As a storyteller I always pause when I consider
sharing a Native American story on this blog.
I do not tell these stories myself for I am not of that culture and so
much has dishonored their traditions during the early recording of these
stories by “white men.” Yet many of
these stories would have been long forgotten if not recorded in some fashion by
the anthropologists and ethnographers of old.
The first version I found of this story was by George A. Dorsey in
his 1905, two volume book “The Cheyenne.” This is the version found on the
Internet and within several compilations of folktales (including Jane Yolen’s “Gray
Heroes”). I thought to include it but then did some research on Dorsey. I
discovered some criticism that he might have engaged in grave robbing, so I
looked further. Fortunately, I found another version written about the same
time by George Bird Grinnel (“Early Cheyenne Tales.” 20 Journal of American
Folklore,169-194 (Jul-Sept. 1907)). Grinnel
spent much time with the Cheyenne, Blackfoot, and Pawnee tribes and wrote books
and articles about their stories and culture.
I was impressed to find him mention that there were stories that could
not be told. According to Cheyenne custom, only certain people can tell certain
stories and even then, they can only share what has been deemed appropriate to
share. His is the version that I will share, for this wise and powerful grandmother offers much to us today.
The next day they [the Cheyenne] camped near a
little knoll, where a spring came out of the rock. This spring is called
"Old Woman's Water." They
camped near this spring with the opening of the camp towards it. There was a
fine place for the camp in the plain there. There was a little brush near the
spring. Nothing happened that night.
In the morning two sets of hoops and sticks were
taken to the center of the camp, and they rolled them there and gambled on the
game. Two games were going on. They selected the head of the hunting party as
one of the men to keep the count. While they were gambling, a man came from the
right side of the camp to the center, where they were playing. He was naked
except for his breech cloth and was painted yellow all over and striped down
with the fingers; on his breast was a round circle, in red, and on the back a half-moon
of the same color. His face under his eyes was painted black, and there was a
red stripe around his wrists and ankles; he had a yellow down feather on his
scalp-lock and wore his robe hair side out. He stood for a time and watched
them playing. While he stood there, a man came from the left side of the camp,
whose paint and dress were just the same as his. While they were rolling the
wheel, the man who had come from the right said to the players, "My
friends, stop for a moment." He walked toward the other and asked him to
come towards him, so they met in the center of the camp and stopped a short
distance apart. They stood facing each other, and the first one said to the
other, "Why do you imitate me? This is spiritual paint." The second
said, "Mine also is spiritual paint." The game had stopped, and all
the players were listening.
The first man said, "Who gave you your
spiritual paint, and where did you get it? " The other replied, " Who
gave you yours? " The first man pointed to the spring and said, "My
paint came from there (meaning that at the spring he was instructed to paint
himself in that way). The other said, " Mine also came from the
spring." Then first man said, "Let us do something for the hunters,
the old men, old women, young men, young women, girls and boys." And the
second said, "Yes, let us do so." By this time everyone in the camp
was listening. So, the first man said again, "Soldiers of all societies,
every one of you shall feel happy this day," and the other said,
"Yes, you shall all feel happy this very day." The first speaker
walked toward the spring, and the other followed close behind him. When he came
to the spring, he covered his head with his robe and plunged under the water
into the opening out of which the spring came. His friend followed him closely
and did the same thing. All the people in the camp watched them and saw them go
in.
The first man came up under the spring, and there under the knoll sat a very old woman. As he stepped in, she said to him, "Come in, my grandchild." She took him in her arms; held him for a few minutes and made him sit down at her left side. As the other man came in, she said again, "Come in, my grandchild." She took him in her arms, held him for a minute, and set him on her right side. Then she said to both of them, "Why have you not come sooner? Why have you gone hungry for so long? Now that you have come here, I must do something for your people." She had near her two old-fashioned earthen jars. She brought them out and set them down before her and also brought out two earthen dishes; one was filled with buffalo meat, and one with corn. She said, "Come, my children; eat the meat first." They ate it very fast, for it was very good; but, when they had eaten all they could, the dish was still full; it was the same way with the corn. They could not empty the dishes; they were full when the men stopped. They were both satisfied, but the dishes did not show that they had been touched.
The old woman untied the feathers they had on
their heads and threw them in the fire. She painted each man with red paint;
striped him, and repainted his wrists and ankles, and the sun and moon, yellow;
then she stretched her hand out over the fire and brought out two down feathers
painted red and tied them to their scalp-locks. After that, she pointed to her
left and said, "Look that way." They looked and could see the earth
covered with buffalo. The dust was flying up in clouds where the bulls were
fighting. Then she said, "Look this way " (pointing partly behind
her), and they saw immense cornfields. She said, "Look that way"
(pointing to the right), and they saw the prairie covered with horses. The
stallions were fighting and there was much movement. She said, "Look that
way again," and they saw Indians fighting. They looked closely, and among
the fighters recognized themselves, painted just as they were then. She said,
"You will always be victorious in your fights; you will have good fortune
and make many captives. When you go away from here, go to the center of your
village; call for two big bowls and have them wiped out clean. Say to your
people, women, and children and all the bands of the societies, “We have come
out to make you happy; we have brought out something wonderful to give you.
Tell your people that when the sun goes down, I will send out buffalo.” To each
of the young men she gave some corn tied up in sacks and told them to divide
this seed among the people. She told them to take some of the meat from the
dish with one hand and some corn with the other and sent them away. So, they
passed out of her lodge and came out of the water of the spring.
All the people of the village were sitting in a
circle watching the spring. The two young men walked on together to the center
of the village, where the one who had first appeared said, "Old men, old
women, young men, young girls, I have brought out something that is wonderful.
Soldiers, I have brought out something wonderful for you. When the sun goes
down, the buffalo will come out." The other young man repeated these
words. The first man stood ahead, and the other right behind him. The first man
said, "I want two wooden bowls, but they must be clean." A young man
ran to the right and another to the left to get the bowls. They set one down on
each side of him, and with his right hand he put the meat in the right-hand
bowl, and with his left hand he put the corn into the left-hand bowl. The bowls
became half full. The other man did the same, and the bowls were filled.
Just before leaving the old woman, she had said,
"The medicine hunter is to eat first," so the medicine hunter
performed the ceremony making a sacrifice of a piece of the meat at the four
points of the compass - and the first man said to him, "Eat all you
can."
The old woman had told them that the oldest men
and women were to eat first. They all ate, first of the meat and then of the corn;
then the young men, young women, and the children ate, but the pile in each
dish remained nearly the same. After that the people in the camp ate all they
could, and after all had eaten there was but little left. At the last came two
orphans, a boy, and a girl; they both ate, and when they had finished the meat
was all gone and also the corn. It was just as the young men had said, everyone
was happy, for now they had plenty to eat.
As the sun went down, all the village began to
look toward the spring. After a time, as they watched, they saw a four-year-old
bull leap out. He ran a little distance and began to paw the ground, and then
turned about and ran back and plunged into the spring. After he had gone back,
a great herd of buffalo came pouring out of the spring and all night long they
could hear them. No one went to sleep that night, for the buffalo made too much
noise. Next morning at sunrise the earth, as far as they could see, was covered
with buffalo. That day the medicine hunters went out and brought in all the
meat they could eat.
The village camped there all winter and never
lacked food. Toward spring they sent out two young men to look for moist ground
to plant the seed in, for the old woman had told them that it must be planted
in a damp place. They divided the corn seed; everyone got some, for there was
enough for all. They made big caches in the earth to hold the meat they had
dried, and then went to the place the young men had found and planted the seed.
They made holes with sticks and put the seed in the ground. Sometimes when they
were planting the corn, they would go back to get their dried meat, for the
buffalo had moved to another place. Once, when they returned with their dried
meat, they found that some of the seed had been stolen, and they thought that
it was the Pawnees or the Arickarees - and that that was the way these tribes
got their corn.
There is much more to unpack in this story about
the Cheyenne culture for the story is filled with symbolism and reference to
spiritual beliefs, but I’m not learned enough to do so. Here is the little I do
know. There were two branches to the
Cheyenne tribe (the northern and the southern Cheyenne), and these were often
represented in stories by two young men or culture heroes. One is called Sweet Medicine or Sweet Root or
Sweet Root Sanding and the other is called Red Tassel, Straight Horns, or
Standing on the Ground. Each helped feed their people through a time of
starvation. They moved into southwest Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas, where
they planted corn and built permanent villages. After they had acquired horses, the Northern
Cheyenne went to live in Montana and Wyoming, while the Southern went to
Oklahoma and Colorado. This story
references the move of the Cheyenne from an agrarian existence to becoming
hunters. This is thought to have
occurred in the 18th century.
Julian C. Rice writes that Sweet Root is an
orphan. His creative soul is free of
conventional authority and identity. His name suggests “the source of all
creative development, both the male and female principles, and especially the
idea of spiritual nourishment, since the “sweet root” stimulates the flow of
mother’s milk. The teller of stories
about Sweet Root sprinkled sacred sage upon a hot coal and purified his body in
the smoke before beginning.”
The Great Spirit of the Cheyenne tribe is known
as Maheo. He named the earth as the
Grandmother. When the two young men enter,
the old woman greets and embraces each in turn. She asks “Why have you not come
sooner? Why have you gone hungry so
long?” It’s a question we might ask
ourselves today as we face one natural disaster after another due to climate
change. Why have we not come sooner? Why
haven’t we asked “Grandmother earth” for her advice? Why do we choose to suffer
instead?
The two young men want to do something for the
“hunters, the old men, old women, young men, young women, girls and boys.” They
don’t come for themselves. This is a
spiritual quest, and they are marked in spiritual paint. In the story,
Grandmother loves all her creations and wants to help. “I must do something for
your people,” she says. She shares a prophecy of their future filled with
horses and buffaloes and of their success when fighting neighboring tribes.
Finally, she brings forth a never-ending supply of buffalo meat and corn to
feed the people. Each eats according to their status, the medicine hunter
first, the oldest to the youngest and lastly the two orphans.
At sundown the buffalo appears, and, in the spring, they plant the seeds. In one version of the story the tribe fails to honor the words of the Grandmother. They let others steal their seeds, so they lose their ability to raise corn. They must now live on the plains and hunt bison. Grandmother is loving and kind. She’s willing to help if they will only ask. But asking requires humility. It also requires respect. Grandmother earth is powerful. She knows exactly what to do. The two young men come to her. They dress as the spring has asked them to. They have followed her words and are worthy of her counsel. They embrace the old woman and in doing so they show her the love and respect she is due. In return she offers them food enough for all the people. Perhaps Grandmother earth would do the same today, if we would only ask and listen for her reply.
"Old men, old women, young men, young girls, I have brought out something that is wonderful. I have come to make you happy!"
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