CHAPTER 9 | AMERICAN INDIAN MUSIC AND ITS COLLECTORS 213
Frances Densmore Relates How Brave Buffalo Received
Healing Power in a DreamIn their own words
B
rave Buffalo... gave the following narrative
concerning his fi rst dream, from which he
received his name:When I was 10 years old, I dreamed a dream,
and in my dream a buffalo appeared to me. I
dreamed that I was in the mountains and fell
asleep in the shade of a tree. Something shook
my blanket. It was a buffalo, who said, “Rise
and follow me.” I obeyed. He took a path, and
I followed. The path was above the ground. We
did not touch the earth. The path led upward
and was smooth like smooth black rock. It was
a narrow path, just wide enough for us to travel.
We went upward a long distance and came to
a tent made of buffalo hide, the door of which
faced us. Two buffalo came out of the tent and
escorted me in. I found the tent fi lled with
buffalo and was placed in the midst of them.
The chief buffalo told me that I had been
selected to represent them in life. He said
the buffalo play a larger part in life than men
realize, and in order that I might understand
the buffalo better day by day they gave me a
plain stick (or cane) and told me that when I
looked at it I should remember that I had been
appointed to represent them. The cane was
similar to the one which I now carry and have
carried for many years. I would not part with
this cane for a fortune....
Brave Buffalo said that the following song was
given him in the lodge fi lled with buffalo, and that
by it he received power to engage in the practice of
medicine [Densmore’s transcription and analysis
follow].
Continuing his narrative, Brave Buffalo said:
The buffalo in my dream told me that I would
live to be 102 years old. Then they said: “If
you are to show people the great value of the
buffalo one proof which you must give them
is a demonstration of your endurance. After
properly qualifying yourself you will be able
to show that weapons can not harm you, and
you may challenge anyone to shoot you with
arrows or with a gun.”Brave Buffalo said that on waking from his
dream, he went home and thought the matter
over seriously. After qualifying himself for the
ordeal, he requested his relatives to erect a very
large tent of buffalo hide in which he would give
his demonstration and challenge anyone to shoot
him with arrows. He clothed himself in an entire
buffalo hide with the head and the horns. The
whole tribe came to see whether anyone could
wound him. Many tried with arrows, but could
not do so. The arrows did not penetrate his skin.
Several years later the test was repeated with
guns, and Brave Buffalo stated that they were not
able to injure him.K At age 73, Brave Buffalo sang his dream song “A
Buffalo Said to Me” for Frances Densmore at the
Standing Rock Reservation, South Dakota, sometime
between 1911 and 1914.172028_09_205-230_r3_ko.indd 213 23/01/13 11:28 AM