American Cow Mythology Archives

Tradition / Region: Pawnee mythology, American Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Cow, Hybrid

The Myth

In the earliest days, when the Pawnee still wandered and lived on roots and wild plants, a strange woman appeared at dusk near their gambling grounds. She moved in silence, her body wrapped in a covering that hid her hair, and she passed through the place where the people played before vanishing over the hills.

The next morning, her tracks were found—but they were not human footprints. They were the split hooves of an animal. Still, the people continued their games.

On another evening, the woman returned. This time she ran across the gambling ground and circled it. As she fled over the hills, a man saw her transform before his eyes into a buffalo. He pursued her for many days, until he reached a place where there was nothing but water. There, exhausted, he lost consciousness.

When he awoke, the Buffalo Woman touched him and led him into a lodge. Inside sat four ancient men, the gods of the west. They told him that the buffalo were being given to the people so they might live. They taught him how the buffalo were to be prepared and honored, showing him that the heart and tongue were sacred and must be offered in gratitude. They also entrusted him with seeds—corn, beans, squash, and tobacco—tied in buffalo hide, gifts meant to sustain the people.

Thus the Buffalo Woman was revealed as a messenger between worlds. She crossed between human and animal, bringing food, life, and sacred instruction. From that time on, the Pawnee lived by the buffalo and honored the western gods first in their offerings, remembering the woman who came at dusk and changed the fate of the people.

Gallery

Sources

Dorsey, G. A. (1906). The Pawnee Mythology (Part I).

Interpretive Lenses

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How to Invite The Buffalo Woman

The Myth

Babe the Blue Ox was the faithful companion of Paul Bunyan, the greatest lumberjack the world had ever known.

During the legendary Winter of Blue Snow, when cold gripped the land more fiercely than ever before, Paul Bunyan found a small ox calf trapped and close to freezing in the wilderness. He lifted the calf in his arms and carried it back to his camp, warming it by the fire until it survived. Though the cold left its body, it never left its hide, and the calf remained forever blue. Because of this, Bunyan named him Babe.

Babe grew with astonishing speed. Before long he became so large that his height was said to equal forty-two axe handles stacked end to end. His horns stretched so far apart that a crow would take an entire day to fly from one tip to the other.

Wherever Paul Bunyan went, Babe followed. Together they hauled entire forests, dragged logs across continents, and reshaped the land itself. It is said that their travels carved the Black Hills and that their labors tore open the earth to form the Grand Canyon. Babe moved steadily at Bunyan’s side, silent and immense, his blue form standing out against the open sky.

Thus Babe the Blue Ox became part of the legend of the land itself—a symbol of enormous strength, endless work, and the vast scale of the American frontier, where even animals could grow as large as the stories told about them.