Part I

Long ago and yet not so far back that we can't imagine, there was a tribe of Indians called the Wonkas, or Wolf tribe. They were lead by old Chief NoCarolinas, which means in indian language, Chief-Who-Has-No-Smile and they lived on the WatahTonka or Buffalo River. Now Chief NoCarolinas for the most part was a good chief, but his methods were a
little suspect. He did inspire his people to be great hunters. And his method was this, whenever a brave failed to return with buffalo meat, he would make him run the gauntlet. Running the gauntlet is a terrible
experience where the brave must run down between two lines of his tribesmen who beat him severely with sticks and clubs and by the time he reaches the end of the line, he's all beat up! And that's not all. If a brave refused to hunt, he would be driven from the tribe and forced to live with the animals. Many a tail has been told around the campfires about braves who were driven out to live with the animals and later brought back to the tribe on a pole as meat because they
were easier to kill than the buffalo. Yes sir, the chief had complete control of his tribe.
The number two man in the Wonkas was a medicine man named Tonkanack. His name means buffalo-horn and he had the priveledge of naming everyone in the tribe. If someone's name became inappropriate, he would simply rename them. One brave he renamed use to be called Moshpo, which means "speaks true". It was changed to Moshpopo, which
means "speaks with forked tongue".

Part II

One young buck that Tonkanack named was Beaver. Beaver was a work of art ever since he learned to walk and chase butterflies and grasshoppers around the fields and through the woods. He studied long and hard to become an indian brave. He was busy like the beaver. He always talked of wanting to be a strong brave, a mighty warrior and savvy hunter when he grows up, but alas it was so long in coming. Beaver took 30 years to become 16 years old! 16 is legal age in most Indian tribes when a young man can go through the ritual of becoming a brave. They can only pick berries and grub for worms until they turn 16 and go through the ritual, after that they are allowed hunt with the other braves, and if need be, participate in The Gauntlet. But Beaver had spent so much time practicing to become a brave that when the day finally arrived and the ritual was over and he was finally the brave that he always wanted to be, he became the best brave the tribe had seen in quite some time. He brought back game every day and even at night! Some of the other braves had to run the gauntlet because Beaver hunted out entire areas of their hunting grounds. He was a fine brave and tales will be told about his hunts for many moons to come.

Part III

Bonzo liked to hunt bear and that's what his name meant, lone-hunter-of-bears. He had a good strategy for it too. When it took ten braves with spears to surround and kill a bear, Bonzo could kill one by himself, he was that good. And his technique was this...he knew where all the honey trees were in the forest, so he'd climb up each one and coat one side of the tree with bear-grease so it would be nice and slick on one side only opposite the bee hive. It only works on honey trees and had to have a bee hive for it to be a honey tree. He would poke sticks in the ground under the slick side of the tree and when he came upon a honey tree with a bear in it, he would holler and throw rocks at the bear up in the tree until it moved around to the other side of the tree, yes, the slick side and would begin to lose its grip and tumble down out of the tree onto the sharp sticks below. That was his technique and Bonzo had many bear tooth necklaces to show for his time. But one day Bonzo came upon the tracks of a huge giant grizzly bear. He'd never had any experience with one of them, because he'd only came across brown and black bears. They were easy to kill, but this grizzly, when he followed its tracks to the honey tree and started hollering and throwing rocks at it, instead of being scared and moving around to the other side of the tree, the slick side, the bear growled and glared down at Bonzo with and angry scowl and started moving straight down the tree toward Bonzo. That's right, it was going to attack Bonzo for throwing rocks at it. Well Bonzo never had that happen before and he was very worried, as this was a huge, ferocious bear like no other he'd ever seen. This is it, he thought to himself, I'll never see my family and hunt bears again, my life is over. He began trembling and when the bear came out of that tree, Bonzo let out a yell that was hear all the way back at camp and he ran quickly to the other side of the big tree. The bear hit the ground in a run and went right around after Bonzo, who had no alternative but to shimmy up the tree as fast as he could, but could go no further once he came to the bear grease that he had smeared all over one side way up high. The grizzly was right behind him and he could feel the tree shaking with every movement the bear made, it was terrifying! Now as soon as the braves back at camp heard all the hollering Bonzo was making they grabbed their spears and ran to help. They arrived in time to see the bear swiping at bonzo's legs as he kicked and danced at the bears head. The warriors let loose their sharp-pointed spears as hard as they could throw them straight up and into the tough hide of the grizzly bear and he fell from the tree and onto the stakes below, dead as a bear could be! Oh, my life is spared, oh what joy and relief Bonzo was feeling at the sight of his fellow braves who had come to his rescue. He was very thankful and vowed never to go off bear hunting alone ever again. Now he hunts with a brave called rarecob, which means touched-in-the-head. Tonkanack renamed Bonzo after that. His new name is Topper, which means ghost, because when he arrived back in camp, he was white as a sheet and had a strip of white hair in front of his head to remind him how frightened he'd been.

Part IV

In the beginning most Indians lived among the animals, because there were few tribes and they were very primitive, because the spear point hadn't been invented yet. There was one tribe called the Nono's which lived on the WataTonka near the rapids and they were a very evil tribe of Indians. There was another tribe who lived downriver a ways near Apparition Swamp, which was a very dangerous and mysterious place that most Indians avoided. They were called the DumbAnimal Tribe. Theirs was a large tribe and they had two chiefs, because one was not enough to lead so many. Their chiefs were VortOxen and DumbAnimal, their names basically meaning the same thing. Not much was seen of their tribe since most stayed lost in Apparition Swamp. There were many well known indians who lived among the animals. There was Murky, whose name means Dull-Waters or Gifted-One, depending on which tribe you ask. And there was SilverOne, whose name means Shines-Like-Star and there was Blade, which means Grass. Murky was later to become chief of the Tribe who lived around a huge spreading Oak Tree across the rapids from the Nono tribe. The river narrows at the rapids and the two tribes would spend much of the day throwing rocks across the river at each other. There was an indian maiden who lived with the Nono's and her name was SeeAmI, which means, Look-At-Me! and she was the Singer Of News, that is to say she would meet the hunters and warriors when they arrived back at camp and sing songs of their successes and failures for all the camp to hear. It kept the tribe on their toes. Sometime when singing the news, if young Tonkanack were near, she would roll her eyes around and bat them seductively at him while she sang out her soft melody and he would push out his chest and strut around the camp. He was an intimidating young figure at that time and was beginning to make a name for himself (pun intended).  Another of the Nono's was RohoRooroo, whose name means He-Who-Drinks-Blood. He was a mysterious and powerful old hunter/warrior who told tales around the campfires to scare the younger members. Blade would often throw rocks at him from across the river. One day RooRoo was hit by a rock that splintered like a tree when it hit his head. Roro picked up a shard from it and threw it back. It skipped across the water and embedded itself in Blade's leg. He pulled the tip of it out of his leg and put it in his Medicine Bag. He carried it around for a few days until he got it out and examined it. It was so sharp, he wondered at how it flaked when hit against another rock. He saw how sharp it was and got an idea. He fastened it to a stick with a rawhide strap and the spear was born. It was then that Tonkanack became Namer when he renamed Blade, from meaning Grass, to mean Sharp-Pointed-Instrument. And the Spear change the climate around the entire Indian Nation for many moons to come.