The Prophecy of Motseiyoiv
George Bird Grinnell's Account
One man who sat in the circle in the lodge spoke to Motseiyoiv, who for a long time had been sitting in silence with his head hanging down, as if discouraged. He said: "Friend, what is your trouble? Why are you sorrowful?" Motseiyoiv answered: "Yes, it is true I am troubled. Listen to me carefully. Listen to me carefully." He said this four times. "Our great- grandfather spoke thus to me, repeating it four times. He said to me that he had put people on this earth, all kinds of people. He made us, but also he made others. There are all kinds of people on earth that you will meet some day, toward the sunrise, by a big river. Some are black, but some day you will meet a people who are white - good looking people, with light hair and white skins." A man spoke up, and said, "Shall we know them when we meet them?"
"Yes," said Motseiyoiv, "you will know them, for they will have long hair on their faces, and will look differently from you. They will wear things different from your things - different clothing. It will be something like the green scum that grows on waters about springs. Those people will wander this way. You will talk with them. They will give you things like isinglass [i.e., things that flash or reflect the light, mirrors] and something that looks like sand that will taste very sweet. But do not take the things they give you. They will be looking for a certain stone. They will wear what I have spoken of, but it will be of all colors, pretty. Perhaps they will not listen to what you say to them, but you will listen to what they say to you. They will be people who do not get tired, but who will keep pushing forward, going, going all the time. They will keep coming, coming. They will try always to give you things, but do not take them. At last I think that you will take the things that they offer you, and this will bring sickness to you. These people do not follow the way of our great-grandfather. They follow another way. They will travel everywhere, looking for this stone which our great-grandfather put on earth in many places.
"Buffalo and all animals were given you by our great- grandfather; but these people will come in, and will begin to kill off these animals. They will use a different thing to kill animals from what we use - something that makes a noise, and sends a little round stone to kill."
"Then after a while a different animal will come into the country. It will have a head like a Buffalo, but it will have white horns and a long tail. These animals will smell differently from the Buffalo, and at last you will come to eating them. When you skin them, the flesh will jerk, and at last you will get this same disease. At last something will be given to you, which, if you drink it, will make you crazy. These people will have something to give to animals to eat which will kill them."
"There will be many of these people, so many that you cannot stand before them. On the rivers you will see things going up and down, and in these things will be these people, and there will be things moving over dry land in which these people will be."
"Another animal will come, but it will not be like the buffalo. it will have long heavy hair on its neck, and a long heavy tail which drags on the ground. It will come from the south."
"When these animals come, you will catch them, and you will get on their backs and they will carry you from place to place. You will become great travelers. if you see a place a long way off, you will want to go to it, so at last you will get on those animals with my arrows. From that time you will act very foolishly. You will never be quiet. You will want to go everywhere. You will be very foolish. You will know nothing."
"These people will not listen to what you say; what they are going to do they will do. You people will change: in the end of your life in those days you will not get up early in the morning; you will never know when day comes; you will lie in bed; you will have disease, and will die suddenly; you will all die off."
"At last those people will ask for your flesh [he repeated this four times], but you must say 'NO.' They will try to teach you their way of living. If you give up to them your flesh [your children], those that they take away will never know anything. They will try to change you from your way of living to theirs, and they will keep at what they try to do. They will work with their hands. they will tear up the earth, and at last you will do it with them. When you do, you will become crazy, and will forget all that I am now teaching you."
Peter J. Powell's Account
At last Motseiyoiv said to the people, "I shall not be with you long now. I chose the wrong person. I wanted to be too good looking. Now I am growing old and have lived as long as I want to live. Before I die I have something to tell you. Now, my people, you must not forget what I am telling you today. You must not forget all that I have told you and taught you. When I am dead, you must come together often, and talk about these things. When you do this, always call my name. A time is coming when you will meet other people. You will fight with them and kill each other. Each tribe will want the other tribe's land, and you will be fighting always."
The Motseiyoiv pointed to the south. He said, " Far away in that direction is another kind of buffalo. It has long hair on its neck, and a tail that drags on the ground. it has a round hoof - not a split one like the buffalo - and it has teeth in the upper part of its mouth as well as below. You will ride this animal."
"The buffalo will disappear. When the buffalo are gone, the next animal you eat will be spotted. When you get toward the end, you will begin to become gray very young. You will marry even your relatives. you may reach a point where you will be ashamed of nothing, and you will act as if you were crazy."
"Soon you will find among you a people with hair all over their faces. Their skin will be white. When that time comes, they will control you. The white people will be all over the land; and at last you will disappear."
But the Cheyenne have not disappeared ........
