The Legend of the Buffalo Spirit

By: Hannah

Long, long ago, there was nothing but prairie. On the prairie lived many buffalo. As you may have guessed, the buffalo could not get enough food. They had to share everything. Since the buffaloes kept multiplying, there was not enough food for everyone. They would have to find more food or die.

One day the chief buffalo called his entire village together for a meeting.

“We must send a group of buffalo to search far and wide for any type of food.” said the chief. “I will choose four of the bravest, four of the strongest, and four of the best finders. They will search in the north.” Then the chief did the same with three other groups of buffalo.

            In four moons, the buffalo groups were off. One group of buffalo went south, one east, one west, and the other, north. The chief said, “Do not come back come back until you find food.” 

After the group going north had gone a few kilometers, they spotted an animal in the tall grass.

            “Who are you?” one of the buffalo asked.

            “I am a coyote”, said the creature. “I will help you. Where are you going?”

            “We are going to find more land that we can eat on.” one of the buffalo replied.

            “I know where there is some land that you could eat on,” said coyote.

            Little did the buffalo know that coyote was referring to his hungry family. But coyote led the buffalo to his home.

Meanwhile, the buffalo going south were having no luck at all. All they had seen were dried up prairies and lakes.

            After four hours, one of the buffalo thought he heard a voice. It was much softer than the coyote’s.

            “Where are you going and what do you want?” the voice asked.

            “Who are you?” a buffalo asked, confused.

            “I am the buffalo spirit. I help buffalo that are in need of help.” the voice said.

There was a cloud of light and a half human, half buffalo appeared. “What would you like me to do for you?”

            “Our buffalo village doesn’t have any more food. We have been sent by our chief.” one of the buffalo replied.

            “I see. Well I can give you food but you will need to go through some challenges. I will be with you on your journey.” the spirit said and vanished.

The words hung in the air like the shaggy hair on the buffalo. They were scared, but they had to go on. Each step was a heavy plod.

Back with the northern group of buffalo, the coyote led them to his home.

            “We should stop at my den and have some dinner soon,”the coyote suggested.

 If the buffalo would have known what the den was like, they wouldn’t have been so excited. The coyote knew the buffalo would never be able to fit through the door of the den. He needed to get his family prepared for a big buffalo feast.

“You are probably very tired. Why don’t we rest right here for a while?” suggested the coyote. The buffalo agreed and they gladly lay down for a rest. It didn’t take long before the buffalo were all asleep. The sneaky coyote escaped to his home and told his family all about the buffalo. They had a good laugh about it.

While the coyote was gone, the buffalo woke up. They noticed coyote’s absence right away. Then they noticed a cloud of light coming towards them. The cloud thinned out and they saw a creature that was half buffalo, half human. In fact, it was the same spirit that had spoken to the southern group.

“I am warning you about that coyote who is leading you to his home. He will kill you if you follow him”, said the spirit. “I will help you. What would you like me to do for you?”

“Our village is in need of food and we are searching for a place that we can eat off of”, the buffalo said.

 Thoughtfully, the spirit said, “I have met another group of buffalo with the same request, would you happen to know them?”

“Yes, I think so. When we left, our chief sent three other groups out to look for food. You must have met one of them.”

“I will say the same thing that I said to them,” the spirit replied. “I can help you find food but you will need to go through some challenges. I will be with you.” and with that, he disappeared, just as he had with the southern buffalo group.

            After a few more minutes, the coyote came back. He saw that the buffalo were awake so he made up an excuse. “I am sorry that I left you with out telling you. I was just going home to tell the rest of my family about you. My wife is cooking up a feast for you!” coyote seemed so friendly that the buffalo forgot all about what the spirit had told them. Perhaps they should have, but this was one of the challenges that the spirit was giving them, the spirit meant for the buffalo to disobey him. So coyote led the buffalo to his home.

While all this time passed, the southern group of buffalo kept plodding along. They had gone for hours and had seen no sign of food. It was hopeless! Finally they came to a river. It stretched as wide as their eyes could see.

           “How are we going to get across this water?” a buffalo asked.

            “It looks as if we’re going to have to swim.” said another buffalo, seeing that there were no trees to build a raft. The water looked so fierce, but they couldn’t turn back. Just then, that same cloud appeared—the spirit!

           “Now, what do you want?” asked the spirit.

            “We have run into this huge river and have no other choice other than to swim across it”, said a buffalo.

            “This is going to be your first challenge.” the spirit said, “If you trust in me, I will not let you drown.” and the spirit disappeared

            “We might as well get this over with.” said a buffalo, plodding towards the river.

            “I’m not sure how to swim are you?” another buffalo joked.

“Run! Don’t stop running until you’re far enough away from the coyote!” a frantic buffalo shouted. Sure enough, the buffalo did get trapped with coyote’s family and they had to run for their lives! After they had gone far enough, they began to talk.

            “I think we’ve learned our lesson.” panted one buffalo. “We shouldn’t listen to another coyote. They are our enemies.” just then, the cloud of light came close.

“Oh no, we’ve probably upset the spirit.” said a buffalo.

            “What have you done?” thundered the spirit with fire in his eyes. “I warned you and you disobeyed me, you put your lives in danger!”

            “Wwwe are very sorry that we didn’t listen to you”, stammered a buffalo.

“We just thought coyote was so friendly.” added another buffalo, “Please give us just one more chanc”, pleaded the buffalo.

            “Very well then,” said the spirit. “You have faced your first challenge. You will have three more. By then, you will have plains to eat from.”

            “Oh thank you great spirit, thank you so much!” the buffalo said relieved.

“Phew, that was pretty close with the current”, said a buffalo. They had just gotten back from the big stream and were resting.

            “Yes, I really was close to drowning.” said another buffalo. Again there was a cloud of light and the spirit appeared.

            “Congratulations!” said the spirit. “You have completed your first challenge successfully. Now I know that I can trust you for the rest of your challenges!”

            “Oh thank you great spirit”, said a buffalo. “Forgive me for asking but will there be any more challenges harder than this?” asked a buffalo.

            “That I can not tell you but I can promise you that your life will not be in any danger for the rest of your journey. You will just need to do three more challenges and then I will give you crops and land so you can live.” answered the spirit.

            “One more question,”

            “Certainly”

            “Now that we know we know you will give us food, what is the use of searching? And which direction should we go in?” asked a buffalo.

           “You can not depend on me to give you food. What if you don’t succeed in one of your challenges? You should go north”, answered the spirit. And with that, he vanished.

            “I think we should keep on going south like the chief commanded”, said a buffalo. But they all wanted to obey the spirit so they plodded north.

The northern buffalo group was finding nothing to eat, but that didn’t matter, the spirit was still helping them! They were in very good moods. Then all at once, there was a crash of thunder followed by a huge bolt of lightning. Momentarily, a tree nearby toppled over and became a huge fire.

            “What are we going to do?” stammered a buffalo. “We will have to find a lake.”

            “There are usually trees around lakes. We should look around and check.” they now had to yell to be heard.

“Do you think there is time?” asked a buffalo.

            There has to be”, said another buffalo. They looked around and sure enough, there was a huge lake.

            “Run and swim to the other side!” screamed a buffalo.

Now that the southern group was going north, you might guess that both groups would meet up. But neither group had any idea of what was happening with the other group. They didn’t know that the spirit was helping both of them. The southern group was almost at the place where the northern group was when they saw a coyote. In fact it was the same coyote that had tricked the other buffalo group and he was really hungry!

            “Why, hello” said the coyote, wickedly.

            “Hello, coyote” said a buffalo quickly. They were smarter and knew that coyotes were tricksters. They just kept going on their way. This made coyote furious. He wanted something to eat! No one knows what happened to coyote. He probably died with all the rest.

Anyway, the buffalo did meet up. Both were very surprised, especially the northern group. The spirit appeared but he just listened to them greet each other. The buffaloes were aware that the spirit was listening.

 Finally a buffalo asked, “What do you want from us?”

            “I have come to give you your next challenge”, replied the spirit. “This one might cause you to be anxious but after this you will only have one more challenge left and it will be very easy.”

            “All right, what is our next challenge?” a buffalo asked.

            “You will need to send two of your buffalo back to your village. If they succeed, I will let you know. Then I will give you your last challenge.” as soon as the spirit had said that, he vanished.

            “I could go back to our village”, volunteered one buffalo.

            “And I could go with you,” said another one.

            “Are you sure it’s not too big of a risk?” cautioned a buffalo.

            “We’ll be fine”, the buffalo said together.

            And so it was, the two buffalo set out the next morning.

After about a week, the spirit appeared to the big group of buffalo.

            “The two buffalo that you sent have reached the village and are safe. Now I have your last challenge: you need to return home too. There will be no tricksters or traps. You have all learned your lessons. Just use your common sense and you will get home safely. Then I will give you your food that you have worked so hard to get”, said the spirit, warmly, leaving the buffalo in peace.

            The buffalo set out the next day, having no trouble. Just like the first buffalo, they got home successfully.

           When they first got near their village, they could hardly recognize it. There were beautiful, golden crops everywhere! Everyone was feasting, happily.

            Then the chief’s loud, booming voice rang out, “Very well done. You will always be known for your great achievement”, said the chief. At that moment, a cloud of light came. This time it looked different, it looked bigger. It thinned out to reveal a spirit. Not the one that guided the buffalo but a different one. It looked much more powerful.

Then it spoke, “Congratulations for giving your village food. Because you have done that, I am going to make you more powerful. I am going to change you into another creature. You will always have more than enough to eat. You can share it or you can keep it all for yourself.” having said that, he touched a buffalo. All at once it transformed into a human. The spirit did the same with all the other buffalo that went on the journey. The buffaloes of the village watched, amazed. No one said a word. When the spirit had finished, the humans looked beautiful. They began to walk around. But first they thanked the spirit.

No one knows what happened to the buffalo traveling east and west. I guess they never found food. Or maybe they didn’t have a spirit to go with them. They might have found land but couldn’t come back. Well, that’s a whole other story!

NOTE: This story has two lessons. One lesson is to never give up. The second purpose is to show how humans were made, “according to the aboriginals.”