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Iktomi. Children I’m going to tell you all about Iktomi…who he is…what he does…what he won’t do…and how he tricks you. But you must always remember one thing that is most important of all. Iktomi is not always a mythical character of fairy tale. Iktomi is real. Iktomi lives in me. Iktomi lives in you.
A little short story about one of my daughters one time. I live way out in the country, and so on snowy days my oldest boy goes to one school way over here. The second boy goes to school in town here and a youngest daughter, she goes to school in Rosebud. So there are three different Suburbans that come to the house.
Well, one snowy day the oldest boy is peaking out the window watching for a vehicle. He’s looking up and down the road, and he sees one coming. He’s watching it pull into the yard.
“Little sister it’s your ride!”
So the youngest girl goes out, and then just as quickly she comes back in, and with a very straight face she looks at her brother and says,
“That’s not my ride. It’s your ride.”
The brother quickly grabs his books and his sports bag and he runs out the door, and little sister lets out a big smile, and she says,
“That was my ride. I forgot something in my room.”
When she comes back out, he comes back in. He ran out and he jumped in that suburban and there were just little children all in that van. When he comes in he’s very angry and he wants to bop his little sister one.
I said, “Don’t you touch her.”
That evening at dinner, I tell my little daughter,
“Today, my girl you were Iktomi.”
“Huh uh.”
“Yes you were. Iktomi likes to trick people. And when he makes them look foolish, Iktomi likes to laugh. So today, this morning, you tricked your brother. You tricked your brother. When he felt like he was made a fool of, you just laughed. So Iktomi was in you. You were Iktomi today.” S
So people will tell you things. People always tell you things, and you have to think about this. Is he telling me… is she telling me the truth or are they trying to fool me? You must always think about these things. Iktomi will try to trick you. Someone’s going to try to trick you. Is Iktomi with this person…in my friend trying to get me in trouble…make it sound so nice and so good but I could get in trouble for it?
Iktomi will. He plays many roles. He can be nice and call you little sister. He’ll call you little brother. Iktomi can be a girl. Iktomi can be a grandma, a grandpa. Iktomi is everywhere. Iktomi’s just not a make-believe character. Iktomi lives in all of us. Iktomi teaches us by these stories on things that we know we must learn from them…what is right and what is wrong. So these Iktomi stories…when I talk to you about these stories, you think about them and say, “What do I learn from this Iktomi story?”
Children, I’m going to share with you a little story about some meadowlarks.
Here was this nest…a mother meadowlark. She had three little baby birds. Now meadowlark, they build their nests on the ground amongst the weeds. So here she is with her babies, and then not hearing anything, all of a sudden they find a huge snake had wrapped itself around their nest. But the mother was very calm and she says to the eldest one,
“Oh, my! Son, you did not tell me that your uncle was here. My brother is here. Quickly go in…borrow! I don’t have a big enough pot to make all this food for him. I must feed him. Go and borrow a pot.”
And they had not really learned to fly yet, but she nudges to one,
“Go and get a pot…a big one.”
And the snake is curled around there, and he’s watching them. So she’s making chitchat talking to the snake… “How are you today? These are my children. Where is that one that’s supposed to bring my pot back? You, brother, go and hurry him up, would you?”
And she pushed him out of the nest and he flies away. She knows the youngest one, the littlest one is too tiny, so she cradles that one and she’s talking to the snake. And she curls that one underneath her and she puts her claw into his wing holding on. And she distracts,
“Oh, perhaps the others are coming.”
She looks. The snake shifts his eyes just for a moment…That give the mother meadowlark just a split second time. It’s all she needed. Up she darts away. if you ever see a meadowlark, how quickly they can leave the ground and fly into the air very fast. And she hollers back at him,
“Now you old snake, now you can find someone else who will cook for you,” she says.
Hi kids! I want to share with you another iktomi story.
Here he was. Iktomi was walking along on this breezy day, and it was hot so he got out his handkerchief. He shakes it out and the wind takes it out of his hands. He reaches for it, but it flies up into the tree and gets caught up in a branch. Ikto says,
“How am I going to get my handkerchief down?”
And here comes this nice looking young man. He has on a real nice buckskin shirt, leggings, beautiful moccasins. He had a beaded necklace on. Iktomi says,
“Hello, little brother! You look very nice today”
“I am sad,” Iktomi says.
The young man says, “Why are you sad?”
“My handkerchief… it blew up into the tree. My arms are not strong enough to get me to go get my handkerchief.”
“Maybe I can help you.”
“Yes. You’re young, you’re strong. You could do it for me. But look how you are dressed.”
“Why look at these clothes. They are very nice clothes. Why should you mess them up. I will watch them for you. Take them off and pile them here and go up and get my handkerchief for me.”
The young man says, “Sure. OK.”
So he takes off all his clothes…lays them down.
Iktomi’s looking at them, “Oh these are nice.”
The young man says, “What’s that?”
Iktomi says, “Oh, just be careful. Be careful as you’re going up. Don’t you fall from there.”
The young man is going higher and higher up into the tree. And as he rounds the tree to get up even higher, Iktomi looks up and says, “Thank you!”
“Thank you? I haven’t got your handkerchief yet.”
“No, for the fine clothes!”
And he takes the clothes and runs off with all those nice new clothes.
I would like to share another story about Iktomi who had on these very, very nice clothes…Who was very proud of himself and he always thought he was the one who could do everything the best. Gambling, horseback riding, games, hunting…everything…he was always the best. He could out-shoot, out-run, out-swim… he could do everything. Everything was the best. Nobody could beat him.
He went to a village one day. They were gambling, and some of the men thought they would take their chance. Iktomi was there. And he’s gambling…having a great time. It got way late into the night and many of the guys who were gambling, the others, they said,
“It’s late. We want to get some sleep.”
“OK. I won enough from you anyway.”
So Iktomi packs his horse up and there’s a path on the way home. So he’s following this path in the moonlight going home. He knows the way home. He can’t ride his horse because he has all his winnings tied onto his horse. And as he gets up around this path he stops. There up ahead there’s a man standing there. He’s pointing at him. So Iktomi says,
“Are you pointing at me? Are you pointing at me?”
But the man says nothing.
“Yes, you’re pointing at me aren’t you? You can stop pointing at me. Why are you pointing at me?”
He was getting a little nervous.
“Why are you pointing at me? Stop pointing at me. Oh. I know what it is. You want to play the pointing game. I know the pointing game. I can point longer than you can. OK let’s play.”
So Iktomi puts out his hand. He’s pointing and pointing.
“There, you see? I can point too. I can point longer than you. You might as well quit.”
But the other is standing there pointing at him.
Iktomi says, “You can quit anytime you want to.”
Pretty soon Iktomi says, “You know, I don’t want you to stand there all night pointing. You should go home and rest. Stop pointing because I’m not going to stop until you are done. I win at everything. You should know who I am. I win at everything.”
He put his hand up because his arm is getting tired.
“You can stop pointing now because I’m not going to stop.”
But the other one is still standing there pointing at him. Pointing and pointing. And Iktomi is getting tired.
“I’m getting tired.”
“Are you tired now? I am not tired.”
“I wish he would stop.”
“You can stop and go home now.”
Iktomi is so tired now. He has to always brace his arm up. Slowly the sun comes up and iktomi looks very closely because there’s an old dead tree with just one branch on it. That branch is pointing like this. Iktomi had a game with the pointing tree and he lost.
How the Prairie Chicken Got Red Eyes
Grandchildren, I want to share a story with you today about how the prairie chickens got their red eyes. You know, Iktomi isn’t just a story.
Iktomi was walking along one day and he was going across the prairie. He went through the ravines, over the hills…and then he sees this body of water. As he gets closer and closer to this water he sees all of these prairie chickens along the water’s edge. You could see them by the water and they are there dancing.
Iktomi’s thinking to himself, “Oh how wonderful a prairie chicken would taste today.”
He thinks up a plan. He takes off his robe he lays it down on the ground, and he picks up buffalo chips…buffalo chips… many of them. He bundled them up and put them over his shoulder. And then he’s walking along going close to where the prairie chickens are at and they see him. They see him and they’re ready to fly away and they say,
“Wait. He doesn’t see us.”
But the others say, “He knows we’re here. It’s Iktomi.”
“No, what is that he’s carrying?”
“I don’t know. Ask him.”
“Iktomi!! Hey Iktomi!! What do you have?”
He goes on.
“Iktomi, what do you have in your bundle there?”
“Leave me. Leave me alone. I’m in a hurry. I’m in a hurry.”
“Iktomi, what is it do you have?”
“Well, if you must know, these are new songs that I have created for some people way up north, and I’m in a hurry to get them up there. So leave me be.”
“Iktomi, share with us one song.”
“No time, no time.”
“Ikto, come on please? Just one song.”
“Well if it will make you be quiet. But we have to do something. You see all the sticks and branches about? Go around and pick up all the sticks…as many as you can gather. There are a lot of you. We can do this quickly. Go. Go.”
So they go and pick up all of these long sticks.
“Put them around in a circle. All around in a circle. Bend them over and we will make the roof on top too. And over here.”
He picks up a stick and says, “Right here. Here, a small door.”
“You know, when we go in there, and I sing my song, I don’t want my songs, my voice, to go out across the prairie where someone else is going to take the song. It’s a new song.”
“OK.”
So they do this. All the sticks are close together.
“Quickly! Go inside!” And he’s looking at them.
“Oh these prairie chickens are nice and thick.”
They go in, and he goes in, and he stands by the door.
“OK. I have to tell you that this is the song that I’m going to sing that you have to dance with your eyes closed. If anyone of you open your eyes as I am singing this song, your eyes are going to turn red. You don’t want that to happen. OK. Now you promise.”
“Yes, we promise.”
“OK.”
So Iktomi begins….(Lakota songs)… And so the prairie chickens are dancing.
“Close your eyes tight.”
And they’re dancing. Their eyes are tight and they’re tightly closed. He has a stick nearby. He picks up his stick.
(Lakota song with claps).
They hear a noise, and one of them starts thinking, “What is that noise?”
One of them starts to open his eyes and looks out, and Iktomi is hitting them over the head one by one. He’s knocking them out, and he’s knocking them out. The one opens his eyes, and he looks up, and he says,
“Fly away! Fly away! Get out! Get out! He’s going to kill all of us!”
But he gets a lot of them. And the rest all get away.
Today if you see a prairie chicken and you see them up close, their eyes are going to be red.
Cooking the Prairie Chickens
He picked up all of these, after he shook the buffalo chips off his robe, and he was pulling them out of that makeshift hut, putting them into his robe.
“Oh look at this! Nice and plump. They will be delicious.”
He puts in as many as he thinks he can carry, and he puts it over his shoulder. And he’s going, but he’s tired, he’s tired.
“That was a lot of work. Oh there’s a tree, I think I’ll rest.”
But he’s looking at his bundle. They’re all tied up with prairie chickens.
“I’m hungry. I think I will cook those prairie chickens right now.”
And so, he digs a hole. He digs and digs a big hole. And he goes and gathers the firewood. And he lays those prairie chickens down on the robe side-by-side.
“Oh look at this. Nice and fat. That’s going to be delicious.”
He lays a row. And he puts on more firewood. And then he lays another row. He lays them and covers them with some soft dirt…covers them all up, and he builds a fire. He builds a big fire up around these. He sits back.
“This is going to take a little while. But it’s going to be worth it. They’re going to be delicious.”
The wind starts to blow a little bit. And that tree he’s under…the two branches up there are rubbing… squeaking noise…irritating.
Iktomi says, “Little brothers don’t play like that. It’s irritating. Don’t play like that.”
But they continued.
“That squeaking sound…I asked you not to do that. Don’t do that. It’s not nice.”
But they continued to rub.
Iktomi says, “Little brothers I’m just going to have to straighten you out.”
And so he reaches his arms up into the branches, and he’s going to snap that one off that is making all that noise. And yet suddenly the wind stops. And the branches close in on his wrist. And he pulls. And he pulls.
He says, “Ha ha! Let me go! Let me go. Come on! I said let me go! Let me go! I have some cooking down here. I am cooking ducks little brother. Let me go!”
But try as he could, he could not pull his arm loose.
“Let me go!” And he says, “Who’s that?”
And it’s coyote. Coyote is coming. The ground is hot and the ground is steamy. And from that fire there’s this wonderful smell of pheasants cooking.
“Why does your fire smell so good?”
“Don’t you mind that. Just be on your way. I’ve got nothing here. I’m not cooking anything.”
“Did you say cooking?”
“No. No no no. I don’t have any prairie chickens.”
“Prairie chickens, did you say prairie chickens?”
“I don’t have any prairie chickens.” (To the tree…“Let go of me. Let go of me.”)
“Get away from there. There’s nothing there.”
Coyote is smart. He looks. “Ah ha! They must be underground.”
And so he clears away the fire. And he starts to dig under the dirt with a stick.
“Here it is. Look at this. All the prairie chickens are just nice and tenderly cooked.”
Oh coyote is having a feast, and iktomi is caught in the tree.
“You there! Get away! Those are mine! Get away!”
But coyote is having a feast. Oh he’s having such a feast.
“Whoa. That was delicious. Well I guess that’s all of them.”
He gets set to leave. And Ikto says, “Yes go. Be on your way. I’m glad you didn’t eat all of them.”
Coyote says, “Oh there’s more?”
“No, no, there’s no more.”
Coyote says, “You’re a shrewd person Iktomi.”
He digs a little more. And he finds the second layer.
“Oh,” he says, “I think I can handle this too.”
So he tears into it. He digs and digs and eats and eats. And he eats and he eats.
Oh Iktomi is mad. But coyote gets his full.
“Well I better get going.”
Iktomi is mad. Coyote goes off.
(To the tree…) “You see what you caused? Now I have no pheasants.”
And then the wind picks up, and they let go. But coyote had taken the dirt in the ashes and he had covered everything up. But he had taken the legs of the prairie chickens and he stuck them down upside down into the ground. So ikto comes around. He wasn’t watching. He couldn’t see everything that coyote was doing. Here’s one. But all he pulls up was a leg…just a claw. And he’s just pulling up claws. “He has tricked me! He’s got them all. Whoever eats my food will surely die,” he said.
And that’s the end of that story.
Iktomi Gets Revenge
And so now, children I’m going to tell you another story about Iktomi and how he gets revenge. Or he thinks he gets revenge.
Iktomi is wandering off the direction he thought coyote went thinking he was maybe caring some prairie chickens or he might have dropped some. He was hungry. And he comes to this shady tree over. He sees something laying there, and there is coyote, just laying as plump as can be. – sound asleep – sound asleep – or so he thinks. But coyote had seen him coming and he says,
“I’m too full to run away. I can’t run away. I’ll pretend that I am dead.”
So he flops down on the ground and he just lays there and breathes very lightly – like he’s dead.
Ikto comes over, “I told you anyone who eats my food is going to die.”
And he kicks him. Coyote just lays there. He lifts his arm up, drops it, and his arm just falls down.
“Yeah he over ate, and he killed himself. Well maybe I could feast on what’s inside of him.”
He built a fire quickly. He built a fire quickly and he goes to dragging coyote by the back legs. And coyote is being drug towards that fire. And he gets them close and he says,
“I don’t know if I should say a prayer for you. I don’t know what words to say for you except that anyone who eats my food will die.”
And just as he’s going to pick up coyote and throw him on to the fire, coyote swivels around and he bites Iktomi. And he swivels around with a big skirmish, and he knocks Iktomi into the fire. And coyote runs off in the other direction howling and laughing away. And Iktomi is fighting and fighting getting out of that fire and he’s a terrible mess. Smudged fire on him…smudged black marks and ashes…he’s a mess. Well, that’s all he could get to eat that day.
Iktomi and the Lizard Children
I would like to share another story with you today children, about Iktomi who was walking along and he didn’t look very happy. He was very sad. Coyote had taken all his food. He had gotten himself all burnt. He was sad angry…hungry. Then he heard this laughing.
“Why are people laughing? There’s nothing to be happy about.”
He sits down in his sadness.
“They should stop laughing. There’s nothing to be happy about. I lost everything. I’m sad. I’m so sad. Why are they still laughing? Maybe I will go see.”
Curiosity always gets the best of Iktomi. So he goes and near this little creek…this little river…he peaks through the bushes and there’s all of these little lizards. Lizards. They’re playing along the riverbank. They’re taking these little small rocks…they’re taking them up on the bank. One would get on one, and then slide on the rock and go down into the water.
They’re screaming and they’re laughing. They’re having a great time. And Iktomi is watching them saying,
“Oh, they get to have all the fun. Me, I’m so sad. I wish I could play like them. Oh I want to play like them. But who’s watching over them? Oh grandpa is there.”
Over under the tree in the shade grandpa is sitting back watching over all of these children. They’re all having a good time taking their little rocks up and sliding down. Screaming – splashing in the water – so Iktomi goes over to grandpa and he says,
“Grandpa, grandpa, can I play with the kids? Can I play with the children?”
“No Iktomi. This is not for you. These are not your ways. Go. Be on your way wherever you were going.”
“Grandpa, please? Grandpa, just one time, please?”
“Iktomi, I said no. This is not for you. Just go along. Go along your way.”
“Grandpa, please,” Iktomi was just about ready to cry. Well he is crying, and he is saying,
“Please! I want to have fun with the children. Please! Just one time.”
So grandfather finally says, “OK, Iktomi, just one time and on your way. I’m watching you.”
“Thank you, grandfather.”
He goes, and he runs around the kids, and he picks up a flat stone. He runs up and he says,
“Look out! Here I come!”
And sure enough he slides down and he splashes into the water. He’s laughing.
“This is fun. This is really fun. Grandpa I’m going to do it one more time.”
“Ikto, no.”
“Grandpa I’m going to do it one more time. Then I’ll go.”
He gets another one just a little bit bigger. And he goes up. He comes down,
“Hey!!!” Then he splashes into the water. “This is such great fun. You know what? I’m going to make this my game. Get away this is my game now.”
And he gets a huge rock.
Grandfather says, “Iktomi! Iktomi, no!!”
“No, this is my game grandfather. This is my game now.”
He takes this huge rock. He’s huffing and puffing. He takes it up to the top of the bank there. And he gets on.
“Get away! Get away! Get away!”
And he pushes off, and here he comes. Screaming and hollering down the hill. Then he doesn’t see this little branch sticking out of the sand. And the rock hits it. And the rock stops. Iktomi falls forward and whap! The rock smashes him.
All the kids are screaming and grandfather says, “Come on kids! Come on children! Let’s go home!”
And they all scatter away. Iktomi is flat as a pancake under that rock because he didn’t listen.
Each goer is in his village, and it’s early morning. He hears all this commotion outside.
He hears all this commotion, people hollering and running. They’re going somewhere.
He peeks out of his tipi and, What’s going on? What’s going on here?
He says.
They’re calling all the warrior societies down to the middle of the camp.
We’ve been attacked from the other side of the camp here. They want warrior societies down there right now.
Each goer goes back in his tipi and he says, Today’s going to be my warrior day. Today I am going to be a warrior. I’m going to go with one of those warrior societies, and I’m going to help. There’s been some children and some women that have been taken captive. I’m going to go join and help. He goes down there. He goes down there and stands up amongst them warriors. Each goer, what are you doing here? The leader says, I want to help. I want to help. I’m going to go with one of the warrior societies. Those other warriors are looking away from him.
I’m not taking him, they’re thinking.
He ain’t going with us, they’re saying.
He’s a big goof up, so they don’t want to take him. He causes trouble.
They don’t want to take him. Each goer, you’re not going to go.
Come on, I want to go. I can be a good warrior. I want to help save those women and children. It’s my duty as a Lakota. I have to join a warrior society.
They kept talking. One of the warrior societies leader comes over. Each goer, we have enough men. Most of us are all going. I am going. I’m going to lead these. But I am leaving my women, my wife and my children home. You know, each goer, you could really honor me if you stay home and you protect my wife, protect my children.
You would very honor, highly honor me if you could do that for me. Each goer looks at him and says, okay, yeah.
Yeah, I could stay behind. I’ll protect the women and children. I’ll protect them. I’ll watch over the children.
So the chief announces that they’re leaving there.
Each goer is staying over here to watch over all of you.
These children all look up at each goer.
I’m going to watch you kids.
These children all look at him, and then they all just turn and scatter, run off in different directions.
And the women look at each goer and say, he’s not going to take care of us.
Each goer is saddened by this.
Well, they don’t want me to watch them either. And as he’s walking along, he finds himself walking out of camp.
He’s going out of camp, and he’s very sad.
They don’t want me to be a warrior, but I want to be a warrior.
They don’t want me in their warrior societies. I’ll make my own warrior society. That’s what I’m going to do.
I’ll make my own warrior society.
And as he’s going along, all of a sudden he trips on something.
I see that rock there in my path. Oh, wait a minute.
Oh, little brother, Turtle. Well, I’m sorry I didn’t see you there. How are you doing, little brother? I didn’t see you. I’m sorry. Hey, you know what? I’m going to, I’m building a warrior society, and you can help me. You can be part of my warrior society.
Turtle looks at him and says, me?
Part of your warrior society?
I don’t think so. Come on, you know, you’re already protected.
They shoot arrows at you. Look, you got your armor on. You got your shield. He said, yeah, I do. You can move out into the enemy’s territory. Their arrows will just bounce off of you.
So he’s really bragging enough to that Turtle, saying, yeah, yeah.
I probably would make a good warrior.
Well, come on, join me. You’ll be one of my lieutenants.
So Turtle and him are going along.
He said, well, Turtle says, is it just the two of us?
No, we’re going to get some more.
Wait, what’s that noise?
What’s that noise?
That’s Mr. Turkey over there.
Looks over, oh, Transheet, cousin, come here, come here.
Turkey comes over and he says, I am building a warrior society, a mighty, powerful warrior society, and I have selected you to join us. Turkey looks at him and says, me? How can I help your warrior society? Because you speak a language that the enemy does not know. You could go in amongst them and signal back to us where they’re located, what they’re doing. You teach me those sounds, we can communicate.
They’ll never know. So, yeah, yeah, I do speak different. Then join me. So Turkey says, okay, yeah, I can, I’ll be your spy.
So there goes the three of them marching along. Well, who else is there? By this time, a dragonfly’s coming by.
Little brother, little brother, come here, come here.
Turkey’s saying, him?
I could eat him for supper, he said.
But he said, no, he can help us. Look how fast he is. So he says, I’m building this warrior society and you’re gonna be one of my elite members from the air. You can fly over them, you’ll know where they’re at and you move so fast. Not an arrow can ever strike you, you are very fast. You’ll never get an arrow in you.
So dragonfly says, yeah, yeah, I can dodge any arrow.
Okay, so off they go, they’re marching along and all of a sudden somebody’s crossing the path over there.
Oh, I know who that is, he’s got a powerful weapon. Turkey says, no, no, no, no, no, no, you don’t want him. No, we need him.
Cousin, cousin skunk, come here, come here.
As he calls the skunk over, Turkey and him are backing off. I’m gonna keep my distance from this guy. You have a powerful weapon. I’m building a warrior society and we need your weapon to help us.
So the skunk says, okay, yeah, I can be dangerous if I need to be. So there they are, the Turkey and them following back and then they make camp that night and they’re talking about how they’re going to be successful.
They’re gonna overcome the warrior. They’re telling big stories.
They’re gonna, we’ll be heroes. They’ll be making songs about us and they’ll be, we’ll be honored. We’ll, all the other societies will be envious of us. They’ll be, they’ll be jealous of us.
They’re talking late into the night. Then they fell asleep. Then they fell asleep. Next morning, somebody was waking them, hollering around. So they wake up and here, they’re surrounded by the enemy. Oh no, and the enemy looks around and says, all right, who’s the leader here?
Who’s the leader here? And Turkey says, it’s not me. I’m not no leader. I think Iktomi is. Iktomi, who’s Iktomi?
So he is the skunk, everybody’s pointing at him.
No, I’m not their leader. Come on, talk to us. Talk to us, tell us, what are your secrets? Is this all of your army and do you have more? Do you have more warriors? You talk to us or we’re gonna put your feet in the fire.
And Iktomi doesn’t want this to happen.
He says, oh, please have pity on me. Have pity on me, he says.
He says, captain, if I tell you their secrets, you promise not to throw me in the fire?
Well, talk, speak. What is that turtle?
What kind of a weapon does he have? He said, you know, that turtle, he’s very afraid of water. He does not like to go deep into the deep part of the water because he’s heavy.
He’s gonna sink like a rock.
He’ll drown.
He never wants to go near water.
So they all surround the turtle.
You going to talk to us? Tell us. Where’s the rest of the warrior societies?
Where’s your camp? Turtle says, I don’t know anything.
Talk to us.
And they carry him and take him to the edge of the lake.
You don’t talk.
We’re going to throw you in the lake.
No, please, please don’t throw me in the lake. Please, I’ll drown. You don’t talk. I don’t know anything.
They throw him out into the lake, and he’s pretending, he’s bobbing around.
And then all of a sudden, he goes down under, goes down there, and he just swims back towards the shore. So now they say, well, grab that turkey.
Grab that turkey. So they grab that turkey, and they’re holding him. Then they go to each go, what is this one’s secret?
He can’t fly. He’s just scared of high cliffs. He never wants to be thrown off of a cliff. He’s very afraid of heights. So they take him to a high cliff.
You going to tell us where the camps are, where all the warrior societies are, what are your plans? I don’t know anything. Talk to us. Talk to us, or we’ll throw you off the cliff.
No, please, don’t throw me off the cliff. I don’t know anything.
He says, you’re not going to talk?
I don’t know anything. Throw him off.
So they threw him, and he spread his wings, and off he flies away. Off he flies away into the forest. OK, what about that dragonfly?
He goes, you know what? He can dodge one arrow. But if you were all to use arrows, 100 arrows, one after another at a time, he can never outfly all of the arrows all at once. You got a good point there, sis. You’re right.
Everybody, start shooting your arrows.
So dragonfly is up there, but he’s dodging every arrow.
And they’re exhausted, all of their arrows. Well, we’ll just have to get new arrows. But he’s so little, we won’t have to worry about him. What about that one there? What about that skunk?
Iktomi says, well, he’s very shy.
He’s very quiet.
And you know, it would embarrass him. It would embarrass him very much if anyone was to ever lift his tail and look at him.
What?
Pick his tail up, look at him once. He’ll die from embarrassment.
So two of you guys lift his tail up.
And one says, I’m not lifting his tail.
So the others all gather. Everybody gather around. We’re going to lift his tail up if he doesn’t talk.
So he doesn’t talk. So up goes the tail, and out comes the blast.
Everybody is screaming, oh, my eyes, I can’t breathe. My face is burning.
Iktomi and the others, they get their clubs, and they start beating everybody up. They got no arrows, and they knock them all out, and they tie them all up.
They tie them all up, and they take them captive back towards the camp. They had won the battle. And Ikutomi, some days, Ikutomi can be a warrior. And he had beaten the enemy with his warrior society. And so some days are lucky for Ikutomi, and he was honored for that one time in his life. Thank you.
There was a day when two young men, very good friends, one young man says, I have chosen to go on a journey on my own, for myself. And he leaves. He travels a great distance, through the hills, through the rivers, and comes to this river along the bank. He doesn’t want to take his horse down there, so he ties his horse up to a tree. And he walks carefully along the bank, following the steep side of the bank, going down towards the river. And he sits there to rest as he gets to the bottom. It’s a beautiful river, a shallow river.
And on the other side there’s this big dead oak tree that has fallen right below this hillside. And something catches his eye when he looks to the right. There’s that little boy, a little boy running through the trees, and has no clothes on. He’s coming and he’s sitting there in silence, watching this kid. He’s watching him. He comes and he goes over to that big tree that has fallen there, the big dead tree stump. He watches him, and the boy opens like a door. He parts it, and he goes in.
So the young man is astonished by this, and he sits back, and my eyes are playing tricks on me. He becomes afraid. I come to a place where I don’t feel good. He goes back and he gets his horse, and he finds his way home. Then one day at an appropriate time, he tells his very good friend, he says, you know, that time I went on my journey, this had happened. He explains to him what he had seen. And his friend is sitting there looking at him, and he says, you know, I want to tell you something, that I have been keeping a secret all my life.
I have been there, too. It’s a little bit different, but I think that little boy belongs to me. He doesn’t need to explain. Maybe you’ll go with me. I’ll go and I’ll go get my boy. The young man, the other young man says, I’ll go with you. Now his curiosity is up there. So they travel together, and he says, tonight I want to share with you a story of why I know this little boy is mine before we get there, because I want you to believe me, and I want you to help me.
And the young man, he’s your sister listening, he says, I was there the same way you went, but when I got there, and I sat along that bank, I was sitting along the edge of the bank with my legs dangling, and from that direction you saw the boy. I saw this beautiful young woman come in, and I watched her, and her clothing was different than ours, so I thought she was from another tribe, but she was alone. She knew I was there because she looked at me.
But I sat there, and I was looking at her, and she began to talk to me, and she came across that shallow river, and she sat down beside me, and we talked, and we talked. And she said, come home with me. And so I was taken by her beauty and her words. So I followed her, and we went to that dead tree, that big tree stump you saw laying there. She pulled back the bark, and there was an opening. She went in, and she said, come on in. Without question, I followed her in. The whole inside of that hill was a beautiful home.
The flowing was the softest of grass. It was beautiful. Along the walls was the bank of the hill, and there were openings, and she would reach into them, and she would bring out some very sweet food, and it was delicious. It was good. Each one, she had different foods. She fed me, and I stayed there with her for quite a long time. Then one day, I knew I had to leave. And so, in the night, I snuck away, and I came home. But now I know that little child is mine, because I stayed there with her that long. You must help me to get my son.
We’re going to go there, and I’m going to go in, and when I find my son, I’m going to bring him to the door. I want you to take him. Come back to the horses as quickly as you can.” They got there, and what he said was true. There was the little boy. He was playing outside. The boy went in. So the first one, he goes down there. He follows the boy in. The other is standing outside, waiting, waiting, looking around and waiting. Finally it opens, and he brings the boy out. Let us go. Together they take the little boy, and they return home.
They return home back to their village. And then one day, many days, weeks, months later, there’s a commotion at the other end of the village. People are hollering, and they’re screaming, and they’re running, running out of the camp, running through the village. What is it? What is it? And here comes this big female bear. She goes to a lodge. She looks in it. She goes to another lodge. She looks in it, sniffing the ground, standing up on her back legs, looking about, coming and coming, searching. And he knows she is searching for me.
The people are leaving the camp, the bear comes and comes, he goes into the lodge, he sits to the back in his lodge, with the little boy by his side. The bear comes to the teepee, puts her head into the doorway, and sees them, comes in, and sits down beside them, takes the little baby boy, cuddles the bear, the little boy in her arms, and just stays there. Time goes on, the bear stays, taking care of the little boy.
Some days she’ll go off, she’ll bring back honey, she’ll bring back plums, cherries, sweet foods, she’ll bring back rabbits, things to eat. So we would prepare and we would eat, and she lived with us, as if she were one of us. The people accepted her, she came and went as she pleased, and then one day, there was trouble, war parties were forming, and this man says, I’ll have to go with them. He prepares, his mother helps him to prepare, gets his weapons, prepares the food that he will take, prays with him, smudges him, encourages him.
The bear remains, taking care of the little boy, and off he goes. Well, he returns, he returns. Time goes on, years, and then something had happened with this man. He got sick, and he died, but before he died, he told his mother and his son, he said, I know, she understands me, but put me up on the scaffold, but do not adorn my scaffold with anything. We will know what to do, and leave the area, and so, time went on, he did pass away. People came, they cried in sorrow for him.
The bear came to the gravesite, under the scaffold, laid down there, under the scaffold. Through the night, you could hear the bear, grieving, and crying. The next day, the camp is preparing to move, as they began to leave, they go so far, and they look back, there she is, she’s laying under that scaffold, grieving, as the camp gets further, each time they look back, she stays there, she stays there under that scaffold, until they leave. She stays there, until her end, for that man, who she had a son with.
The young boy went with his grandmother, but those two, in the spirit world together, what do we learn from a story such as this? Ask yourself, what does it mean? What do I have to take away from this story? You’ll understand, when you think about it. Thank you.
Here’s a story that Joe Eagle Elk had shared with me a long time ago in the 1980s. He told me this story about how the people prayed before the coming of the sacred pipe. He talked about a village of our people a long, long time ago. In the middle of the winter, they began to realize that their food supply was dwindling down. And so they had to start rationing their food, smaller and smaller. Very little food left. Hunters went out, came back with nothing. In every direction, they went out. Nothing could be found.
And then one day, a stranger comes to the village. At the far edge of the camp, he’s brought to the center, to the chief’s lodge. And the chief says, bring him in. Bring some food. On a broad leaf, you have parcels of food. The chief gives it to him and he says, there is not much here, but I’m hoping that you don’t think that we are not generous people, but we don’t have very much, but we are willing to share with you what we do have. And the stranger says, I understand. Call from your young man, one of your honorable young warriors.
A young man is designated and brought. From that food, he takes a small pinch of every food item. He tears a piece of that broad leaf out and he puts it on there. And he tells the young man, on the north side of camp, on that hill, take this food up there. Face to the west. Say a prayer and offer this to all of the relatives who have gone on to the spirit world and to where this food comes from. Say a prayer. When you come back, we will eat. When the young man returns, he eats. They all have something and they visit through the night.
And as they are all retiring, the chief says to the stranger, tonight you will sleep in my lodge. The stranger thanks him and he says, I want to share with you something here and do this tomorrow because I will be gone before the camp wakes up. This place I am describing, you know where it’s at. Go there tomorrow with a small group of hunters and you will find there is enough food to get you through the winter. The chief thanks him, but as he’s going to sleep, he says to himself, you know, we’ve been all over these hills.
There’s no buffalo, no deer, no elk, no rabbits. But he thanks the stranger and the next morning, sure enough, the stranger is gone. Honesty.
Honesty was a way of life for our people. So he believed in this man. He gathered a small group of hunters and he went to this place that was described. And in that little valley, he found a small nursery herd of buffalo. There was enough there and more to get him through this harsh winter. To get him through that. And since that time, that little prayer offering has followed us down through the centuries. It came long before the coming of the white buffalo calf woman and the pipe.
Today in our gatherings, you will see in our celebrations, whenever we gather, a prayer is made. A spiritual prayer is made offering food to our relatives who have gone on to the spirit world before we eat. We always do this. In our own homes, we could take a little saucer and we put a little bit of food in there. We could smudge it with sage. And we give thanks. Because there was a time when, in this next story, I was talking about traditional nutrition. When your child comes to you and says, Mom, I’m hungry. Dad, I’m hungry. Grandma?
Grandma, I’m hungry. How do you address this child’s need? This child has a need for nutrition. How do you address this? And today, today, how do we find ourselves when many of us are guilty when we say, I’ve got no time to eat. Eat a bowl of cereal. Or we put a packet of bologna and bread on a table. Make a sandwich. Guilty? Well, for me, when I was growing up, when I’d go to my grandmother and say, Oonchee lawatchee, Grandma, I’m hungry. How did Grandma address my needs? Grandma would take whatever food items she’s going to prepare for me.
She has me sit down. And in a very gentle and pleasant way, maybe singing a little song or murmuring a prayer. She sends out her voice to, where did this food come from? The meat product came from a four-legged bean. The vegetables came from a rooted relative. She reaches out in spirituality and prayer, asking them, with your gift of nourishment, will you nourish my grandchild? So she is fulfilling my need for physical nutrition, as well as fulfilling my need for spiritual nutrition. How many of us do that today?
To take the time to think, where did this food come from?
Let’s talk about our history, something in our history that we all need to know. Sometimes we are afraid of our history. We don’t want to know it. I’ve come across this time and time again with young people who are afraid of history. Maybe the truth, from our perspective, these stories tell us something about what life has done to us and how we react to it, as all people do with any situation. The process of making decisions, emotions, we all have emotions that we all have to deal with every day.
From the moment you wake up feeling sad, lonely, maybe angry, puzzled, or maybe happy, joyful. Throughout our day, these emotions, we deal with them all day long and into our dreams. Life is emotions we have to cope with, coping with life. We need stories such as these to learn from, to guide us. So I’d like to share a couple of stories with you today. Now you be the listener, you be the listener and ask yourself, what does this mean to me? How do I, how do I learn from this? What does it tell me?
Each of us may have similar or different reasons for what this story could tell us. I want to talk about a time period in our homeland here, long, long time ago, maybe not so distant, but 1900s to the 1800s. In 1889, when this homeland of ours was still a big part where our people could still travel to go here and there, yes, yes, Western civilization was here and they brought their ways to us. We found ourselves lacking the buffalo, but with what Western civilization offered, we had to go to receive that.
And so their government told us, over here on Mni Shosha, the Missouri River, Mni Shosha was a place designated for our people to go to gather those rations, those commodities, as well as their monetary compensation from the treaty. Well, the government told the people, you may come there. We will bring them out to you, but you may come to gather rations. But if you should decide to, don’t everyone come at once. We will have plenty, but if you all come at once, we may not have enough all at one time.
So, come in groups, once every month or so, a few weeks apart. Well, one group, it was their turn to go. They arrived, they set up camp, they attended to them, put their lodges up, their horses, and got to camp. The men were eager to get down to the river, because they knew that they could trade, as well as receiving their commodities, their monetary compensation, they could trade for weapons, ammunition. And their women, the grandmothers, the mothers, they wanted that bright-colored cloth, so they could make bright-colored clothing.
They wanted the metal pots and pans, so they were eager. They set up camp, and the menfolk went down there, gathered their rations, going along, making their trade. And they come to these little places that were set up along the river, where these non-Indians were gambling. We have a word we saw, we call, t’xinsu. Now today it means playing cards. Well, they were playing cards. So the Lakota men watched. They watched and were interested. Then finally they were invited to join. So they sat down with their money, and they began to gamble.
They won some, and then they began to lose, winning, losing. And then that rotgut whiskey was put in front of them. So they drank, they gambled. Pretty soon they began to lose, because they were getting inebriated. They began to lose, they lost all their money. They gambled away their horses, their saddles, parts of their regalia, their weapons, but they had to have more. And so, as time went on, they began to gamble away more and more. They gambled away the commodities they came after, their horses, their wagons, their tipis.
One day the chief returns back from a little trip up north, and he sees the camp almost empty, just a few horses, a couple of tipis. Where are the men? The women say, they’re down to the river, they’re drinking and they’re gambling. The chief goes down there, he tells the men, get back to camp. When they get back to camp, he goes along and he asks the traders, we are hurting. We have women, children, elderly that need food. If you can help us with the food we lost, I will make sure that the next time we come that you will be paid in full in return.
But they said, no, you lost everything, fair and square, you can just leave. So he went back to his people and said, they won’t help. They won’t help us, but if we could leave now and make our journey back to the southern Black Hills.
Where we are going to winter camp, we know our people will help us and we will make it. But we have to get going now. And so, here’s this band of Lakota, many, many of them walking across the prairie from Anishosha to Missouri, back to the Black Hills. Today, that is quite a long walk. Well, what is now the half of the state of South Dakota? It was our reservation, the Great Sioux Reservation. Settlers, traders were here and there dotting the prairies, and so the Calvary were out here protecting.
This captain and his company of soldiers come upon this band of Lakota. Talking to the chief, he says, Chief, you look like you’re in sad shape here. And the chief says, Yeah. But we’ll be okay once we make it to the hills. And the captain, he says, Well, you know, Chief, I’ve got extra horses, wagons, and mules, and some army tents, and rations. And the chief says, I have nothing to trade. And the captain looks at him and says, Don’t be too hasty, Chief.
You know, I have been out here three years, and some of the men in my company just as long, if not longer. And if there’s one thing that we don’t have, you sure have plenty of. The chief says, What do you mean? Look at all the young women in your band. You let me and my men come amongst you and have any woman we want. We’ll give you anything you need. And the chief says, That’s the most disgraceful thing you can ask. And he goes back to his people. And he tells the people. And the people are angry, they’re hurt, they’re hungry.
And an elderly woman speaks, and she says, We have elderly that are getting sick. The children are hungry. We as Lakota people, when we do something, we do it for the people. This is what the girls must think about. Well, the next day a camp was set up. So the army came and went, came and went, having their day, their way with the women. And after a month, they quit coming. Because by then, every single girl was pregnant. And the chief says, Well, we have enough now. Horses, wagons, food, we’ll make it. We must get to our winter camp. We’ll be leaving.
But I am not taking these girls with me that are going to have half-breed babies. They stay. Anybody who wants to stay with them, that’s fine. The rest of us, we must go. And they leave. They make it to the southern hills and word gets out. Leaders are coming in. They are angry. They’re calling the council. Get some horses and wagons out there. Bring those girls in. Get them in here. When all is said and done, that council is gathered. Leaders are angry.
They want something to say to this leader for this most disgraceful thing that he did to his people. But the elder woman spoke first, and she said, The only ones of you that have anything to say are those of you who have not touched the white man’s alcohol or gambled the white man’s way. By then, we were all affected. And we look at ourselves today. And we ask ourselves, what happened to us? What happened?
Stories such as this touch my people in many, many different ways. I have been teaching for 25 years. I had young students come to me and ask me, Mr. Hollow Horn Bear, what you are sharing with us, is this the truth? I said, yes it is. Mr. Hollow Horn Bear, I’m angry. I can’t take this. I can’t just sit here and listen to this. I’m going to drop this class. Maybe I’ll come back next semester. It has happened. Students come back one semester, maybe the next semester, maybe three times.
I tell my people, my students, all of us, all of us, native and non-native, we must all process through a grieving cycle, a proper grieving cycle, to look back in our history and identify those very significant losses. Culture, traditions, children, spirituality, language, and the big one, land. And we must begin to process these in a proper way. the proper way, we find hope within ourselves. We find ourselves in the meaning of life.
We find spirituality, our religion, and going back, finding ourselves, finding our gift, working on that gift to make it better, stronger, to use that gift to help myself, my family, my people, this world, to give something back positively. But it’s difficult. It’s hard. When we know our history, that pains us. But we need to know it from our own perspective, not just from the glorifying moments of Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull. But turn the coin over.
Turn it over and see about some of the very hurtful decisions that we have also made pertaining to our people.