Clayton Arrowtop Knot, keeper of the natoas or Sun
Dance Bundle. The natoas is the Chief Bundle of all the medicines
and any sacred objects among the Blackfeet. All societies are built around
it. The Chief Bundle is far more sacred then even the medicine pipes and
all the ceremonies on Blackfeet land. The first order from God since the
Bundle came from the Sun; the medicine bundle finds its chief function in
the fulfillment of a vow.
My grandparents Phillip and Mollie Arrowtop raised me.
Phillip was the medicine man of the Blackfeet tribe. My grandfather,
Phillip knew all the roots and knew all the songs to every ceremony of the
Blackfeet culture. He was owner of the last Blackfeet Medicine Horse
Bundle. He also had the Crow Bundle, Thunder Pipe, Ghost Bundle, and the
Tobacco Bundle. I grew up with the last of the Buffalo people. As a child
I was always herded to the ceremonies. This didn’t give me much time to
play with other kids. They call us gima’da’pooka, pitiful babies or grandma
babies. Growing up was just like that. It seemed like the school teachers
knew. Somebody was telling them something.
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My grandmother would send me behind Buttery’s Foods to dig out of the
dumpster so we could have food to make soup. I remember eating horse meat.
The old people would bring us horsemeat so we could have something to eat.
We were always going to do ceremonies and the people didn’t or couldn’t pay
us. Most of the time they just gave us clothing or food. Often they just
fed us. In the 1960’s when other kids found out we were going to ceremonies
they made fun of us and called my grandmother a witch. So we went to church
and kept on going to ceremonies. I was told at church and ceremonies we
prayed to the same God.
While
growing up we were still in hiding, because medicine people were not
accepted back then. I heard adults tell their kids to keep away from him
and his family. Being a kid and not knowing, being kicked away was hard.
I was instructed as a child to not take a pipe until I was 40. I forgot
those instructions until the Tribal Council called me on my 40th
birthday. They turned over the biggest, holiest bundle to me. They call it
the Chief Bundle, the natoas, the Sundance bundle, the Chief of all
medicines. It was the only bundle done properly in the last 30 years.
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