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Legends

The Coming of Wasichu

Many generations ago, Iktome the Spider Man, trickster and bringer of bad news, went from village to village and from tribe to tribe. Because he is a messenger, Spider Man can speak any language, so all tribes can understand what he says.

He came running into the first camp, shouting: "There is a new generation coming, a new nation, a new kind of man who is going to run over everything. He is like me, Ikto, a trickster, a liar. He has two long legs with which he will run over you." And Iktome called all the chiefs into council, and the head chief asked: "Ikto, what news do you bring from the east?" Iktome answered: "There is a new man coming; he is like me, but he has long, long legs and many new things, most of them bad. And he is clever like me. I am going to all the tribes to tell about him." Then Spider Man sang: "I am Iktome, and I roll with the air!" When he left, three boys followed him to see where he was going. They watched him climb to the top of a hill. There he made his body shrink into a ball, changing himself from a man into a spider. And the boys saw a silvery spider web against the blueness of the sky, and a single strand from it led down to the hill. Iktome climbed into the web and disappeared into the clouds.

The next tribe Iktome visited were the Lakota -- the Sioux nation. Two old women gathering firewood saw him standing on a butte near their village. They went home and told the chief: "We saw someone strange standing over there. He was looking at us." The chief called for two of his wakincuzas -- the pipe owners, the ones-who-decide -- and said: "Bring this man to me. Maybe he has a message." They escorted Ikto, now in human form, into the camp. He stretched out his hand to the west, saying:

"I am Iktome. I roll with the air, and I must take my message to seventy camps. This is what I have come to tell you: A sound is coming from the edge of the sea, coming from Pankeshka Hokshi Unpapi --  the Shell nation. One cannot tell where this voice is coming from, but it is someplace in the west. It is telling us that a new man is approaching, the Hu-hanska-ska, the White Spider Man, the Daddy-Longlegs-Man, The Long-White-Bone Man. He is coming across the great waters, coming to steal all the four directions of the world."

"How will we know him? How will we know this man?" asked the chief and the wakincuzas.

"Each of his legs is a leg of knowledge, of wo-unspe. This new man is not wise, but he is very clever. He has knowledge in his legs, and greed. Wherever these legs step, they will make a track of lies, and wherever he looks, his looks will be all lies. At this time, ecohan, you must try to know and understand this new kind of man, and pass the understanding on from generation to generation. My message is carried by the wind."

Iktome made his body into a small ball with eight legs, and from within the sky again appeared the fine strand of spider web, glistening with dewdrops, and on it Iktome climbed up into the clouds and disappeared.

Ikto next went to the village of the Mahpiya-To, the Blue Cloud people, also known as Arapaho. Again the chiefs and the people assembled to ask what news he was bringing, and he spoke in their own language: "I have brought you a message bundle to open up, and my news is in it. The Iktome-Hu-Hanska-Ska, the White Longlegs, is coming. I flew through the air to bring you the message, but this new kind of man comes walking." The Arapaho chief asked: "How is it that you fly and he walks?"

"Wokahta," said Iktome, "he is travelling slowly, going slowly from the west toward the south and east, eating up the nations on his way, devouring the whole earth."

The chief asked: "When is he going to be here?"

“You will know by the star. When you see a double star, one star reflecting the other, then the Hu-Hanska-Ska will be near."

Iktome went away. He passed two women who were looking for wild turnips and using deer horns to dig them out of the prairie. They saw Iktome walking, pointing his arm skyward. All of a sudden he drew himself up into a ball, and at the same time the thread of a spider web from the sky hit the earth, and Iktome climbed up and vanished in the air.

Now, near the village of the Kangi-Wichasha -- the Crow people -- two old men were gathering herbs for Indian medicine. They saw someone standing behind a tree, then saw him circling the camp. They said to one another: "He is not from our tribe. Let's ask him what he wants."

Ikto spoke in the Crow tongue: "The White Long-legs is coming. Look around you at the things you see -- the grass, the trees, the animals. The Iktome-Hu-Hanska-Ska will take them all. He will steal the air. He will give you a new, different life. He will give you many new things, but hold onto your old ways; mind what Tunkashila, the Grandfather Spirit, taught you."

The two old men said: "We'd better bring you to our chief." They did so, and the Crow chief asked: "What message have you for us?"

"The White Long-legs is coming! He will eat up the grass, and the trees, and the buffalo. He will bring you a new faith. I am telling you this, I, Ikto, who rolls through the air." The Crow chief asked: "Why is he coming? We don't want him here. We don't want his new things. We have everything here to make us happy."

"He will come," said Iktome, "whether you want him to or not. He is coming from the east."

"How is it that your name is Ikto?"

"Because I am Iktome, the Spider Man. Remember this tree of the white ash. It is sacred. Remember Iyan, Tunka, the rock. The rocks are forever."

One Crow woman gave Iktome a handful of wasna -- jerk meat mixed with kidney fat and berries -- to take with him on his travels. Iktome thanked her, saying: "You must watch this new man.  Whatever he does and says and asks, say "Hiya" to him, say "No", say hiya to everything. Now I must take my message to the west, to Wiyopeyata."

Iktome stood in the center of the tipi circle. All the Crow chiefs were standing around him wearing their warbonnets. Suddenly a great rush of power was felt by all. Iktome shrank into a ball, and the thread of the spider web which was floating in the sky hit the prairie, causing a trembling and thundering deep inside the earth.And while everybody marveled, Iktome climbed up the thread into the web and was gone.

A man was roaming in a valley. He was seen by a warrior of the Snake People, also known as Shoshone, getting his horses together. The warrior asked the man who he was and why he had come. The stranger said: "I am Ikto. I roll with the air. I come from  Wiyohiyanpata, the east, a generation coming with news." The warrior said: "Stay here. I will bring our chief." The shoshone chief came, followed by his people. Ikto told him:

"A new kind of man is coming, a White Long-legs with many lies and many new things. If you want them, that's up to you."

The chief put two sticks on the ground facing north and south. It was a symbol for saying "No." The chief told Ikto: "We don't want him. Our generation is good, our nation is good, our land is good. We have no use for this new kind of man."

Ikto told him: "He will come anyhow. I am going to Waziyata, toward the north, to bring my message to the people there." Ikto climbed a hill, and the Shoshone people saw lightning strike the summit, and they heard the sound of many buffalo in the earth beneath their feet.

Iktome reappeared in the north, walking toward the village of the Palani, or Pawnees, pointing his finger toward their camp, shouting: "A new generation is coming! A new kind of human is coming! He is coming to this world!"

One Palani woman asked him: "Is it a newborn child?"

"No," said Ikto, "this is no little child. It is a man without grandmothers or grandfathers, a man bringing new sicknesses and worries."

"We don't want him! What shall we do?" the Pawnees asked.

"You yourselves must know what to do. I am going back to my people."

The Pawnees said: "Don't go yet." But Iktome went toward the north with a pine bough in his hand, pointing it in the four directions, up to Grandfather Sky, and down to Grandmother Earth.

"Remember, this will be the plant of worship in the center of the earth, and with it you will see and know." And they all said: "Ohan, Yes."

Iktome went back to his own Sioux people. He flew through the air, and the wind carried him into their camp. He told the people: "I am going back into the sea. That new man is coming. He is almost here."

"How will he come?" asked the Sioux chief. "He is coming in a waht'e, in a boat. You are the Ikche-Wichasha -- the plain, wild, untamed people -- but this man will misname you and call you by all kinds of false names. He will try to tame you, try to remake you after himself. This man will lie. He cannot speak the truth."

"When is he going to come?"

"When the white flowers bloom. Watch the buffalo: when this new man comes, the buffalo will go into a hole in a mountain. Guard the buffalo, because the White Long-legs will take them all. He will bring four things: wicocuye -- sickness; wawoya -- hate; wawiwagele -- prejudice; waunshilap-sni -- pitilessness. He will try to give you his new Great Spirit instead of your own, making you exchange your own Wakan Tanka for this new one, so that you will lose the world. But always remember Tunka, the rock. He has no mouth, no eyes, no ears, but he has the power. Hold onto it. And always remember Tunkashila, the Grandfather, the Great Spirit! This new man is coming, coming to live among you. He will lie, and his lie never ends. He is going to make a dark, black hoop around the world."

"Is there no hope?" the people asked.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don't know. First it will happen as I told you, and with his long legs he will run over you. Maybe a time will come when you can break his dark hoop. Maybe you can change this man and make him better, giving him earth wisdom, making him listen to what the trees and grass tell him. I will now reveal to you his name. You shall know him as washi-manu, steal-all, or better by the name of fat-taker, wasichu, because he will take the fat of the land. He will eat up everything, at least for a time." Iktome left, and slowly people forgot about that White Long-legs coming, because for a while things were as they had always been. So they stopped worrying.

Then one morning two Sioux women were out gathering chokecherries, and suddenly a black smog covered the place where they were. And out of this blackness they saw a strange creature emerging. He had on a strange black hat, and boots, and clothes. His skin was pale, his hair was yellow, and his eyes were blue. He had hair growing under his nose and falling down over his lips; his chin was covered with hair; he was hairy all over.

When he spoke, it did not sound like human speech. No one could understand him. He was sitting on a large, strange animal as big as a large moose. It was an animal no one knew.

This strange creature, this weird man, carried in one hand a cross and in the other a fearful firestick which spat lightning and made a noise like thunder. He took from his black coat something hard, shiny, glittering, and transparent which served him as a water bag. It seemed to contain clear water. He offered it to the women to drink, and when they tried it, the strange water burned their throats and made their heads swim. The man was covered with an evil sickness, and this sickness jumped on the women's skin like many unnumbered pustules and left them dying.

Then they realized that the wasichu had arrived, that finally he was among them, and that everything would be changed.
 
 

* Told by Leonard Crow Dog in New York City, 1972