DENSMORE] TETON SIOUX MUSIC 173 



of certain kinds of birds. Or ho may like all animals and yet have a favorite among 

 thorn. 



I'rom my boyhood I have observed loaves, trees, and grass, and I have never found 

 two alike. They may have a general likeness, but on examination I have found 

 that they differ slightly. Plants are of different families, each being adapted to 

 growth in a certain locality. It is the same with animals; they are widely scattered, 

 and yet each will be founa in the environment to which it is best adapted. It is the 

 same with human beings, there is some place which is best adapted to each. The 

 seeds of the plants are blown about by the wind until they reach the place where 

 they will grow best — where the action of the sun and the presence of moisture are 

 most favorable to them, and there they take root and grow. All living creatures 

 and all plants are a benefit to something. Certain animals fulfill their purpose by 

 definite acts. The crows, buzzards, and flies are somewhat similar in their use, and 

 even the snakes have a purpose in being. In the early days the animals probably 

 roamed over a very wide country until they found their proper place. An animal 

 depends a great deal on the natural conditions around it. If the buffalo were here 

 to-day. I think they would be different from the buffalo of the old days because all 

 the natural conditions have changed. They would not find the same food nor the 

 same surroundings. We see i\\e change in our ponies. In the old days they could 

 stand great hardsliip and travel long distances without water. They lived on cer- 

 tain kinds of food and drank pure water. Now our horses require a mixture of food; 

 they have less endurance and must have constant care. It is the same with the 

 Indians; they have less freedom and they fall an easy prey to disease. In the old 

 days they were rugged and healthy, drinking pure water and eating the meat of the 

 buffalo, which had a wide range, not being shut up like cattle of the present day. 

 The water of the Missouri River is not pure, as it used to be, and many of the creeks 

 are no longer good for us to drink. 



A man ought to desire that which is genuine instead of that which is artificial. 

 [See pp. 205, 330.] Long ago there was no such thing as a mixture of earths to make 

 paint. There were only three colors of native earth paint — red, white, and black. [■] 

 These could be obtained only in certain places. When other colors were desired, 

 the Indians mixed the juices of plants, but it was found that these mixed colors faded 

 and it could always be told when the red was genuine — the red made of burned clay. 



Four men told their personal dreams of animals and sang the 

 songs whicli, they said, were received by them in these dreams. 

 Brave Buffalo related his dreams of the buffalo, elk, and wolves; 

 Charging Thunder, his dream of the wolves; and Siya'ka, his dream 

 of the crow and the owl. (Dreams of the thunderbirds by I^one Man 

 and Charging Thunder are contained in the preceding section on 

 the Ileyo'ka. The following group comprises, in addition to narra- 

 tives by the dreamers, certain accounts of dreams and their songs 

 which were given by men who had heard them related by others, and 

 also a few dream songs whose history is unknown. 



DREAMS CONCERNING THE BUFFALO 



Brave Buffalo (pi. 25) gave the following narrative concerning 

 his first dream, from which he received his name: 



When I was 10 years old, I dreamed a dream, and in my dream a buffalo appeared 

 to me. I dreamed that I was in the mountains and fell asleep in the shade of a tree. 



[1 See p. lie, fjotnote, which includes blue, obtained from bUie clay found in Minnesota. The above 

 list evidently includes only those colors found in the country of the Teton Sioux.] 



