as told by Elsie Sampson
There was a young boy who wasn’t very strong or handsome. He felt that he was just a nobody. No gift or talent of any kind. Others of his age seemed to be well liked and doing good in playing games. Others were good runners, good hunters and fishermen. They were good in whatever talent they had. But he, he didn’t excel in anything. He’d walk around or sit around and did nothing. He felt that he was so useless and didn’t amount to anything. The more he thought about this, the more depressed he got.
One day he walked up into the mountains. He was deep in thought and wondered how he could change his life around. “What can I do? I want to be smart and excel at something,” he said to himself.
As he walked, he thought about the teachings his great-grandfather told him. He told the boy to seek guidance from the Creator. As he walked up into the mountains, he decided to pray and meditate. He went past the meadows when he decided to stop and pray and seek spiritual guidance to help him make something of himself. As he meditated and prayed, he heard a crying noise. He got up and went to see what it was. It was a little wolf stáčəŋ cub. The mother wolf stáčəŋ came and he got frightened. He picked up the baby cub and climbed the tree. She spoke to the young boy and asked him for her cub. He refused to let it go. She left telling him she would be back. She went to hold counsel with the other wolves stáčəŋ. She came back and asked for her cub again. Again the boy refused. The mother wolf stáčəŋ left again and came back. She asked the boy, “What do you want?”
When he looked around the area, as far as he could see were wolves everywhere! He answered, “I need to be someone, not a person that is useless.”
She left and came back the third time. She told him, “You will be a good hunter and fisherman and you will be a strong and smart person for your Tribe. You will become well known.”
He gave the mother wolf stáčəŋ her baby cub. Then he went home. He was a changed young man. He excelled in whatever he did. He was a well known person because he became a good hunter and fisherman.
All this because he went to seek his spiritual quest and it was given to him by his friends, the wolves stáčəŋ.