One of a series of origin stories known in Dakota folklore as the Avenger Stories, “The Badger and the Bear” encompasses one of the first appearances of the Avenger, the first Dakota brave, and lays out tenets of the proper way of living for Dakota people.
The story tells the tale of a family of badgers who lived on the edge of the forest. The father was a good hunter, and his family put up lots of meat continually. One day, a bear was wandering along and came across the racks of meat drying in the yard. After petitioning the badger to share some of his food, he was invited to eat with them. Once he had eaten all he could, he went off into the woods. The next day, he repeated the process; and this continued for several days, the badgers feeding him as was proper to do for someone who was hungry. After he became fat and healthy from the badger’s hospitality, the bear decided he wanted what was theirs too and by force threw them out of their dwelling with nothing, not even arrows to hunt for food.
The badger created a small hut for his family to dwell in, but after days of trying he could not capture food for his children without the necessary tools. He went to the bear to try to beg for food, but the bear and his family angrily turned him away and laughed at him. The youngest of the bear’s cubs saw this and wanted to help, so he stole a piece of meat and kicked it to the badger’s dwelling as he walked by, hiding it from his father. The next day the badger went back to the bear asking for food, but was turned away again. Falling on his hands, he saw a fresh clot of buffalo blood which he quickly snatched as the bear was looking away and rushed back to his home. He decided to pray to the Great Spirit to bless it and built a sacred lodge in which to perform the ceremony. He took the blood into the lodge and prayed, and as he was leaving, he felt someone behind him. He turned and beheld a Dakota brave holding a magic arrow and bow. The brave called him father and told him he was his avenger. After hearing the badger’s story, the brave told him he would go with him when he went to beg again. When they approached the dwelling, the bear saw the brave and knew him to be the avenger he had heard of in stories from long ago. He quickly handed the badger his knife and told him to cut his favorite pieces from the meat hanging in the racks. The avenger told the bear that he had returned his knife, and now he must return the badger’s dwelling along with all he had taken. The bear knew the power of the magic arrow and the avenger and told his children to leave quickly and to return the dwelling to the badger. After the bear had fled, the avenger turned to the badger in his rejoicing and told him he was leaving to go over the earth.
“The Badger and the Bear” is a traditional story among the Dakota and Lakota peoples. The story relates the difference between the two types of actions. The badger represents the proper way a person should live, and the bullying bear represents the greedy and treacherous way not to live. In later years, the story is said to represent the difference between the Native Americans and the European settlers who came in and took away the homes of the Native Americans and forced them to beg. This story existed before European contact, as it is one of several origin stories for the Dakota. The avenger stories represent the exploits of the legendary avenger figure of the first Dakota brave, with his magic arrow, beaded buckskins, and quiver. Supremely brave and set on serving justice, the avenger represented the most desirable tenets of a Dakota warrior. The first publication of this story was by Zitkala-Ša, “Red Bird,” a Dakota woman and author, in her work Old Indian Legends in 1901. It has since been recorded in several collections of Lakota and Dakota stories and as a children’s story. The story today is told as an antibullying story in some schools, but it remains a major element in the stories told to children by the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people.
Jonathan Byrn
See also Arrow Boy; Deer Woman; Iktomi; Shooting of the Red Eagle; Toad and the Boy; The Tree-Bound; Warlike Seven
Further Reading
“Lakota and Dakota Sioux Legends.” Native Languages of the Americas website. http://www.native-languages.org/sioux-legends.htm. Accessed October 5, 2015.
McLaughlin, Marie. 1990. Myths and Legends of the Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Spack, Ruth. 2006. “Translation Moves: Zitkala-Ša’s Bilingual Indian Legends.” Studies in American Indian Literatures Series 18 (4): 43–62.
Thompson, Stith. 1972. Tales of the North American Indians. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Zitkala-Ša. 1985. American Indian Stories. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.