One summer a long time ago, the seven sacred council fires of the Lakota Sioux came together and camped. The sun was strong and the people were starving for there was no game.
Two young men went out to hunt. Along the way, the two men met a beautiful young woman dressed in white who floated as she walked. One man had bad desires for the woman and tried to touch her, but was consumed by a cloud and turned into a pile of bones.
The woman spoke to the second young man and said, "Return to your people and tell them I am coming." This holy woman brought a wrapped bundle to the people. She unwrapped the bundle giving to the people a sacred pipe and teaching them how to use it to pray. "With this holy pipe, you will walk like a living prayer," she said.
The holy woman told the Sioux about the value of the buffalo, the women and the children. "You are from Mother Earth," she told the women, "What you are doing is as great as the warriors do." Before she left, she told the people she would return. As she walked away, she rolled over four times, turning into a white female buffalo calf. It is said after that day the Lakota honored their pipe, and buffalo were plentiful. (from John Lame Deer's telling in 1967).
Many believe that the buffalo calf, Miracle, born August 20, 1994 symbolizes the coming together of humanity into a oneness of heart, mind, and spirit.
At one time, animals and people lived together peaceably and talked with each other. But when mankind began to multiply rapidly, the animals were crowded into forests and deserts.
Man began to destroy animals wholesale for their skins and furs, not just for needed food. Animals became angry at such treatment by their former friends, resolving they must punish mankind.
The bear tribe met in council, presided over by Old White Bear, their Chief. After several bears had spoken against mankind for their bloodthirsty ways, war was unanimously agreed upon. But what kinds of weapons should the bears use?
Chief Old White Bear suggested that man's weapon, the bow and arrow, should be turned against him. All of the council agreed. While the bears worked and made bows and arrows, they wondered what to do about bowstrings. One of the bears sacrificed himself to provide the strings, while the others searched for good arrow- wood.
When the first bow was completed and tried, the bear's claws could not release the strings to shoot the arrow. One bear offered to cut his claws, but Chief Old White Bear would not allow him to do that, because without claws he could not climb trees for food and safety. He might starve.
The deer tribe called together its council led by Chief Little Deer. They decided that any Indian hunters, who killed deer without asking pardon in a suitable manner, should be afflicted with painful rheumatism in their joints.
After this decision, Chief Little Deer sent a messenger to their nearest neighbours, the Cherokee Indians.
"From now on, your hunters must first offer a prayer to the deer before killing him," said the messenger. "You must ask his pardon, stating you are forced only by the hunger needs of your tribe to kill the deer. Otherwise, a terrible disease will come to the hunter."
When a deer is slain by an Indian hunter, Chief Little Deer will run to the spot and ask the slain deer's spirit, "Did you hear the hunter's prayer for pardon?"
If the reply is yes, then all is well and Chief Little Deer returns to his cave. But if the answer is no, then the Chief tracks the hunter to his lodge and strikes him with the terrible disease of rheumatism, making him a helpless cripple unable to hunt again.
All the fishes and reptiles then held a council and decided they would haunt those Cherokee Indians, who tormented them, by telling them hideous dreams of serpents twining around them and eating them alive. These snake and fish dreams occurred often among the Cherokees. To get relief, the Cherokees pleaded with their Shaman to banish their frightening dreams if they no longer tormented the snakes and fish.
Now when the friendly plants heard what the animals had decided against mankind, they planned a countermove of their own. Each tree, shrub, herb, grass, and moss agreed to furnish a cure for one of the diseases named by the animals and insects.
Thereafter, when the Cherokee Indians visited their Shaman about their ailments and if the medicine man was in doubt, he communed with the spirits of the plants. They always suggested a proper remedy for mankind's diseases.
This was the beginning of plant medicine from nature among the Cherokee Indian nation a long, long time ago.
Long, long ago when First Woman the Goddess was created, she became fully grown in four days. It seemed that every Dine (Navajo) Indian tribesman wanted her for his wife.
She did not love any of them, but she did like the handsome ones. Of all the men, however, she thought the most attractive was the Sun-God. Of course, she thought he could never be her husband.
To her surprise, one day Sun-God came up behind her and gently tickled her neck with a feathery plume. She was engulfed with warm sunshine, and in a magical way the Goddess became the wife of Sun-God. He fathered her firstborn, a son.
Not long thereafter, the Goddess was resting beneath an overhanging cliff when some drops of water fell upon her. Soon the Goddess gave birth to a second son, fathered by Water-God. Because the two boys were so close in age, they became known as the Twins of the Goddess.
They lived in a beautiful canyon that later became a part of Dine (Navajo) land. About that time, a Great Giant roamed over the country and ate every human he could catch. He discovered the Goddess but did not want to kill her, because at first sight he fell in love with her beauty.
The Goddess knew of the Great Giant's evil ways and would have nothing to do with him. He became very jealous of her when he saw footprints of the Twins outside her Hogan.
She saw Great Giant approaching, so she quickly dug a hole in the centre of her floor and there hid her two children, whom she dearly loved. She covered the opening with a flat sandstone rock, spreading dirt over it to prevent the Great Giant from finding her Twins.
Another day, Great Giant saw the children's tracks.
"Where did these children come from?" he asked the Goddess.
"I have no children." she replied, because she knew that he would try to kill them if he found the Twins.
"You are not telling me the truth," he said. "I see children's footprints in the dirt, right here."
The Goddess laughed heartily and said "Those are only my hand prints. I am very lonesome for children, so I only pretend by making tracks with the heels of my hand and the tips of my fingers, like this. These are the tracks of my children."
"Now I believe you," he replied.
As the Twins grew larger, their mother could not hide them any longer. She was alarmed for their safety because of the Great Giant, who saw them one day and tried to catch them. But the Twins were too quick and got away.
The Spirit who made the Goddess appeared with a bow made of cedar wood for Sun-Child.
"It is time for you to learn to hunt," she said to him.
"We must now make some arrows and another bow for your brother," said the Goddess to Sun-Child.
"Mostly, we want to hunt for our father," said Sun-Child. "Mother, who is our father and where does he live?"
"Your father is the Sun-God, but he lives far away in the East," replied the Goddess.
Another bow was made for Water-Child and many arrows for both Twins. They began their journey to the East and travelled as far as they could, but without success in finding Sun-God. When they returned they asked, "Mother, have you lied to us? In the East, we looked everywhere and we could not find our father, the Sun- God."
"He must have gone to the South," she said. Again the Twins set out on another journey, this time to the South, returning without success.
"Please try the West and then the North, if at first you do not find your father in the West," said the Goddess.
She sent the Twins again on their hunting journey, anxious to keep them away and out of sight of the Great Giant. Many moons later, the Twins came back and said, "Mother, have you lied to us four times? Our father was neither in the North nor the West."
"Now I will tell you the truth, my sons," said the Goddess. "Your fathers, the Sun-God and Water-God, live far away in the middle of the great Western Water. Between here and there are great canyons where the walls of the cliffs clap together and would crush you.
"Even if you should succeed in getting through the canyons, there are the terrible reeds that you must cross. Their long knife-like sharp leaves will cut you into pieces.
"If you should escape the reeds, you can never cross the Grand Canyon, which comes first before you can reach the Great Water. You can never, never cross the water where your father's house is in the middle of the Great Water, the Western Ocean."
"But, Mother, we want to go and try to find our fathers," said the Twins.
The Goddess taught the Twins a song of protection for their next journey:
"We are travelling in an Invisible Way to seek our fathers, the Sun-God and the Water-God."
This song she taught them to sing four times, the magic number. Day after day as they travelled along, they sang their song for protection.
One day, as they passed a little spider hole in the ground, they heard a voice say, "Ssh!" four times. The Twins looked into the hole and saw Spider Woman.
"Do not be afraid of me, I am your Grandmother. Come down into my lodge," she said four times.
"We cannot enter your lodge, because your doorway is too small," said the Twins.
"Please blow toward the Eastwind, Southwind, Westwind, and Northwind," Spider Woman called out.
The Twins blew in the four directions and the entrance enlarged enough for them to go through. Inside and to their amazement, they saw the lodge walls covered with bundles of bones wrapped in spider webs, exactly the way spiders wrap flies in a web.
"Do not be afraid, my grandsons," said Spider Woman. "These are the bones of bad men whom I killed."
Spider Woman talked with the Twins about encounters they might have on their trip. She taught them songs for their protection and explained what they could do to overcome obstacles they might meet on their way. "I will give each of you a magic Feather- Plume. Hold it before you as you travel, straight up or sideways to carry you safely forward," she said to the Twins.
"Be on the look out for a little man with a red head and a striped back. He will resemble a sand-scorpion, only a little larger--about the size of a Jerusalem cricket," she explained.
"Thank you, Grandmother, we'll be on our way," said the Twins.
Many days later, the Twins heard a voice from the ground. It was from the little man with the red head.
"Do not scorn me because I am so small," he said. "I can and want to help you. Put your hands down on the ground and spit into them four times. Now close your fists, saving the spit until you come to the Big Water. There you can wash off the spit."
The Twins did exactly as they were told, and after thanking the little man with the red head, they again began their travel. Soon the canyon walls that smashed together loomed ahead of them.
They repeated Spider Woman's prayers, holding the Feather-Plumes sideways. As they moved forward the clapping walls stopped long enough to allow the Twins to walk through safely.
When they came to the jungle of sharp reeds, again they sang the song Spider Woman taught them, touching the tops of the reeds with their magical Feather-Plumes. Behold! The reeds turned into cattails, which pleased the reeds so much that they quickly opened a wide path for the Twins to pass through. A puzzling encounter for the Twins was the giant cliff. They walked around and around its rim, making a complete circle and finally returning to their starting place.
They were making no forward progress, so they sang songs taught them by their mother and Spider Woman. They prayed over and over again. When they opened their eyes, a beautiful Rainbow appeared, creating a large bridge for them to cross over the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.
After this spectacular adventure, the Twins continued West for a long time, until they saw the Great Water before them. The Water spread so far, they wondered, "How can we ever reach the Turquoise House of Sun-God, which we know is in the middle of the Great Water?"
The Twins walked down to the beach to the edge of the water and washed the spit off their hands, singing and praying at the same time.
Behold! The Rainbow appeared again! A long Rainbow Bridge stretched before them from the beach to the Turquoise House.
Onto the Rainbow Bridge the Twins raced happily, find their two fathers, the Sun-God and the Water-God, who welcomed them in the Turquoise House at the end of the Rainbow Bridge.
A Dakota girl married a man who promised to treat her kindly, but he did not keep his word. He was unreasonable, fault-finding, and often beat her. Frantic with his cruelty, she ran away. The whole village turned out to search for her, but no trace of the missing wife was to be found.
Meanwhile, the fleeing woman had wandered about all that day and the next night. The next day she met a man, who asked her who she was. She did not know it, but he was not really a man, but the chief of the wolves.
"Come with me," he said, and he led her to a large village. She was amazed to see here many wolves -- gray and black, timber wolves and coyotes. It seemed as if all the wolves in the world were there.
The wolf chief led the young woman to a great tepee and invited her in. He asked her what she ate for food.
"Buffalo meat," she answered.
He called two coyotes and bade them bring what the young woman wanted. They bounded away and soon returned with the shoulder of a fresh-killed buffalo calf.
"How do you prepare it for eating?" asked the wolf chief.
"By boiling," answered the young woman.
Again he called the two coyotes. Away they bounded and soon brought into the tent a small bundle. In it were punk, flint and steel -- stolen, it may be, from some camp of men.
"How do you make the meat ready?" asked the wolf chief.
"I cut it into slices," answered the young woman.
The coyotes were called and in a short time fetched in a knife in its sheath. The young woman cut up the calf's shoulder into slices and ate it.
Thus she lived for a year, all the wolves being very kind to her. At the end of that time the wolf chief said to her:
"Your people are going off on a buffalo hunt. Tomorrow at noon they will be here. You must then go out and meet them or they will fall on us and kill us."
The next day at about noon the young woman went to the top of a neighboring knoll. Coming toward her were some young men riding on their ponies. She stood up and held her hands so that they could see her. They wondered who she was, and when they were close by gazed at her closely.
"A year ago we lost a young woman; if you are she, where have you been," they asked.
"I have been in the wolves' village. Do not harm them." she answered.
"We will ride back and tell the people," they said.
"Tomorrow again at noon, we shall meet you."
The young woman went back to the wolf village, and the next day went again to a neighboring knoll, though to a different one. Soon she saw the camp coming in a long line over the prairie. First were the warriors, then the women and tents.
The young woman's father and mother were overjoyed to see her. But when they came near her the young woman fainted, for she could not now bear the smell of human kind. When she came to herself she said:
"You must go on a buffalo hunt, my father and all the hunters. Tomorrow you must come again, bringing with you the tongues and choice pieces of the kill."
This he promised to do; and all the men of the camp mounted their ponies and they had a great hunt. The next day they returned with their ponies laden with the buffalo meat.
The young woman bade them pile the meat in a great heap between two hills which she pointed out to them. There was so much meat that the tops of the two hills were bridged level between by the meat pile. In the center of the pile the young woman planted a pole with a red flag. She then began to howl like a wolf, loudly.
In a moment the earth seemed covered with wolves. They fell greedily on the meat pile and in a short time had eaten the last scrap.
The young woman then joined her own people.
Her husband wanted her to come and live with him again. For a long time she refused. However, at last they became reconciled.
Animals, elements, the solar system, and natural phenomena are revered by the Apaches. That which is beyond their understanding is always ascribed to the supernatural.
In the beginning nothing existed--no earth, no sky, no sun, no moon, only darkness was everywhere.
Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. As if waking from a long nap, he rubbed his eyes and face with both hands.
When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks of dawn. To the west, tints of many colours appeared everywhere. There were also clouds of different colours.
Creator wiped his sweating face and rubbed his hands together, thrusting them downward. Behold! A shining cloud upon which sat a little girl.
"Stand up and tell me where are you going," said Creator. But she did not reply. He rubbed his eyes again and offered his right hand to the Girl-Without-Parents.
"Where did you come from?" she asked, grasping his hand.
"From the east where it is now light," he replied, stepping upon her cloud.
"Where is the earth?" she asked.
"Where is the sky?" he asked, and sang, "I am thinking, thinking, thinking what I shall create next." He sang four times, which was the magic number.
Creator brushed his face with his hands, rubbed them together, then flung them wide open! Before them stood Sun-God. Again Creator rubbed his sweaty brow and from his hands dropped Small- Boy.
All four gods sat in deep thought upon the small cloud.
"What shall we make next?" asked Creator. "This cloud is much too small for us to live upon."
Then he created Tarantula, Big Dipper, Wind, Lightning-Maker, and some western clouds in which to house Lightning-Rumbler, which he just finished.
Creator sang, "Let us make earth. I am thinking of the earth, earth, earth; I am thinking of the earth," he sang four times.
All four gods shook hands. In doing so, their sweat mixed together and Creator rubbed his palms, from which fell a small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean.
Creator kicked it, and it expanded. Girl-Without-Parents kicked the ball, and it enlarged more. Sun-God and Small-Boy took turns giving it hard kicks, and each time the ball expanded. Creator told Wind to go inside the ball and to blow it up.
Tarantula spun a black cord and, attaching it to the ball, crawled away fast to the east, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Tarantula repeated with a blue cord to the south, a yellow cord to the west, and a white cord to the north. With mighty pulls in each direction, the brown ball stretched to immeasurable size--it became the earth! No hills, mountains, or rivers were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains appeared.
Creator scratched his chest and rubbed his fingers together and there appeared Hummingbird.
"Fly north, south, east, and west and tell us what you see," said Creator.
"All is well," reported Hummingbird upon his return. "The earth is most beautiful, with water on the west side."
But the earth kept rolling and dancing up and down. So Creator made four giant posts--black, blue, yellow, and white to support the earth. Wind carried the four posts, placing them beneath the four cardinal points of the earth. The earth sat still.
Creator sang, "World is now made and now sits still," which he repeated four times.
Then he began a song about the sky. None existed, but he thought there should be one. After singing about it four times, twenty- eight people appeared to help make a sky above the earth. Creator chanted about making chiefs for the earth and sky.
He sent Lightning-Maker to encircle the world, and he returned with three uncouth creatures, two girls and a boy found in a turquoise shell. They had no eyes, ears, hair, mouths, noses, or teeth. They had arms and legs, but no fingers or toes.
Sun-God sent for Fly to come and build a sweathouse. Girl- Without-Parents covered it with four heavy clouds. In front of the east doorway she placed a soft, red cloud for a foot-blanket to be used after the sweat.
Four stones were heated by the fire inside the sweathouse. The three uncouth creatures were placed inside. The others sang songs of healing on the outside, until it was time for the sweat to be finished. Out came the three strangers who stood upon the magic red cloud-blanket. Creator then shook his hands toward them, giving each one fingers, toes, mouths, eyes, ears, noses and hair.
Creator named the boy, Sky-Boy, to be chief of the Sky-People. One girl he named Earth-Daughter, to take charge of the earth and its crops. The other girl he named Pollen-Girl, and gave her charge of health care for all Earth-People.
Since the earth was flat and barren, Creator thought it fun to create animals, birds, trees, and a hill. He sent Pigeon to see how the world looked. Four days later, he returned and reported, "All is beautiful around the world. But four days from now, the water on the other side of the earth will rise and cause a mighty flood."
Creator made a very tall pinon tree. Girl-Without-Parents covered the tree framework with pinon gum, creating a large, tight ball.
In four days, the flood occurred. Creator went up on a cloud, taking his twenty-eight helpers with him. Girl-Without-Parents put the others into the large, hollow ball, closing it tight at the top.
In twelve days, the water receded, leaving the float-ball high on a hilltop. The rushing floodwater changed the plains into mountains, hills, valleys, and rivers. Girl-Without-Parents led the gods out from the float-ball onto the new earth. She took them upon her cloud, drifting upward until they met Creator with his helpers, who had completed their work making the sky during the flood time on earth.
Together the two clouds descended to a valley below. There, Girl- Without-Parents gathered everyone together to listen to Creator.
"I am planning to leave you," he said. "I wish each of you to do your best toward making a perfect, happy world.
"You, Lightning-Rumbler, shall have charge of clouds and water.
"You, Sky-Boy, look after all Sky-People.
"You, Earth-Daughter, take charge of all crops and Earth-People.
"You, Pollen-Girl, care for their health and guide them.
"You, Girl-Without-Parents, I leave you in charge over all."
Creator then turned toward Girl-Without-Parents and together they rubbed their legs with their hands and quickly cast them forcefully downward. Immediately between them arose a great pile of wood, over which Creator waved a hand, creating fire.
Great billowy clouds of smoke at once drifted skyward. Into this cloud, Creator disappeared. The other gods followed him in other clouds of smoke, leaving the twenty-eight workers to people the earth.
Sun-God went east to live and travel with the Sun. Girl-Without- Parents departed westward to live on the far horizon. Small-Boy and Pollen-Girl made cloud homes in the south. Big Dipper can still be seen in the northern sky at night, a reliable guide to all.
For a time the man was very happy on the Earth. He roamed around and ate the fruits and berries and he visited the animals and he saw all his homeland. There was much to learn and the Earth was beautiful. But before long the man grew discontented and he became very unhappy. He didn't know what this disease was, but it was a disease we still have, he was bored.
When he got bored, he used his mind and strength differently. He shot arrows at the deer without really needing to. He picked the plants and didn't use them. He tore up the animal's dens just to see if he could do it. And soon the animals became concerned about the new creature.
The animals called a council meeting to try to determine what to do. They said they thought this creature was supposed to have respect for other creatures, that he was given a mind. A little insect said, "Wait, you haven't thought this out. The Great One made him; let's ask him what to do." This seemed to be a good idea. They called to the Great One to help them with the new "superior" creature.
The owl said, "You told us the man had a mind and he is to respect us." The deer said, " I don't want to be disrespectful, but you told us the man would need more of us deer than any other animal. If he keeps killing us like he is now, very soon there won't be any deer left."
"Oh," said the Great One, "thank you, thank you. I had not thought about something I left out in this man."
The bear said, "Look at him right now. He's lying out in the sun with his face up. No animal will sleep right out in the open. We all know to go into a private, guarded place to rest."
The Great One said, "Yes, there is something missing because I was in such an excited hurry to make him. But I know now what is missing."
"Stand back" he said. He made a green plant to grow up tall. The plant grew up right over the man's heart, up toward Galunti. It was a plant with long, graceful leaves and then an ear and a golden tassel. Above the tall plant was a woman, a beautiful, tall, brown woman growing from the stalk of corn.
The man woke up and thought he was dreaming. He rubbed his eyes and said, "This is not true. In a minute, I'll wake up and be just as bored as I was before. Oh, I am so lonely."
The Great One sort of kicked him in the behind. "Get up you lazy thing," the Great One said. "Be a man for your lady." Now no one had any reason to think this man was a mannerly individual. Recently he had certainly not been acting like a real gentleman. But we don't have to be taught manners. We need someone to expect the best from us and we use the manners the Great One has already given us. So the man got up and brushed himself off and gallantly offered his hand to the woman who came down from the stalk of corn.
The woman said, "No, wait a minute." The man didn't argue or huff. He just waited until she asked. She reached up and pulled two good ears of corn to take with her. Then she said, "I'm ready." Do you know why she wanted the corn? She couldn't have known yet that the corn would be an important food. She just knew that she had sprung from the corn and she needed to take something of her heritage with her.
The Great One remembered that although each man will sometimes need to be alone, each man will also need companionship to be his best.
Over a period of time, the man and the woman built a home where they kept the corn for planting. The next spring she planted her corn and it grew into a beautiful plant. It was probably the next year that she noticed a large bird who became sacred to the Cherokee, a large bird who stays usually on the ground. We call this bird a turkey. The turkey became sacred to the Cherokee because they could watch what he ate, and then they would know it was safe to eat.
One morning the woman noticed the turkey eating the tender corn. She knew then the corn was food and it was time to eat the corn. That evening she set a pottery pot of corn in the middle of her cook fire. She covered the pot with a curve of chestnut bark. When the man came in to eat his fish stew, she didn't tell him what she had cooked. She just pulled an ear of corn from the pot and pealed it back so he could smell it. He thought it was the best aroma he had ever smelled and he began to eat the first corn of the spring.
Long, long ago, two young and handsome Lakota were chosen by their band to find out where the buffalo were. While the men were riding in the buffalo country, they saw someone in the distance walking toward them.
As always they were on the watch for any enemy. So they hid in some bushes and waited. At last the figure came up the slope. To their surprise, the figure walking toward them was a woman.
When she came closer, she stopped and looked at them. They knew that she could see them, even in their hiding place. On her left arm she carried what looked like a stick in a bundle of sagebrush. Her face was beautiful. One of the men said, "She is more beautiful than anyone I have ever seen. I want her for my wife."
But the other man replied, "How dare you have such a thought? She is wondrously beautiful and holy--far above ordinary people." Though still at a distance, the woman heard them talking. She laid down her bundle and spoke to them. "Come. What is it you wish?"
The man who had spoken first went up to her and laid his hands on her as if to claim her. At once, from somewhere above, there came a whirlwind. Then there came a mist, which hid the man and the woman. When the mist cleared, the other man saw the woman with the bundle again on her arm. But his friend was a pile of bones at her feet.
The man stood silent in wonder and awe. Then the beautiful woman spoke to him. "I am on a journey to your people. Among them is a good man whose name is Bull Walking Upright. I am coming to see him especially.
"Go on ahead of me and tell your people that I am on my way. Ask them to move camp and to pitch their tents in a circle. Ask them to leave an opening in the circle, facing the north. In the centre of the circle, make a large tepee, also facing the north. There I will meet Bull Walking Upright and his people."
The man saw to it that all her directions were followed. When she reached the camp, she removed the sagebrush from the gift she was carrying. The gift was a small pipe made of red stone. On it was carved the tiny outline of a buffalo calf.
The pipe she gave to Bull Walking Upright, and then she taught him the prayers he should pray to the Strong One Above. "When you pray to the Strong One Above, you must use this pipe in the ceremony. When you are hungry, unwrap the pipe and lay it bare in the air. Then the buffalo will come where the men can easily hunt and kill them. So the children, the men, and the women will have food and be happy."
The beautiful woman also told him how the people should behave in order to live peacefully together. She taught them the prayers they should say when praying to their Mother Earth. She told him how they should decorate themselves for ceremonies.
"The earth," she said, "is your mother. So, for special ceremonies, you will decorate yourselves as your mother does--in black and red, in brown and white. These are the colours of the buffalo also.
"Above all else, remember that this is a peace pipe that I have given you. You will smoke it before all ceremonies. You will smoke it before making treaties. It will bring peaceful thoughts into your minds. If you will use it when you pray to the Strong One above and to Mother Earth you will be sure to receive the blessings that you ask."
When the woman had completed her message, she turned and slowly walked away.
All the people watched her in awe. Outside the opening of the circle, she stopped for an instant and then lay down on the ground. She rose again in the form of a black buffalo cow. Again she lay down and then arose in the form of a red buffalo cow. A third time she lay down, and arose as a brown buffalo cow. The fourth and last time she had the form of a spotlessly white buffalo cow. Then she walked toward the north into the distance and finally disappeared over a far-off hill.
Bull Walking Upright kept the peace pipe carefully wrapped most of the time. Every little while he called all his people together, untied the bundle, and repeated the lessons he had been taught by the beautiful woman. And he used it in prayers and other ceremonies until he was more than one hundred years old.
When he became feeble, he held a great feast. There he gave the pipe and the lessons to Sunrise, a worthy man. In a similar way the pipe was passed down from generation to generation.
"As long as the pipe is used," the beautiful woman had said, "Your people will live and will be happy. As soon as it is forgotten, the people will perish."
The Legend of the Dream Catcher
Long ago when the world was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision.In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider.
Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language that only the spiritual leaders of the Lakota could understand.
As he spoke Iktomi, the spider, took the elder's willow hoop which had feathers, horse hair, beads and offerings on it and began to spin a web.
He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life...and how we begin our lives as infants and we move on to childhood, and then to adulthood. Finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle.
"But," Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, "in each time of life there are many forces -- some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But if you listen to the bad forces, they will hurt you and steer you in the wrong direction."
He continued, "There are many forces and different directions that can help or interfere with the harmony of nature, and also with the great spirit and all of his wonderful teachings."
All the while the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web starting from the outside and working towards the center.
When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the Lakota elder the web and said...."See, the web is a perfect circle but there is a hole in the center of the circle."
He said, "Use the web to help yourself and you people to reach your goals and make use of your people's ideas, dreams and visions.
"If you believe in the great spirit, the web will catch your good ideas -- and the bad ones will go through the hole."
The Lakota elder passed on his vision to his people and now the Sioux Indians use the dream catcher as the web of their life.
It is hung above their beds or in their home to sift their dreams and visions.
The good in their dreams are captured in the web of life and carried with them...but the evil in their dreams escapes through the hole in the center of the web and are no longer a part of them.
They believe that the dream catcher holds the destiny of their future.
THE LEGEND OF THE DREAM CATCHER
According to legend, dreams are messages from sacred spirits. It is said that the hole in the center of the web allows the good dreams through while bad dreams are trapped in the web until they disappear in the morning sun. Dream Catchers are believed to bless the "sleeping one" with pleasant dreams, good luck and harmony.
Chief Quanah Parker of the Kwahadi Comanche
A Hard People in a Hard Land: Our forefathers were men of steel, and our
mothers were women of iron. In our shared world in this new order, it is
difficult to even imagine their strength and endurance. The battles fought
merely to survive were tests of muscle and sinew; it took great might and skill
to scratch a life from forest and plain.
Even before the Troubles began, life was harder than modern woodsmen face. Tools
were Stone-Age primitive, existence won only by extreme effort. Agriculture was
unknown to many, and just beginning for a few tribes. Hunger was a constant
companion, especially for the pre-agriculture tribes, relieved only by
successful hunts. Except for a few basic herbs, medicine was unknown; a small
injury was often life ending. All adults and most children lived with pain,
from the inevitable sicknesses, accidents and wounds.
This was true of the forest and plains people, so how much more for those who
scratched existence from the desert southwest. Though there are certainly
verdant meadows, sparkling streams and lush grasses, there is still more land
that is arid, sun-scorched and nearly barren. It is a land of dangerous
varmints and poisonous reptiles, with little comfort to promote gentle ways.
The people of these dry lands possessed a great sense of beauty, of balance and
harmony with nature, a spiritual people, fiercely loyal to their own families
and tribes. But they were in a harsh environment, and their ways showed this
influence. From childhood on, they were taught to disregard their own pains.
Boys suffered the most arduous rites of passage to become men. Girls learned
from childhood to accept their roles without complaint. Compassion and empathy
were not highly developed emotions.
Their war chests held little mercy for their foes. The End Game, in which the
tribes of the southwest were undone, was characterized by severe brutalities,
cruelty and torture. These skills had been honed by centuries of contact with
the Spanish and the Mexican soldiers and bandits. When the white settlers came
to Texas, Western Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona, the regional tribes used
what they had to combat them. Unfortunately, the white men who came first were
also hard-bitten and cruel, quick to practice the meanest, most vicious kind of
inhumanities on the Native Americans.
Before we who live in a more gentle age condemn them, it is good to look at the
state of the world. In Russia, the vast majority of the population were serfs,
little better than slaves, and if they complained, brutally slain. In Spain,
the Inquisitors were torturing anyone who didn't conform to Catholic dogma. In
England, they still burned witches. In America, Southerners held black men (and
quite a few Scots) in abject slavery, using beatings and even mutilations to
subdue anyone who tried to escape. The slave business was thriving in Africa,
as tribesmen sold their enemies to the Muslims. In China, life had no worth,
and the warlords had power over everyone. In Japan, they boiled humans as
punishment. All over the world, no one was very compassionate of their enemies'
discomforts. Mercy is a modern concept, unfortunately still only skin deep.
The Comanche were probably the most hated of all the tribes. A hard people in a
hard land, they fought settlers with guerilla type warfare, and practiced
hideous tortures on their enemies. They did this with other tribes, they did
this with Mexicans, and when the white men came, they used these fearsome tools
to try to save themselves. When the settlers struck back, they were equally
merciless.
The Unconquered Comanche
Once the Comanche lived in the grass-covered rolling hills of Wyoming, part of
the Eastern Shoshone, until they broke away. After the horses came, they
gradually migrated southward from 1700. By 1800, there were probably 20,000
Comanche between the Arkansas River and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
This number included a great many women and children prisoners, captured in raids
from other tribes and from Mexican villages.
Almost half of the Comanche died in the great smallpox and cholera epidemics of
1849-50. Most of the survivors lived in the Staked Plains, that area of
flatland that extends from Western Oklahoma, across the Texas Panhandle, and
into New Mexico. (The Staked Plains were given that name because stakes were
driven into the ground to mark trails across the featureless wasteland.)
We call them "the Lords of the Prairie" because of their great
prowess with horses. They were probably the first tribe to build a horse
culture, and became extremely adept at stealing, breeding and raising horses,
which were sold to other tribes, and even to the white men heading toward
California in 1849. People used to say that the Comanche stole every horse in
the Southwest, but that is surely an exaggeration. But it is no exaggeration to
say that they became the best horsemen in history, rivaled only by the
Mongolian warriors under Genghis Kahn.
This caused a lot of jealous rivalry, and lead to many wars when other tribes
tried to steal horses from the Comanche. They eventually made peace with the
Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, Cheyenne and Arapaho, but continued hostilities with every
other tribe on the plains. At the same time, they began stealing cattle from
Texas, most of which they sold to settlers in New Mexico, where they also sold
some of their captive women and children.
Life was simple. The tribe was divided into a dozen or so bands, but members
could switch back and forth among the groups. Men were definitely dominant;
women didn't speak in council, nor make many of their own choices. They
primarily ate buffalo meat, and the buffalo provided their housing, clothing
and most of their physical needs. The men were good hunters, and the women
gathered whatever edible vegetation was available. The Comanche did not
practice ritual cannibalism; they also refused to eat dog meat and were
horrified when some of their allies did.
The 1700s were filled with sporadic warfare between the Comanche and everyone
they encountered. This included the Ute, Apache, and the Spanish. At the same
time, they did business with all these people, and with the French traders, who
exchanged firearms for horses and mules that eventually went to plantation
owners. During the last quarter of the century, the Spanish made several large
military soirees against Comanche settlements, but eventually entered into an
uneasy peace. This resulted in New Mexico having a friendly trading
relationship with the Comanche for almost a hundred years, even though Texas
and northern Mexico were still prime targets for raids and kidnapping.
After Texas won its independence, Sam Houston tried unsuccessfully to make
treaty with the Comanche. What headway he made in this direction ended when he
became president of Texas, and Mirabeau Lamar took over the Comanche
negotiations.
Lamar wanted to obtain the return of the captive Texans held by the Comanche.
He arranged a meeting in March of 1840 for this purpose, and twelve war chiefs
came in under a white flag. When the Texans saw the condition of the one
hostage brought in, they started asking questions. Angry at what they learned
about the treatment of captured prisoners, they ended the peace negotiations.
But instead of letting the twelve Comanche leaders leave, the Texans killed
them, despite the flag of truce. After that there was open warfare, culminating
in a militia ambush of the main body of Comanche at Plum Creek.
The Santa Fe Trail engendered special treaties, along with promises of gifts.
To mark the occasion, a Comanche delegation visited Washington D.C. to meet
President Polk. But proper boundaries were never set, the gifts and trading
posts never arrived, and the Comanche continued to raid settlers. The Texas
Rangers were formed to fight the Comanche, but even if one band were forced to
make peace, some other band would continue hostilities.
This pretty well typifies the history of the Comanche and the settlers. Battles
bred treaties; treaties got broken. Sporadic raids caused continual conflict.
And, the Comanche were often blamed for everything that went wrong in the
southwest. The Apache or Pawnee or Arapahoe might raid a Mexican village or a
settler's ranch, only to have it blamed on the Comanches. The scalped and
mutilated bodies would be publicly displayed to enrage the populace, then the
whites would attack the first encampment they came across, regardless of who
was there. (It was probably Comanche raids that produced the mutilated bodies
shown in Denver, which prompted Governor John Evans and Colonel John Chivington
to the slaughter of the Cheyenne at Sand Creek in 1864.) Both sides considered
it fair game to kill women, children and old people along with the fighting
men. And both sides practiced mutilations, brutality and torture.
The Raid That Changed the Comanche Destiny
In 1833, the Parker Family settled along the Navasota River in what is now
Texas but was then the Comancheria. Elder John Parker and his three sons, along
with other Baptist pilgrims from Illinois, built Fort Parker. They chose a site
that was considerably deeper into Comanche territory than any other settlers
had ventured. People in the area warned them they might be asking for trouble.
But the Parkers came from a long line of settlers and Indian fighters, and felt
ready for whatever might happen.
It is unknown whether this braggadocio was the cause, or whether it was because
of the incursion into their territory, or if in fact it was merely random
choice. Probably all three facts contributed to what was to follow. The
structure of the fort also may have angered the Comanches. It had 12 foot walls
made of pointed logs, with blockhouses, corrals and cabins inside, and looked
very much like military forts of the day.
On May 19, 1836, a large band of Kiowa, Caddo, Wichita and Comanche warriors
appeared with a white flag, while the men were working the fields outside the
fort. Survivors varied in their reports, estimating their numbers everywhere
from 100 to 500. One of the sons, Benjamin Parker, talked to them, and was told
they just wanted some beef to eat and a safe place to camp. He returned to the
fort to get the meat, and warned the settlers that he feared there would be
trouble. Despite their urgings that he stay inside, he went back to the
gathering, and was immediately murdered.
The band of warriors rushed the fort and battered down the doors. Five settlers
were killed, and a number of others were severely wounded (some died of their
wounds later.) The warriors also took captives, among them the pregnant Mrs.
Rachel Plummer, her two-year-old son, and Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, plus two of
the Parker children, Cynthia Ann and her brother John.
Eventually the two women were ransomed and returned, Mrs. Kellogg in about six
months, and Mrs. Plummer about a year after that. Both women told terrible
tales of their capture, rapes, beatings and enslavement. Mrs. Plummer in
particular described a nightmare of abuse, including the theft of her
two-year-old son, and an unconfirmed horror story about the murder of the child
born while she was captive
The two Parker children, Cynthia Ann, age 8-9, and John, age 6, were kept,
adopted and raised as Comanche. It's been reported that John became a Comanche
warrior, who eventually married a Mexican captive and settled down to ranching.
Cynthia Ann was raised with the tribe, and eventually married Chief Peta
Nocona. She had three children, two boys and a girl. In 1860 Texas Rangers
recaptured her in a raid on the Pease River, where Peta Nocona was killed. She
and her daughter were returned to her uncles who had never given up hope.
But Cynthia had been with the Comanche for 24 years, and she missed her two
sons. She tried to return several times, and never readjusted to living with
the whites. She died in either 1864 or '70 (reports vary) and was buried in
Anderson County Texas. (If this all sounds familiar, it's because the Cynthia
Ann Parker story was the basis of the movie "The Searchers".)
The Fort Parker Indian Massacre may have been the worst in Texas' bloody
history up to that time, but it was fairly typical of the raids practiced
against the white settlers of the southwest. There was one thing, however, that
made it stand apart, historically more significant than all the rest. And that
was Cynthia Ann's son, fathered by her husband Chief Peta Nocona. His name was
Quanah Parker.
Quanah Parker -- The Great Chief of the Comanche
Quanah was probably born in 1845, when the band camped near the Wichita
Mountains, now part of Oklahoma. The son of Chief Peta Nocona and the white
captive Cynthia Ann Parker, his childhood was undoubtedly typical for his
tribe. He would have learned to ride by the time he was three or four; he
probably was put on horseback before he walked.
As part of the Nokoni band, life would have been filled with continual
movement, following the buffalo; skirmishing with other tribes; trading with
other Indians, Mexicans and French; avoiding army troopers, and above all,
learning weaponry and horsemanship. He would have mastered the use of the
lance, bow and arrow, and knife. Although the Comanche owned firearms, they did
not consider them accurate enough when galloping on horseback. Still, it is
natural to expect that Quanah Parker would have owned a rifle and been an
expert marksman.
Since Cynthia Ann Parker was taken as a child, it is doubtful he would have
learned much from her of the white men's ways. She may have remembered, but
Comanche women were encouraged to keep to themselves, and above all, to keep
quiet. Instead, Quanah would have spent his youth watching the braves, hearing
about their raids and conquests, longing for the day he would be allowed to go
with them into battle. He may or may not have gone through the arduous ordeal
initiating boys into manhood; the cruel practice was gradually falling out of
fashion and was eventually banned. He probably did participate in the Sun
Dance, and probably took part in some kind of vision quest as an adolescent.
By the time his mother and sister were stolen and his father killed, in 1860 by
the Texas Rangers under command of Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Quanah was ten or
fifteen years old, depending on which birth date you accept. In either case,
the raid on his band's encampment, the deaths of relatives and friends, and the
loss of mother, father and sister would have solidified his hatred of the
whites. The Nokoni survivors, after the raid in 1860, joined forces with the
Quahada (often spelled Kwahada) band and mostly occupied the Staked Plains. By
that point in Quanah's life, he was probably already accompanying his band on
raids and in battles; after the Texas Rangers took his mom and killed his dad,
you can be certain he was even more eager to seek revenge.
The Comanche had another reason to hate the whites that were flooding into the
southwest. They carried disease and epidemic. It happened first in the late
1700s, then again in 1816. The California gold rush brought smallpox again in
1848, and cholera in 1849. Between 1849 and 1851, the government census
estimated their numbers dropped from 20,000 to 12,000. Although the germ theory
of disease was unknown, they weren't stupid -- they could certainly tell that
the disease followed their encounters with the white men. And it wasn't over.
By 1870, the two diseases had reduced them to 8,000 and falling.
Then there was the matter of the buffalo. Once there were sixty million buffalo
on the plains. In the last half of the 19th Century, they were slaughtered into
extinction. Not only were they hunted for sport, for food and for hides, they
were deliberately wiped out in order to starve the Plains Indians to death. As
Quanah was growing up, the buffalo were growing more and more scarce, the herds
getting smaller and smaller. And the Comanche understood exactly what was
happening and why. They knew it was a deliberate plan to eliminate their
livelihood.
The 1840s and 1850s were filled with more or less constant raids, especially on
the Mexicans and on the Texans. In 1854, the first three reservations were
established on the Brazos, but only some of the bands agreed to go in.
Unfortunately, they continued to raid settlers, and in 1859, a couple of
hundred settlers attacked one of the reservations. The attack was unsuccessful,
but it did cause the reservations to be closed, and the Native Americans who
were there were moved to Oklahoma. Then Rangers attacked the remaining
Comanche.
This was the climate of Quanah Parker's youth. Warfare was constant. Treaties
were made, lines drawn on maps, then one side or another would break their
promises. The cavalry attacked a village and killed 80-100 Comanche; the
Comanche retaliated with more raids and attacks as they tried to drive back the
settlers. A new treaty, new promises and more lines on maps, and the same
pattern repeated itself. At the same time, the Comanche continued warfare with
other tribes. In particular, they hated the Tonkawa because of their practice
of cannibalism, and in 1862 participated with Delaware and Shawnee tribes in a
massacre that killed 300 Tonkawa.
America's War Between the States turned attention away from these problems, and
the Comancheria regained some of its lost land. Many Indians were recruited
into both the Union and Confederate Armies west of the Mississippi, where they
were generally used as scouts and hunters. However, the frontier army was
mostly Union, and mostly made up of men who had no desire to face Confederate
cannon. They instead were especially anxious to kill Comanche and Apache.
We do not know exactly when Quanah Parker began riding with the braves of the
Quahada, but he certainly was at Adobe Walls, when Kit Carson and his column of
soldiers attacked in autumn of 1864. Carson and his troops found more Comanche
than they could handle, and were forced to retreat. This was just five days
before Chivington attacked the Sand Creek village in Colorado and killed 300
Cheyenne.
By 1865, all the plains tribes were at war; the Oregon, Overland and Santa Fe
trails were closed. But as the Civil War came to an end, more and more troops
were sent west. As previously abandoned posts were recovered, new treaties were
arranged, including the Little Arkansas Treaty of 1865 that gave the Comanche
and Kiowa the western half of Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. As part of the
settlement, cash and goods were promised.
But all they got were spoiled old Civil War rations. General William Sherman
ordered that no more ransoms should be paid to regain captives, thinking that
would halt the kidnapping raids. This led to some brutal murders of captives in
front of Army commanders, to show the flaw in Sherman's plan.
In 1867, the Medicine Lodge Creek peace conference exchanged the Comancheria
for three million acres in Oklahoma. But the Quahada were suffering through an
outbreak of cholera, so didn't attend the conference nor sign the treaty. Raids
and retaliations continued. The white men stole thousands of horses from the
Comanche in the 1870s, and in 1872 captured 130 Comanche women and children at
the McClellan Creek encampment. In 1873, after months of negotiations during
which the raids were slowed, these women and children were sent to Fort Sill
Oklahoma.
By 1874, there were less than a million buffalo left, and these were being
systematically exterminated. In June, a combined Comanche-Cheyenne war party
attacked an encampment of buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls. The Second Battle of
Adobe Walls started the Buffalo War (also called the Red River War.) But this
was the last great struggle for the southern plains, and it was almost over.
Many warriors of the plains tribes left the reservations and joined the last
holdouts on the Staked Plains. But the burning of the camp at Palo Duro Canyon,
at the end of September, and the killing of 2,000 horses, left most of the
remaining warriors on foot. That winter was a horrible time of terror, with
constant harassing by the army, starvation, and cold. In April, the first 200
Quahada went in. On June 2, 1875, the last 400 Quahada surrendered at Fort
Sill, Oklahoma, led by Quanah Parker.
The Magic of Quanah Parker
When we began this odyssey into the history of the Great Chiefs, I warned that
there was little joy to be found in this study, only pain and sorrow. But
Quanah Parker belies that. The measure of his greatness is that he created a
new world for his people. Today we will smile at his memory.
Although we know only a little of his battle exploits, we know he was brave and
strong, and admired by the men who rode with him. The Comanche do not offer
allegiance based on hereditary claim. Although Quanah Parker was the son of
Chief Peta Nocona, he had no claim to that title until he earned it. And earn
it he did; he led the most warlike Comanche band of all, the Quahadas. Never
doubt that he was a mighty warrior, and a great chief.
But his greatest accomplishments lay ahead, on that bitter June day when he led
his men into Fort Sill. These proud men -- their hearts must have been
breaking, as they rode in -- anticipated little but dishonor and death; their
world was in ruins and life as they knew it had ended.
Yet Quanah slipped easily into the reservation, and quickly assumed his natural
role as leader and counselor for the Comanche there. The federal agents spotted
his evident strength, and named him as chief over the entire tribe, the only
time the Comanche ever had an overall leader. They went along with this, and allowed
him to shepherd them into a new life.
He knew that, above all, his people needed sustenance -- food, shelter, and an
occupation to produce pride and money. So he set about redesigning their world.
He started building schools on the reservation, and told the youths to learn
all about the white men and their strange ways. He told his people to build
proper houses in the style of the white men. He told them to raise crops, and
to build cattle ranches.
He struck deals with the Texas cattlemen, and charged a toll for cattle trains
to cross reservation land. In return, there was no raiding of the herds, and
the cowboys shortened their trip to market by this shortcut. He leased grassy
lands to the cattlemen to graze their stock. As he explained to the tribe, the
white men were already doing these things, but now the Comanche were earning
money from them. (And doesn't it make you smile to think of the Texans chunking
out the cash to the Comanche?!)
He used the money earned to buy needed supplies of food and blankets for his
tribe. Then he started building herds for his people, so that they quickly
slipped from impoverishment to security.
Not everyone agreed with his methods, of course, and it was a constant struggle
to keep moving forward. Of course there were Comanche who wanted to reject
everything white, even though it would mean starvation and death. But Quanah,
with his great style and charisma, was able to direct his people through this
fearful time, always looking ahead to better times.
He invested in a railroad, the Acme & Pacific Railway. He became an
associate of many Texas ranchers, and through them learned more. He negotiated
business agreements, he helped establish a Comanche police force, he allowed
himself to be interviewed by journalists. He became a friend of Theodore
Roosevelt, and rode in his inauguration parade in 1905, then went wolf hunting
with him later that spring.
He took his mother's name and became Quanah Parker, then adopted the white
men's way of dress, often appearing in suit and tie. And this was one beautiful
Native American; his handsome grey-eyed face became America's most popular
Indian portrait. But he changed so far, and no further -- he refused to cut his
lovely long braids, refused to become monogamous and kept his seven wives and
children in a 22-room house. He rejected Christianity, and encouraged Native
Americans to use peyote in their religious ceremonies. He never forgot his
past, and he never forsook his people.
Quanah died at home of pneumonia, surrounded by friends and family, on February
23, 1911. He was probably 66, or perhaps 61, depending on which birthday you
accept. He was beloved by his people, and admired by his old enemies who now
knew him for the great man he was. Today his body and that of his mother,
Cynthia Ann Parker, lie side by side, buried with honor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
In 1901, the Comanche Reservation was closed. Every tribal member was given 160
acres, and paid $1.25 per acre for the land taken away. There are 10,000 tribal
members left, over half of them still living on their own property in Oklahoma.
They are widely considered to be the most prosperous Native Americans, with the
best educations.
In World War I, Comanche braves volunteered as code talkers, then again in 1941
for World War II when Comanche was the code-language for D-Day and Patton's
tank invasion. They earned thanks, both from this nation and from France, for
their heroism under fire.
The heart still rides the Staked Plains; the spirit still climbs the snowy
mountain. The Comanche People still survive, but now with eyes ever forward to
a new world. And Quanah Parker was the great man, the Great Chief, who made it
so.
( Text written by Joyce Worley is proud of her Cherokee heritage.
A well-known journalist and historian from Missouri, Joyce now resides in
Nevada.)
