An elderly man remains in his lodge, singing medicine songs, unaware of an attack by the Cree. As the Cree approach, they find only a buffalo ready to charge, which frightens them away. The buffalo is revealed to be the old man, who had transformed to escape harm. He had intended to rejuvenate himself by making new teeth and becoming young again.
Source:
The Beaver Indians
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 4
New York, 1912
► Themes of the story
Trickster: He uses cunning and his magical abilities to outsmart the Cree warriors.
Rebirth: The narrative touches upon the concept of rejuvenation, as the old man plans to make himself young again.
Conflict with Authority: The story depicts a confrontation between the individual (the old man) and an opposing force (the Cree).
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Dane-zaa people
There were many people living together. Among them was an old man who was going to make new teeth for himself. While the Beaver were camped there for him the Cree came and attacked them. The other people all ran away but that old man did not get up. He was singing his medicine songs and did not know the Cree had come there. They went off after the Beaver but did not kill them. When the Cree came back they heard a man singing. They went to him. The old man was in a lodge. He pushed the poles up high so that he could be seen. There was no man there only a buffalo which was about to attack them. They were afraid of him. The buffalo was the old man.
► Continue reading…
He had one child. “I will make my teeth come again,” he said. That is why they had made a camp for him. He had said he would make himself a young man again. They say that is the way they used to do. When old age was going to kill them they used to rejuvenate themselves in a lodge.
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Dreamtime Whispers 