The Blackfoot tribes lived out on the vast grassland plains. In order to feed themselves and acquire food for the winter, the tribes would drive large numbers of buffalo over a cliff, then kill the animals at the bottom and harvest their meat and skins. One year, however, an unfortunate tribe couldn't seem to get the buffalo to go over the cliff. Time and again they drove the animals to the edge, but at the last moments the buffalo would turn aside and just run along the edges of the cliff back to safety. This was a terrible situation for the people, who were facing winter starvation.
One day, a young woman of the tribe went to get water for her family. She looked at the cliff and the herd of buffalo grazing at the top and said, "If you would just go over the cliff, I would marry one of you." Suddenly the herd of buffalo poured over the cliff face. The girl was amazed, just amazed. She was even more shocked when a distinguished-looking buffalo, the leader of the herd, came trotting over to her and said “Off we go my dear girl. You will be my wife and I will be your husband.”
The girl protested that she couldn't leave her family. She offered up a bunch of excuses. But the head buffalo gestured to all of the dead buffalo at the foot of the cliff and said, "All of my relatives lay dead at the base of the cliff. We have kept our word—now you must keep yours." A deal had been made and she was compelled to honor it.
Well, the rest of the tribe found all of the dead buffalo and went to work. When they finished, someone noticed that the young woman hadn't been seen for awhile. Her father went back to their teepee. He looked at the tracks outside, all around the camp, and saw that she had gone off with a buffalo. How strange.
Her father set out after her. He walked and walked until he came to a buffalo wallow. There he sat down to rest and think. A magpie landed nearby and pecked at the ground. “What are you looking for?” asked the bird. The father said that he was searching for his daughter. The magpie told him that his daughter was not too far away. "Would you take a message to her?" the father asked. The magpie agreed to carry a message to the girl. “Please tell her,” the father said to the bird, “to meet me at the buffalo wallow.”
The magpie flew directly to the buffalo herd where he thought he had seen the young woman. Sure enough, there she was, sitting in the tall grass. The buffalo were asleep all around her. The magpie landed near the young woman and hopped and pecked the ground until he was right next her. "Psst, psst," hissed the bird, "Young woman, I have a message for you. Your dad's down at the wallow waiting for you." The girl was desperate to see her father. But she knew that they were in a dangerous situation. Her buffalo husband was quite large and powerful. "Quiet, quiet," she whispered back to the bird. "Tell him to wait and I will be there when I can."
She started to devise a plan, but then her buffalo husband woke up and unwittingly offered her an opening. He reached up and took off one of his horns and handed it to her. “Go to the wallow and bring me back some water,” he told her. And of course she agreed and took the horn and hurried off to the wallow and her waiting father.
When the young woman arrived she told her father what happened with the buffalo and the cliff. He feared for her safety and tried to convince her to go with him. But the girl was afraid. “I can’t leave,” she told her dad, “and you really must go before the buffalo find you.” But he would not. Finally they agreed that he would wait at the wallow until dark and his daughter would slip away from the sleeping buffalo and they would make an escape.The young woman filled the horn with water and went back to the buffalo.
She handed her buffalo husband the horn full of water and he took a sip. Then he sniffed the horn. The buffalo took another sip, and sniffed again. "I smell a human being," said the buffalo. "Oh, it's just me," offered the young woman. But the buffalo sniffed again and said, "No, this is the scent of a man!" He gathered the rest of the herd together and they went down to the wallow. There they found the yung woman's father. The buffalo all made a mighty bellowing sound. Then they danced together and trampled the father to death. He was ground up into such small pieces that he disappeared entirely into the earth.
The young woman began to cry. “Why are you crying,” asked her buffalo husband. "Because he is my father," she said. "And what about us?” the buffalo replied. “Our families, our children, wives, parents, sisters, and brothers are all dead at the bottom of your cliff. Who mourns for us?"
The girl continued to cry. At last the buffalo said, “If you can bring your father back to life, both of you can go free. You can go home to your people.” Well, she didn’t have much to work with since her father was ground up so good. But the magpie helped her to find a small piece of her father's backbone, which she covered with a blanket on the ground. Then she sang a magical song. The buffalo stood around watching and listening. The bone under the blanket grew and grew until it was the size and shape of a man. The young woman lifted a corner of the blanket and peeked underneath. It was her father alright, but he wasn't breathing. She sang some more and after a time her father came back to life.
The buffalo were amazed. The head buffalo said to the young woman, "If you know how to do this, why don't you do it for us?" She said that she would do so, and the buffalo showed the girl and her father their magical buffalo dance and song, and asked them to teach it to their people so that they could bring the buffalo back and maintain the cycle of life.
The girl and her father took the buffalo's request back to their people, and forever afterward everyone danced and sang to bring the buffalo back to life.
(Painting, "Buffalo Dance," is by Robert Bissett, who has an interesting website about art and painting in addition to his wonderful work. Check it out.).