A certain man was out on a raid. He went out with a party to the plains country and became lost. He started back to his own country alone. He had his arrows with him.
He came to a big spring. Buffaloes were there for water. This man had nothing with him to eat. There was a small hill near the place. He saw the buffaloes going down the slope and he ran to the hill. There was a big bull there, followed by a female and two other females, and one small one, five in all.
He thought he would have a good chance to kill one of these buffaloes. He lay down about twenty-five yards away. The bull came up. He didn’t shoot that one though. Now they came up to the sloping place. The bull looked around. Now the second passed and the third. He got ready to shoot the third female. He was ready to shoot.
Then the big bull turned and spoke to that third female. “Hurry!” he said. “Let’s make a camp over here.”
When the man heard the voice he didn’t shoot. He let them go.
He stayed there and watched them. They were going up the canyon to the west. He waited to see where they were going to build a camp.
The bull was speaking again, talking to the females. “Have you people any food left?”
“Just a very little left,” they replied.
The Apache let the sun go down. Then he followed the trail of the buffaloes. Darkness came. He was there at the western canyon. He saw five tipis there just like the ones these Indians have. He never thought it was a buffalo camp. He thought it must be the tipis of his own people and that he was lucky to find them so near.
He came to the first tipi. He looked in. A young woman was in there. She was dressed in buckskin just like a real Apache. She was sitting in a corner pounding dry meat. A fire was burning in the center of the tipi. He went in.
She did not look up at him. She kept on pounding. After she had finished pounding the meat, she pounded fat in with it too. She put the meat before him. He didn’t speak, nor did she.
He thought, “This is surely one of my people.”
She saved out a little for herself. The rest she gave to him. The man ate. Though he was very hungry he could not eat it all.
While the Apache was eating, the male, the bull, came out and spoke to his people. He said, “We must not sit up late. Early tomorrow morning we shall move and go to our own country.” He was in the form of a bull, not a man.
The Apache ate; he didn’t say anything. When he finished he went out and slept elsewhere.
Early in the morning, before the light, they all began to take the tipis down and roll the tipi covers up.
The man watched closely. When the dawn broke, he noticed that they were all buffaloes. He didn’t know how they carried the poles and tipis. He tried to follow, but at a distance. He followed them all day.
At nightfall the same thing happened. They built a camp again. The Apache did as before. He came to a tipi, looked in, and recognized the same woman. Without speaking he entered. Again he was given the same food. He couldn’t eat it all and handed the rest back. After the meal the bull came out again and told at what time in the morning the camp would be moved.
The Apache did not sleep in that tipi that night. He slept elsewhere and followed in the morning as before. This was the third day. When he reached the place where they halted he went in again and was served food as before. Nothing different happened this day from the others.
He followed the fourth day also. By this time they were getting near the buffalo country.
It was the fourth night. He came in as before. This time the woman spoke to him. “Why don’t you sit close to me? Why do you sit far away and near the door?”
So he walked in and came near to her. He sat down.
They ate together this time from one food container. Then she said, “You must not go out tonight. You must stay here and sleep with me. I have plenty of blankets.”
This woman had a husband, a white buffalo was her husband.
The next day the Apache went out early in the morning before daylight. He saw that to the west was a great encampment of people.
A chief, the white buffalo, was talking to the people. “In four days we are going to have a war,” he said. “Let us have a war. A man took away my wife. Let us fight him. Let us get rid of him, my relatives, and let us war against her relatives who have treated me badly.” [This is an accurate presentation of one of the causes of family feuds and of the recriminations which are likely to pass between the antagonists, though the ordinary feud was scarcely so sanguinary as the one described here. Having the leaders of the opposite sides meet first in single contest was the Jicarilla manner of waging warfare. Note that the relatives of the woman are held responsible for the injury inflicted upon her husband.]
The big black bull was the chief of the other side. He spoke to his people. He said, “All of you, those eight years old and over, get out and get arrows. You children can gather the wood for shafts and help put the feathers on. You all know we are going to war in four days.”
Some were at work shaping arrows, some were putting feathers on arrow shafts, some were weaving willow branches and making armor of them. [There are a number of references in Jicarilla stories to wooden armor. The writer could obtain no evidence that the Jicarilla themselves used such armor, however.] The men were doing these things. This work went on till everything was ready. These people had many horses too. After four days they got on good horses and put on their war-bonnets. The other side did the same thing.
On the other side were only adults. On the side of the black buffalo children were in the ranks too. The Apache put on a war-bonnet which the chief gave him.
The next day, before the sun came out, the fighting began. The white buffalo led his men around. Then the shooting began. The Apache was the only one not on horseback. The rest, even the children, were on horseback. They circled around for a while. Then the two sides formed into lines and faced each other.
The white buffalo chief came forward. “All right,” he said, “who is chief of your side? Let him come out.”
The Apache came out. “I’m chief,” he said and came to the center to meet him.
They fought. After a while the white buffalo chief fell from his horse, dead.
When this happened, those on the white buffalo’s side came out after him. Now the real fighting began. This man had many arrows and killed many of them.
They grew afraid. They said, “Let us stop. You have already killed our chief.”
The fighting stopped. The side of the white buffalo picked up their dead. They were crying. They began to carry them to camp.
Then the chief next in rank to the white buffalo came out. “All right,” he said,“you can have that girl, for you have more power.”
The black buffalo came out now. To the men of the other side who were crying he said,“You are just like women; I hear you crying like women.” [This taunt is a common one leveled at enemies by the Jicarilla.]
The other chief came out again. “All right,” he said, “we are not going to camp with you after this. We will separate.” And they started to move their camps.
This Apache said that these buffalo people had everything. They were the richest people he ever saw. He stayed there among them for about a month.
His wife told him then, “I hear voices from your country. Your people are looking for you. They are very anxious about you and want to see you.”
She gave him many things, many possessions. She gave him four horses belonging to the buffaloes.
“You go to your country now,” she said. “Some day I’ll see you again.”
He started towards his home.
She told him, “When you go, do not go slowly; hurry. When these horses get tired, they will die.”
He rode on one horse. Three other horses were ahead. He drove them toward his country. They all went fast. Just about sunset that horse on which he rode fell dead.
The girl, his wife, had told him, “I will see you tonight.”
That night, after the sun had set she found him. “You are too slow in your travels,” she told him. She stayed with him that night. In the morning the dead horse had disappeared. He had gone back to his country. The man got on a second horse.
She told him,“Hurry! Don’t wait; don’t waste time.” He traveled hard all day. At sunset of the second day the horse which he had ridden died. Two were left. The girl found him again.
The next day the same thing happened. Now one horse was left.
The next day he mounted his last horse. The girl had again stayed with him the night before. She said to him, “Here I’ll leave you. You must go on alone. I’m going to take these four horses back.”
This was at the end of the fourth day. She went back. She was riding a horse too. His home country was near now.
At home, the others who had gone on the war-party had all returned. Only this one man had not come back. They thought he was dead. His relatives didn’t expect to see him again. But now he arrived home on foot.
While he was among the buffaloes, his wife had told him many things: how to hunt the buffalo, what parts not to use, how to butcher the buffalo, the songs and prayers of the buffalo. All this he learned and when he came back he told the people. The Apaches knew about buffaloes after that and how to find them.
They don’t say what the name of the man who lived with the buffaloes was. The name of the white buffalo is ‘mountain buffalo.’ They call the white buffalo ‘mountain buffalo’ because they say it comes from the mountains.
When these buffaloes are in their own country, they are just like people. When they are out somewhere they are just like buffaloes. This man never found out how they carry their equipment, for they travel in the form of buffaloes.