Bear Rock #BearRock Sioux council chief It is believed that the Sioux Indians, along with other North American peoples, came from Asia about 30,000 years ago. Traditionally the Sioux were nomadic, they never stayed in one place for long. Buffalo were their main source of food and clothing and so the Sioux would follow the herds. In about the 1500s, the Spanish introduced the Sioux to horses, meaning that their nomadic life became much easier. They lived in in large buffalo-hide tents called tipis ( teepees). Tipis were made to put up and break down quickly. A whole village could pack up and be ready to move within an hour! The women were in charge of the home and domestic arrangements, built the tipis and carried them from place to place. The men were hunters and warriors, defending the family and providing the meat and hides. Both men and women wore their hair long (often in braids) and took part in medicine, art, music and story telling (an important part of a tribes culture).  On special occasions, Sioux would paint their faces and arms with colourful designs. They used different patterns for celebrations than for war paint. Fights between local tribes were often only about proving warriors’ courage and skill and usually resulted in little or no bloodshed. Not all the men were great warriors, some were skilled hunters, others medicine men and yet others story tellers and entertainers. The Sioux believed that people should do the job they were good at.

The Legend of Bear Rock #TheLegend #BearRock #TheLegendofBearRock Nowadays Bear Rock is known as Devil’s Tower – when white men discovered it, they incorrectly translated the local name as Bad God’s rock, which soon changed to Devil’s Tower. It had many names amongst the Plains tribe with the Lakota (Sioux) also call it Bear Lodge. They have an ancient, sacred relationship with it. The rock itself is formed from magma (hot, liquid rock and crystals) which cooled underground. As it cooled, it shrank making columns (mostly hexagonal – 6 sided) which were separated by vertical cracks. The surrounding rocks were sedimentary (laid down by seas over millions of years), and were gradually eroded, leaving the harder magma rock pillars exposed. Both the land around it and the rock itself are still being eroded – and very, very occasionally a pillar cracks, is weakened by wind, rain and ice and falls to the ground (it is believed that the last one fell about 10,000 years ago). Nowadays the rock is an important tourist site and a favourite with specialist climbers. It is such a striking feature, that it is not surprising that all of the local tribes had legends about its creation.

Tulit'a 💙 Northwest Territories, Canada. #tulita #sahtu #nwt #spectacularNWT #smalltown #hamlet #bearrock #noplacelikeit #nothingisordinary #CanadianCreatives #thecanadiancollective (at Tulita, Northwest Territories)

Saturday afternoon #BearRock #Guam (at Bear Rock)