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.
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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 Tewa 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.
