--- title: "Releasing the Buffalo" story_id: "69a668df-0f3b-4340-9d25-a845fadaeec9" text_id: "18bfc38a-77ac-4988-8a29-6a3f6488e10d" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/releasing-the-buffalo" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/releasing-the-buffalo" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # Releasing the Buffalo > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/releasing-the-buffalo) Version: Modernized In this Jicarilla Apache tale from North America, the people are hungry, but Raven has plenty of meat. He will not tell them where the buffalo are. To find out, they turn a man into a puppy. One of Raven’s children finds the puppy and takes him home… **Content warning:** This tale contains threats of cruelty to a puppy and animals being hunted and killed. Long ago, the people were moving from camp to camp on the plain. They had no food. They were playing the hoop and pole game. Raven came from nobody knew where and took off his quiver, the case that held his arrows. Inside the quiver were intestines. Magpie took them out. They watched Raven to see which way he would start home. When it was evening he started off flying up towards the opening in the sky. “You must all watch him,” they said to each other. Everyone was looking at him. He kept circling about until he looked very small and few could see him. When he was so far off that no one else could see him, Rattlesnake and Bat could still see him. When he reached the top of the sky, out of everyone else’s sight, he flew east towards the Black Mountains, which run from north to south. When he reached them he went to the place where the canyons met. Only Rattlesnake and Bat could see him. The people moved their camp four times before they came to him. They found that Raven had a great deal of meat there, which he shared out among the people. They asked him about the buffalo but he would not tell them. Then they changed an Apache man into a puppy, making his eyes from black obsidian, a volcanic glass. They hid him under a bed of branches and moved their camp away. Raven’s children came to the deserted camp. They found the dog and picked him up. Raven’s smallest child wrapped his arms around him and carried him home. His father said to the children, “He was lying there to find out something.” The child did not want to give up the dog. The father put a poker, a metal rod for stirring the fire, into the flames. When it was burning hot, he brought it near the dog’s eyes. After a while, the dog cried, “Wau.” “You may keep it, it’s only a dog. It does not know anything,” the father said. “Its name will be īnōldī (choke),” said the child. Raven had the buffalo all shut up. He opened the door when he wanted to kill some of them. That was how he got the meat. The dog went along with Raven and his children, and they fed it. When it was dark and they had all gone to bed, the dog went to the buffalo’s enclosure and opened the door. The buffalo started out. They had nearly all gone out before Raven noticed it. He ran over there with his quiver, shooting at them as they ran past. When he had only one arrow left, he looked at the door for the man who had become a dog. An old buffalo was going out. It could hardly get to its feet. The man caught hold of this buffalo and clung to its far side as it went out. Raven paid no attention to it. He stood there holding his bow and his last arrow. He looked for the man but could not find him. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/a440c61d-c936-4eaa-815c-6cb1b5138d70) The man caught up with the others, who had moved their camp away. “I set all the buffalo free,” he told them. They turned back and moved their camp to where the buffalo were. There they killed many of them and were no longer hungry. Raven told his children, “You will live on the meat that is left on the backbone and on the eyeballs.” Long ago the people were hungry. But the man let the buffalo out, and then they had plenty to eat. That is how he did it. ## Modernization notes - the poker in the fire and when it was burning brought it near the dog’s eyes. After a while he → a poker, a metal rod for stirring the fire, into the flames. When it was burning hot, he brought it near the dog’s eyes. After a while, the dog: A poker is a metal rod used to stir a fire. Raven tests the puppy, which cries; the text does not say he actually burns it. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Jicarilla Apache Texts, 1911, American Museum of Natural History, New York - collector: Pliny Earle Goddard ## Illustration [George Catlin](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/a440c61d-c936-4eaa-815c-6cb1b5138d70) — Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie, 1832 ## Reading music Gambler’s Song Glacier Park Indians / Blackfeet / Niitsitapi (vocals, drum) [Public domain](https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-jukebox/about-this-collection/rights-and-access/) ## Quiz ### What do American bison mainly eat? - Fish - Grasses and other low plants (Correct answer) - Tree bark only Bison are grazing herbivores. Much of their time is spent eating grasses and other low-growing plants, even when snow covers the ground. [National Park Service — Bison Ecology](https://home.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/bison.htm) ### What colour are many newborn bison calves? - Pure black - Bright blue - Reddish brown (Correct answer) Many bison calves begin life with a reddish-brown or rusty coat. Their coat darkens as they grow. This gives the young animals quite a different look from the adults. [National Park Service — Bison Basic Facts](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bison/bison-facts.htm) ### What helps a bison sweep snow aside with its head? - Strong muscles in its shoulder hump (Correct answer) - A hollow horn that blows hot air - A long trunk The shoulder hump contains powerful muscles supported by long vertebrae. These help the bison swing its head from side to side, pushing snow away to reach plants. [National Park Service — Bison Ecology](https://home.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/bison.htm) ### What is obsidian, the material used for the puppy’s eyes? - A type of frozen sap - A naturally formed volcanic glass (Correct answer) - A polished animal bone Obsidian is volcanic glass. It can form when silica-rich lava cools rapidly. Its smooth, dark surface makes the tale’s choice for the puppy’s eyes easy to imagine. [U.S. Geological Survey — Yellowstone’s tool-making lava flows](https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/yellowstones-tool-making-lava-flows) ### What material did George Catlin use to paint the buffalo shown here? - Oil paint on canvas (Correct answer) - Chalk on a cave wall - Ink on glass Catlin painted Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie in oils on canvas in 1832–1833. The Smithsonian preserves the painting. It is a separate artwork selected to accompany this tale, not an illustration from Goddard’s book. [Smithsonian American Art Museum — Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie](https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/buffalo-bull-grazing-prairie-3948) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)