I scream because I am a bird,
I scream because I am a bird,
I bellow like a buffalo,
I bellow like a buffalo.
The boy will rise up,
The boy will rise up.
This song was composed by Pa-guadal, “Red Buffalo,” at a Ghost dance held on Walnut creek in the summer of 1893, under the direction of the prophet Pa-iñgya (see [page 907]), for the purpose of resurrecting Red Buffalo’s son, who had recently died. Pa-iñgya assured the people that if they held the dance as he directed, the dead boy would rise up alive from the ground before their eyes. In the dance Red Buffalo became “crazy” and composed this song. In his trance he evidently imagined himself a bird. His father was one of the “buffalo doctors,” or surgeons of the tribe, who are under the special protection of the buffalo and whose war cry is an imitation of the bellowing of a buffalo bull. Red Buffalo claims to have inherited his father’s knowledge; hence his assertion that he bellows like a bull. The boy was not resurrected.
4. Da′ta-i nyä′hoănga′mo
Ä′häyä′ Ehä′eho′! Ä′häyä′ Ehä′eho′!
E′häyä′ Ehä′eho′! E′häyä′ Ehä′eho′!