by Larry Stringer

Created on: February 21, 2010   Last Updated: February 22, 2010

Many legends abound in the Cheyenne culture, and since much like the ancient Greeks, this tribe like all the other tribes who walked the American continent, the Cheyenne placed great need in the Buffalo for it provided their continued survival by allowing the Cheyenne people fashion clothes, shelter, food, and tools.

In return for these greatly needed items, the Buffalo was revered by the Cheyenne. So much in fact that many legends concerning the Buffalo's origins have come to us from the past. One such legend is that of the buffalo hunt.

In the beginning the buffalo were meat eaters and their favorite meat was man. However man and his allies, which were the Magpies and the Hawks, sided with man, because neither of the two ate buffalo or humans.

One day the humans decided to hold a council fire with the animals and the buffalo, in order to decide who would finally end this war between the buffalo and man. The two parties decide to have a competition or race if you will and the winner would hunt the other forever more.

When the course of the race was settled upon and the day had arrived for the big race, all the animals showed up in their finest painted costumes. In fact they still wear these colors today the Robin, the Blue Jay, the Hawk, and the Wood Pecker just to name a few.

All the animals, man included, chose their champions and placed them at the starting line. When the signal was given, the race was on. The participants ran and ran (or flew) as fast as they could go. After awhile all the slow runners like insects and snakes were soon left behind. When the racers approached the mountains the buffalo was in the lead followed by the magpie, the hawk and man.

The magpie and the hawk figured that since they could fly faster than the buffalo could run, they would wait until the buffalo was near the finish line then they would zoom past the buffalo, and win the race for man (which they did).

When the race was over the buffalo hid their children, but not before they told them to take some human flesh with them and hide it under their chin. That is why when the Cheyenne hunted buffalo, they would not eat this part because they said that it was human flesh, and the Cheyenne were not cannibals.

The Cheyenne were in balance with the world around them.The Cheyenne hunted the vast herds of buffalo, and wished only to be left alone. It is truly sad to think how much the buffalo meant to these people, who after spending centuries with herds of Buffalo that stretched for miles in all directions, to now watch as these once mighty herds of horned behemoths, slowly dwindled down until they were almost gone at the hands of the white man. And with the passing of these great beasts into history, so did the life of the Cheyenne.

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