#plainsindians

Wounded Knee Massacre

The Wounded Knee Massacre of 29 December 1890 was the slaughter of over 250 Native Americans, mostly of the Miniconjou people of the Lakota Sioux nation, by the US military at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. Although the US government defined the event as a "battle", most of the Native Americans were ill, unarmed, and women and children.

Arapaho

The Arapaho are a North American Native nation originally from the Red River Valley in modern-day Manitoba, Canada, and Minnesota, USA. They migrated south in the early 18th century and established themselves in modern-day Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, and points south. They are associated with the Plains Indians culture and have long been allies of the Cheyenne.

The Arapaho adopted an agrarian lifestyle early, which was then modified when they were introduced to the horse by French traders. Able to travel further on hunts now, they gradually became a nomadic people and, pressured by the Ojibwe expansion in the Great Lakes region, moved south. Scholar Adele Nozedar writes:

When the settlers first came upon them, the Arapaho were already expert horsemen and buffalo hunters. Their territory was originally what has become northern Minnesota, but the Arapaho relocated to the eastern Plains areas of Colorado and Wyoming at about the same time as the Cheyenne; because of this, the two people became associated and are also federally recognized as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

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The Arapaho speak the Arapaho language (part of the Algonquian language group) and continue to practice their traditional, animistic, religion today as they did in the past, although many now blend the ancient spiritual beliefs with Christian rites and rituals. They were among the Plains Indians who participated in the Sun Dance (which they referred to as the Offerings Lodge) in the 19th century and still observe the ritual today at the Northern Arapaho Reservation of Wind River in Wyoming.

Like other nations of the Great Plains, and elsewhere, the Arapaho clashed with the Euro-American settlers migrating west in the mid-19th century. Allied with the Cheyenne and Sioux, Arapaho warriors took part in the Colorado War (1864-1865), Red Cloud's War (1866-1868), and the Great Sioux War (1876-1877), among other conflicts. The Southern Arapaho were camped with the Southern Cheyenne under Chief Black Kettle (l. c. 1803-1868) when they were attacked by US cavalry in what is now known as the Sand Creek Massacre (29 November 1864), which only strengthened their resolve to defend their ancestral lands against invasion by White settlers from the United States.

Even so, by 1868, both the Northern and Southern Arapaho understood the futility of continuing the fight against overwhelming forces and agreed to move onto reservations (which is one of the reasons so few Arapaho were present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876). The Southern Arapaho were relocated to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma) while the Northern Arapaho were moved to the reservation of the Shoshone, their traditional enemies, in Wyoming.

Like the Pawnee, the Arapaho were allowed to continue to observe the Ghost Dance, initiated by the Paiute Nation in 1889, after the US government prohibited other nations, notably the Sioux, from doing the same. The songs and rituals that accompany the Ghost Dance enabled the Arapaho to retain much of their culture, and both Northern and Southern Arapaho continue these traditions today.

Name & Nation

The name Arapaho was given to the people by European colonists who mispronounced the name given them by the Crow nation – Alappaho ("Many Tattoos"), which the people then began to apply to themselves. They originally called themselves Hinono'eino ("the people" or "our people"). The Cheyenne referred to them as Hitanwo'iv ("People of the Sky"), but the reason for this is unclear.

In the 18th century, the Arapaho nation consisted of five bands, each with their own dialect of the Algonquin Arapaho language:

Beesowuunenno (Big Lodge People)

Hanahawuuena (Rock People)

Hinanae'inan (Arapaho Proper)

Nawathi'neha (Southern People)

Haa'ninin (White Clay People - better known as Atsina and Gros Ventre)

The Gros Ventre split from the other bands in the early 18th century and were later regarded as inferior by the Arapaho. The Arapaho nation was then defined by the four remaining tribal bands, who separated into the Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho with the northern band holding the position of the "mother tribe" responsible for the safekeeping of sacred objects such as the ceremonial flat pipe.

Southern Arapaho Woman's Leggings and Moccasins

Uyvsdi (Public Domain)

Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance (Spirit Dance) is an expression of rebirth and renewal using the traditional Native American circle dance, first practiced by the Paiute Nation in 1869 and again in 1889 when it was adopted by other Plains Indians nations. US government agents' fear of the dance led to the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.

The Sioux who Married the Crow Chief's Daughter

The Sioux who Married the Crow Chief's Daughter is a legend of the Lakota Sioux about Chief Big Eagle who left his people to marry a woman of the enemy Crow nation but never forgot the duties owed to his own people. The story highlights the values of personal honor and integrity.

Northern Cheyenne Exodus

The Northern Cheyenne Exodus (1878-1879) is the modern-day term for the attempt by the Northern Cheyenne under chiefs Morning Star (Dull Knife, l. c. 1810-1883) and Little Wolf (also known as Little Coyote, l. c. 1820-1904) to leave the Southern Cheyenne Reservation in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma) and return to their home in modern-day Montana.

Following the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25-26 June 1876), in which the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho defeated the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (l. 1839-1876), Morning Star and Little Wolf gathered their forces to press for another Native American victory in the hopes of halting US westward expansion. They were defeated at the Battle on the Red Fork (also known as the Dull Knife Fight) on 25 November 1876.

The Cheyenne surrendered at Fort Robinson in modern-day Nebraska in 1877 with the understanding, based on the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, that they would be able to live with the Sioux in their ancestral homelands. Instead, they were forcibly deported to Indian Territory in the south where they found the conditions unbearable. In September 1878, Morning Star and Little Wolf led their people out of the reservation and headed north.

They were pursued by US authorities until they separated in October 1878, with Morning Star's band heading for the Red Cloud Agency to seek the protection of Chief Red Cloud (l. 1822-1909), and Little Wolf journeying toward the Powder River territory. Morning Star/Dull Knife's band was apprehended and taken to Fort Robinson where US authorities tried to starve them into submission and a return to the south. Little Wolf's band succeeded in reaching the Powder River. Later, the Northern Cheyenne were able to negotiate the establishment of what became the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana, where many of their descendants still live today.

Background

The westward expansion of the United States in the mid-19th century brought settlers into conflict with the Plains Indians and others who had been living on their lands for thousands of years. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was supposed to resolve these problems by clearly defining territories for each nation as well as those open for settlement by US citizens. This treaty was never honored, however, and was broken in 1858 when gold was discovered on Native American lands, leading to Pike's Peak Gold Rush.

Instead of honoring the treaty, the US government sent the military to protect US citizens who had no rights to the land they were mining and settling on. The First Sioux War (1854-1856), the Colorado War (1864-1865), and Red Cloud's War (1866-1868) were all Native American responses to the broken treaty and westward expansion. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 ended Red Cloud's War and was supposed to prevent further conflicts by establishing the Great Sioux Reservation, but this agreement was also never honored by the US government and was abandoned when Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills (on the Sioux Reservation) in 1874. This led to the Black Hills Gold Rush of 1876, which the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho responded to in the Great Sioux War (1876-1877).

Custer and five divisions of the 7th Cavalry were wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn by a coalition formed by the Sioux holy man and chief Sitting Bull (l. c. 1837-1890) which included the Cheyenne and some Arapaho. Morning Star/Dull Knife did not participate in the battle, nor did Little Wolf (although he was on the field on 25 June). After the battle, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse (l. c. 1840-1877), Sioux war chief Gall (l. c. 1840-1894), and the other leaders dispersed, but, inspired by their victory, Morning Star/Dull Knife and Little Wolf mobilized Northern Cheyenne warriors to continue the fight. They were defeated at the Battle on the Red Fork (Dull Knife Fight) on 25 November 1876.

Battle of the Little Bighorn

Kurz & Allison (Public Domain)

Found In the Grass

Found In the Grass is a legend of the Algonquian-speaking nations of the Plains Indians and one of the most famous. The story is told in many different versions, but the best-known comes from the Cheyenne and features the child hero Mok-so-is and the trickster Wihio, famous from the Wihio tales.

North American Red Fox

Lvaughn7 (CC BY-SA)

Wihio appears in several Cheyenne stories as a villain, hero, wise man, fool, buffoon, or clown, and, in Found In the Grass, he provides comic relief as he keeps trying and sometimes succeeding in taking credit for the achievements of Mok-so-is. As in other Wihio tales, including Wihio and Coyote and The Wonderful Sack, Wihio fails in his objectives.

Wihio is a secondary character, however, as the focus of the piece is always on the magical child hero Mok-so-is ("Potbelly") a nickname given to Cheyenne children. Mok-so-is always appears in stories as a very young child who is capable of heroic action and has magical powers of transformation, appearing as an ugly boy or a handsome young man at will, and able always to find food – or create it magically – for the people who are in need. As in the story The Red Eagles, Mok-so-is is undeterred by others' doubts and, simply by trying what they claim is impossible, succeeds.

The story features several symbols and themes common to Cheyenne legend and lore, including the number four – considered sacred owing to its association with the four cardinal points of the compass – a young, poor boy who is usually an orphan, a village in need of help (usually with finding food or capturing some dangerous animal), and the cultural values of generosity, courage, and forgiveness. Mok-so-is never challenges any of Wihio's lies but instead forgives him, welcomes him into his home, and treats him as a member of his family, knowing that Wihio will eventually ruin himself simply because of who he is and his insistence on clinging to false values that cause him to place himself before others while Mok-so-is consistently places the good of the community ahead of his own interests, remaining humble even after saving the people from starvation.

Text

The following comes from By Cheyenne Campfires (1926) by anthropologist and historian George Bird Grinnell (l. 1849-1938), republished by University of Nebraska Press in 1971.

One day, Mok-so-is was playing with a number of boys when he said to them, "Look here, my friends, I am going to make a hoop and we will have races after it." He made one and all the others said, "The weather is perfectly still; it cannot go" for, when the wind is blowing, the hoop is sent with the wind and so often travels a long distance. The boys talked to one another and said, "We do not see how he is going to make it run."

Mok-so-is held the hoop in his hand and said, "Now, which of you will chase it first?" Because there was no wind, several said, "I will do it." After he had made four motions as if throwing it, Mok-so-is let it go and said to one of them, "Now follow it." As it left his hand, there came a little puff of wind. The first boy chased it a little way. Then the hoop fell over and he brought it back to Mok-so-is. The second time he threw it, he made the same motions, and it ran a little farther and a second boy brought it back. Mok-so-is took it in his hand a third time, and threw it, and another boy chased it and it went still farther before falling. The third boy came back saying, "That hoop runs pretty fast. I am all out of breath."

Before he threw it the fourth time, Mok-so-is said, "This time I will run after it myself." He said to the boys, "I am going to find another place to live in. Here, I am poor and have no mother to take care of me. You will not see me again for a long time." While he was talking, the wind blew still harder. He threw the hoop and ran after it till it sent over a big divide. They all watched for him, but he did not come back; they saw him no more.

The hoop led him to a big village. The lodges were planted in a circle and the hoop fell near one of the smallest in the circle. As Mok-so-is was tired, he lay down among the tall grass. A very old man and an old woman came out of this little lodge to cut some grass and began to work near Mok-so-is. He called to the old woman, saying, "Grandmother, do not hit me." The old woman took him by the hand, saying, "Why, I might have hit my grandson!" He said, "What is the news, grandmother?" and she said: "It is very bad. Everybody is starving for we have nothing to eat in the village." Mok-so-is said, "I will go with you to your lodge." The old woman's lodge was little and old – nearly worn out.

When she took Mok-so-is into the lodge, she said, "I do not know what I can give you to eat. I have nothing for you." Mok-so-is said, "Put a kettle on the fire and cook me some pounded – pulverized – roots." The old woman put on the kettle and said, "I do not see where I am to get you that mush." He said, "Go on, it will be well." He took a handful of ashes and put them in the kettle and said, "Now, cook it." When she commenced stirring it, the old woman saw the mush begin to thicken. The old man was delighted to see Mok-so-is do such a thing. When the mush was cooked, the old woman put it in three wooden bowls, and they all had as much as they could eat. After eating, Mok-so-is said, "Grandmother, is there any news at all in the village?"

The old woman said: "Well, I will tell you. The chief of this village has a handsome younger daughter. He is anxious to get a real red fox and he says that anyone who can trap one for him shall have his daughter in marriage." Mok-so-is said: "Is that true, grandmother? I think I am the one who will catch one. I will make one or two dead falls." His grandmother said, "My grandson, I do not think you can catch it. Everybody has tried," but Mok-so-is said, "Well, I shall try my luck."

The other young men had their traps all about outside the camp. Mok-so-is went out and fixed his trap not far from some of these. One of the young men said to him: "What are you doing? You will not be able to catch the red fox."

Wihio was living in this camp. He said to Mok-so-is, "You are too ugly to catch the red fox anyway." Mok-so-is had a fine piece of fat meat for his bait and, early next morning, when he went out to look at his traps, he found the red fox in one of them and brought it to the village and everybody ran to see it. Wihio said, "Oh, I caught that and Mok-so-is took it from one of my traps." The chief called out and said: "I believe that Wihio caught that fox. I wouldn't have Mok-so-is for my son-in-law anyway. He is too ugly." He said to his solders, "Go and take that fox away from Mok-so-is." A part of them went to take the fox away. Mok-so-is pulled some of the hair from the fox skin and hid it and gave up the fox, and they took it back and the chief hung it as a token on the top of his lodge. As soon as it was hung up, it turned white and was not a red fox anymore. When Mok-so-is looked under the robe where he had hidden the hair, there was another red fox skin.

Mok-so-is said to the old man he lived with: "Grandfather, make me a bow and arrows. The camp has nothing to eat, and I want to get something." His grandfather said, "What are you going to do with them?" Mok-so-is said, "Go on and make them. I will show you." The old man made them and Mok-so-is told him to paint two of the arrows black. After they were finished, Mok-so-is said, "Grandmother, make me a wheel for the game of wheel-and-stick." The old woman said, "I have no rawhide to make it of." Mok-so-is said, "Go around among some of the lodges and see if you can't find some." She went out and found some pieces and, when she returned, said to Mok-so-is, "Now that I have got it, see what you can do." He said, "Go ahead and make it. Cut the hide into strips and make the wheel." The old woman began it and soon it was finished. Then Mok-so-is said, "Hand that to the old man." Mok-so-is had the bow and arrows in his hand and was pulling on the bow to see if it was good, well-made, and strong.

All three were in the little lodge alone, no one else knew anything about it. Mok-so-is said to the old man, "You and grandmother are old and, If I were to make a big buffalo, you could not chew it. It would be too tough for you." Then he told the old man to roll the wheel and said, "Grandfather, make the motion to throw the wheel four times and, as you let it go the fourth time, say `Grandson, here comes a two-year-old heifer'." When he rolled the wheel, the old man said, "My grandson, here comes a two-year-old heifer." As the wheel passed, Mok-so-is shot it and it turned into a two-year-old heifer and fell down inside the lodge. Then he said, "Go ahead now and cut it up." He stepped out of the lodge and there near the door was a pile of ashes. He kicked the ashes up into the air and, at once, a big snowstorm began. He did that so that nobody would know about the buffalo in the lodge. They cut up the meat and the little lodge was filled with the cut-up meat drying. No one outside knew anything about it. It snowed hard for four days.

Somehow, Mok-so-is must have exercised his power, for the chief's daughter came to the lodge to visit. When she came in, she was surprised to see the little old lodge full of meat. Mok-so-is said, "Grandmother, giver her all she wants to eat." He spat toward the fire, and there dropped from his mouth an ar-ri-cas – a sort of shell highly prized and found by the big lakes. She picked it up and was very much pleased with it. She said, "Mok-so-is, spit again." He did so and another shell fell. Mok-so-is was so ugly that nobody thought he could do such things. He kept spitting till she had a whole handful and she said, "I will wear them in my ears." She tied them up and, when she looked at the boy, he had turned into a handsome young man. She hung her head and looked down and, when she raised her eyes again, he had changed again and was very ugly.

Mok-so-is told his grandmother to give the girl some meat to take home to her people – for he liked her. He told his grandmother to go over to the lodge where the girl lived, taking with her a small piece of buffalo fat. The old woman said, "Oh, I am so old, ugly, and poor, they will order me out of the lodge." But he said, "Go ahead." He also said to her, "Now, when you come out of the chief's lodge, drop the bit of fat. When they see you drop it, they will tell you you have dropped something. Then you must tell them it is the fat that Mok-so-is uses to grease his face and eyes with."

The old woman went to the chief's lodge as he had told her and, when she dropped the fat, all cried out, saying, "Give me that. Let me have it."

When the old woman returned to the lodge, Mok-so-is said to her, "Now, take some of this buffalo meat to them and also this red fox and give it to the chief." Then the old woman took the meat on her back and also the red fox skin on top, so that everybody could see it. She went to the lodge and went in with the red fox skin on top of the meat and said, "My grandson has sent you this. Now he wants to marry your daughter." When the old woman came back, she told Mok-so-is that everything was well.

They had the lodge put up for him and, when night came, Mok-so-is said, "Now I will go over and take possession." He went over to the lodge and, when he entered, the girl was in there by herself sitting on the bed. He had become a fine-looking man, and she recognized him, for she had seen him look like that once before.

Mok-so-is said, "You go and tell your father to come over to this lodge." When his father-in-law arrived, he told him to go out and cry through the village that Mok-so-is was going out to look for food.

When daylight came, Mok-so-is started out to look for buffalo and went over a big hill. The snow had melted from the ground except in a few spots. He set to work to collect a large pile of buffalo chips and piled them together in one place; then he took two of the chips and set them at some distance on one side of the pile.

When he returned to his lodge, he said to his wife, "Go and tell your father that there is a big herd of buffalo on the other side of that hill." His father-in-law went out and cried through the camp that there was a big herd of buffalo on the other side of the hill. Wihio said, "Why, I went up on that hill and saw the buffalo. This boy saw them after I did."

Everybody went out after the buffalo. After all had left the camp, Mok-so-is started with his wife. He said, "They will kill all those buffalo, but let us go this way." He said to his wife, "We will go this way" – meaning to the place where he had laid the two chips. They found two big fat cows lying there and he killed them, and his wife began to cut them up. Wihio got nothing but an old bull which he had killed because it looked so large. Everybody else got good meat. Mok-so-is and his wife returned among the last to camp. He and his wife had each a red bird skin tied on the head and looked very fine.

Wihio went up to Mok-so-is and said he wanted to be his friend and Mok-so-is said this would please him. Wihio then said, "I want to come over with my wife to your lodge." Mok-so-is said, "It is good; you just come over and we will live in the same lodge." So, Wihio and his wife moved in with Mok-so-is and placed their bed on the opposite side of the lodge.

One night, Mok-so-is said, "I am going over to see my grandfather and grandmother. So not be uneasy or frightened when I come back late tonight." When he returned, his steps sounded very loud and sparks of fire flashed all around him and, when he went to bed, they could see the sparks flying out all over him.

Next morning, Mok-so-is said, "I am going out again to look for buffalo." Wihio said, "I also will go." He started out ahead of Mok-so-is but went too far. Mok-so-is went out soon after, picked up buffalo chips as before, and went back to his lodge and told his wife to tell her father that another herd of buffalo was in pretty nearly the same place as before.

His father-in-law again called out through the village that there was a big herd of buffalo there again and that everyone should get ready and go out. Everybody went out to the herd and Mok-so-is and his wife went to the same place to which they had gone before. When he started, he tied the two red birds on his and his wife's head again. Meantime, Wihio, who had returned, went out and caught two woodpeckers and tied one on his head and one on his wife's head, just as Mok-so-is had done with the red birds. He and his wife rushed out with the woodpeckers tied to their heads. Mok-so-is and his wife came back loaded with meat and the red birds came to life and flew around over their heads. Wihio's woodpeckers also came to life and pecked his wife's head till her scalp was all torn to pieces.

That night, Wihio said, "I am going out, so do not be alarmed if I come in late." The morning after Mok-so-is had gone out at night, Wihio had seen the tracks of a buffalo bull coming toward the lodge so, this night when he came back, he tied buffalo hoofs on his hands and feet and put coals of fire around so that they would sparkle when he moved or lay down.

Sometime after that, Mok-so-is announced that he was going back to where he came from and said his name would be "Found in the Grass" – Mio in Ihko.

Yellow Hair: George Armstrong Custer

Yellow Hair: George Armstrong Custer is the Cheyenne and Arapaho account of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (l. 1839-1876), his interaction with the Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle (l. c. 1803-1868), the Washita Massacre (27 November 1868), and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (24-26 June 1876). The piece is significant in presenting the Native American view of events.

A Cheyenne Artist's Depiction of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Unknown Cheyenne Artist (Public Domain)

The account was related to scholars Alice Marriott and Carol K. Rachlin by Mary Little Bear Inkanish, John Stands-in-the-Timber, and John Fletcher of the Cheyenne and by Richard Pratt of the Arapaho. Although the account conforms in many aspects to the narrative accepted by scholars of American history, there are significant departures in detail. The phrase "history is written by the winners" is not quite accurate. Histories are also written by the losers in wars and conquests; they just never become as widely read as the dominant narrative of the victors.

Yellow Hair: George Armstrong Custer is a prime example of this. Here, the depiction of Custer is quite different from his heroic image as a defender of freedom, and this view has increasingly gained ground in the last 100 years. Today, Custer is a controversial figure as the Native American interpretation of the man has become more widely accepted by mainstream scholarship.

Cheyenne & Arapaho and US Accounts

Custer was a relative newcomer to the home of the Plains Indians, only arriving in the region in 1867 toward the end of Red Cloud's War (1866-1868). He served under Major General Winfield Scott Hancock (l. 1824-1886) in the wars against the Cheyenne and Arapaho and became known as an "Indian fighter." After his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876, his wife, Elizabeth Bacon "Libbie" Custer (l. 1842-1933), and his supporters elevated Custer to the role of martyr for the cause of civilization and defender of the United States against the 'savagery' of the Native peoples of North America. The Native American version of Custer and the major conflicts he was involved with contradicts this narrative.

Objective review of the so-called "Indian Wars" also challenges the accepted narrative of Custer as a hero and martyr, as his actions and those of others were in breach of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which promised the Sioux their lands in perpetuity and the same for the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 had made the same promises, and before that, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 had, essentially, done the same, but none of these were honored by the US government.

In the following account, there are several details that differ from the better-known narratives. Here, it is said that Custer sent men to find Major Joel Eliot (l. 1840-1868) at the Washita Massacre when he broke from the main body of cavalry to attack the Arapaho camp, while the official report claims Custer never tried to find out where Eliot was. The failure to support Eliot is here given as the reason Custer was recalled to Washington while, in the more widely accepted narrative, it was to testify at a hearing involving monopolies and price-gouging at Western trading posts.

There are other details, some minor, in the account, but among the most interesting is the depiction of the death of the peace chief Black Kettle and his wife. According to the standard narrative, they were both killed while fleeing across the Washita River, shot in the back. Here, they are shown dying at their home, Black Kettle clutching the American flag, in a final defense of his village and way of life. The differing details of the Euro-American and Native American accounts are not only interesting in their own right, but reflect a truth regarding historical writing which, actually, can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia: what actually happened never matters as much as how what happened is remembered. Every narrative of the past - personal, communal, or national - serves a purpose in the present in defining oneself.

The Boy Who Saw A-ti'us

The Boy Who Saw A-ti'us is a legend of the Pawnee nation about a young man who is granted a vision of the Creator Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us (also known simply as Ti-ra'wa or as A-ti'us) and, through his faith, is able to see what others cannot and so saves his people from starvation.

American Bison Grazing in Montana

PD-USGOV-Interior-FWS (Public Domain)

The story works with the theme, common not only to Pawnee legends but those of many Native peoples of North America, of the poor young man who is rewarded by the Creator for his kindness and generosity toward others. Although boasting of one's accomplishments was not only accepted but also expected, from young men, humility was highly valued, and many tales from various nations warn against the dangers of thinking too highly of oneself. In this same way, stories from all Native nations – including those of the Plains Indians, encourage the values of modesty, kindness, generosity, and gratitude.

This story is an example of the latter, in which a poor orphan boy is taken in by a widow and returns her kindness by caring for her and her two children as if he were a member of the family. This is in keeping with Pawnee values and behavior, but it is noted in the text that the boy always brings any food he finds to the woman – not saving any out for himself – to be divided among the four of them. His selflessness is then rewarded by Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us with the vision that will change the boy's life and restore his people.

The story not only serves to encourage cultural values and faith in an audience but also as an origin tale in that it explains how and why the position of chief in Pawnee leadership, once held by women – since the first created human was understood as female – passed to men. Mainly, however, the focus of the tale is fixed on the importance of individual integrity and faith in the knowledge that, no matter how bleak a situation, the Creator is always present and prepared to offer help.

Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us

Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us ("Our Father Above") is the Creator God of the Pawnee who gave them life and the gifts essential for their survival including agriculture, the concept of clothing and ornamentation, fire, hunting skills and the animals to hunt, the power of speech and imagination, and the proper observance of sacred ritual and sacrifice. His wife is Atira ("Mother Corn"), an earth goddess (associated with Mother Earth), and all the other gods are observable as stars in the night sky, but behind all – and invisible – is Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us.

Ti-ra'wa created the expanse in the sky now known as the Milky Way but known to the Pawnee, and others, as the Path or the Path of Departing Spirits, which led one's soul home after death. Once arrived in the afterlife, the soul would live fully in the presence of the Creator, but he still remained invisible. The vision given in The Boy Who Saw A-ti'us would have therefore been exceptional to the original audience in that the god's presence could certainly be felt at any time, but he could never be actually seen, just like the wind.