~*~Cry Of The Wolf~*~

WOLF WISDOM WARRIOR
A WOLF I CONSIDERED MYSELF BUT I HAVE EATEN NOTHING AND FROM STANDING I AM TIRED OUT.
A WOLF I CONSIDERED MYSELF BUT THE OWLS ARE HOOTING AND THE NIGHT I FEAR.
~TETON LAKOTA SONG~

Native Americans often used the wolf as an ideal, often to point out their own limitations, such as fear of the dark. The Blackfoot/Blood/Piegans of the northern Rockies spoke of a harmonious life as "traveling the wolf trail." Many traditional people thought that the eyes of the wolf and the eyes of the human were the same eyes. On almost every continent, our ancestors learned to hunt in packs effectively. Without wolves as teachers and mentors of the hunt, we probably not be here.

Wolves taught us about cooperation and the value of our extended families. They taught us about protectiveness and about fidelity to our tribe. They taught us how the social system in a tribe functions smoothly, and with the best interests of everyone in mind. We watched them, and learned how to 'howl at the moon' in celebration. They showed us how to move through the world carefully and quietly.

It has been said that wolves are the creatures most like us, but I think we have the seniority system backwards here. We are the creatures most patterned after the wolf.

Native Americans rarely looked at the wolf as a competitor or enemy. If game was scarce, the wolves would be gone. The presence of wolves was a GOOD sign. The good hunter watched wolves for signs of bison or elk in the air, and he never killed without offering some meat to his assistant and scout. Eventually, this relationship blossomed into one in which we call the wolf "man's best friend." Long ago, the wolves and humans realized their brotherhood, and made a truce. The WOLVES still observe it.

We westerners have killed about two million wolves since we moved to North America. Wolves have killed none, none, of us. For ten thousand years, Native people observed the truce. The Blackfoot and Lakota believe that a gun used to shoot a wolf will never shoot straight again. It would be a curse on the brotherly relationship akin to the story of Cain and Abel. If you believe in the bible, then you have to know that the animals were created FIRST.....then the creator created man to WATCH OVER THEM!!!!!!!!

A Blackfoot woman named Sits By The Door was captured in a Crow raid and carried hundreds of miles to Crow country as a prisoner. She escaped with the help of a Crow woman, but nearly starved when she was still far from her people. She watched helplessly as a wolf came close by and lay down, probably waiting for her to die. She told her story to the wolf. Next morning there was a freshly killed buffalo calf next to her on the ground. She ate, regained some of her strength, and resumed her journey. She still could barely walk, so the wolf walked next to her and supported part of her weight. They traveled together for days, and the wolf continued to bring kills to her. By the time she reached her people, she was as strong as before she left. She camped outside the village because the wolf was still wild, but the camp dogs eventually ran it away. The woman became sick and eventually died. It was said that the wolf would look for Sits By The Door from a nearby butte for many years after.......this may be too much for some of you to believe, but for those of us who have ever been close to wolf, it is not that hard........

The relationship between wolves and humans is summarized well by the story of Sits By The Door. The camp dogs wee not comfortable with their wolf origins, nor are people today comfortable with theirs. Perhaps our wild sides do still wait for us, just outside of the camp.........

This story shows how Native Americans saw the process of education. Learning the ways of the wolves took sacrifice, risk, hardship and many years. For them, learning is never accomplished by creating a completely artificial situation {we call it school} for the student. Education is done by placing a willing student in the presence of an elder, and then living life as it comes. Learning is only about life--it is not done for its own sake.

Humans fear what they don't understand. Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, Peter and the Wolf, crying wolf, wolfing food, wolf at the door, thrown to the wolves, werewolves--these are examples of the wolf legacy from Europe and American. A Pawnee story tells that it was once that way with the Native American nations too.

Creator, with the assistance of lightening and thunder, sang, shook rattles, and struck the ground and water with their clubs. In this way they created everything that we see today--except one. They forgot about the Wolf. A great red star in the southeast sky was curious about creation and changed itself to a form that could run across the land and see things far and wide. This form was Wolf. Thunder picked hundreds of stars from the sky, put them in a whirlwind sack and went down to examine the creation for himself, watching with amazement as the stars would spill out and try to run away, on two legs. He sucked them back in the whirlwind sack and explored new places. Wolf had picked up Thunder's trail and followed until he found Thunder asleep. Thinking there may be food in the bag, Wolf quietly nipped at the strings of the whirlwind, and out poured two-leggeds, who ran off and set up camps all over creation. An old woman from the bag adopted Wolf and fed him buffalo meat. One day hunters came back from a hunt empty-handed and angry. They wanted to blame someone. When they turned around to look behind them, they saw Thundar roaring their way, himself angry at losing his two-legged toys. They were afraid, and in their fear and anger, the hunters shot Wolf and killed him. Thundar was very angry that the two-leggeds had run away, but he was even more angry that they had killed something just because they didn't understand it. Thunder roared at them for being afraid of mystery, and told them that they were no longer welcome in the whirlwind sack, where they would have lived forever. He told them that mystery would always be replaced with another mystery, and the new one was the mystery of death. Since that time, the Earth has lived with death nearby.

Today, the Pawnee call themselves the Skidi Pawnee, the Wolf People. Their scouts are legendary, operating just like a wolf pack in hunting and warfare. The metaphor of this story is remarkably similar to our own world. We kill what we don't understand, and it will, with certainty, bring more death into our world. The recent re-introduction of wolves into areas that they used to flourish in, has humans seeing them as a scapegoat yet again. Contrary to thousands of years of hard evidence, the newly arrived wolves are seen as demons who will destroy, indiscriminately, all the work that humans have done to make the world safe for cattle. Perhaps the concept of indiscriminate destruction is too close to home for humans. We tend to see in oothers what is buried far inside of our own hearts. Wolves will come and go, as they always have, but the sense of emptiness in our own lives will not be removed by the removal of the Wolf. Nothing very important changes quickly in this world. We relive moral crises over and over again, resisting lessons from our elders, and killing the creation which makes and sustains us.

On the medicine wheel, the North, Wolf, represents intelligence, knowledge and wisdom. The intelligence and knowledge parts are easy for humans, but wisdom comes from a balance of experience and self-knowledge. Cleverness is no substitute for having a direction in life or being comfortable with the path we choose. The Wolf Trail is not as worn these days. Tracks of two-leggeds wander aimlessly. We are usually looking for someone else to follow, while the trail of wisdom grows over.

We all have a choice in front of us.....we can carefully use some of the Earth for our own benefit, or we can choose to believe that we have a right to it all. We can do our work, or doodle away our time with diversions. We can accept those things which we should not see, or peek out of the hole, never realizing that just because we can doesn't mean we should. Always, out there in the night, Wolf is watching patiently to see if any wisdom is rubbing off.

Someday perhaps we can look at Wolf the way Wolf sees us. According to Native people, we have the right eyes for the job.