Sitting Bull
Photo Source: National Park Service

The American Indian has a very special relationship with nature. It is so special that I believe that non indians could never understand it. This relationship doesn't end with the end of an individual. Chief Seattle made a speech in 1854 and here is a small part of what he said, that illustrates that point. " To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground . . . Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains, sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays . . . " He went on to say that every part of the soil, hillsides, plains and valleys has been made sacred by the events that it has witnessed both sad and happy.

When a people feel this way about the earth and their land, can you imagine how they must have felt when that land was taken away from them? It must have been like taking their ancestors away.

Where did the American Indian come from? Some say that originally they were from Asia, but others aren't so sure. It seems that they have been here for thousands of years and could have even emigrated from Mexico and South America. The indian was quite resourceful and he didn't waste any part of an animal that he had hunted. Sometimes he would dance to celebrate a successful hunt. One of those dances was the Buffalo Dance. But where did this Buffalo Dance start, how did it come about?

Cheyenne Woman Almost 100 Years Old
Photo Source: NARA

I will now tell the story of the Buffalo Dance which is a traditional Blackfoot story but I will abbreviate it.

A great hunter used to bring back the best deer to his beautiful daughter. She would clean the hides and make the softest skins for him to wear. The cold weather was coming and he knew the deer would be scarce and the tribe wanted to hunt buffalo. They went to the buffalo and tried to convince them to walk off a cliff but they were reluctant. After trying to convince them time and time again, the buffalo would go right to the edge but then turn around at the last minute. The hunter's daughter decided to try and do something about this. She went to the base of the cliff and started to sing softly to the Buffalo to come to her. When nothing happened she started to sing that she would would marry the strongest of the buffalo warriors if the buffalo would only come to her. She began to hear rumbling and finally buffalo began to fall over the cliff until a pile of buffalo were at her feet. Then a huge buffalo fell and on the pile and got up, and came to her. He said that he was here to take her back to his tribe and marry her. She panicked saying she had to tell her people about the pile of buffalo first. He wouldn't hear of this and swept her up on his horns taking her to his village. The next day the indians noticed the pile of buffalo. The hunter couldn't find his daughter but saw her foot prints leading away and the prints of a large buffalo. He began to track her until he couldn't walk any longer. He finally rested and a Magpie came down beside him. He asked the Magpie if he saw his daughter and the bird said yes she was on the other side of the hill. He was resting by a pond. He then asked the bird to take her a message telling her he was on the other side of the hill. The bird did and the girl was happy, but told the bird that the situation was very dangerous. She said the buffalo were unfriendly and would hurt her father, but she said she would try and slip away. Her husband the large buffalo awoke and took one of his horns off and told her to get him a drink from the other side of the hill. She met her father but told him that they couldn't leave now because if the Buffalo caught him they would kill him because they were angry over losing all their people. She went back to her husband, the large buffalo, with the water. He made a loud snort and then bellowed and all the buffalo jumped up and ran over the hill and danced a buffalo dance that trampled her father to pieces. The girl began to cry and her husband asked why? He said that he had lost many people, including children, parents and wives just so he could marry the girl and a deal was a deal. But he weakened. He told her that if she could bring her father back to life, he would let her return to her people with him. She went with the Magpie over the hill and they searched for a piece of her father. Finally the Magpie found a little piece of bone and she put a blanket over it and began to softly sing the song of revival. A body appeared under the blanket. Her father stood up. The buffalo people were amazed. They asked her if she would sing this song after every hunt. In exchange for this the buffalo people taught the indians the Buffalo Dance to assure good results for their hunt.

Now that we have found out where the Buffalo Dance comes from lets look at where people came from. This is a story told by native Americans. When the world was formed it had no people except for one old man. The man had a Coyote who sometime got along with him and sometimes didn't and a few buffalo. He decided out of loneliness and laziness to create another like himself. He created bones out of clay and only kept the best ones. He used these bones and buffalo sinew and fat to make the figure of a man. He then stood it up and blew smoke into it and it came alive. The old man decided to make more men and worked at it all day. Now the old man's sometimes friend, the coyote, came back to the camp and looked over the men he had created, which he said he didn't think much of, and the pile of discarded bones. He said to the old man that he should do something with the pile of bones. The old man replied that they weren't very good but he would try and the Coyote said he would help using his cunning. The bones were used to create women. When the women came to life they began to talk to each other. Even to this day if you have one group of men and one of women the men will sit by the fire and smoke while the women will prefer to talk. Was this because the Coyote is a noisy creature, no one can say.

There is a Cherokee legend about the first fire. When the world was created there was no fire and men and animals were cold much of the time. But the Thunders had fire but they lived beyond the arch of the sky. They would send down lightning and that would caused fire in a hollow sycamore tree. The animal people could see the smoke but couldn't reach the tree because of water. They held a meeting. All the flying and swimming animals wanted to go get the fire. In those days Ravens were white. Raven flew to the tree but the fire scorched his feathers turning him black. He left without the fire. Next Screech Owl flew to the tree and looked in it but a blast of fire came up burning his eyes and they turned red. He flew away without the fire. Two more owls were sent, Hooting Owl and Horned Owl but smoke almost blinded them and ashes made white rings around their eyes. Again no fire. Little snake swam to the island and went into the tree through a small hole. He had to slither for his life but got so scorched that he was turned black. Big snake went to the tree but fell into the burning tree and was also turned black and became the great black snake. Water spider decided to go next. She could run on water and even dive. But the animals asked her how, being so little, she could carry back fire? She said she could spin a web and make a little bowl and attach it to her back. She went to the island and got one tiny piece of burning coal and brought it back and that is how we got fire.

A Sioux tale tell of a Arikara woman who was gathering corn in the field. When she was about to leave she heard the voice of a child saying not to leave her. She was astonished but saw nothing. She decided to tie up her corn and go but she heard the voice again. It said do not leave me. Now she decided to search the field and she searched very carefully. Finally she found one lone ear of corn under some leaves. The corn had been crying. That is why all indian women are very careful when gathering corn so that they don't even miss one ear and offend the Great Mystery.