The Star Boy and the Seven Sisters by Lakota Elder Duane Hollow Horn Bear

Wicháhbe Wózlólyi talks about stars, the stars and their connection with Earth. We tell a little story about a time when along the hillside, two young girls, on a beautiful, warm summer night, the stars are like, they're just hanging right above you. They're sitting along the hillside looking at the stars, how beautiful they are. One young girl said, I would marry that star if I could. And the other girl says, I would marry that one. Later that evening, as they are going back down into their village, they meet two young men coming up to meet them, and they say, we heard you. We heard you saying that you would marry us. So we come here for you, to marry you, to take you back to our world, and they are transported back into the star world, where all their needs are met. They had everything. The only thing that they are told they cannot do is to pick that timpsila, the wild turnip. You cannot dig that timpsila. That wild turnip that grows in the month of June is very delicious, very delicious. So while they are living up there, this young girl sees this flower timpsila, and she longs for a timpsila. She misses that taste. She wants to taste a timpsila again, but she is forbidden to dig a timpsila, but she thinks to herself, they are not going to miss just one timpsila. So she quickly digs out this timpsila, and she opens a hole, and as she looks down into that hole, down below her, she sees her village. She sees her grandmother, her siblings, her cousins, and she becomes very lonely. She becomes very lonely, and she wants to go home. I want to go home and see grandma. Her loneliness is too strong. She gathers more and more, hundreds and hundreds of timpsila, and she braids these. She braids them all together and makes this long, long rope. She secures it and begins to climb down. She climbs down, but at a point before she reaches down, it breaks, and she falls to the earth, and she is killed in the fall. But she is carrying a baby, and the baby is born. So when that baby is born, the wolves, the animals come forth and they proclaim, this is a very special child that has come from the stars. We must take care of it. We must ensure that it lives. Metaloc, Magpie, you speak the Lakota language. You will be our translators, and they help the child to grow. The little boy grows very quickly, and he becomes a cultural hero. He goes from village to village to help people when they have trouble. He comes to a village one day here in the Black Hills, and there is a lot of sadness. So he pursues and says, what happened? The people tell him, there is this giant, ugly red bird that comes down from the mountain and has been taking our young girls and taking them up into the mountains, devouring them. We've tried to kill it, but we can't seem to kill it. And the young star boy says, I will do what I can. And he successfully kills the big, giant red bird. But he tells the people, I cannot bring back to you the physical bodies of your little seven girls, but I will put their spirits in a constellation in the stars to remind you to be ever vigilant and to watch over your children. So we have that constellation of Wichinchalan Shakowin, the seven little girls that exist in the stars today to remind us to take care of our children, watch over them, and take good care of them.