A very long time ago,
They say,
Two scouts were out looking for bison.
And when they came to the top of a high hill and looked off to the north,
They saw something coming a long way off.
And when it came closer,
They cried out.
It's a woman.
And so it was.
Then one of the scouts,
Being foolish,
Had bad thoughts and he spoke them out loud.
But the other said,
That is a sacred woman.
Throw all those bad thoughts away.
And when she came still closer,
They saw that she wore a fine white buckskin dress,
That her hair was very long,
And that she was young and extraordinarily beautiful.
And she knew their thoughts.
And she said in a voice that was almost like singing,
You don't know me.
But if you want to do as you think,
You may come.
And the foolish one went.
But just as he stood before her,
There was a white cloud that came and covered them both.
And the beautiful young woman came out of the cloud.
When it blew away,
The foolish man was a skeleton covered with worms.
And then the woman spoke to the one who was not foolish.
You shall go home and tell your people that I am coming and that a big teepee should be built for me in the center of the village.
And the man went quickly home and told his people,
Who did it once as they were told.
And there around the big teepee,
They waited for the sacred woman.
And after a while,
She came,
Very beautiful and singing.
And as she went into the teepee,
This is what she sang.
With visible breath,
I am walking.
A voice I am sending as I walk.
In a sacred manner,
I am walking.
With visible tracks,
I am walking.
In a sacred manner,
I walk.
And as she sang,
There came from her mouth a white cloud that was so good to smell.
And then she gave something to the chief of the village.
And it was a pipe with a bison calf carved on one side to mean the earth that bears and feeds us.
With twelve eagle feathers hanging from the stem to mean the sky and the twelve moons.
And these were tied with a grass that never breaks.
Behold,
She said,
With this pipe you shall multiply and become a good nation.
Nothing but good shall come of it.
Only the hands of the good shall take care of it and the bad shall not even see it.
Then she sang again and went out of the teepee and as the people watched her going,
Suddenly she turned into a white bison galloping away and snorting and soon she was gone.
This they tell.
And whether it happened so or not,
I do not know.
But I truly believe that if you think about it,
You'll see that it is true.
