Takche Huste ~ Lame Deer (Or how my family received it's name.)
By Josephine Fire Lame Deer

In the beginning of our history, we say there were two tribes. In one lived a young woman, unmarried and pregnant. Her father being an important man was angered with her condition, but fearing for the life of her lover, she would not divulge his identity. Her lover, being a coward, would not either, so she was cast out after the birth of her child. She began to wander, unable to provide for herself.

In the meantime, in the only other tribe, a young man was being cast out. The reasons for his people's dislike towards him was that he held many personality traits the people discouraged. He was a strong, smart and devoted young man, yet he was also proud to the point of egotistical, a braggart of his own deeds and bravery and vain of his own intelligence compared to others. Though he pleaded with his people and promised to change his ways, they had to send him and the children watching, a message.

The young woman walked and walked until she was too weak, and just sat on a log to die. She began to sing to her child and pray to the Creator to save her baby if not herself as well. Just as she felt faint and was sure her milk would soon dry up, she heard footsteps. These were still the days when all animals, the two-legged, the four-legged, crawling, swimmng and flying ones could all still communicate with one another. The woman called out, "Please eat me and my baby so as we do not die miserably without reason."

She heard the voice of the young man respond. "I do not wish to eat you. Why do you and your baby want to die?"

"We do not." She explained her situation.
"I understand." He explained his situation.
"What will we do?" She asked of him and everything around her.

As they spoke, they noticed a figure coming through the forest towards them. The figure became an old deer, limping badly on one leg. The young man thought quickly and as the deer came nearer, he called out, "Uncle, could you please come close and speak a minute?" The deer looked at him crossly and stopped walking.

"What do you want?" he snorted.
"Would you consider giving your life for this young woman and her child?" the young man asked.
"Ha, ha, ha ! You must be kidding!" said the deer.
"Please Uncle, you are old and crippled. You will no longer use your seed to bring children forth. This woman and child are healthy and young and have many years ahead of them." the young man pleaded.

"I don't think so. If you care about them so much, you give your life for them. I care for no one but myself. I'll be going now." said the deer.

The Creator, listening closely, was upset by the words of the deer. Hes booming voice came from everywhere, and nowhere; from the outside and in; as he said, "My children, it saddens me to see such selfishness born of the love I have gifted to all of you. My son, deer, you are old and decrepit, you should have give your life freely to this woman and child."

"As punishment," Tunkashila continued, "this man, I will give the knowledge of weapons and he will forever hunt the four-legged to fill the bellies of his family. From the four-legged, I will take the ability to communicate with any but your own kind. This man and woman will become man and woman together and this boy will be called Takche Huste -Lame Deer. He will become a healer and teacher of the people who seek him out for his connection to the earthly things around him, and the spirits who have wept for his salvation. I have said it and so it shall be."

This legend, this name, and this family were born on this day...

~ Mitakuye Oyasin ~ "We are all related"

~ ~ ~

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions

Elk Medicine
An elk dreamer was almost as strong as a bear man. The elk stands for many good things – strength, youth, love. An elk is brave; he defends his herd. Elk dreamers, therefore, look out for the womenfolk, for the weak and helpless children. They take pity on the poor. They have a way with the girls, but they are not women-chasers. They treat women with respect and gentleness, but they have the love power. The women know it. When an elk medicine man is near, even before they see him, they feel it. They fidget around, scratch themselves, hitch up their skirts, get restless. Nobody has to tell them. All this comes from the elks. Just watch such an animal, how he protects his harem, always putting himself between his does and the danger.

The elk is an athlete. In spite of his big antlers, he can run through a dense forest, no matter how close the trees are standing together. You don’t quite know how he does it. He lives with the trees, is himself formed like a tree; his antlers are like branches.

An elk master gets his power from this animal. This power turns you eyes inward and penetrates into your mind, filling your whole body with wakan (sacred). An elk man will have a good voice, be a good musician, a flute player. This flute, the siyotanka, it charms, it plays the love songs with which a boy calls his girl. The sound travels far; even the animals in the woods love it. A good spirit comes with it. An elk medicine man grows to be like his animal. He can leave the footprints of an elk behind him to show his power. The elk spirit comes with a foot-click on the ground, like a hoof striking iron. I have experienced this. The elk dreamers used to wear masks when doctoring people. They always wore a special small, quilled hoop in their hair because the circle is one of the elk’s symbols.

An elk man is good at treating sick women. He can make powerful hunting charms, and the love charms too. He performs the hehaka lowanpi, elk ceremony. He knows the elk songs. He works with the elk medicine – hehaka tapejuta – what you call horse mint. It grows in the dry hills. It looks like a drumstick with little blue and purple petals, and it has a good, sweet taste. This mint is a blood medicine. One chews the leaves and puts them on wounds and bad cuts. It stops the bleeding and has a fast-healing power. You can use this medicine also as a tea. You drink it against coughing and fainting. The elk medicine, used in different ways, cures many sicknesses.

I am a Wicasa Wakan, a Holy Man

In one of my great visions, I was talking to the birds, the winged creatures. I was saddened by the death of my mother. She had held my hand and said just one word: “pitiful”. I don’t think she grieved for herself; she was sorry for me, a poor Indian she would leave in a white man’s world. I cried up on that vision hill, cried for help, stretched out my hands toward the sky and then put the blanked over myself – that’s all I had, the blanket and the pipe, and a little tobacco for an offering. I didn’t know what to expect. I wanted to touch the power, feel it. I had the thought to give myself up, even if it would kill me. So I just gave myself to the winds, to nature, not giving a damn about what could happen to me.

All of a sudden I hear a big bird crying, and then quickly he hit me on the back, touched me with his spread wings. I heard the cry of an eagle, loud above the voices of many other birds. It seemed to say, “We have been waiting for you. We knew you would come. Now you are here. Your trail leads from here. Let our voices guide you. We are your friends, the feathered people, the two-legged, the four-legged, we are your friends, the creatures, little tiny ones, eight legs, twelve legs – all those who crawl on the earth. All the little creatures which fly, all those under water. The powers of each one of us we will share with you and you will have a ghost with you always – another self”

That’s me, I thought, no other thing than myself, different, but me all the same, unseen, yet very real. I was frightened. I didn’t understand it then. It took me a lifetime to find out.

And again I heard the voice amid the birds sounds, the clicking of beaks, the squeaking and chirping. “You have love for all that has been placed on this earth, not like the love of a mother for her son, or of a son for his mother, but a bigger love, which encompasses the whole earth. You are just a human being, afraid, weeping under that blanket, but there is a great space within you to be filled with that love. All of nature can fit in there.” I was shivering, pulling the blanked tighter around myself, but the voices repeated themselves over and over again, calling me “Brother, brother, brother.” So this is how it is with me. Sometimes I feel like the first being in one of our Indian legends. This was a giant made of earth, water, the moon and the winds. He had timber instead of hair, a whole forest of trees. He had a huge lake in his stomach and a waterfall in his crotch. I feel like this giant. All of nature is in me, and a bit of myself is in all of nature.

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