An Overview of Native American Oral Literature::

Lakota Sioux Trickster Tale

How the Lakota Came upon the World (James R. Walker)

Paraphrased by Bornali Halder.

Wizard, Witch and Double Woman were the only people on the surface of the world. One day, Iktomi or Spider approached disguised as a young man, and Double Woman was compelled to share with him her feelings of longing to be with her people, the Pte or Buffalo, again. Spider said that if she would tell him how to reach them, he would bring up the people and no longer play tricks on her. Double Woman said that if the people saw clothes and tipis made of skins, if they tasted meat, then they would covet such things and be enticed to the surface of the world.

Promising to no longer play tricks on them, Spider persuaded the wolves to help him. At Spider’s request, the wolves caught game and gave meat and tanned hides to Double Woman. Double Woman made colourful clothing for one man and one woman, and loaded them in a pack along with choice pieces of meat. Spider gave the pack to a wolf and escorted the animal to the entrance of a cave that opened down into the regions under the world. Spider waited at the entrance while the wolf went through the cave and saw, in the distance, the camp of the Pte.

A young man named Tokahe met the wolf. The wolf told Tokahe that he was a friend of the people and that he had come to gift them with anything they most desired. The wolf told the young man to show his people the pack – to let them see the clothes and taste the meat and tell them that there was plenty more of such things in the world. The people ate the meat and envied Tokahe and his wife in their colourful clothes.

An elder suggested Tokahe go with three other young men and see where these things had come from. The four men met the wolf, which led them through the cave and into the ‘upper world’. Then the wolf led them to the lodge of Double Woman, who covered one side of her face so that she appeared as a beautiful woman. Double Woman had prepared a grand feast of good soup and choice bits of meat. She invited the guests to join her. Spider appeared, disguised as a handsome young man. He told the Pte that both he and the woman were actually rather old, but that the good food kept them young. Because Spider had persuaded the wolves to drive the game, the young men saw numerous bears, deer and moose. Spider gifted them meat, robes and soft tanned hides. He escorted them back to the cave entrance and a wolf guided them back to their camp beneath the world. When the wolf returned, Spider told it to stay at the entrance and wait for the arrival of other Pte people. The wolf was instructed to lead the newcomers far away from food and water.

Tokahe and the other men returned to their people and regaled them with stories of all they had seen and done. An elder warned the Pte that a wizard had tricked the men, and all the people wrangled. So Tokahe said that he would lead those who wanted to see and partake for themselves the bounty of the other world. The leader, Tatanka, said that those who followed Tokahe and passed through the cave would never again be able to find the cave’s entrance and would forever be stuck on the world’s surface. He warned the deserters that on the world the wind was cold, game had to be hunted, and clothes and tipis had to be made.

Seven men, including Tokahe, and their families met with the wolf who guided them through the cave all day. By night, everyone was hungry and cold and Spider appeared and laughed at their misery. Tokahe, meaning 'first man', was shamed. Double Woman appeared to comfort them, but upon seeing her ugly face the people fled in terror. By the morning the people were truly lost. They were hungry and thirsty. Then Wizard and Witch appeared and gave them food and drink. The old man and woman led them to the regions of the pines, where they taught them how to hunt the game and prepare the meat and skins for food, clothing and shelter. Spider also taught them the Lakota language and encouraged them to spread out upon the earth. Thus it was that these seven families – the Ikce Oyate, 'real people' – were the first people on the world and the ancestors of the Seven Council Fires of the Lakota.¹

Notes::

• 1 - James R. Walker. 1917. "The Sun Dance and Other Ceremonies of the Oglala Division of the Teton Dakota" in Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. XVI, Part II.
  James R. Walker. 1983. Lakota Myth. Edited by Elaine A. Jahner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.