he cut it, and when it parted, the woman fell over backwards into the water and was eaten by the big fish.
Again, he went on, and after a while he came to a big camp. This was the place of Man-eater. Kut o yis called a little girl he saw near by and said to her: "Child, I am going into that lodge to let Man-eater kill and eat me. Watch close, therefore, and when you can get hold of one of my bones, take it out and call the dogs, and when they have all come up to you, throw it down and cry out, "Kut o yis, the dogs are eating your bones!"
Then Kut o yis entered the lodge and when the Man-eater saw him, he creid out "O Ki, O Ki," and seemed glad to see him, for he was a fat young man. The Man-eater took a large knife, and went up to Kut o yis and cut his throat, and cut him into a great stone kettle to cook. When the meat was cooked, he drew the kettle from the fire, and ate the body, limb by limb, until it was all eaten up.
Then the little girl, who was watching, came up to him and said, "Pity me, Man-eater, my mother is hungry and asks for those bones." So the old man bunched them up together and handed them to her. She took them out and called all the dogs to her, and threw the bones down to the dogs crying out, "Kut o yis, the dogs are eating you!" and when she said that, Kut o yis arose from the pile of bones.
Again he went into the lodge, and when the Man-eater saw him, he cried out, "How, how, how, the fat young man survived," and seemed surprised. Again he took his knife and cut Kut o yis' throat and threw him in the kettle. Again, when the meat was cooked he ate it up, and again the little girl asked for the bones, which he gave her; and taking them out, she threw them to the dogs crying, "Kut o yis the dogs are eating you!" and Kut o yis again arose from the bones.
When Man-eater cooked and ate him four times, he again went into the lodge and seizing Man-eater, he threw him into the boiling kettle, and his wives and children too, and boiled them to death.
The Man-eater was the seventh and the last of the bad animals and people who were destroyed by Kut o yis.
George Bird Grinnell (1880) as told to him by Double Runner, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, A Story of a Prairie People, (1993) University of Nebraska Press