How Little Elk Got His Name

BY: DANE

Many moons ago there was a boy named Grey Wolf. One day it was Grey Wolf‘s turn to stand watch over the village, a wolf had attacked a person in the village. While he was watching out for wolves, Grey Wolf’s friend, Fast Rabbit snuck up behind him and yelled, “Boo!” “Oh hello Fast Rabbit.” Grey Wolf said. “Hi! Have you seen any wolves lately?” “ No!” said Grey Wolf. That night Grey Wolf and Fast Rabbit were asked if they wanted to come on the four- day hunt. They both said yes. The four- day hunt happened every twenty moons. Just before they were about to leave the hunting meeting, White Eagle, the chief of the village told the boys to go to bed early as the party would leave at sunrise. At sunrise they left on the hunting trip. It took four hours to get across Lake Superior. When they reached the other side they set up their tipis. The next day was the first day of hunting. They traveled on foot for two hours before they found deer, a lot of fish, but no elk, and elk was the best meat. That night Grey Wolf heard something outside his tipi. He got up and snuck outside. At first he didn’t see anything but just before Grey Wolf was about to go back to sleep he heard that sound again. He turned around and saw this big brown head with really big black eyes staring at him. He finally he figured out that it was a big elk. The elk turned around and started to walk away, but Grey Wolf whispered, “Wait!” The elk turned around and started walking towards him. “Can you understand me?” asked Grey Wolf. “Yes” answered the Elk. “You can talk too?” “Yes.” said the Elk again. Grey Wolf asked the Elk if he could take him to where all the elk were? “Yes I can but only if you promise me that you won’t tell anybody about where the elk are.” Grey Wolf thought about it and said, “Yes.” Elk told Grey Wolf how long it would take to get there. Elk said that it would take four days to get there and that they would have to climb four mountains and swim through four rivers. The first day of traveling was tiring. The first river was freezing and had a really strong current, but Elk helped Grey Wolf across. The mountain was very steep. If you put your foot down on the wrong spot, you could stumble to the bottom of the mountain. That night they slept with the mountain lions in their den close to the mountain that Elk and Grey Wolf would climb tomorrow. The second day of traveling was even colder than before and the current was unbelievable. It was so strong that Grey Wolf had to sit on Elk’s back in order to cross the river. When they got across the river the travelers took a rest. Elk was really tired from carrying Grey Wolf across the river. When they stopped Grey Wolf lay down on the ground and began to wonder if Fast Rabbit and the other men where looking for him. The third day the travelers had to climb up this big mountain, the mountain wasn’t too steep. Then they had to swim across this beautiful river. The river had no current. On the fourth day it was pouring rain and lightning, luckily they found shelter. “How much longer?” asked Grey Wolf?  We just have to climb over the mountain and swim through another river. The mountain was steep and rocky and a river that was like the one they had crossed yesterday. Just before they were about to swim across the river, a raven came flying down towards them. The raven transformed himself into a little man. He then disappeared and reappeared behind Grey Wolf. The little man tapped Grey Wolf on the shoulder. Grey Wolf turned around but no one was there. When Grey Wolf turned back, the little man said, “Hello!” Grey Wolf screamed, “Aaahhh! Who are you?” asked Grey Wolf? “My name is Badel and I am going to make your whole village sick if you don’t hunt me an elk.” Grey Wolf thought about it and said, “How do I know if you are lying or telling the truth?” “You don’t believe me!” Badel exclaimed. “Let me show you a sample of what I can do.” He pulled a stick out of his pocket and shot some sort of light out of it. The bolt of light hit a squirrel and the little animal just stopped dead in his tracks and fell to the ground. “So do you believe me yet or should I show you another thing I can do?” “ No! No! You’ve shown me enough. Come on Elk let’s go across the river so I can get back to my village and get an elk for Badel.” Across the river there were at least a thousand elk. Elk then gave Grey Wolf a bow and five arrows. ”Now go hunt some elk.” “But how do I take them back after I shoot them with the bow and arrow?” asked Grey Wolf.  “You just shoot the arrows into the five elk. These arrows are special. They don’t kill the animal; they just tell the elk that you are now their owner. The elk will guard you on the way back to your home.” Grey Wolf shot the five elk and swam across the river with the elk and Grey Wolf gave one of them to Badel. In four days they got back to the camp. Grey Wolf picked up his real bow and arrow and shot all the elk. He ran to his tipi and yelled, “Dad! Dad! You’ll never guess what I have for the camp.” But before the hunters came out of their tipi, Grey Wolf’s dad asked, “Where he had been?” Grey Wolf had to make up a story because he promised elk he would not tell anybody what had happened or where they had been. Grey Wolf showed his dad all the elk he had hunted. Grey Wolf’s dad decided to throw a party because every time some one shoots their first elk or deer there is a party. At the party that night they gave Grey Wolf a new name. He was named Little Elk. Now Little Elk had to tell them how he hunted the elk, but of course, he lied again. After all, he had promised elk that he would tell no one of their adventure. And that’s how Little Elk got his name.

THE END