“The Warlike Seven” is the final chapter of Zitkala-Ša’s (1876–1938) Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota children’s stories collected in Old Indian Legends (1901). The final Native American legend in the collection draws on animal symbolism and humor as it anticipates the coming of a great war. The folktale highlights the Sioux relationship with intruders and supernatural forces and demonstrates their ongoing belief that they will be restored as the tale invokes elements of an important Sioux creation myth.
The seven tribes of the Great Sioux Nation were among the strongest on the North American continent and Anglo-American settlers considered the Sioux as among the most hostile of the Native American nations. The political and military power of the Sioux nations provided the cultural background of the Warlike Seven story, as well as the slow erosion of the Sioux military and political position and weakening cultural connections that sustained the seven tribes and bound them together. In the legend, the seven people, represented by the Ashes, the Fire, the Bladder, the Grasshopper, the Dragon Fly, the Fish, and the Turtle, are excitedly preparing for war, eager to take on a distant enemy. But they have hardly begun when their forces are quickly diminished as a blustering wind sweeps away the Ashes.
The remaining six, rather than stopping to offer aid or to reconsider the battle, continue undeterred on their mission for war. They declare their desire to “make war more quickly.” Their forces are weakened a second time, however, as the Fire is extinguished in the river. In the legend, the cycle of dissipation of the other eager warriors is repeated in comic fashion. The Bladder, thinking it better to travel by air, is thwarted when a sharp branch punctures the balloon-like entity. Deflated, the Bladder falls away, becoming nothing. The Grasshopper loses all his legs while running through the mud. Forced to crawl upon his belly, he weeps and struggles until he can go no further. Finally, the Dragon Fly, mourning his Grasshopper cousin, blows his nose so violently that his head falls off. In the end only the Fish and the Turtle are left to wage war.
Although the warring party is greatly reduced by the losses, the Fish and the Turtle maintain their tenacity, continuing until they come upon a large village where it is supposed they will finally engage in proper battle. But because the Fish and the Turtle carry no weapons and each has an unimposing stature, the villagers greet the two warriors with curiosity rather than fear. Drawing on seemingly playful language games, the tale of the Warlike Seven portrays the difficulty of cross-cultural communication as the Fish, who acts as the spokesman for the pair of outsiders, speaks with a “peculiar omission of syllables” that the villagers cannot understand. The tale highlights this conundrum through a refusal of initial interpretation. Until this point in the tale, Lakota words have been included and translated into their English equivalents. However, when the Fish speaks, the words cannot be translated, which leaves the villagers perplexed and unable to understand his intentions.
The snare weaver, Iktomi, steps into the language gap and assumes the role of interpreter. Iktomi, which means spider, is a shape-shifting trickster who appears in many other stories in the collection. In previous tales, Iktomi is described variously as a naughty imp, which aligns him with many other trickster figures in traditional Native American folklore. These characters are often mischievous, but their tricks are largely humorous and rarely result in permanent harm. Iktomi’s presence in “The Warlike Seven” represents the darker side of the trickster as he delights in the brewing trouble by interpreting the Fish’s words and inciting the villagers to their own doom.
At Iktomi’s pronouncement that the “little strange man” came to “make war,” the villagers are moved from curiosity to anger and declare they will “kill the silly pair” of intruders. At the pronouncement of their intentions to boil the guests, the Fish demonstrates his ability to effectively communicate with the villagers. He warns the villagers in a clear, direct manner that trouble will befall the entire camp if they enact violence against him and his companion. The villagers do not heed the warning, and the Fish follows through on his threat. As he is lowered into the steaming water, he blows the water at many of the villagers, injuring them. In retaliation, the villagers attempt to drown the Fish and the Turtle in the muddy lake, where the two play, joyfully mocking the villagers.
Now terrified, the villagers call on Iya the Eater to drink their enemy. Iya is often described as having an ugly shape. He is a voracious monster that is quickly brought to a rage and capable of devouring an entire tribe in one sitting. But so desperate are the villagers that they call upon Iya, who obliges by swallowing the entire lake until his belly swells to the size of the Earth. The tricky Fish and Turtle, however, escape by diving into the mud. The villagers watch in horror as Iktomi, who has been swallowed up, uses his knife to open Iya’s belly and release all of the water. The villagers drown, and the lake is replenished. The Fish and the Turtle emerge from the waters, returning to their home in victory and song, having ultimately defeated the villagers.
The Turtle is an incredibly important symbol to the Sioux people. The Turtle represents good health, long life, and protection and plays a pivotal role in a Sioux creation myth. According to the myth, a world existed prior to the one the Sioux inhabited. The Creator tired of the people in the previous world because they did not know how to behave. The Creator flooded the world to begin again. In the new world, the Turtle was the only creature able to fulfill the Creator’s request to pull mud up from the flooded Earth to make land for the new living creatures. The new beginning marked a time of hope and opportunity, but also of responsibility to be better stewards. According to the legend, the Creator warned that he would return again and destroy the world once more if the people made it bad and ugly. In “The Warlike Seven,” the inclusion of the elements of the creation myth invokes a sense of hope for the Sioux people that they will be avenged and that they will be strong once more.
Tracey-Lynn Clough
See also Animal Tales; Coyote Tales; Creation Stories of the Native Americans; Iktomi; Shooting of the Red Eagle; Toad and the Boy; Tree-Bound, The; Tricksters, Native American
Further Reading
DeRosa, Robin. 2014. “Critical Tricksters.” In Ernest Stromberg, ed. American Indian Rhetorics of Survivance: Word Medicine, Word Magic. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Erdoes, Richard, and Alfonso Ortiz. 1984. American Indian Myths and Legends. New York: Pantheon Books.
Hassrick, Royal. 1964. The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Spack, Ruth. “Translation Moves: Zitkala-Ša’s Bilingual Indian Legends.” Studies in American Indian Literatures Series 18 (4): 43–62.
Zitkala-Ša, 2013. Old Indian Legends. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books.