the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.




TAMAHAY


There was once a Sioux brave who declared that he would die young,
yet not by his own hand. Tamahay was of heroic proportions,
herculean in strength, a superb runner; in fact, he had all the
physical qualities of an athlete or a typical Indian. In his
scanty dress, he was beautiful as an antique statue in living
bronze. When a mere youth, seventeen years of age, he met with an
accident which determined his career. It was the loss of an eye,
a fatal injury to the sensitive and high-spirited Indian. He
announced his purpose in these words:

"The 'Great Mystery' has decreed that I must be disgraced.
There will be no pleasure for me now, and I shall be ridiculed
even by my enemies. It will be well for me to enter soon into
Paradise, for I shall be happy in spending my youth there. But
I will sell my life dearly. Hereafter my name shall be spoken in
the traditions of our race." With this speech Tamahay began his
career.

He now sought glory and defied danger with even more than the
ordinary Indian recklessness. He accepted a personal friend, which
was a custom among the Sioux, where each man chose a companion for
life and death. The tie was stronger than one of blood