Lily Real Bird Becomes The Buffalo

Based on the stories of

The Great Flood from the Yellowstone

and The White Faced Bear from the Aleuts

Retold by American Indian Business Leaders-Montana State University Billings

Other Books

Lily Real Bird Becomes the Eagle

Lily Real Bird Becomes the Bear Authentic Native American hand made dolls for Lily with Eagle, Bear and Buffalo Katsinas costumes will be available along with Iron Elk and Little Storm. For Children over Three Years Old. Contact aotjen@msubillings.edu.

Katsinas are known to be the spirits of deities, natural elements or animals, or the deceased ancestors of the Hopi.

Real Bird and Iron are Crow names.

Teepees and Regalia are in the style of the Crow.

American Buffalo are more accurately known as Bison. American Antelope are more accurately known as Pronghorn.

Copy Right 2016

Billings, Montana

Illustrations by A.J.Otjen

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1. Hopi katsina figures, also known as kachina dolls are figures carved, typically from r katsinam, the immortal beings that bring rain, control other aspects of the natural world and society, and act as messengers between humans and the spirit world. Hopi people live primarily on three mesas in Northeastern Arizona, about 70 miles from Flagstaff. The katsinas are known to be the spiri

Lily Real Bird Becomes

The Buffalo

Based on the stories of

The Great Flood from the Yellowstone

and The White Faced Bear from the Aleuts

Retold by American Indian Business Leaders-Montana State University Billings

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Lily Real Bird lived in the Yellowstone River Valley.

Photo by Jeff Handler Her home ranged from the Crazy Mountains in the west to the Big Horn Mountains in the south.

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Photo by Domnic Kemp Her home included the rivers in the Yellowstone Canyon and the Big Horn Canyon.

Photo by Lawrence Ellis

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Her best friends were her cousin Elk Iron and her pony Little Storm.

Little Storm was named because of the blaze of

lightening on his nose and the rain drops on his back.

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Lily loved her beautiful valley with wolves and herds of antelope and elk, and tall grass and plenty of fish in the wide rivers.

And there were also stars at night named after the great she bear.

This image cannot currently be displayed.

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Her grandfather, Chief Black Iron, told her the beauty of her valley was because of the buffalo.

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“The Great Spirit told the people that, as long as we had the buffalo we would be safe from heat or cold

or too much rain.

These animals are our brothers, we must share the land with them. They give us food and clothing.

We must live with them and protect them.”

Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup

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But Lily saw that other people came to the valley and hunted the buffalo without respecting their gift of food and clothing.

And soon there were no buffalo except for the treasured skins that had been their shelter from storms.

Americanhistory,si.edu

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Without the buffalo, there would be no more shelter.

The Great

Spirit was angry that they had not protected the buffalo.

The Great Spirit brought storms to wash away the people and the animals and the tall grass from the valley.

Photo of storms

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Lily hoped to convince the Great Spirt to stop the storm. If she could bring back the buffalo, the Great Spirt would save her people from the storm.

Grandfather told Lily that if she placed a buffalo skin under her head as a pillow, she would wake up as a buffalo.

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The next morning when she woke up,

Lily had become the buffalo.

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As a buffalo, she reached to the top of the peaks and stretched herself across the

mountains. She grabbed one corner of the top of the Big Horn Mountains. She held on to the

Pryors and the Beartooth.

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She made a great arch to cover the entire valley so that rain did not fall below her.

As the rains continued to fall from the Great Spirit, the village and all the people and animals crowded under her as if she was a blanket over their land.

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Then the rain turned into wind and she raised up from the Bridger Mountains to catch the west

wind and let it rush in beneath her so that the village would once again be dry.

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Instagram Crow Fair

When the Great Spirit saw that Lily had helped her people live at peace with the earth, the storm stopped and the sun shone.

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It shone on Lily so that she shrank back into human form. Lily and Elk Iron and Little Storm again played in her beautiful valley.

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And where Lily had once arched over the valley, the great creator made a rainbow appear in her place.

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Photo by Matthias Boeke A buffalo calf and its mother was grazing underneath. The Creator promised

that as long as there were buffalo he would never hurt the land again.

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curator@old-picture.com.

Image ID# EF8E63A5

1881 rand mcnally co scan courtesy of library of congress

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2. Hopi katsina figures, also known as kachina dolls

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