A man communicates with buffalo, instructing them to enter water backward, facilitating their hunting by the tribe. The buffalo comply, and the tribe successfully spears them. Notably, the calves vocalize “mother” similarly to humans. One bull consistently escapes, believed to be the offspring of a man who married a buffalo, highlighting the deep connection between humans and buffalo in this lore.
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
Supernatural Beings: The man’s unique ability to communicate with buffalo and the existence of a bull with human-like features suggest interactions with beings possessing supernatural attributes.
Trickster: The man uses cunning to manipulate the buffalo into positions where they can be easily hunted, showcasing trickster behavior.
Ancestral Spirits: The story references a young man who disappeared and was believed to have integrated with the buffalo, indicating a connection between ancestors and the present.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Dane-zaa people
One time there was a man who used to talk to the buffalo, and they would do what he told them to do. He would tell them to go to a certain place, to go into the water, and to give him food. Then they would go into the water backwards, and the Indians would kill them with a spear. The calves would say, “unnai” (mother) just as plainly as people do. They took hold of them and killed them. There; was one bull they did not kill. He always ran through between the people. [The narrator in conversation afterward referred to the well-known story of the man who married a buffalo. The bull, which invariably escaped, was the result of this union. “There was a young man who disappeared. They supposed he went among the buffalo. After that they used to see a bull with hair just like a man’s. The buffalo understands what people say because a man used to live among them.”]
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Then they would take the dead buffalo ashore and eat them. [He added that the female organs of the buffalo cows were cut off and pushed back into the water before the bodies were removed. No one was allowed to look while this was being done.]
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Dreamtime Whispers 