The Yellow House People were traveling. They stopped by a lake, and
to reach the deep water they put down a buffalo head to step on. The
chief's wife, who was a good-looking woman, picked up her basket and
went to fetch some water. When she came to the lake she looked at the
head and said, "My father, what a handsome man you were! I would like
to have seen you alive. What a pity you're being trampled in this
mud!"
As she finished speaking, up sprang a big white buffalo. He
said, "I'm the man you speak of. I am White Buffalo Chief. I want to
take you with me. Sit on my head between my horns!" She left her
water basket right there, and climbed up.
The sun was going down, and the chief's wife did not come
home. "Something has happened," he said. "I should go and see." When
he got to the lake, he found the basket, and looking around, saw his
wife's track and the track of a big buffalo leading to the east. He
said, "The buffalo head has taken my wife!" He went back to his camp
and for many days made arrows. When he had enough, he set out to find
his wife.
As he walked, he nearly stepped on the house of Spider Old Woman.
She said, "Sho! sho! sho! My grandchild, don't step on me!
Grandchild, you are Apache-Chief-Living-Happily; what are you doing
around here?"
"Grandmother, I am looking for my wife. Buffalo Chief took her away.
Can you help me?"
"He is a powerful person, but I will give you medicine. Go now to
Gopher Old Woman."
He went along, and on the plain he came to Gopher's house. Said
Gopher Old Woman, "What are you doing around here? You are Apache-
Chief-Living-Happily. Why are you here?"
"Yes, grandmother, I was living happily when my wife went to get
water. Buffalo stole her. I am going after her, and I would like to
ask you for help."
Gopher Old Woman said, "My grandson, your wife now has as husband a
powerful man. He is White Buffalo Chief. She is the tribe's female in-
law, and when they go to sleep, she is in the middle and they lie
close around her. Her dress is trimmed with elk teeth, and it makes
such a noise that it will be difficult to get her out. You go to the
edge of where they lie, and I will do the rest."
Apache Chief came to the buffalo territory and hid to watch them.
White Buffalo Chief had the stolen wife dancing, and the buffalo sang:

Ya he a he
Ya he iya he
Ya he e ya
He ya hina he
Hina ye ne
He mah ne!

The Apache crept near the dance and spat out the medicine Spider Old
Woman had given, and all the buffalo went sleep. Gopher Old Woman
burrowed underground to the girl's ear and said, "I have come for
you. Apache-Chief-Living-Happily is waiting outside the herd."
The girl said, "My present husband is a powerful man. My dress is
made of elk teeth, and it makes such a noise that it will wake my
husband." Gopher told her to gather the dress up under her arms. Then
Gopher led the way, and they slipped through the group of sleeping
buffalo.
Her husband was waiting. "I have come for you," he said, "You are my
wife and I want to take you back." And she told him they must hurry
to a safe place.
The plain was large. As they came to three cottonwood trees, they
could feel the earth trembling. White Buffalo had waked up and was
shouting to his clan, "Someone took my wife!" The herd followed the
track toward the trees.
Apache Chief said to the first cottonwood, "Brother, the buffalo are
coming. I want you to hide us." the tree said, "Go to your next
brother! I am old and soft." He went to the next tree. "Brother, the
buffalo are coming. I want you to hide us!" The tree said, "Go to
your next brother." He went to the third tree, a young tree with one
branch. "Apache Chief," it said, "come up into my branches and I will
help you."
After they were safely up, the wife said she had to urinate. Apache
Chief folded up his buffalo hide and told her to urinate on it, but
her water leaked through. The buffalo were passing, the dust was
rising, and the earth was trembling. In the rear of the pack were a
shabby old buffalo and a small one. As they came under the tree, the
little buffalo said, "Grandfather, I can smell the water of our
daughter-in-law." They looked up and saw the man and woman in the
tree.
The old buffalo said, "Grandchild, you are fast. Run on and tell the
first one you reach, and each will tell the next one." Soon the whole
herd had turned back. Each one in succession butted the tree, and
Apache Chief tried to shoot them.
Then White Buffalo Chief took a running start and crashed against
the tree. The young cottonwood was nearly down, and Apache Chief
could not kill White Buffalo Chief.
Crow was calling above them, "Kaw, kaw, kaw!"
Apache Chief said angrily to Crow, "Why are you calling out when I
am in such a bad way?"
"I came to tell you to shoot him in the anus. That's where his life
is."
So the Apache Chief shot White Buffalo Chief in the anus and killed
him.
He and his wife came from the tree, and he started to butcher the
buffalo beside a little fire. The tears ran down her cheek.
"Are you crying because I'm butchering White Buffalo?"
"No, I'm crying from the smoke."
Apache Chief kept on butchering. He looked at her again and
said, "You are crying!"
"No, it's just the smoke."
He stared at her. "You are crying! After all our trouble, you still
want this man! Now you die with him!" And he took his bow and arrow
and shot her.
"I am Apache Chief, chief of a roaming tribe," he said. "I will
wander over these plains watching the earth, and if any woman leaves
her husband, what I have done to my wife may be done to her."

- Based on a tale recorded by Elsie Clews Parsons in 1940.


* Like other tales told in pueblos near Taos, New Mexico, this Tiwa
story features Apache characters. Taos, because of its proximity to
the Plains area, had a close relation to the tribes of that region,
and they have shared many elements in their culture, this story being
one of them. The Yellow House people refer to people who settled
toward the East, nearer the sun