Giant Buffalo Hunters

George Bird Grinnell (1849–1938) spent decades recording the histories, legends, and cultural practices of the Plains Indians. According to a Pawnee narrative recounted to Grinnell, the first people to inhabit the earth were giants. These mighty men of old were so powerful that they hunted buffalo on foot. The giant buffalo hunters ran fast enough to catch buffalo and were strong enough to kill them with only clubs and flint knives. So powerful were these giants, and of such enormous stature, that they carried slain buffalo upon their shoulders.

These giant buffalo hunters of the Plains were also arrogant and haughty, and they refused to honor their creator, Tirawa. The giants believed themselves to be invincible; as time went on, they grew in their arrogance and their behavior became completely unacceptable to their creator. 

Like so many other deities spanning a myriad of unrelated cultures, Tirawa also decided to rid the earth of the arrogant giant buffalo hunters. He turned the ground soft and spongy, and the evil ones sank and drowned in the mud.

In a legend from South America, when the creator god of the Incas, Viracocha, created the first men—giants made from large stones—they displeased him, and he destroyed them in a flood. Viracocha then replaced the giants with modern humans; this time, he used smaller stones. Likewise, Tirawa did not leave Earth void of humankind; he replaced the proud giants whom he destroyed, with modern humans.

The tale of giant buffalo hunters as well as the Peruvian legend, are in my book Giants: Men of Renown, published by Adventures Unlimited Press.

In the fifth book of my self-published travel series, I discuss legends and lore of the Great Plains.

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