Wolf said, “I will eat Deer.” Deer said, “You cannot eat me, because I can run too swiftly.” Wolf said, “We will see about that.” So they had a race. Deer started ahead and ran very swiftly. Wolf ran swiftly, too, but his fur robe was too heavy. At last he thought, “This robe is too heavy. I will slip it off.” So he threw it off. Then he bounded ahead and caught Deer and ate him.
Then Rabbit asked another Deer, of the same totem, “Deer, what will you select as food?”
Deer said, “I will eat people. There are many Indians in the country. I will eat them.”
At once all the animals began to talk. They said to Deer, “The Indian is too powerful. You can never eat him.”
Deer said, “Well, I will plan to eat Indians, anyway.” Then he walked off.
Now one day an Indian was out hunting. He saw deer tracks to the right and so followed them. They went in a large circle until they brought him back where he had started. Then he saw deer tracks to the left. So he followed those, until they also brought him back, in a large circle, to the point where he started. Then the Indian saw that Deer was following him.
Deer was determined to eat the Indians, because there were many of them. It would not be difficult to hunt for food. But first he wanted to frighten the hunter. So he pulled two ribs from his sides, and stuck them into his lower jaw. They looked like tusks. Deer looked very fierce. Then Deer came walking along, looking for an Indian. But the hunter raised his bow and shot Deer. He carried the deer meat back to his wigwam.
The shade of Deer at once went to the council of birds and animals. He told Rabbit all about it.
Rabbit said, “I told you that you could not eat people. You see how it is? Now you will have to live on grass and twigs.”
And so they do, even to this day.