We’re up on vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota this week. There’s a lot of wildlife and a lot of American Indian history up here. And the scenery is breaktaking and just really reminds me I am out west, with wide open spaces, vistas, and the horizon over a hundred miles away. You can imagine what life must have been like when these areas were covered with wild animals, and only the Indians resided here, living off the land and hunting the bison. One of the high points of our trip so far was spending the day at Custer State Park, where as we drove one of the dirt roads, we encountered literally hundreds of bison. Bison on either side of the road, bison on the road, bison next to our car, big bison, little bison (calves). For some reason, seeing so many of them brought to mind the word Tatanka, the Indian word for bison. And that brought to mind my memories of watching the movie, Dances with Wolves, one of my favorite movies of all time. One of the things I loved about the movie was the names of the Indians, like Kicking Bird, and how they gave the lead character (Kevin Costner) his Indian name of Dances With Wolves. It made me wonder, what if we gave names to each other in the same way, what would my American Indian name be? And what would be the names of my friends and families? I think of American Indian names as being really descriptive of who and what the person is all about. I am such a lover of animals, both wild and domestic, I think my Indian name would have to incorporate my love of animals like “Woman Who Walks With Dogs” or something like that. What would yours be?
