Brave Buffalo's Dream of the Buffalo Nation

Brave Buffalo (Tataŋka Ohítika) was one of the most respected medicine men on the Standing Rock Reservation. Around 1912 he told the story of the dream that gave him his name and his life's calling. These are his own words: "When I was 10 years old, I dreamed a dream, and in my dream a buffalo appeared to me. I dreamed that I was in the mountains and fell asleep in the shade of a tree. Something shook my blanket. It was a buffalo, who said, 'Rise and follow me.' I obeyed. He took a path, and I followed. The path was above the ground. We did not touch the earth. The path led upward and was smooth like smooth black rock. It was a narrow path, just wide enough for us to travel. We went upward a long distance and came to a tent made of buffalo hide, the door of which faced us. Two buffalo came out of the tent and escorted me in. I found the tent filled with buffalo and was placed in the midst of them. "The chief buffalo told me that I had been selected to represent them in life. He said the buffalo play a larger part in life than men realize, and in order that I might understand the buffalo better day by day they gave me a plain stick and told me that when I looked at it I should remember that I had been appointed to represent them. The cane was similar to the one which I now carry and have carried for many years. I would not part with this cane for a fortune." In the lodge filled with buffalo he was given a song, and through it the power to heal: I will appear — behold me — a buffalo said to me. Brave Buffalo said the buffalo in his dream told him he would live to be 102 years old. Then they said: "If you are to show people the great value of the buffalo, one proof which you must give them is a demonstration of your endurance. After properly qualifying yourself you will be able to show that weapons can not harm you, and you may challenge anyone to shoot you with arrows or with a gun." On waking from his dream, he went home and thought the matter over seriously. After qualifying himself for the ordeal, he requested his relatives to erect a very large tent of buffalo hide in which he would give his demonstration. He clothed himself in an entire buffalo hide with the head and the horns. The whole tribe came to see whether anyone could wound him. Many tried with arrows, but could not do so — the arrows did not penetrate his skin. Several years later the test was repeated with guns, and they were not able to injure him. Before standing as a target he sang a song with no words. He said "the words were in his heart." ——— CREDITS & SOURCE Told by: Brave Buffalo (Tataŋka Ohítika), Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man, Standing Rock Reservation — recorded c. 1912. Published in: Frances Densmore, "Teton Sioux Music," Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 61 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1918), pp. 173–176. Public domain (U.S. government publication, pre-1930). Read the original: https://archive.org/details/no61bulletinethn00smituoft Photo: Brave Buffalo, Plate 25 of the same volume. Shared here in honor of the teller. If this story belongs to your family or community and you would like it presented differently, please reach out.