Fig. 256.—Battiste Good’s Revelation.
Fig. 256 illustrates Battiste Good’s introduction. He is supposed to be narrating his own experience as follows: “In the year 1856, I went to the Black Hills and cried, and cried, and cried, and suddenly I saw a bird above me, which said: ‘Stop crying, I am a woman, but I will tell you something: My Great-Father, Father God, who made this place, gave it to me for a home and told me to watch over it. He put a blue sky over my head and gave me a blue flag to have with this beautiful green country. [Battiste has made the hill country, as well as the curve for sky and the flag, blue in his copy.] My Great-Father, Father God (or The Great-Father, God my Father) grew, and his flesh was part earth and part stone and part metal and part wood and part water; he took from them all and placed them here for me, and told me to watch over them. I am the Eagle-Woman who tell you this. The whites know that there are four black flags of God; that is, four divisions of the earth. He first made the earth soft by wetting it, then cut it into four parts, one of which, containing the Black Hills, he gave to the Dakotas, and, because I am a woman, I shall not consent to the pouring of blood on this chief house (or dwelling place), i. e., the Black Hills. The time will come that you will remember my words; for after many years you shall grow up one with the white people.’ She then circled round and round and gradually passed out of my sight. I also saw prints of a man’s hands and horse’s hoofs on the rocks [here he brings in petroglyphs], and two thousand years, and one hundred millions of dollars ($100,000,000). I came away crying, as I had gone. I have told this to many Dakotas, and all agree that it meant that we were to seek and keep peace with the whites.”
(Note by Dr. Corbusier.—The Oglálas and Brulés say that they, with the rest of the Dakota nation, formerly lived far on the other side of the Missouri River. After they had moved to the river, they lived at first on its eastern banks, only crossing it to hunt. Some of the hunting parties that crossed at length wandered far off from the rest and, remaining away, became the westernmost bands.)
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXI
BATTISTE GOOD’S CYCLES.
A 901-930. B 931-1000.
Pl. XXI A. The record shown by this figure dates from the appearance of The-Woman-from-Heaven, 901 A. D.; but the Dakotas were a people long before this. The circle of lodges represents a cycle of thirty years, from the year 901 to 930, and incloses the “legend” by which this period is known. All the tribes of the Dakota nation were encamped together, as was then their custom, when all at once a beautiful woman appeared to two young men. One of them said to the other, “Let us catch her and have her for our wife.” The other said, “No; she may be something wakan” (supernatural or sacred). Then the woman said to them, “I came from Heaven to teach the Dakotas how to live and what their future shall be.” She had what appeared to be snakes about her legs and waist, but which were really braids of grass. She said, “I give you this pipe; keep it always;” and with the pipe she gave them a small package, in which they found four grains of maize, one white, one black, one yellow, and one variegated. The pipe is above the buffalo. She said, “I am a buffalo, The White-Buffalo-Cow. I will spill my milk all over the earth, that the people may live.” She meant by her milk maize, which is seen in the picture dropping from her udders. The colored patches on the four sides of the circle are the four quarters of the heavens (the cardinal points of the compass). In front of the cow are yellow and red. She pointed in this direction and said, “When you see a yellowish (or brownish) cloud toward the north, that is my breath; rejoice at the sight of it, for you shall soon see buffalo. Red is the blood of the buffalo, and by that you shall live.” Pointing east [it will be noticed that Battiste has placed the east toward the top of the page], she said, “This pipe is related to the heavens, and you shall live with it.” The line running from the pipe to the blue patch denotes the relation. The Dakotas have always supposed she meant by this that the blue smoke of the pipe was one with or nearly related to the blue sky; hence, on a clear day, before smoking, they often point the stem of the pipe upward, in remembrance of her words. Pointing south, she said, “Clouds of many colors may come up from the south, but look at the pipe and the blue sky and know that the clouds will soon pass away and all will become blue and clear again.” Pointing west, i. e., to the lowest part of the circle, she said, “When it shall be blue in the west, know that it is closely related to you through the pipe and the blue heavens, and by that you shall grow rich.” Then she stood up before them and said, “I am The White-Buffalo-Cow; my milk is of four kinds; I spill it on the earth that you may live by it. You shall call me Grandmother. If you young men will follow me over the hills you shall see my relatives.” She said this four times, each time stepping back from them a few feet, and after the fourth time, while they stood gazing at her, she mysteriously disappeared. [It is well known that four is the favorite or magic number among Indian tribes generally, and has reference to the four cardinal points.] The young men went over the hills in the direction she took and there found a large herd of buffalo.
(Note by Dr. Corbusier.—Mr. Cleveland states that he has heard several different versions of this tradition.)