Ehyophsta is a Cheyenne legend of the heroine, Ehyophsta, the Yellow Haired Woman, who first brought the buffalo to the people. When she accidentally breaks a taboo, the buffalo vanish until they are brought back later by the two other great Cheyenne heroes, Standing-on-the-Ground and Sweet Medicine. The story has been told among the Cheyenne for centuries.
Ehyophsta's name, still popular today in naming Cheyenne girls, is best known from the female Cheyenne warrior, daughter of Chief Stands-in-the-Timber, who fought alongside Roman Nose (l. c. 1830-1868), at the Battle of Beecher Island in 1868. Ehyophsta (l. c. 1826-1915) the warrior woman was highly respected for her military skill and courage just as the mysterious gift-giver Ehyophsta was for her integrity.
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The following version comes from By Cheyenne Campfires (1926) by George Bird Grinnell.
There was a big camp and the people had nothing to eat. Everyone was hungry. They were depending for food on the fish, geese, and ducks in the little lakes, for where the people were camped there was almost nothing to eat. Early one morning, the old crier went through the village calling for two young men who were fast runners. They were told to go to all the small lakes round about and see if they could find anything to eat. They were told not to come back util they had found something. The camp was in great need of food; the children were starving. These two men traveled far in different directions, and in four days they came back, but they had found nothing. Then it was ordered that the people should pack their dogs and travois; they must move somewhere, for here there was no food.
After they had made camp that night, the chiefs gathered in the center of the village and sent for two young men, the sons of the chiefs, and the old men told them to go on ahead of the camp and not to return until they had found something. They said to these young men: "You must try hard. You hear the old people and the children crying for food. Be sure to find something. Do not come back until you do so." When these two young men set out, the older of these two said to his young companion, "Now we must find something before we come back, or the people will starve." They started, going straight north.
After they had been gone for eight days, they saw before them a high peak and, nearer to them, something that looked blue. They had eaten nothing since they had left the camp. One said to the other: "I am weak and nearly dead. I fear I cannot travel much farther." The other said: "You see that peak over there? Let us go over there and die. It will be a mark for us. It will show our burying place." The other replied, "We will go there and die together."
They walked toward the peak and, when they were near it, they saw that at its foot a large stream ran and that they must cross this stream to reach it. They sat down on the bank and looked at it. The peak came right down to the river's edge and off to one side of the peak a high bluff ran out. The elder said, "Take off your leggings and let us cross to the peak." He entered the water first and then the other followed him.
The water came up to mid-thigh and then higher. Presently, the one that was following called out and said: "My friend, I cannot move. Something is holding me. Tell my people what has happened to me. Tell them not to cry for me. Some mysterious power holds me." As the young man stood there and could not move, he said, "Friend, come back and shake hands with me for the last time." The elder boy turned back weeping and went to his friend and shook hands with him and then left him. The younger shouted his war cry and the elder went on weeping toward the bank. He walked out of the water and then up and down the bank crying.
Presently, he saw a man come out of the peak and down toward him, carrying in his hand a large knife, and wearing a coyote skin on his back, the head coming up over his head. The boy ran to him and said, "Something is holding my friend." They coyote man said, "Stand where you are," and went into the water toward the boy standing there. Just before he reached him, he dived under the water and with his knife cut off the head of the great serpent which was holding the boy. The one on shore saw the serpent, after its head had been cut off, rise and splash the water in every direction. Then the coyote man came to the top of the water and called to the boy on the shore: "Go to the peak. You will see there a big rock, which is a door; there you will find an old woman. Tell her that grandfather has killed the serpent he has so long been trying to get and that she must bring some ropes."
When the boy reached the place, the rock flew open like a door and an old, old woman came out. He said to her, "Grandfather has killed the serpent he has been so long trying to get."
"That is true," the old woman answered, "He has been trying to kill it for a long time."
The boy went back to where the coyote man was standing and he said to him, "Go and get your friend and bring him out to the shore." When the elder boy reached him, the younger said, "I can walk no further; I cannot move." The elder turned his back to him and took him on his shoulders and carried him to the bank and laid him there. Then the coyote man said, "Let him lie there awhile. Help me to drag out this serpent." The two went into the water and cut the serpent to pieces and dragged them to shore. When they had brought all the pieces to the bank, the coyote man said to the elder boy, "Put your friend on your shoulders and I will lift his feet and we will carry him up to the peak." Meantime, the old woman had begun to carry up the meat.
The two men carried the younger boy up to the peak and, when they were close to the rock, the coyote man threw open the door and they went inside and the boy saw that the peak was a lodge and that, at one side, they had a sweat house. The coyote man told the elder boy to carry his friend into the sweat house and to start a fire. They put the boy in the sweat house and the older young man started a fire and heated the stones. When the stones had been put in the sweat lodge, the coyote man sprinkled water on them four times and sang four songs. Four times he sprinkled water on the stones and sang and, after he had done it the fourth time, he told the boy that he was cured, and he arose and came out of the sweat house.
The old woman called them to come and eat, for she knew that they were nearly starved. Standing by the fire were two jars in which she was cooking. She said to them, "I know that you are very hungry." She put before each one of them a white bowl made of stone. These bowls were as white as snow and, in each dish, she put meat. To each one she gave a white flint knife to cut with and told them to eat all they wanted.
After they had finished eating, the coyote man, who was sitting at one side of the lodge with the old woman, said, "Look over there," pointing. They looked and saw a very handsome young woman witting on the other side of the lodge. The coyote man said, "Now, my grandsons, I want to ask you two things: Do you want to take that woman for your sister or do either of you want to marry her?"
The elder boy said, "My friend here is poorer (less fortunate) than I. Let him take her for his wife." The coyote man said, "Ha ho' (thank you), that is good. I am glad to hear that." After the younger had chosen the young woman for his wife, the coyote man told them to look to the north. They did so and saw a big field of corn. He told them to look to the east and there they saw a country covered with buffalo. He told them to look to the south and they saw elk, deer, and all kinds of game. A little to one side of where the elk were, as they looked again, they saw herds of horses and, to the west, they saw all kinds of birds.
The coyote man said to them: "Now you shall go to your home. Take this woman with you back to your camp. It is very good that one of you selected her for his wife. She is to be a great helping power to your people. All these things will follow her."
They went out of the lodge and stood looking toward the south, the direction whence the two young men had come. The old woman stood on the east side, then the coyote man, then the young woman, then her husband, and then his friend.
Now, for the first time, the two young men knew that this young woman was the daughter of these two old people, for the coyote man said, "My daughter, rest four times on your way."
He meant stop four times, not rest for four nights. He said they would arrive that night at their village and that the next morning they would see all these animals around their camp. He said to his daughter: "If ever a little buffalo calf is brought into the camp, do not say to it, 'My poor animal.' If ever they bring in any kind of fowl, never say to it, 'My poor animal.' Do not express pity for any suffering creature." The coyote man said to the girl: "I send you there for a special purpose. These poor people now have only fish and a few birds to eat, but when you are there, there will be plenty of game of all kinds. The skins of all these animals will be useful for clothing."
The three young people started for home and rested four times and, as they started the fifth time, they passed the crest of the hill and saw the village below them. When the people saw that there were three persons coming back instead of two, the whole village came running toward them. They came close and looked at the handsome woman. Then they spread down a robe and carried her in it to her father-in-law's lodge. He was one of the head chiefs. They all three sat together and the elder boy told the story. All crowded close about them to hear the news they had brought. He said, "Old men, old women, and chiefs, societies of soldiers, and children, we have brought this woman down here from far up north and she has brought great power with her. You people are suffering from hunger. Now, when the sun goes down and comes up again, you will see many animals around you."
That night, as the village went to sleep, they heard noises all around them. Early the next morning, an old man called out, "Make ready, make ready," and, when they rose from their beds, they saw buffalo all about the village. The wind was blowing toward the east and, in front of the village, there was just a little open space. Except for that, the buffalo were all around. The Indians ran out with their bows and arrows and killed many buffalo. The buffalo were so near that they shot them even from the lodge doors. The elder boy said to the people, "You must kill only what you need and then must leave the others alone." The buffalo came right up to the lodge in which lived the woman they had brought down and rubbed against it. She sat there and laughed.
One of the chiefs went into the lodge where this woman lived and said to her father-in-law: "All the chiefs will come here in the morning to hold a council and arrange some plan, deciding what to do. We want to talk about returning favors to the girl and her people because they have been kind to us and brought us these animals." The woman said nothing, but her father-in-law answered, "Come together here in the morning and we will smoke and talk."
When the morning came, all the chiefs came to the lodge to talk with the woman. Each, in turn, thanked her for what she had done and what she had brought and asked if they could do any favor for her or her father in return for all that she had done for them. She said her father had not told her to accept favors and she must do only what her father told her.
Four years after that, this woman's husband said to her, "Let us go back and visit your father and tell him what the chiefs told you, for they asked if they might do you some favor." She said again, "No, my father did not say I was to accept any favors." But, after a while, she said, "You are anxious to go there with me, let us go." So her husband went to his friend and said they were planning to go back to the peak again. The woman told her husband to tell his friend not to come to the lodge until late at night and he came after all the village had gone to sleep. The woman said, "Everything is arranged. We will start now." It was then late in the night. They walked outside the circle of lodges. There they stood, and the woman said, "Shut your eyes." They did so and, when she spoke again and said to them, "Open your eyes," they were standing in front of the door of the peak.
The woman said, "Father, we have come back. Open the door." The stone moved back, and they went in. The coyote man and his wife got up and hugged all three.
After they had eaten, the coyote man said to his daughter: "I did not expect you back, as I did not tell you to return, and I did not ask for any favors. After you have rested, return to your village." The coyote man also said: "None of you must return here again. The only favor I ask is that no one shall ever say 'Poor animal' in speaking of a bird or a beast; do not disobey me in that."
They all stepped out and, as before, stood in front of the lodge. The three shut their eyes and, when they opened them, they were standing in their own village.
Four years after they returned, some boys were dragging a little buffalo calf into camp and were abusing it by throwing dirt into its eyes. The woman went out and said, "My poor calf –" then she said, "I forgot!" – and then went in and lay down in her lodge. When her husband came in, he saw that she was sorrowful and said, "What is it, my wife?" She answered, "I have done what I was told not to do. I said 'My poor calf' and my father told me not to."
That day, the buffalo all disappeared.
Next morning, the woman said to her husband, "Go and call your friend." So he came. She said to both of them, "I am going back. If you wish to come back with me, I am glad; but if I must leave you here, you will have a hard time." They both spoke and said, "We love you and will go with you. Let us go to the center of the camp and have it announced that we are going to where your father and mother live, so that all the village may know what becomes of us."
So it was announced, and all the people came running to where they were. She told them all that she had disobeyed her father in spite of his many cautions and that they must go away. When she said that, the whole village began to cry.
Her friend then stood up and said that he and her husband were going also; he told his father and mother and all his people not to sorrow for him. Her husband also stood up and said the same and they now must work for his wife's father and mother. After that, they announced that they would start that evening for the peak. All their relatives wept because they were going to leave them forever. That night, all three disappeared and no one ever knew what became of them.
The name of the woman was Ehyophsta or Yellow-Top-to-Head, for she had light-colored hair. The buffalo never came back till they were brought from the spring by the two young men [Standing-on-the-Ground and Sweet Medicine]. This happened long before that.
