The Great Plains of the US encompasses the wide,
flat, grassy regions from the Rocky Mountains (W) to the Mississippi River (E)
and from southern Saskatchewan (N) down to Colorado (S). Within this area there
are four major cultural groups of Native American: the Lakota (or Sioux), the Cheyenne,
the Pawnee, and the Blackfeet. Those tribes were excellent agriculturalists. However,
as they were pushed south from the Great Lakes region, they quickly learned new
skills such as how to tame wild horses. They rode and bred them, becoming some
of the greatest horsemen in the world. Most of them gave up farming for buffalo
hunting. With horses they were able to follow and hunt the migratory buffalo
herds. Lakota’s culture, after the coming of horses, was built on the buffalos
that provided them with food, fuel, clothing, covering for their tipis, tools,
and other necessities of life.
A long time ago, Lakota people lived beneath the
earth. When their leader, Tokahe, heard that there was a place above them with
much light, he spoke up, “Let us leave the underworld and seek light.”
But there was a wise man, Tatanka, he warned them, “Life
will be much harder on the outside. Stay where you are.”
Tokahe ignored the warning and led his people up
from the underworld. Once they reached a cave called Wind Cave and came out,
the way behind them closed. So they knew they had to make this new world their
home.
Lakota people enjoyed the beauty of the new world,
the light of the sun during the day and the brightness of the moon and stars at
night. But they also felt the heat and dryness of the summer and the snow and
coldness of the winter. Food was difficult to find. It seemed as the people
would not survive.
Tatanka, the holy man who had warned them about
this, took pity on them. He decided to sacrifice himself in order to save the
people. He changed his form to a great shaggy beast known as buffalo, so that
people could hunt.
“Use every part of me,” he said. “The meat will keep
you strong, the hide will keep you warm, and the bones can be used to create
spoons, shovels, knives and more.”
Then, from one animal many multiplied crossing the
plains in great herds.
The people learned how to use skin for furs to cover
their bodies and to make coverings for their lodges. They used bones for
domestic purposes as well as for building sled runners.
And so it was that Tatanka’s gift saved his people
and the Lakota became known as the Buffalo Nation.
Source: The Girl Who Helped Thunder and Other Native
American Folktales by James Bruchac and Joseph Bruchac
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