Myths and Legends of the Great Plains. Various
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were the Indians when the Thunder Gods rolled. Vows made to them must be kept, for relentless were they.
“Oh, grandfather,” prayed the Indian when the sky was black and the lightning flashed, as he filled a pipe with tobacco and offered it skyward, “Oh, grandfather! I am very poor. Somewhere make those who would injure me leave a clear space for me.” Then he put the sacred green cedar upon the fire—the cedar which stayed awake those seven nights and therefore does not lose its hair every winter—and the smoke from the sacred, burning wood, rolling upward, appeased the rolling Thunders.
The authorities used in this compilation are those found in the annual reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Publications of the United States Geographical and Geological Survey: contributions to North American Ethnology. Of the various ethnologists whose work has been used, those of especial importance are Alice C. Fletcher, whose wonderful work among the Omaha and Pawnee Indians is deserving of the most careful study, J. Owen Dorsey, James Mooney, and S. R. Riggs.
No claim whatever is made for original work. Indeed, original work of any kind in a compilation such as this would impair the authenticity of the myths, and therefore destroy the value of this work. Nor has any effort been made towards “style.” The only style worth having in telling an Indian legend is that of the Indian himself.
K. B. J.
Seattle, Washington.
ILLUSTRATIONS
| PAGE | |
| Bianki’s Vision | Frontispiece |
| Woman’s Costume | 32 |
| An Elderly Omaha Beau | 33 |
| Tattooing, Showing Conventional Design of the Peace Pipe | 42 |
| Bull Boat | 43 |
| German Knights and Indian Warriors | 56 |
| Rivalry over the Buffalo | 70 |
| Capture of a Wandering Buffalo | 71 |
| Five Chiefs of the Ogalla Sioux | 84 |
| Old Horse | 85 |
| Siouan Tents | 96 |
| An Arapahoe Bed | 97 |
| Indian Scaffold Cemetery on the Missouri River | 110 |
| An Omaha Village, Showing Earth Lodge and Conical Tepees | 111 |
| Black Coyote | 122 |
| Ornamentation on the Reverse of an Arapahoe “ghost-dance” Shirt | 123 |
| “Killed two Arikara chiefs” | 132 |
| Many Tongues, or Loud Talker | 133 |
| Petroglyph in Nebraska | 144 |
| Plains Indians Dragging Brush for a Medicine Lodge | 156 |
| An Earth Lodge | 157 |
| Kansa Chief | 168 |
| Big Goose | 169 |
| Omaha Assault on a Dakota Village | 186 |
| “Killed ten men and three women” | 187 |
MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE GREAT PLAINS
THE CREATION
Osage (Wazhá zhe group)
Way beyond, once upon a time, some of the Osages lived in the sky. They did not know where they came from, so they went to Sun. They said, “From where did we come?”
He said, “You are my children.”
Then they wandered still further and came to Moon.
Moon said, “I am your mother; Sun is your father. You must go away from here. You must go down to the earth and live there.”
So they came to the earth but found it covered with water. They could not return up above. They wept, but no answer came to them. They floated about in the air, seeking help from some god; but they found none.
Now all the animals were with them. Elk was the finest and most stately. They all trusted Elk. So they called to Elk, “Help us.”
Then Elk dropped into the water and began to sink. Then he called to the winds. The winds came from all sides and they blew until the waters went upwards, as in a mist. Now before that the winds had traveled in only two directions; they went from north to south and from south to north. But when Elk called to them, they came from the east, from the north, from the west, and from the south. They met at a central place; then they carried the waters upwards.
Now at first the people could see only the rocks.