The Pawnee and many of the other Native American cultures revered the wolf for its great hunting prowess and would emulate this animal in ceremonies hoping to embodying these desirable characteristics, but the wolf participated in many other important stories aside from hunting.

The Eskimos have a story of an aged women abandoned and forced to survive in the cold. She turned into a wolf to do so(Busch 96). The Eskimos admired the great survival skills of the wolf.. Native American Shaman held the wolf to be the source of great spiritual power (Religion 433). In the pacific northwest, "the doctoring societies of the Quilete and Makah Indians" did wolf dances to heal sick members of their tribe. For many other Native American tribes wolves were thought to represent the corn god. With these example it is quite clear that the wolf took on many rolls in the myth of Native Americans. It is also clear that the image of the wolf was often of a creature who could teach, or give man wisdom about the world.

Certainly the wolf is seen as an intrinsic part of the world around these peoples. Like European cultures that crossed the continent, the beliefs associated with the wolf are deeply rooted to the religions practiced by these peoples.
Unlike the Christian tradition though, Native American religions are closely associated to how these peoples live. Vine Deloria Jr. makes this observation in the book "God is Red" concerning the differences between Christian traditions and Native American traditions, "American Indians and other tribal peoples did not take this path in interpreting revelation and religious experience" (Deloria 66) meaning Christian tradition is thought to be valid by how well it explains the cosmos and man's place in it.
He goes on to say in regards to Native American tradition, "The structure of their traditions is taken directly from the world around them, from their relationships with other forms of life". Man has a vastly different role contextually in the world around him in Native American tradition.

This contextual relationship of man to nature is illustrated very well in a wolf myth titled "Who Speaks for Wolf? This myth is presented as a learning story passed from generation to generation about the journey of a people in such for a new home land.
It is meant to teach many things about the world in which these people live, but most importantly though it uses the wolf and the relationship the people have with this animal to teach these lessons, something grossly missing in European culture.
The story is related through a grandfather telling it to his grandson as they sit by a campfire. He tells the grandson how his people needed to find a new land to support their growing numbers. The elders sent out many young men to look for a new land where the people could be themselves.
All had returned, each with a place selected, accept one, the one they called Wolf's Brother. Wolf's Brother knew all there was to know about brother wolf.
The elders of the tribe listened to each young man: "They listened to each among them, he who understood the flow of the water, she who understood long house construction, he who understood the storms of winter" (Underwood 25) then after listening to each they reached agreement.
Then someone amongst them cried out, "But Wait, where is Wolf's Brother? Who, then, speaks for wolf?, but the people were decided".
The people began to move to the new place, then Wolf's Brother returned. He asked about the new place and said at once after hearing where the people had chose, "You have chosen the center place for a great community of wolf...but the people closed their ears".
The people settled into the new land and thought it was good.

The people began to see after a time that food disappeared "and wolf beyond" in the shadows.
At first this seemed a fair exchange to the people, some food for a place to live. Soon though it became much more, for wolf became bolder and ventured into the village looking for food.
The boldness of wolf caused the women to fear for the little ones. The men devised a system where they would drive off wolf should he come too near.
The people discovered this required much energy and none was left to prepare for the long winter ahead. The elders of people gathered and "saw that neither providing wolf with food, nor driving him off gave the people a life that was pleasing.
They saw that the wolf and the people could not live comfortably together in such a small space".
They considered then to "hunt down this wolf people until they were no more....They saw, too, that such a task would change the people: they would become wolf killers.
A people who took life only to sustain their own would become a people who took life rather then move a little. It did not seem to them that they wanted to become such a people".

The boy asks his grandfather whether the people always remembered to ask Wolf's question and in reply the grandfather says, "They remembered for a long time...long time.
And when the wooden ships came...what we accomplish by much thought and considering the needs of all, they accomplish by building tools and changing the earth, with much thought of winter, and little of tomorrow.
We could not teach them to ask Wolf's question...."Tell me now my brothers, tell me now my sisters, who speaks for wolf?"

It should be clear now regarding the differences of these two cultures, European and Native American, and how their myths relate to the world to them. The differences perhaps are best outlined as the, "Tribal religions find a great affinity among living things....Behind the apparent kinship between animals...and human beings in the Indian way stands a great conception....Other living things are not regard as insensitive species. Rather they are people in the same manner as...human beings are people"(Deloria 89).

European myth and beliefs fail to recognize this, and in fact maintains its subjective stance in regards to the world around us.
Some progress has been made though, but only in the last generation. The peoples of European cultures are finally beginning to consider the" All" in questions they ask and the things they consider.
As time progress, hopefully, the myths about the world we hold to be true, (but irrelevant), will fade away and be replaced with ideas that have value not only to our selves, but to all creatures.

Copyright 1996 by John Williams, all rights reserved.