Blackfeet Tales from Apikuni’s World

At the turn of the twentieth century, James Willard Schultz wrote a series of tales centering on the adventures of a Blackfoot Indian boy and his Anglo friend in the days just prior to the end of the buffalo era on the western plains. All the tales appeared between 1910 and 1927 in the pages of the popular family weekly The Youth’s Companion. The stories featured the sort of spirited adventure popular at the time, but Schultz was more conscientious than other writers of the day in his depiction of American Indian life.

Schultz first encountered the Blackfeet in Montana Territory in 1877, when he was seventeen, and he lived among them for the next seventy years until his death. These tales are based on his experiences with the Blackfeet, who gave him the name Apikuni. Apikuni plays a role in many of the stories, usually under the name Spotted Robe. Although he was neither a historian nor an ethnologist, Schultz filled his stories with history, and with detailed descriptions of the Blackfoot daily life and culture.

David C. Andrews has gathered these tales, the last of Schultz’s to be published in book form, and arranged in the order in which they were written.