Race With Buffalo
Brittany Veilleux
This was a myth of the Cheyenne Indians. It was a time when all animals lived in peace and nobody ate anybody. All the animals in the Great Plains were the same color because they hadn’t painted their faces yet. The buffalo was the largest and strongest animal, he felt he should be chief and be able to eat other animals. On the other hand the human people felt the same way; they felt the should be the chief of all animals. So the buffalo challenged the humans to a little race in which the winner would become the chief of all the animals.
The people accepted the challenge; however they said it wouldn’t be fair since buffalo have four legs and the people only had two. Therefore, the buffalo agreed to let the people pick an animal to race for them. As a result the people chose the Bird People to represent them in the race. They chose Hummingbird, Meadowlark, Hawk, and Magpie. Immediately afterwards all the other animals decided they wanted to try and win to be the chief of all animals so they joined the race too. In fact that’s how all animals got their own colors because they all painted their faces according to their spiritual vision for the race.
The race was held at Black Hills at a place called Buffalo Gap. The animals raced from the starting sticks to a turn around stick and back. It was a very close race even though some of the birds had very small wings. As a result of the race the Magpie ended up winning the race for the humans therefore the Buffalo wandered the Great Plains and ate grass while the people became the great hunters, the chief of all animals.
