A Crow Chief stated that Medicine Wheel was built before the light came. Other Crow stories say the Sun God dropped it from the sky. And still others say it was built by the Sheepeaters, a Shoshone band whose name is derived from their expertise at hunting mountain sheep. Many Crow feel it is a guide for building tipis. Some explain the wheel was built by people without iron. One Crow story speaks of a man named Scarface. He was handsome and was fond of strutting in his finery before young women. One day while entering his mothers tipi, he fell into the fire which severely burned his face and was thereafter embarrassed to be seen. Shamed at his appearance, he left his people and went to live in the mountains. Scarface lived alone for many years. One day while a young woman and her grandmother were hunting berries, they became separated from their people and couldnt find their way back. They traveled along a trail which took them into the mountains. They occasionally saw Scarface and one day made contact with him. Scarface later married the young woman. On their travels back to his people, Scarface supposedly built the Medicine Wheel as their shelter. On the second day he built another tipi by the Big Horn river in the valley below. The tipi rings are believed to still exist. It is also said that Red Plume, a great Crow Chief during the time of Lewis and Clark, found great spiritual medicine at the Medicine Wheel. The legend states that following four days without food of water, Red Plume was visited by little people who inhabited the passage to the wheel. They took him into the earth where they lived and told him that the red eagle feathers was his powerful medicine guide and protector. He was told to always wear the small feather from the back of the eagle above his tail feathers. Thus Red Plume received his name. Upon his deathbed, he told his people his spirit would be found at the wheel and that they might communicate with him there.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 06:50:53 +0000
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