Native American languages Native American cultures Native American genealogy

The Story of Hair Scrapings Man (Agait'osdunne)

This version of the legend comes from Pliny Earle Goddard's 1916 collection Beaver Texts.

A child was heard to cry from a buffalo skin. An old woman went toward it and found a child sitting among the hairs which had been scraped from the buffalo skins. She took up the child and because she felt sorry for it, took care of it and raised it, although the others tried to dissuade her.

It grew quickly. "Put nothing but grass under me, grandmother," he said. She put some grass under him but in the night she saw it was gone; there was nothing but bare ground under him. "What are you doing, grandchild?" she said to herself. She watched him through her ragged blanket one night and saw him stand up, a large buffalo. He ate up the grass he was lying on. " My grandson is a buffalo," she thought.

A famine was killing the people when someone saw a herd of buffalo. There were many people camping there who decided to go together and kill the buffalo. The boy saw the buffalo and at night, while the people were asleep, took an arrow from each man's supply. He went to the buffalo during the night and shot them all because they were not afraid of him. " The buffalo will belong to the man whose arrow is on it," he said to himself, and distributed the arrows on the dead buffalo. "We will make meat of this one for my grandmother," he said, and placed two of his arrows on one of the animals.

He went back to the camp to find someone had built a big fire. His grandmother was sitting on the wood, crying. "What is the matter, grandmother? " he asked. " You went for the people's animals and they say they will burn you." "Who says that about me?" he asked. "They all say it of you. They are not pleased." "None of your animals ran away. They are still where they were last night. Go to them," he said.

An old man was sitting there after the others had left. He took a seat by this old man and said, "I saw the wolves kill a young buffalo, grandfather." They two followed along the way the others had gone. They found some of the Indians lying in front of the dead buffalo while others were trying to surround them. When they came up to the buffalo they found they had all been killed and the arrows were lying on the bodies. The people were all very much pleased.

Learn more about:

Where Happiness Dwells (Amazon affiliate link)
The Beaver language
Beaver legends
Beaver Nation
Beaver animals
Beaver Facts for Kids

Back to North American Indian tribes
Buy some American Indian books

Native American crafts Lumbee Indian Cherokee religion Iroquois headdress Arawakan language

Would you like to help support our organization's work with endangered American Indian languages?

The Story of Hair Scrapings Man (Agait'osdunne)

Sponsored links:

More stories to read:

Learn more about: