Susan Kliewer - Blackfoot

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The Blackfoot's entire culture was interrelated with the buffalo herds. It was their storehouse, their source of industry, their main topic of conversation, and one of the prime intermediaries between God and man. The Blackfeet had special mystic rites for calling buffalo herds into their area. All that is known of the rites themselves is that the owner of a rare "buffalo stone" (a small reddish-brown rock shaped like a buffalo) would invite a group of renowned hunters to his tipi to participate in the calling ceremony. Dreamers and holy men would then also conduct secret rites and prophesy where the buffalo were most plentiful. With the advent of the horse, the calling ceremony became less necessary for survival, but it was still an incredible honor and moment of personal triumph for a young man to be chosen to participate. -- quoted from Thomas Mails