I use the cries of the four directions,
I use the cries of the four directions;
I use the cries of the four directions,
I use the cries of the four directions.

The following are some of the names given to members of the Deer Clan:

The dead are painted with the same colors and pattern as those of the Elk Clan. [4]

There are two versions of the clan myth.

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(1) This is the life of the Deer Clan. The black deer and the elk with him, where the center of the earth is, there they appeared. And they went to the east side. There they were going. Then the black deer said, "My dear younger brother, I am heavy in flesh. Go on alone — here is where I will remain," he said. He did not go there. And he went back to the center of the earth whence they started. He came back. (2) Again they asked him four times. Again, indeed, they did it. There the black deer recognized the money necklace. So the Deer Clan was beaten. So he called himself "Black Deer Chief." And going back, they went again. Likewise, he recognized the money necklace himself. They went around the earth. And again under the black deer they went east. The big one went first. As they went, this one wondered where they started from. (3) Again they came back there. "My brother, you yourself try to do something," he said. So Hena (the second born) he went first himself. They set out. Again they went. They came back there. "My brother, you yourself try to do something," he said. And so Haga went first. They had come back again. And they told Naǧiga to go first. He suddenly came to the fore. When he hit the right side of his horn on the earth, there he made an herb appear. When he did it, the flower was very white. (4) Again when he struck the earth with the left side horn, he generated a tree there. And the stem of the herb is meant for eating, for that he made it. And again they ate the fruit of the tree. There they ate from the top of the tree. And so they said that they would call the name of one of the women by the name "She who Eats from the Top of the Tree." And when they went walking they made the earth tremble, it is said. They went to the east side. And so they said that they would name a man "Shakes the Earth," they said. (5) And if there were some brothers, they would call the smallest, "Walking Leader," they would call him. And again among the women one came to be called, "She who Comes Back." Again the men would call him, "He who Comes Back."

In the beginning, they went back there again. This is the reason on account of which they say that whatever movements they did, from these they got their names. The names for however they lived, they called themselves by the name. And they lived in control of the cardinal winds. And so if on a very nice day a voice should be heard, (6) the day would be transformed into a bad day. Again, it being a bad day, hearing the voice will transform into a very nice day. And so the Deer Clan people have control over the day. And so they call themselves with the name, "They Play with the Wind," they would call them. Also they say, "Going with the Wind Woman," they say. Where deer would situate themselves as they go, going with the wind, they would situate themselves, and so they say that.

Not anywhere on the earth did they miss. (7) There they came home. The big one collapsed. And they said, "What has happened?" they said. Then Hena said, "My younger brother, not at anytime did he say something." Then he said, "I don't know a thing." Nąǧi alone spoke and said, "My dear older brothers, our older brother has died. Thus did Earthmaker do it that way." And he talked to the dead one, saying to him, "In the first place, my older brother, the Creator made for you, this first one, a place of safety. That he did. (8) You have not obtained a large portion of life. You made those of us above the ground poor. And what I am going to ask you is this: that you'll leave behind the life that you missed above ground, that we ask of you. With that life, let us live. What you have left off, that is what I mean. And this is the second request: the wars which you did not handle, all the honors that you would have earned, here above ground we will handle. (9) O elder brother, I ask of you what you have done. And the third request is this: all the food that you missed with your mouth, all the tree fruit, all the sweet food there is that you would have eaten, these that you missed and left behind when you went, again these we wish to get a hold of. These that you missed when you went, I ask for. These things we will be using. And this is the fourth request, O elder brother: all the good things that people wear, everything that you put in the back of the lodge, (10) these you should not touch, as we who are left behind on earth will be using them." He asked that he do it. "And wherever you are going, there the really good things we who are left behind on earth request that we may take hold of; for this we are petitioning for ourselves." And he took red paint and said, "My brother, I am going to paint you. They will recognize you at home, for this is the way we are. Hereafter, all those men who are to live after, (11) they also will all be doing like this. The story (worak) will be that he did the painting in just this way," he said. And he blackened his forehead with charcoal, and they streaked the corners of his eyes with red, and the chin and front of the throat he made red. And they dug a grave. There they buried him. And he prepared a song. He finished singing and they buried him.

And they traveled around the earth. (12) And where the clans gathered, there they came. They were people. And so they called them the "Deer Clan." Their own life they lived the way deer did. Where they started from, thus were the names of the Deer Clan. How they derived those names was from whatever habits the deer have. Again, what you see in them, it is in this way that they have their names. They say the name "White Hair." Also they say "Fast One." It is said that deer have short white hair. Again it is said because they are fast. (13) They say "Shy One." It is said that deer are shy. They also say, "Pronged Horn." It is said that the horns are pronged. Dog names, that kind they are. And so it is said that this is the way of the Deer Clan. When they said it, in this way so they lived at Red Banks on Within Lake (Green Bay). There the clans gathered together, there were all the different clans, there where they first began. This is the end. [5]

Commentary. "black deer" — this is the moose.

"the center of the earth" — those who are at the center and who control the four quarters, control everything and therefore have a claim to the chieftainship. This is also reflected in the "money necklace" (see below). The myths associate the Deer Clan with chieftainship by having its founders involve themselves uniquely with four analogues to it: being first, being at the center, recognizing the emblem of the chief, and creating the first fire. The fire is associated with centrality because the fireplace was located in the center of the lodge. The Deer Clan tries to establish control over the fire through its command of both the center and the winds. What we see of the strong ideology of political primacy of the Deer Clan may be a vestige of a time when the Deer Clan was part of the Elk Clan and this Deer-Elk Clan held the chieftainship. In the story of the Origin of the Hočąk Chief, the Elk Clan is said to have formerly held the position of chief.

"the east" — this is the cardinal point of beginnings, and is the place where most ritual circuits (such as that of the Medicine Rite) begin.

"money necklace" — it was a set of medallions issued to chiefs by the United States government (see the Chief's Medallion). Prior to white contact, they were made of wampum, that is to say shells, as witnessed by the clan name "Wears Shells Around the Neck." [3]

so the Deer Clan was beaten — Radin remarks at the top of the interlinear page: "He beat him because he came on the necklace first." What seem to us as chance encounters entailing no entitlement whatever, are viewed from a religious perspective as having a hidden purpose. There are no coincidences. Everything happens by a hidden design. This means that it was no accident that the black deer happened upon the money necklace first; indeed it was destiny. In this clearly lies his entitlement to all the necklace entails.

again they came back there — Radin comments at the top of the interlinear page: "Some power was always drawing them back to the place whence they had started."

"voice" — the voice is often associated with the four quarters, since sound emanates from its source in every direction. Since sound expresses part of the nature of the four (or rather six) directions, it is often symbolized by its receptor, the ear. It follows, therefore, that the origin point of the sound and its organ, will stand for the Center. These are the voice and the lungs. Since loud singing (about the four quarters in particular) is a kind of wind at the center, the cardinal points answer in kind with strong, howling winds directed at the center. (For more on the theory of the center and the four quarters, see Redhorn and Redhorn's Father.)

"going with the wind" — in avoiding predators, this would place deer downwind and therefore incapable of being scented. That knowledge of winds that deer seem to possess may be part of the reason why they are thought to control them.

"died" — this account of the introduction of death into the world models a very similar account of the Thunderbird Clan, save that the latter claim to have been the first to which this happened. The Deer Clan often advances myths that could challenge the primacy of the Thunderbird Clan should the Deer Clan have the sovereign power come into their own hands.

"he talked to the dead one" — it is part of the Four Slumbers ritual that those who have died are given instructions on how to proceed to the next world during their wake. This story stresses the favors that are asked of those who died before their allotted time, and therefore had things coming to them which they were not able to receive.

"paint" — the dead of each clan had their faces painted in a way unique to their clan. What follows is at least one of the ways in which a member of the clan could be painted.

"the first fireplace" — the chief clan, the Thunderbird Clan, claims in its foundation myth to have started the first fire, an ability that served as grounds for its entitlement to chieftainship.

"they blew upon it" — the Deer Clan has control over the winds, and air is a necessity for combustion. So the Deer Clan can make the claim that they made a necessary contribution to starting the first fire.

"a partial chieftainship" — because the Deer Clan made a necessary contribution to starting the Fire of Sovereignty, they can claim some (obscure) share of that sovereignty.

"the first to appear" — this, along with the commemorative name, "He Who Appears First", suggest that of all the clan progenitors, the deer was the first to appear on earth. Primary in time (being the original) is usually identified with primacy in space, that is, the governance of territory. Being the first is to be at the top of the hierarchy. Nevertheless, the Deer Clan is not part of the tribal leadership. Some of the things asserted in the Deer Clan Origin Myth suggest that the clan may once have been the chief clan. The evocation of "partial" chieftainship recalls the existence of dual chieftainship among other Siouan tribes. The claim of being first indicates that the Deer Clan may once have been the first among the clans in power. The stress upon cyclical return, seems to be in part a claim of returning in the future to sovereignty that it once enjoyed in the past. Claims to sovereignty are reinforced by assertions of Centrality and command over aspects of the four quarters. Is all of this a remembrance of things past, or is it an attempt to place the Deer Clan in the proper ideological position to catch sovereignty should it slip from the grasp of the Thunder Clan? Perhaps, given the belief in the cyclical nature of things, it is both at once.

[1] David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 9.

[2] Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 198.

[3] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 201; and "Deer Clan Origin Myth," in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman #3899 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) Winnebago III, #19a, 1-13. All names were collected by Radin unless otherwise noted (as below).

(F) Thomas Foster, Foster's Indian Record and Historical Data (Washington, D. C.: 1876-1877) vol. 1, #1: p. 4, coll. 3-4.

[4] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 198.

[5] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 199-201. "Deer Clan Origin Myth," 1-13.

[6] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 201.