Haibun: Bear’s Lodge

In a Cheyenne version of how Bear’s Lodge came to be (later renamed Devil's Tower), a giant bear pursues two sisters, who escape back to their home with the bear still tracking them. The girls tell two boys that the bear can only be killed with an arrow shot through the underside of its foot. The boys have the sisters lead the bear to Devils Tower and trick it into thinking they have climbed the rock. The boys attempt to shoot the bear through its foot while it repeatedly attempts to climb up and slides back down leaving more claw marks each time. Eventually, one of these arrows strikes close enough to its left foot that it scares off the bear. (The wikipedia article on “Devil’s Tower” lists other origin stories as well.)

Ready to make the trek up to see this National Monument, in a pavilion was an old Eastern Shoshone Elder and Culture Bearer, “Grandpa Willie” or Willie LeClair. In full buckskin and war bonnet, he talked about his people’s history as well as the other Plains Indian tribes. As he spoke, he used Plains Indian sign language. As he grows old, his fear is that this language will be lost as so much of his culture has been.

We are losing so much as the eastern states of America continues to dominate more and more of North America. What was once a domination through the advancement of the rifle is now happening with words, thoughts, viewpoints, technologies, and other ways imperialism continues. As it continues, so much is lost with our “right way of doing things.” 

with deep bear claws etched

top to bottom stretched with a

cold summer farfetched