Esta historia me la contó una abuela Santee.
Hace mucho tiempo, mucho tiempo cuando el mundo aún estaba recién hecho, Unktehi, el monstruo acuático, luchó contra la gente y provocó una gran inundación. Quizás el Gran Espíritu, Wakan Tanka, estaba enojado con nosotros por alguna razón. Tal vez dejó que Unktehi ganara porque quería hacer un mejor tipo de ser humano.
Bueno, las aguas se hicieron más y más altas. Finalmente todo se inundó excepto el cerro contiguo al lugar donde hoy se encuentra la cantera sagrada de piedra roja. La gente subió allí para salvarse, pero fue inútil. El agua barrió esa colina. Las olas derribaron las rocas y los pináculos, aplastándolos contra la gente. Todos murieron, y toda la sangre se congeló, formando un gran charco.
The blood turned to pipe stone and created the pipe stone quarry, the grave of those ancient ones. That’s why the pipe, made of that red rock, is so sacred to us. Its red bowl is the flesh and blood of our ancestors, its stem is the backbone of those people long dead, the smoke rising from it is their breath. I tell you, that pipe, that *chanunpa*, comes alive when used in a ceremony; you can feel power flowing from it.
Unktehi, el gran monstruo acuático, también se convirtió en piedra. Tal vez Tunkshila, el espíritu del abuelo, la castigó por provocar la inundación. Las hierbas están ahora en Badlands. Su espalda forma una cresta larga y alta, y puedes ver sus vértebras sobresaliendo en una gran hilera de rocas rojas y amarillas. Los he visto. Me asusté cuando estaba en esa cresta, porque sentí Unktehi. Se movía debajo de mí, queriendo derribarme.
Well, when all the people were killed so many generations ago, one girl survived, a beautiful girl. It happened this way: When the water swept over the hill where they tried to seek refuge, a big spotted eagle, Wanblee Galeshka, swept down and let her grab hold of his feet. With her hanging on, he flew to the top of a tall tree which stood on the highest stone pinnacle in the Black Hills. That was the eagle’s home. It became the only spot not covered with water.
If the people had gotten up there, they would have survived, but it was a needle-like rock as smooth and steep as the skyscrapers you got now in the big cities. My grandfather told me that maybe the rock was not in the Black Hills; maybe it was the Devil’s Tower, as white men call it , that place in Wyoming.
Both places are sacred. Wanblee kept that beautiful girl with him and made her his wife. There was a closer connection then between people and animals, so he could do it. The eagle’s wife became pregnant and bore him twins, a boy and a girl. She was happy, and said: "Now we will have people again. *Washtay*, it is good."
The children were born right there, on top of that cliff. When the waters finally subsided, Wanblee helped the children and their mother down from his rock and put them on the earth, telling them: Be a nation, become a great Nation – the Lakota Oyate."
El niño y la niña crecieron. Él era el único hombre en la tierra, ella la única mujer en edad de procrear. Ellos estan casados; ellos tuvieron hijos Nació una nación.
So we are descended from the eagle. We are an eagle nation. That is good, something to be proud of, because the eagle is the wisest of birds. He is the Great Spirit’s messenger; he is a great warrior. That is why we always wore the eagle plume, and still wear it. We are a great nation.
Soy yo, Lame Deer, quien dijo esto.
– Told by Lame Deer in Winner, South Dakota, en 1969.
