From Wichita Folklore
(Told by Lodge-in-front-of-all-the-Lodges)
There was once a village. Some people lived within this village while some lived outside. There were seven brothers who had five sisters, and they with their father and mother lived in this village. The seven brothers were like other men of their time and went hunting and on the war-path. They were always out on some kind of a trip. When not on the war-path these had great powers. None of their enemies knew when they were near nor when they were about to attack. They blindfolded their enemies, as it were, so that they might easily do to them whatever they wanted to do. At home they had fun and played all sort of games, the same as other men did. Their chief game was with the hoop. Each of the brothers had a certain power that the others had not, and they were named accordingly as follows: Good-Sight (Otsnanaaiai), Good-Hearing (Gaatsia), Great-Strength (Netsia), Good-Shooter (Otsnaiwigaia), Fast-Runner (Nataquantsiki), Great-Prophet (Nagikakidilue), and Afraid-of-Nothing (Kakinaidari). They spent most of their time on the war-path, leaving their folks at home. Large crowds would go with these parties against the Trickster (Kinas) people of those times.
While the oldest brother was home, some one came to his bed nearly every night, and he knew it was a woman. He soon got tired of the occurrence, for he wanted to remain single all his life. He took white clay and water, mixed it, then put it away for use at night., When he went to bed again to sleep, a woman came to his bed. When the woman came he would always kick her off the bed; but this time, when the woman came to his bed he took the clay and water that he had mixed, then he grabbed the woman and put a mark on her back, then pushed her away. The next day he announced publicly that he wanted to see the women play the double-ball game. The following morning the women from every lodge came to the play-ground and played the double-ball game. The young man sat watching the game, looking out for the one he had marked. While the game was going on he noticed that one of his sisters bore the mark. She was his oldest sister. Then then ordered the women to go home. When the game was going on, the rest of the women would ask the young man’s sister why she had the hand mark on her. He, of course, felt sad that his sister should have treated him like this, so he decided to punish her when she should come to him again. The very next night, the sister came to his bed again, and this time he was ready for her with his arrows on his right side. When the woman came he took his arrows by the points, struck all over her and made her cry aloud. The woman, full of regret, left her parents behind, going north, and when she was by herself she became Woman-having-great-Powers (Widadadiakista), or Grizzly-Bear.
Now, the seven brothers went on the war-path and were gone for a good while. The time came when Great-Prophet stayed behind the rest of the crowd. His brothers said among themselves: “What can be the matter with Great-Prophet. Surely he must have found out something.” So they all stopped a moment to see if he had discovered some danger before them or at home. He answered them, saying there was danger at home; that some beast had killed all the people but their youngest sister. They asked Good-Sight to look and see if he could see anything at home. When he had looked he said to his brothers that surely there was a Bear going around their home. They at once turned back and made a straight journey to their home. They remained outside of their former village to avoid danger, but they kept close watch of the Bear and their sister. One day the seven brothers watched to see if their sister would come away from the place where the Bear was. They saw her coming toward the prairie; so they went toward her and asked her for information. The girl said the Bear was always looking for her brothers’ return and wanted to do to them as she had done to the people; that she was sent out to get a sack full of Indian turnips. She had a short stick, to kill a jack-rabbit. Her brothers asked her if she did anything else during the day. She told them that the Bear always slept about noon, and part of the night, and woke up in the afternoon. They quickly dug the turnips, and filled her sack full, and ordered Good-Sight to take the stick and go quickly and kill a jack-rabbit. He took the stick and went to look for the rabbit to kill for the Bear. He finally succeeded in finding one, threw the stick and stuck it into the rabbit through its side. After they had done these things for their sister they again asked her if she had ever asked the Bear where a person should shoot her in order to kill her. She told them that all one had to do was to shoot the Bear in her hands and under her feet. The brothers again begged Good-Sight to give the girl power to shoot straight, for they knew the Bear would make her repeat the shooting of the rabbit. They knew that the Bear would not believe the girl had dug the turnips so quickly and that she had killed the rabbit. They started off and told her to keep secret their presence around the village.
The next time the seven brothers met the girl she told them that when she had arrived with the turnips and jack-rabbit at the place where the Bear was, the Bear had said to her: “Your brothers must be somewhere around the camp; I know that you could not have filled the sack so soon and could not possibly have killed the rabbit so easily.” She told them that she had denied that her brothers were somewhere around their former camps; that the Bear had said to her: “I must see with my own eyes how you did when you killed the rabbit;” that the Bear had stood up the dead rabbit and given her the stick to prove that she had killed it; that she had thrown the stick at the rabbit and hit it right in the wound, so that the Bear had to believe her; that she had cooked the rabbit by the fire; that the Bear had fallen asleep, it being about noon, when she had come to her brothers. The seven brothers then consulted as to what must be done and what would be the best way to get away from the Bear. When the Bear went to sleep she could be heard a long way off. The brothers left the girl with Fast-Runner, who at once started for the north, going as hard as he could go. His brothers then went straight to where the Bear was, and on their arrival they saw still sleeping soundly on her back, with her hands and feet up. This gave them a chance to shoot her under the feet. Four of them got around her, one at each foot, to shoot and kill her. They all shot at once, hitting her under the feet. Then they all ran toward the north, where Fast-Runner had gone with their sister.
They could hear the Bear talking, saying: “Who would ever believe anyone could kill me by shooting under my feet and hands! I knew the seven brothers were somewhere about the village; but never mind, I will get them.” The Bear at once took after them and they could hear her talking, saying: “I will get you. You need not think you are going to make your escape from me. It is the hardest thing a person could do.” By this time the brothers were a good way off, but they could still hear the Bear talking. They went fast, each taking his turn carrying their sister along. The Bear kept gaining on them, and came so near that they could see her coming. The oldest brother took a turtle shell, threw it on the ground, and there was a great, big bunch of turtles crawling around. Then they continued their escape. When the Bear came to the turtles she stopped quite a while, trying to get them to one place, so that she could get them. But the turtles kept crawling around. They were the Bear’s main food, and this was a good chance for her to get all she wanted. The Bear forgot for a while all about chasing the seven brothers, who, with their sister, had gone a long way ahead of her. The Bear again chased the people, saying: “I will get you. You need not think you are going to make me forget to chase you.” The seven brothers and their sister could hear the Bear talking, but she was a good way off yet. They still kept traveling as fast as they could. The Bear, having power to travel a good deal faster than the seven brothers, gained on them so that they could see her coming and could hear her voice, and they were frightened.
The oldest brother took a piece of red colored stone and threw it on the ground and the place was full of red colored stones. This brother knew this to be the very thing that the Bear wanted for painting. When the Bear came to the place she stopped, thinking that was the very thing she had been wanting for a good while. The Bear commenced to pile up the red colored stones and almost forgot about chasing the seven brothers. The Bear did forget once in a while, but soon thought of it again. She now said to herself: “Well, when I come back I will have what I want.” She then pursued them again. The seven brothers had gone a long way ahead of her. She commenced tal0king again, and this time they heard her saying that they were the people she was after, for they had done her wrong by pricking her with the points of the arrows, and she was bound to get them and get even with them. They traveled along, but the Bear kept gaining on them, and she got so near that they could see her coming.
The oldest brother now took his knife, cut out of his arrows a fine dust, threw it on the ground and there were great, big bushes that arrows are made of. When the Bear came to the place she stopped again and began to look for the best and straightest bushes, saying to herself, “Well, here are the things I have been wanting for a long while, and here is the best chance for me to get what I want.” She commenced to cut them with her teeth. Whenever the oldest brother left something being for the Bear, the Bear would forget for a while all about the seven brothers. The brothers and sister were now a good way ahead of her again, when the Bear remembered and began to pursue them. The people were traveling rapidly, but the Bear gained on them again and kept gaining until they were compelled to do something or die. Finally they saw the Bear coming. The oldest one said to the rest: “We will now have to die. There is only one thing left to be done. When the Bear succeeds in passing the next place we surely will have to die.” He now took his bow-string off from his bow, passing it through his left hand four times, then threw it on the ground, and there was a deep canyon, but it had a place where the Bear could get down and get out on the other side. They commenced to travel again.
When the Bear came to the canyon she went all round, looking for a place, going further and further, and finally came to a place where they was a high cedar tree standing over the canyon. She made a jump onto the tree, climbed down, got on the ground and commenced to look for a place to get out. She climbed onto another tree, then jumped on the other side of the canyon and commenced to chase the seven brothers. The party was now a good way off, but they could hear her talking. This being their last chance, the brothers and their sister had to give up traveling. They all stopped, sat in a row, and faced toward the south. The oldest brother was on the west end, their sister on the other end, next to Fast-Runner. Finally they saw the Bear coming, saying: “I thought I would finally get you. You through I never would give up chasing you.”
When the Bear arrived she sat down and rolled around, rolled up to each of them, kept rolling around, and would sometimes slap one of them, and say, “You knew that nobody could get away from me.” When she rolled away from them, the oldest brother jumped up, called to his brothers to rise, took the feather off his head and blew it. As it went up the seven brothers and their sisters went with it. They went up in the sky before the Bear knew it, and they now live as the Seven (Kiowhits), or the Dipper. When the Bear rolled up where they had been, she finally noticed that she did not touch anyone. She opened her eyes and looked around to see where the people had gone, but there was no sign of them and no trail. She looked around, but could not see any trace of them. When she looked up int he sky she saw them above her, where she could never get them. She commenced to scold herself, saying: “Why did I not kill them when I arrived! Well, I can not help it now; they have got away from me.” The Bear had to give up and went off to the canyon and never did go back where she had come from. In the north there can be seen worlds of these bears, because the Bear went there, and never returned. Before the Bear arrived where the seven brothers were the oldest one talked to the rest, saying: “The powers we have had and the things we have had are to remain on earth for the people of the next generation. If at any time anybody sends out any kind of an expedition and the leader wishes aid from us he can get it by offering smoke to us.” These benefits they left on earth for generations to follow.
Source:
The Mythology of the Wichita, George A. Dorsey, 1904
Kotharian Lightning 