"The Seven Sisters Above,"a watercolor by Dakota Wind.
Ancient Stories of Emergence
Research, Tribal College Journal
by Dakota Wind
Note: This article originally appeared in Vol. 35, No. 1 of the Tribal College Journal. Access the original article as it was seen in print here, or visit the article as it appears online on the TCJ.
Research, Tribal College Journal
by Dakota Wind
Note: This article originally appeared in Vol. 35, No. 1 of the Tribal College Journal. Access the original article as it was seen in print here, or visit the article as it appears online on the TCJ.
Historians studying Lakxóta history in recent years have begun to treat the pictographic record, winter counts, as primary source documents. Two recent publications by non-Native historians do this, but aside from establishing the oral narrative of the White Buffalo Calf Woman as the starting point of Lakxólkichiyapi, the story itself is not presented as history. In this article we will look at stories of the great Plains which argue the case for a long cultural occupation that challenges the established date of 1682 as marking the Lakxóta arrival to the region.
In regard to length of occupation, traditional Lakxóta people would inform their interviewer that they were here since the beginning, or for a very long time. Archaeological evidence informs us that the flute or whistle has been present on the northern plains since circa 1100 AD. Oral tradition about this musical instrument tells us that the flute has been with the Mandans since about the same time (Goodhouse, 2002a). Beginning in the 1980s, ethnomusicologists have been investigating the role of music in defining a sense of place. This does not inform us how long people take to develop a sense of place but it does indicate that this art signals a people’s place “in terms of social boundaries” (Lipsitz, 1986, p. 5).
The late Kevin Locke made his research into the North American Indian flute a lifetime study. For nearly 50 years, Locke studied flute music and found that there is a standard formulaic composition structure that transcends the many languages and cultures of the northern plains. In fact, said Locke, “Over the plains or woodlands, you see the same rules of structure . . . it has a meaning that goes beyond the individual tribe or their geographic area” (Locke & good Feather, 2015). Regarding the biological history of bison, the animal originated on the Siberian steppe about 2.6 million years ago. Eventually, the animal migrated across the Beringia land bridge to North America (Sorbelli et al., 2021). Once there, it evolved into the many bison species in our natural historic record, eventually becoming Bison americanus that we recognize today (Wilson et al., 2008). The Lakxóta call the bison simply pté, which also refers to the female of the species. The term txatxáŋka existed long before the film Dances with Wolves (1990) or before WWE wrestler Chris Chavis (Lumbee) put the term into popular vernacular. Txatxáŋka literally means “the great ones,” and refers to the male of the species. Bison calves are called ptehíŋcha, meaning “small bison,” or ptehíŋchala, which translates as “beloved” or “familiar small bison” (Goodhouse, 2012b). The creation of bison is closely associated with the emergence story from Wind Cave located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
The Lakxóta refer to Wind Cave by many names, including Washúŋ Niyá, which means “breathing cave”; Txatóye Oyúxlokapi, which means “where the wind has made a hole” and refers to the opening of the four winds; Txaté Washúŋ, which is literally “wind cave”; Oníya Oshóka, or “where the Earth breathes inside” (Weddell, 2022); Makxá Oxlóke, or “earth cave.” The Lakota Language Consortium’s New Lakota Dictionary Online lists an entry for Wind Cave as Wašúŋ-Tȟáŋka, which means “the great cave” (Ullrich, 2021). Wilmer Mesteth, a tribal historian and spiritual leader on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, employed other terms in reference to Wind Cave, including Txukáŋ Típi, meaning “the [stone] spirit lodge,” and Makxá Oníye, meaning “the breathing Earth” (Wind Cave National Park, 2022).
A long time ago, Iŋktómi the trickster and Anúŋg Ité (Double Face Woman) tricked the people into emerging into the world without the consent of Txuŋkáshila. Anúŋg Ité sent her wolf with a pack of dyed quills, various berries, meat, and fine clothes to entice the people into following her wolf into the world above. A few people were lured after eating the food and wearing her fine leather clothes and followed the wolf into the world through Wind Cave there in the Black Hills. Some refused to be tricked by the wolf, and so they stayed behind in the world below.
When the people emerged later, they were amazed at the vast blue sky above, the scent and sight of all the flowers in bloom. The wolf led them to the lodge of Anúŋg Ité where she taught them how to hunt and gather, prepare food, and make clothing for themselves. Summer became fall, and fall soon became winter, but the people had very little prepared to survive the seasons. They returned to the lodge of Anúŋg Ité for help, but then she unwrapped her shawl, revealing the other side of her face—the scarred disfigured half of her face—and she laughed at the people. The people ran in fright from her, and she set her wolf on them. They sought to return to the world below at Wind Cave, but the way was covered, leaving them trapped on the surface of the world. They didn’t know what to do or where to go and fell to the ground in anguish. Creator heard their cries and came to them. They explained how they emerged before they were ready to do so. This angered Creator and he told them they must be punished. He took them and gave them a new form and purpose, transforming them into bison. They became the first great herd.
Eventually, the world was prepared for people to live on. Creator instructed Txokáhe, meaning “the first,” to lead the people into the world through Wind Cave. On their journey towards emergence, they stopped four times and prayed, their last stop being at the entrance of Wind Cave. On the vast open plain they saw bison tracks. Creator instructed them to follow these tracks, as they would acquire food, tools, and clothing from bison. Eventually they crafted their homes, too, from bison hides. Creator informed them that the bison would lead them to water (Wind Cave National Park, 2022). The seven ancestral leaders of the seven divisions of the Títxuŋwaŋ, the first seven to emerge at Creator’s instruction, became the Wicháxpi Shakówiŋ, the Seven Stars (or the Big Dipper). There they carry new souls into the world to begin their journey, or they carry the souls from this world back to the heavens to begin their journey to the ancestors (Goodhouse, 2020). But not all the people were ready to emerge into the world. Some chose to stay. That was their choice. Creator turned his attention to Wind Cave and the entrance contracted until it was too small for the people to re-enter. Wind Cave thereafter served as a memorial so that the people would never forget where they came from.
According to master ledger artist Donald Montileaux, a holy man called Txatxáŋka warned the people not to ascend to the surface. He saw the people in a vision. They lost their language and had to invent a new one, becoming known as Ikché Wichásha (the ordinary or common people). It was Txatxáŋka the holy man who came into the world and transformed into a great bison bull. He was willing to give up his life so that the Ochéthi Shakówiŋ (the Seven Council Fires, or great Sioux Nation) would have food, shelter, and clothing (Montileaux, 2009).
The Ochéthi Shakówiŋ do not limit the narrative of the bison and people’s emergence to one single moment in linear time. Indeed, emergence and revival are a continuous cycle. Each spring, for example, bison, as well as wamákxashkaŋ owásiŋ (all the animals of each kind), emerged from the world below. The cycle of renewal begins with Niyá Awíchableze (the enlightening breath upon which all life returns) (Goodhouse, 2022). The bison left evidence of their long presence across the great Plains in the vast and uncountable buffalo wallows. The Lakxóta call these depressions Oshkókpa Txatxáŋka and like to say about them, “This is where the bison dance.” Further, emergence is not limited to one single location. Different stories tell of different locations (see full article with sidebar).
Washú Niyá. “On their journey towards emergence, they stopped four times and prayed, their last stop being at the entrance of Wind Cave.” Photo by Lennie Ramacher/NPS.
The Baptiste Good Winter Count, a pictographic mnemonic device in which images recall outstanding events for a year, places the arrival of the Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, the White Buffalo Calf Woman, at 901 AD (Mallory, 1893). Prior to her arrival as Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, the Thítxuŋwaŋ fought amongst themselves as much as they fought against their enemies. The gift of the sacred pipe established a relationship amongst the Ochéti Shakówiŋ and with bison. After her gift, the people took to calling themselves Dakhólkichiyapi, or “They who speak to each other with affection” (Goodhouse, 2022a). According to Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th keeper of the sacred pipe, Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ brought the pipe to the people at Matxó Típila, Bear Lodge (Devils Tower) (Hancock, 2015).
The Lakxóta refer to the pipe as chaŋnúŋpa. The sacred pipe represents unions of air and stone, sky, and earth; the masculine and feminine; and the here and now. Before the pipe, the people prayed at sacred sites with stone elements like summits, caves, and stone arches. They called themselves Ikcheya, or “common.” They also called themselves Pté Oyáte, or “People of the Bison” (Goodhouse, 2022b).
The story of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ bringing the gift of the sacred pipe is set at Matxó Típila. The story features the song of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ and her arrival. The song contains elements of place in social boundary, similar in scope and meaning to the biblical story of Moses descending from Mount Sinai, as the messenger arrives at a sacred place with a covenant for the people to live a way of life according to the divine.
The Mnikxówozhu, or “Planters by the Stream,” (a division of the Títxuŋwaŋ) were experiencing hard times. Hunters returned with little or no game and fighting among their fellow people. They selected two scouts to search for any sign of bison. The scouts arrived at a hill and saw a figure advancing in their direction. When it came close enough to distinguish features, they discerned it was a beautiful woman wearing a white buckskin dress, white leggings, and white moccasins. In her hair on the left side of her part she wore a tuft of bison fur, her hair hung loose otherwise. She carried a fan made of sage in her right hand. Her face was painted with red vertical stripes. It seemed to the two scouts that she was floating rather than walking. They realized she was wakxáŋ, which means literally “with-energy.” Some say that braids of sweet grass hung from her belt.
One of the scouts looked at her and was overcome with impure thoughts and, seeking to have her for himself, went to her. A cloud suddenly enveloped them. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. The cloud dissipated and at her feet were the bones of the lustful scout. Some say that snakes writhed among his remains.
She spoke to the remaining scout: “Return to your people. Tell them to prepare a special lodge in the middle of camp for my arrival at daybreak.” He left her to prepare his people. She came to them at dawn and as she approached sang:
Niyá txaŋíŋyaŋ (With visible breath)
mawáni yé (I am walking)
oyáte waŋ (this nation [this bison nation])
imáwani (I walk toward)
na (and)
hó txaŋíŋyaŋ (my voice is heard)
mawáni yé (I am walking)
niyá txaŋíŋyaŋ (with visible breath)
mawáni yé (I am walking)
walúta waŋ (this scarlet offering [this pipe])
imáwani yé ([for it] I am walking) (Goodhouse, 2002b)
The chief of the community dipped a braid of sweetgrass into a bison horn cup full of rainwater and offered it to her. She gave them the pipe then, with instructions as to its care. She said to them, “Behold! With this you shall multiply and be a good nation. Nothing but good shall come of it. Only the hands of the good shall take care of it and the bad shall not even see it.” Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ then added, “I give you this pipe. Keep it always!”
Baptiste Good’s account of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ includes another gift: four colored grains of corn. She informed them that this gift would feed the world. She offered words of encouragement to the women, reminding them that they sustain the people with their gift of life. She offered words to the children, telling them it would be their turn someday to make careful decisions for those not yet born and to learn the way of the pipe. To the men she offered minding words to use the pipe for good purposes, that the tribe depends on them, and that they should revere the world and sky. She promised them all that someday she would return (Mallery, 1893). She took her leave of them then and as she stepped away, she transformed into a bison calf. Some say that she rolled or turned, and with each roll or turn, her bison coat became a different color before at last turning white. The calf then ran, crested a hill, and disappeared. The people ran after her and discovered a herd of bison on the other side. According to Lame Deer, as they prayed with her, bison surrounded their community (Erdoes, 2006). In either instance, she brought the bison with her.
In another story of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, the people were close to starvation when she came and brought them bison-calling songs. The Blue Thunder Winter Count and all its variants begin: “Waníyetu eháŋna saúŋ wiŋ kiŋ ú,” or “Long ago, a woman in white came to them.” Interpretation of the images offers only a basic understanding that is remembered in these primary source documents. Blue Thunder never had children of his own. He married Íŋyaŋ Pahá Wiŋ, or Rocky Butte Woman, in the early post-reservation era and passed the tradition down to her and her daughter and sonin- law. The story of the Woman in White is remembered as one of the times that Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ came with songs.
In yet another story, the Títxuŋwaŋ were camped on a flat by a little stream that flows into the Mnishóshe, or “the water-astir” (the Missouri River). There, neither fish nor fowl sustained them. In their desperation they cried out for aid and Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ heard them. She came to them at their camp, bringing the gift of bison-calling songs. She instructed them to use this medicine at once. She guided them to an overlook on the Mnishoshe where they set up camp below the high plain. At her instruction, they selected two scouts who sought out the lead bison cow and startled her. She ran and her herd followed her. At the instruction of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, the people waved bison robes at the herd, continuing the bison’s startlement and in effect guiding them to the overlook where they leapt over the edge. Below the high plain waited the women with their knives.
This buffalo jump where they brought the bison to them with song and ran them over the high plain is called Akáŋlya Washté, or “the beautiful high plain” (Goodhouse, 2010). According to Txuŋwiŋ Evelyn Buckley, a good Dakhóta woman could butcher a bison by herself in four to six hours (Goodhouse, 2011). And according to Txuŋwiŋ D’Joyce Kitson, a good Lakxóta could tan a bison hide by herself in the same amount of time (Goodhouse, 2018). There are many sites associated with the Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, including Matxó Típila (Devil’s Tower); Chaŋnúm Ok’é, or “pipestone quarry” / Chaŋdúhupa Shá K’ápi, meaning “where they dig red pipestone” (Pipestone National Monument); Íŋyaŋsaŋ Pahá (Whitestone Hill North Dakota State Historic Site); Akáŋlya Washté, which translates as “beautiful high plain” and is the high plain overlooking the west bank of the Missouri River between Huff and Fort Rice, North Dakota.
The Lakxóta have many names for their homeland, and North America by extension. One of these names is Makxóche Owánase Txáŋka, meaning “the land of the great hunt.” The hunt was communal and involved several days of preparation. The Ochéti Shakówiŋ call the period before the introduction of the horse “dog days.” During this time, the people and their dogs pulled the travois. Kevin Locke shared three terms relating to travel in those times: hupáwaheyuŋpi, meaning “they pack things up to travel”; waŋzhíkshila, which is a travois that was pulled by a person; and shúŋg’ok’iŋ, a dog travois.
There are many stories of first contact with the horse. All of these stories carry a deep regard for the mystery of creation and serve as reminders to the Ochéti Shakówiŋ that even as the horse was reintroduced to the great Plains after a long absence, it is a sacred gift. The Drifting goose Winter Count, a pictographic record in which a single year is remembered by one outstanding event, recalls the earliest record of the Ochéti Shakówiŋ encounter with the horse in 1692. Waniyetu ehaŋna shuŋg nuŋi ota kiŋ, meaning “a long time ago they saw many wild horses,” recalls the Drifting goose Winter Count (Howard, 1976). More recently, Mary Louise Defender Wilson tells a story of two scouts who crested a hill and saw horses emerging from a swirl in the Mnishóshe (Missouri River) as a thunderstorm was approaching. The horse was invited back to camp and became inseparable from daily life (Defender-Wilson, 2001).
Pete Looking Horse recalled the first horse encounter with a song called “Thunder Horse,” which commemorates how the Dakhóta people saw the horse as it emerged from the water:
Waŋkátaya txokéya ichágxe ló (Above, the first time we saw it, it changed, it is so) Waŋkátaya txokéya ichágxe ló (Above, the first time we saw it, it changed, it is so) Shúŋka Wakxáŋ waŋ txokáhe kech’úŋ (A horse, it was the first, even so) Maxpíya ichágxeya, ichágxe ló (The clouds grew, it changed, it is so) (Locke, 1996)
The pictographic record, oral tradition, and song inform us this was in 1692 at Chaŋshásha Wakpá Ozháte, which is the confluence of the White Birch River or James River and the Missouri River, near presentday Yankton, South Dakota.
S.D. Nelson illustrated the mystical pre-contact story of the first horse. The Lakxóta were camped in midsummer at Spirit Hill near the confluence of the grand and Missouri Rivers where long ago, before ever seeing a real-life horse, they saw a thunderer on a creature that didn’t yet have a name. The thunderer, a figure of a giant of a man, came down from the sky during a thunderstorm riding what might be described as a giant horse. It had four legs. It made a three-point landing, that is to say it landed on its hind legs and one front leg. It then leapt into the sky and disappeared. The hoof prints left by this giant thunder horse are imprinted into the landscape and viewable from the top of Spirit Hill. Historians might be inclined to categorize this story as apocryphal, occurring after the reservations were established, but this story predates the reservation (Nelson, 2018).
The Lakxóta refer to the pipe as chaŋnúŋpa. The sacred pipe represents unions of air and stone, sky, and earth; the masculine and feminine; and the here and now. Before the pipe, the people prayed at sacred sites with stone elements like summits, caves, and stone arches. They called themselves Ikcheya, or “common.” They also called themselves Pté Oyáte, or “People of the Bison” (Goodhouse, 2022b).
The story of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ bringing the gift of the sacred pipe is set at Matxó Típila. The story features the song of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ and her arrival. The song contains elements of place in social boundary, similar in scope and meaning to the biblical story of Moses descending from Mount Sinai, as the messenger arrives at a sacred place with a covenant for the people to live a way of life according to the divine.
The Mnikxówozhu, or “Planters by the Stream,” (a division of the Títxuŋwaŋ) were experiencing hard times. Hunters returned with little or no game and fighting among their fellow people. They selected two scouts to search for any sign of bison. The scouts arrived at a hill and saw a figure advancing in their direction. When it came close enough to distinguish features, they discerned it was a beautiful woman wearing a white buckskin dress, white leggings, and white moccasins. In her hair on the left side of her part she wore a tuft of bison fur, her hair hung loose otherwise. She carried a fan made of sage in her right hand. Her face was painted with red vertical stripes. It seemed to the two scouts that she was floating rather than walking. They realized she was wakxáŋ, which means literally “with-energy.” Some say that braids of sweet grass hung from her belt.
One of the scouts looked at her and was overcome with impure thoughts and, seeking to have her for himself, went to her. A cloud suddenly enveloped them. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. The cloud dissipated and at her feet were the bones of the lustful scout. Some say that snakes writhed among his remains.
She spoke to the remaining scout: “Return to your people. Tell them to prepare a special lodge in the middle of camp for my arrival at daybreak.” He left her to prepare his people. She came to them at dawn and as she approached sang:
Niyá txaŋíŋyaŋ (With visible breath)
mawáni yé (I am walking)
oyáte waŋ (this nation [this bison nation])
imáwani (I walk toward)
na (and)
hó txaŋíŋyaŋ (my voice is heard)
mawáni yé (I am walking)
niyá txaŋíŋyaŋ (with visible breath)
mawáni yé (I am walking)
walúta waŋ (this scarlet offering [this pipe])
imáwani yé ([for it] I am walking) (Goodhouse, 2002b)
The chief of the community dipped a braid of sweetgrass into a bison horn cup full of rainwater and offered it to her. She gave them the pipe then, with instructions as to its care. She said to them, “Behold! With this you shall multiply and be a good nation. Nothing but good shall come of it. Only the hands of the good shall take care of it and the bad shall not even see it.” Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ then added, “I give you this pipe. Keep it always!”
Baptiste Good’s account of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ includes another gift: four colored grains of corn. She informed them that this gift would feed the world. She offered words of encouragement to the women, reminding them that they sustain the people with their gift of life. She offered words to the children, telling them it would be their turn someday to make careful decisions for those not yet born and to learn the way of the pipe. To the men she offered minding words to use the pipe for good purposes, that the tribe depends on them, and that they should revere the world and sky. She promised them all that someday she would return (Mallery, 1893). She took her leave of them then and as she stepped away, she transformed into a bison calf. Some say that she rolled or turned, and with each roll or turn, her bison coat became a different color before at last turning white. The calf then ran, crested a hill, and disappeared. The people ran after her and discovered a herd of bison on the other side. According to Lame Deer, as they prayed with her, bison surrounded their community (Erdoes, 2006). In either instance, she brought the bison with her.
In another story of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, the people were close to starvation when she came and brought them bison-calling songs. The Blue Thunder Winter Count and all its variants begin: “Waníyetu eháŋna saúŋ wiŋ kiŋ ú,” or “Long ago, a woman in white came to them.” Interpretation of the images offers only a basic understanding that is remembered in these primary source documents. Blue Thunder never had children of his own. He married Íŋyaŋ Pahá Wiŋ, or Rocky Butte Woman, in the early post-reservation era and passed the tradition down to her and her daughter and sonin- law. The story of the Woman in White is remembered as one of the times that Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ came with songs.
In yet another story, the Títxuŋwaŋ were camped on a flat by a little stream that flows into the Mnishóshe, or “the water-astir” (the Missouri River). There, neither fish nor fowl sustained them. In their desperation they cried out for aid and Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ heard them. She came to them at their camp, bringing the gift of bison-calling songs. She instructed them to use this medicine at once. She guided them to an overlook on the Mnishoshe where they set up camp below the high plain. At her instruction, they selected two scouts who sought out the lead bison cow and startled her. She ran and her herd followed her. At the instruction of Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, the people waved bison robes at the herd, continuing the bison’s startlement and in effect guiding them to the overlook where they leapt over the edge. Below the high plain waited the women with their knives.
This buffalo jump where they brought the bison to them with song and ran them over the high plain is called Akáŋlya Washté, or “the beautiful high plain” (Goodhouse, 2010). According to Txuŋwiŋ Evelyn Buckley, a good Dakhóta woman could butcher a bison by herself in four to six hours (Goodhouse, 2011). And according to Txuŋwiŋ D’Joyce Kitson, a good Lakxóta could tan a bison hide by herself in the same amount of time (Goodhouse, 2018). There are many sites associated with the Ptehíŋchala Sáŋ Wíŋ, including Matxó Típila (Devil’s Tower); Chaŋnúm Ok’é, or “pipestone quarry” / Chaŋdúhupa Shá K’ápi, meaning “where they dig red pipestone” (Pipestone National Monument); Íŋyaŋsaŋ Pahá (Whitestone Hill North Dakota State Historic Site); Akáŋlya Washté, which translates as “beautiful high plain” and is the high plain overlooking the west bank of the Missouri River between Huff and Fort Rice, North Dakota.
The Lakxóta have many names for their homeland, and North America by extension. One of these names is Makxóche Owánase Txáŋka, meaning “the land of the great hunt.” The hunt was communal and involved several days of preparation. The Ochéti Shakówiŋ call the period before the introduction of the horse “dog days.” During this time, the people and their dogs pulled the travois. Kevin Locke shared three terms relating to travel in those times: hupáwaheyuŋpi, meaning “they pack things up to travel”; waŋzhíkshila, which is a travois that was pulled by a person; and shúŋg’ok’iŋ, a dog travois.
There are many stories of first contact with the horse. All of these stories carry a deep regard for the mystery of creation and serve as reminders to the Ochéti Shakówiŋ that even as the horse was reintroduced to the great Plains after a long absence, it is a sacred gift. The Drifting goose Winter Count, a pictographic record in which a single year is remembered by one outstanding event, recalls the earliest record of the Ochéti Shakówiŋ encounter with the horse in 1692. Waniyetu ehaŋna shuŋg nuŋi ota kiŋ, meaning “a long time ago they saw many wild horses,” recalls the Drifting goose Winter Count (Howard, 1976). More recently, Mary Louise Defender Wilson tells a story of two scouts who crested a hill and saw horses emerging from a swirl in the Mnishóshe (Missouri River) as a thunderstorm was approaching. The horse was invited back to camp and became inseparable from daily life (Defender-Wilson, 2001).
Pete Looking Horse recalled the first horse encounter with a song called “Thunder Horse,” which commemorates how the Dakhóta people saw the horse as it emerged from the water:
Waŋkátaya txokéya ichágxe ló (Above, the first time we saw it, it changed, it is so) Waŋkátaya txokéya ichágxe ló (Above, the first time we saw it, it changed, it is so) Shúŋka Wakxáŋ waŋ txokáhe kech’úŋ (A horse, it was the first, even so) Maxpíya ichágxeya, ichágxe ló (The clouds grew, it changed, it is so) (Locke, 1996)
The pictographic record, oral tradition, and song inform us this was in 1692 at Chaŋshásha Wakpá Ozháte, which is the confluence of the White Birch River or James River and the Missouri River, near presentday Yankton, South Dakota.
S.D. Nelson illustrated the mystical pre-contact story of the first horse. The Lakxóta were camped in midsummer at Spirit Hill near the confluence of the grand and Missouri Rivers where long ago, before ever seeing a real-life horse, they saw a thunderer on a creature that didn’t yet have a name. The thunderer, a figure of a giant of a man, came down from the sky during a thunderstorm riding what might be described as a giant horse. It had four legs. It made a three-point landing, that is to say it landed on its hind legs and one front leg. It then leapt into the sky and disappeared. The hoof prints left by this giant thunder horse are imprinted into the landscape and viewable from the top of Spirit Hill. Historians might be inclined to categorize this story as apocryphal, occurring after the reservations were established, but this story predates the reservation (Nelson, 2018).
Hokshíchekpa. “When the pasqueflower blossoms today, her stem, petals, and leaves are like the fur of a bison robe. Her petals are the purple color of an early spring sunrise. . . Her heart is the gold of the sun.” Photo by Dakota Wind.
Besides the horse, there are cultural narratives that seek to explain the appearance of spring’s first flower. There is a lovely little narrative about the bison and the hokshíchekpa, which literally means “a child’s navel,” but is known more commonly as the pasqueflower or prairie crocus. Long ago, according to the Lakxóta people, the pasqueflower bloomed white. One day, a young man went to the hill to pray. As often is the case, men go the hill in a vision quest to pray alone, usually for three to four days. This young man took a bison robe with him on his quest. As night fell, he drew his robe around him. Unbeknownst to him, as he wrapped himself, he included a pasqueflower in his embrace. The flower was grateful for the warmth.
As the days passed and the young man received no vision, the flower spoke to him, offering words of encouragement and informing the man that his vision would come and that he should be patient. Eventually, he received an answer to his prayer and left the flower behind. After he left, Creator, pleased with the flower, visited her and asked her to name a gift. She declined but said instead that she enjoyed the warmth of the bison robe, that she loved the colors of twilight, that she loved the color and warmth of the sun.
Pleased with her undemanding answer, Creator gifted her with a robe of her own, took his paints and colored her dress like the petals of the flower and colored her heart. When the pasqueflower blossoms today, her stem, petals, and leaves are like the fur of a bison robe. Her petals are the purple color of an early spring sunrise or sunset. Her heart is the gold of the sun. When the pasqueflower blossoms white, the Lakxota say that is where the bison drew its last breath.
Depending on who’s work one reads, the bison population dropped to less than a thousand. Andrew Isenberg’s estimate places the bison at about 500 in Yellowstone National Park at the turn of 1900 (Isenberg, 2000). The disappearance of bison was part of the American agenda. The “Wasicu seemed to expect the bison and Lakotas to promptly vanish from the plains,” writes historian Pekka Hamalainen (Hamalainen, 2020, p. 224). Indeed, the U.S. Census estimate of the Native U.S. population at the turn of 1900 was fewer than 250,000 (Calloway, 2012, p. 435). Today, bison are no longer endangered, as their population has recovered. According to the National Park Service, 14 federally recognized tribes and some federal agencies came together for a “bison treaty,” an agreement to best serve and manage the bison population (NPS, 2018). These stories of bison and place have survived too. As archaeological methods and technology have improved, and as long as oral tradition is maintained, cultural resource properties must continue to be reexamined.
Dakota Wind Goodhouse (Lakota/Dakota) teaches Native American studies and U.S. history at United Tribes Technical College.
REFERENCES
Blish, H.H., & Bad Heart Bull, A. (1967). A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Calloway, C.G. (2012). First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History (4th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Curtis, W.E. (1874, July 6). Curtis Dispatch: In Camp at Cannonball River, July 6, 1874. The Inter-Ocean.
Defender-Wilson, M.L. (2001). The Dakotah Have Had Horses for A Long Time. My Relatives Say [CD]. Bismarck, ND: Makoche Music.
Erdoes, R., & Ortiz, A. (2006). The White Buffalo Woman. In American Indian Myths and Legends (pp. 47–52). New York: Pantheon Books.
Garcia, L. (2017). Dakota Place Names. Unpublished manuscript, North Dakota State Archives, Bismarck, ND.
Goodhouse, D.W. (1995, August). Personal communication with Joe Flying Bye.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2002a, August). Personal communication with Keith Bear.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2002b, August). Personal communication with Kevin Locke.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2010, October). Personal communication with Thelma Winters.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2011, April). Communication with Evelyn Buckley.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2012a, June). Personal communication with Charles Walker.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2012b, December). Personal communication with Joseph Marshall III.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2014, November). Personal communication with McDonald family.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2018, June). Personal communication with D’Joyce Kitson.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2019, July). Communication with Victor Douville.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2020, June). Personal communication with Kevin Locke.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2022a, June). Personal communication with Kevin Locke.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2022b, October). Personal communicaiton with Virgil Taken Alive.
Hämäläinen Pekka. (2020). Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Hancock, L. (2015, July 12). Tribes Seek to Change Name of Devils Tower. Argus Leader. Retrieved from https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2015/ 07/12/tribes-seek-change-name-devils-tower/30063421/
Howard, J. H. (1976). Yanktonai Ethnohistory and the John K. Bear Winter Count. Plains Anthropologist, 21(73), 1–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/2052546. 1976.11908760. For a reinterpretation
Isenberg, A. (2000). The Wild and the Tamed. In The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Locke, K., & good Feather, D. (2015). Lightning and Wind: The Voice and Flute of a Nation [Album]. Bloomington, IN: Lakota Language Consortium.
Lipsitz, g. (1986). Cruising Around the Historical Bloc: Postmodernism and Popular Music in East Los Angeles. Cultural Critique, 5, 157–177. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354360
Locke, K. (1996). Thunder Horse. The Open Circle [CD]. Bismarck, ND: Makoche Music.
Lower Brule Elder Adviser Committee and the Rosebud Mni Wiconi Elder Committee. (2017). Map of Lakota Place Names. Lower Brule, SD: Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.
Mallery, G. (1893). Picture-Writing of the American Indians. Washington, DC: government Printing Office.
McLaird, J.D., & Turchen, L.T. (1974). Exploring the Black Hills, 1855-1875: Reports of the government Expeditions. South Dakota History, 4(3), 280–319.
Montileaux, D.F. (2009). Tatanka and the Lakota People: A Creation Story. Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press.
Nelson, S.D. (2018). Lecture. United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck, ND.
Sorbelli, L., Alba, D.M., Charin, M., Moulle, P.E., Brugal, J.P., & Madurell- Malapeira, J. (2021, June 1). A Review on Bison Schoetensacki and Its Closest Relatives Through the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition: Insights from the Vallparadís Section (NE Iberian Peninsula) and Other European Localities. Quaternary Science Reviews, 261. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.quascirev.2021.106933
Ullrich, J. (2021) Wind Cave. New Lakota Dictionary Online. Bloomington, IN: Lakota Language Consortium. Retrieved from https://nldo.lakotadictionary. Org
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2018, November 1). People and Bison. Washington, DC: National Parks Service. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bison/people.htm
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2022, August 11). The Lakota Emergence Story. Hot Springs, SD: Wind Cave National Park. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/historyculture/the-lakota-emergencestory. Htm
Weddell, W. (2022, May 6). A History Lover’s guide to the Breathtaking Black Hills of South Dakota. Wide Open Roads. Retrieved from https://www.wideopenroads.com/black-hills-south-dakota/
Wilson, M.C., Hills, L.V., & Shapiro, B. (2008). Late Pleistocene Northward- Dispersing Bison Antiquus from the Bighill Creek Formation, gallelli gravel Pit, Alberta, Canada, and the Fate of Bison Occidentalis. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 45(7). Retrieved from https://cdnsciencepub.com/ doi/10.1139/E08-027
Besides the horse, there are cultural narratives that seek to explain the appearance of spring’s first flower. There is a lovely little narrative about the bison and the hokshíchekpa, which literally means “a child’s navel,” but is known more commonly as the pasqueflower or prairie crocus. Long ago, according to the Lakxóta people, the pasqueflower bloomed white. One day, a young man went to the hill to pray. As often is the case, men go the hill in a vision quest to pray alone, usually for three to four days. This young man took a bison robe with him on his quest. As night fell, he drew his robe around him. Unbeknownst to him, as he wrapped himself, he included a pasqueflower in his embrace. The flower was grateful for the warmth.
As the days passed and the young man received no vision, the flower spoke to him, offering words of encouragement and informing the man that his vision would come and that he should be patient. Eventually, he received an answer to his prayer and left the flower behind. After he left, Creator, pleased with the flower, visited her and asked her to name a gift. She declined but said instead that she enjoyed the warmth of the bison robe, that she loved the colors of twilight, that she loved the color and warmth of the sun.
Pleased with her undemanding answer, Creator gifted her with a robe of her own, took his paints and colored her dress like the petals of the flower and colored her heart. When the pasqueflower blossoms today, her stem, petals, and leaves are like the fur of a bison robe. Her petals are the purple color of an early spring sunrise or sunset. Her heart is the gold of the sun. When the pasqueflower blossoms white, the Lakxota say that is where the bison drew its last breath.
Depending on who’s work one reads, the bison population dropped to less than a thousand. Andrew Isenberg’s estimate places the bison at about 500 in Yellowstone National Park at the turn of 1900 (Isenberg, 2000). The disappearance of bison was part of the American agenda. The “Wasicu seemed to expect the bison and Lakotas to promptly vanish from the plains,” writes historian Pekka Hamalainen (Hamalainen, 2020, p. 224). Indeed, the U.S. Census estimate of the Native U.S. population at the turn of 1900 was fewer than 250,000 (Calloway, 2012, p. 435). Today, bison are no longer endangered, as their population has recovered. According to the National Park Service, 14 federally recognized tribes and some federal agencies came together for a “bison treaty,” an agreement to best serve and manage the bison population (NPS, 2018). These stories of bison and place have survived too. As archaeological methods and technology have improved, and as long as oral tradition is maintained, cultural resource properties must continue to be reexamined.
Dakota Wind Goodhouse (Lakota/Dakota) teaches Native American studies and U.S. history at United Tribes Technical College.
REFERENCES
Blish, H.H., & Bad Heart Bull, A. (1967). A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Calloway, C.G. (2012). First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History (4th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Curtis, W.E. (1874, July 6). Curtis Dispatch: In Camp at Cannonball River, July 6, 1874. The Inter-Ocean.
Defender-Wilson, M.L. (2001). The Dakotah Have Had Horses for A Long Time. My Relatives Say [CD]. Bismarck, ND: Makoche Music.
Erdoes, R., & Ortiz, A. (2006). The White Buffalo Woman. In American Indian Myths and Legends (pp. 47–52). New York: Pantheon Books.
Garcia, L. (2017). Dakota Place Names. Unpublished manuscript, North Dakota State Archives, Bismarck, ND.
Goodhouse, D.W. (1995, August). Personal communication with Joe Flying Bye.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2002a, August). Personal communication with Keith Bear.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2002b, August). Personal communication with Kevin Locke.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2010, October). Personal communication with Thelma Winters.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2011, April). Communication with Evelyn Buckley.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2012a, June). Personal communication with Charles Walker.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2012b, December). Personal communication with Joseph Marshall III.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2014, November). Personal communication with McDonald family.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2018, June). Personal communication with D’Joyce Kitson.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2019, July). Communication with Victor Douville.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2020, June). Personal communication with Kevin Locke.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2022a, June). Personal communication with Kevin Locke.
Goodhouse, D.W. (2022b, October). Personal communicaiton with Virgil Taken Alive.
Hämäläinen Pekka. (2020). Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Hancock, L. (2015, July 12). Tribes Seek to Change Name of Devils Tower. Argus Leader. Retrieved from https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2015/ 07/12/tribes-seek-change-name-devils-tower/30063421/
Howard, J. H. (1976). Yanktonai Ethnohistory and the John K. Bear Winter Count. Plains Anthropologist, 21(73), 1–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/2052546. 1976.11908760. For a reinterpretation
Isenberg, A. (2000). The Wild and the Tamed. In The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Locke, K., & good Feather, D. (2015). Lightning and Wind: The Voice and Flute of a Nation [Album]. Bloomington, IN: Lakota Language Consortium.
Lipsitz, g. (1986). Cruising Around the Historical Bloc: Postmodernism and Popular Music in East Los Angeles. Cultural Critique, 5, 157–177. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354360
Locke, K. (1996). Thunder Horse. The Open Circle [CD]. Bismarck, ND: Makoche Music.
Lower Brule Elder Adviser Committee and the Rosebud Mni Wiconi Elder Committee. (2017). Map of Lakota Place Names. Lower Brule, SD: Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.
Mallery, G. (1893). Picture-Writing of the American Indians. Washington, DC: government Printing Office.
McLaird, J.D., & Turchen, L.T. (1974). Exploring the Black Hills, 1855-1875: Reports of the government Expeditions. South Dakota History, 4(3), 280–319.
Montileaux, D.F. (2009). Tatanka and the Lakota People: A Creation Story. Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press.
Nelson, S.D. (2018). Lecture. United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck, ND.
Sorbelli, L., Alba, D.M., Charin, M., Moulle, P.E., Brugal, J.P., & Madurell- Malapeira, J. (2021, June 1). A Review on Bison Schoetensacki and Its Closest Relatives Through the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition: Insights from the Vallparadís Section (NE Iberian Peninsula) and Other European Localities. Quaternary Science Reviews, 261. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.quascirev.2021.106933
Ullrich, J. (2021) Wind Cave. New Lakota Dictionary Online. Bloomington, IN: Lakota Language Consortium. Retrieved from https://nldo.lakotadictionary. Org
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2018, November 1). People and Bison. Washington, DC: National Parks Service. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bison/people.htm
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2022, August 11). The Lakota Emergence Story. Hot Springs, SD: Wind Cave National Park. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/historyculture/the-lakota-emergencestory. Htm
Weddell, W. (2022, May 6). A History Lover’s guide to the Breathtaking Black Hills of South Dakota. Wide Open Roads. Retrieved from https://www.wideopenroads.com/black-hills-south-dakota/
Wilson, M.C., Hills, L.V., & Shapiro, B. (2008). Late Pleistocene Northward- Dispersing Bison Antiquus from the Bighill Creek Formation, gallelli gravel Pit, Alberta, Canada, and the Fate of Bison Occidentalis. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 45(7). Retrieved from https://cdnsciencepub.com/ doi/10.1139/E08-027
