My brother the wolf was prowling about my fire and I watched his eye aflame with the savagery of this wild look.
He said to me, "Grandmother, what a big gun you have."
I said nothing to him and he continued to circle the flame of my fire looking at the buffalo hump roasting on the fire.
"Grandmother?", he inquired.
"What, " I replied.
"Grandmother tell me of him?," he asked.
"We do not speak of him," I replied, "as there is too much truth in him for my people."
"Grandmother," he continued, "Is it so that you knew him?"
"I heard his voice in the red willow when I was a girl," I answered as the meat juices now sizzled into the embers.
"Was he all they said he was", he asked more, "for he has killed many of my brothers?"
"He has killed many of mine too," I replied and turned the meat slowly studying it as death became life.
My brother sat upon his haunches and listened to the meat speak as I began.
"It was long ago before I even was. In those times, they called him the puddle, MNI YUSPE LA, for it was said he was born when the winter was leaving and a small pool formed outside of the lodge he was born.
Some say his name was also the cricket, GNUGNUSKA, for he saw the cricket who shows the way to the buffalo herds, but I never heard him called that.
Visions though are personal things, and I never heard him speak of visions as they did not come to him it was said.
They said it began in the time of the buffalo drying meat after his sixth winter when the turkey, WAGLEKSU, was leading the boys in a game that he mocked the puddle and made him run around the ground until he was sick.
This bruised the heart of the puddle and the winters did not heal, but only inflicted worse as his family's standing was not high and the turkey did not assist as his sons, little man, WICASA KITALA and little lizard, AGLESKA KITALA were the favorites at counsel along with their friend, the nose snot, PAHLI.
In his twelfth winter, the puddle noticed the shrike, CETA WATAPELA, and she was the most beautiful in all the tribes.
The puddle's father though, the horse, SUKAWAKA, did not offer up the ponies for this wife, but instead chose the old squaw thrown out of the lodge of the hunger, LOCI, as her family was related to the elders, but she was a bad woman who was lazy and fat.
For two years, the puddle, endured the ridicule and a fire within him burned like the prairie of the long grass and it became an inferno as the old women laughed one night around the fire as the old squaw was making the love song with a squaw man from the Canada.
The puddle struck her and the squaw man and then vented upon the old women as he chased them with burning stick. The old men laughed, but he stopped and screamed at them, "When I return I will be a warrior with 12 enemy scalps on my belt and all of you old women will make way as this stops now".
He stalked out of the village with the laughter and taunts following him to the darkness. He though was different in this in he went to the lodge of the messenger, OGLIGLE WAKA, and took from the old man his rifle and the went and took the war pony and buffalo pony of the black tail deer, SITESAPELA, who would have killed the puddle if he could have caught him, but all that was left was the embers of his fire as he had ridden like the wind.
No one knows what the puddle did for certain as his story did change from season to season, but the Pawnee told of a Lakota boy who took two scalps of them of their soldiers who watched from the mounds and this did match the story which the puddle told one summer of his return.
It was then that the boy disappeared and the name linked from the Ojibway in the Sioux became associated with him in the cut throat, CESKOHLOKE WAKSE, became the name that all the peoples of the plains knew him afterwords my brother.
The cut throat came to a Pawnee camp and through one night a the men arose to relieve themselves he drove a knife into their throats and almost severed their heads off as is the Sioux custom.
Other tribes in the Arikaree, Mandan, Hidatsa and Gros Ventre all spoke of the puddle in those who disappeared in the night were credited to him, but I know that in those days he went to the Crow and collected 5 of their scalps, as their hair is very long and there were 5 very long scalps on the pole of his lodge and there were those like the prairie cock of the Pawnee in numbering 7.
The puddle came to the Ogallalah as they were camped in the paha sapa, the black hills in cutting poles for their lodges. He threw down the gun of old messenger and said, "I took from you this worthless gun and return it with a WASICU rifle for a man".
Then he walked over to the black tail deer's lodge and tied a buffalo coated brown horse, the color of big sheep, and called out, "SITESAPELA, I took your horses on a warriors war and they were glad to carry me. They told me though that only this, the best Crow war pony would suffice to join them on their return. I give you a pony which I took as I shot the Crow riding him."
The puddle then strode to the middle of the camp and called out, "Which of you old women will light a fire here. I pay you this vermilion I stole from a WASICU and for a knife for which you will give me your dogs for feast that all will hear of the story of the 12 scalps".
He then drove his spear, which was a Crow spear into the ground and a Crow woman stood beside him as he started to chant his war song, "ANAGOPTA WICAHPI! TAKU YAKA? LEL CANTE WAKTE OGLAKA!"
"Listen stars! What do you mean? Here is the war story heart!"
The old women killed the white dogs with a club, swung them through the fire to burn the hair off, and cut them up to boil.
The puddle sat singing his war song as the Crow woman stood at his side and wailed.
At dark the men came and sat in a circle around the fire and the puddle lit the pipe and smoked, but ordered the turkey and his sons from the circle to which they stalked off.
When they had served the dog and all turned their bowls upside down to show they were empty, the puddle rose and said, "You warriors mocked me a summer ago, but you sat in your lodges like old women while I rode to the enemy as you laughed at my promise.
Here is the proof in I brought back 15 scalps of our people's enemies.
There is the Pawnee who sat on a hill that I went to and said, "I have come to kill you", and when he rose I shot him with my arrow with the tip of iron from the trader with the Miniconjou.
I then shot another Pawnee as he stood on the opposite hill looking for me his enemy. In the night, I went to the Pawnee camp like the snake I slithered through their camp, enjoying the sounds of their lodges as they thought they were safe from enemies, and they were safe, because all of you were old women and in your lodges smoking, telling stories and sleeping.
I killed the chief's son as he came out to piss in the grass with a stone club some woman had left after killing a dog.
Then I killed an old man as he came out to piss while the moon was in the middle of the sky.
This killing Pawnee was too easy for a warrior like me, so I crawled to the top of a lodge of a warrior and dropped in and drove my knife into his heart.
It was too bad there were not one hundred warriors in that lodge and not just one, as I would have had one hundred scalps on this spear, as there is no fear in me as I am a Pawnee killer!
"How! How! How!, the old men now chanted as the women began to salute the puddle.
So I rode to the north as my knife called out to me that it hungered to be fed on the blood of our enemies the Crow.
I found three of them, a war party who had thrown down the scaffold of our dead and were shooting arrows into them. I called to them, "I have come here to kill you", and I shot the first one with old messenger's rifle, and both then came for me, but I chanted my war song as I shot an arrow at the closest which killed him as it went to his brain through his eye.
The other being alone fled from me, but I mounted the blacktail's horse and rode after him and struck him down with the hammer from the Pawnee camp.
He was not dead, so I scalped him, and cut the tendons on his legs and hands. I bound him and with the wood of the scaffolds they had torn down, I roasted him tied down.
His screams came like a coyote in the jaws of the wolf. His tongue swelled from his mouth and his eyes popped from his head.
"How! How! How!," the whole circle chanted in appreciation.
This killing Crow is as easy as the Pawnee for a warrior like me, so I went to their camp and stood outside and called to them, "I have come to kill you!".
These Crow had not heard of my deeds, so they came to me. The sound of arrows was like bees around me, but I sang my song and used old messenger's rifle to shoot one down as I unleashed my arrows and shot five more.
I then charged two more with my knife and my stone club and the earth seeing my bravery joined with me and swallowed up the one in a badger hole while I smashed the other's skull. It is an easy thing to kill Crow for a warrior like me and even old women like you could kill Crow, if the earth holds your enemy as the earth bows to me.
The Crow fled their village, but I chased them and I captured this woman as my own. She was on the horse I gave to the blacktail deer, so I know the story I told is true in that horse is the greatest of the Crow.
Having 12 scalps I thought, "Why would not more scalps of our enemies be a good thing?", so I found our enemy in the Gros Ventre in two squaws with a trader giving guns to our enemy.
I killed the squaws like the lynx does a rabbit. The Frenchman hid under his cart making noises like the fawn as I scalped him.
It was here that I got the messenger his good gun as the puddle always gives presents to those whose things he uses in greatness.
"How! How! How!", chanted the warriors as the women began to screech praises at him and strike the Crow woman.
So all of you will remember, the spirits gave me this scar on my leg from a Crow arrow. That is the only wound I received to record my greatness for you as my medicine is strong!
"How! How! How!", they all chanted, and started singing, "TOKA UKITAWA AKICITA CESKOHLOKE WAKSE!"
"The soldier who cuts the throats of our enemies!"
This is how the name the cut throat came to be known. It was on this night.
CESKOHLOKE WAKSE rode out on a Pawnee Wyandotte pony the next day as our camps were large then, and some wanted to hunt the big horn sheep in the hills it was said.
He rode up to the lodge of the snot nose and called out, "PAHLI come out for I have come to kill you!"
The shrike begged him not to kill her husband, but the snot nose hid like a child under his buffalo robe.
CESKOHLOKE WAKSE pushed into the lodge and killed PAHLI, but did not scalp him as it was not permitted to scalp one of our own people.
All were rushing around and CESKOHLOKE WAKSE saw the little man and shot him. There were friends of the turkey in this camp and arrows with bullets filled the air with the sound of hornets, but CESKOHLOKE WAKSE rode in a circle singing his war song.
He then rode to the little man and scalped him which was not permitted, but the cut throat called out, "You old women have tried to kill me for avenging their wrongs. Now I treat those as an enemy!"
He rode to the lizard's lodge who was the other son of the turkey and he called out, "I have come to kill you!".
The puddle was shot through the flap of the lodge, but the bullet struck his rifle barrel and whined off into the sky. In an instant, he was off his horse and knife to knife they fought to the death, and CESKOHLOKE WAKSE emerged with the scalp.
All fled to their tents as the medicine was too great as CESKOHLOKE WAKSE rode to the lodge of the turkey as he and his squaw always made camp by the water.
CESKOHLOKE WAKSE called out, "WAGLEKSU come and take the gift I give you in your son's scalps!"
WAGLEKSU was a coward and would not come out of his lodge.
His squaw and daughter both called him and old woman.
CESKOHLOKE WAKSE took a horse hair rope and entered the lodge, tying it to the feet of the turkey and tied the other to his horse, and dragged the turkey from his lodge all around the camp and into the cactus which was in the canyon.
It was there that CESKOHLOKE WAKSE cut the turkey's throat and left him for the wolves to eat.
The chiefs all held counsel and said that the medicine of the puddle was too strong for the Ogallalah to have. They presented CESKOHLOKE WAKSE with the heads of the wives and children of his dead enemies as a gift and asked him to be their protector, but his great medicine consumed the people and it would be best if his lodge was always outside the camp and that if CESKOHLOKE WAKSE would sing his song, none of the people would ever surprise him and inflame his fury when he slumbered.
This is why my brother the wolf, that the grizzly stays around the camp of the Lakota as this is CESKOHLOKE WAKSE, and you can hear his war song as he talks to himself in the night.
I know you my brother, in you have killed the cubs of CESKOHLOKE WAKSE and this is why he kills you, and he still kills those whose hearts are like the turkey's.
"You speak with a straight tongue Grandmother," the wolf replied, "It is the man clothed in the coat of the grizzly who is CESKOHLOKE WAKSE."
"Leave him alone my brother," the old woman said, "as he does not suffer wrongs".
agtG
