Nebraska[1] named; and over this broad plain
Thou placedst me to guard and keep for thee.
"Where from the sacred thunderbolt long since
Were born my children brave,—Lakotahs called;[2]
A name which means allies, or friends, because
While strong in war, peaceful and good they were.
"A happy people they, and one that saw
A power benign in all of Nature's works.
To them the birds were symbols of the winds,
By whom the gods to earth their mandates sent.
The dawn they worshipped, for from thence there came
The light which drove away the gloomy shades,
And freed them from the hostile powers of Night.
"The corners four of Heaven most sacred were.
To these, and to their spirits, the four winds,
They altars built,—low mounds in form of cross,
Or bird with wings outstretched,—in token that
They live by these, the source of life and health.
From these they learned the sacred number four
To hold in rev'rent awe. In all their fasts
And feasts, in birth, in death, in war and peace,
The number four must be considered; else
No good might they expect.
Four souls they deemed
Were clothed in mortal garb, and after death,
One soul was free to roam o'er all the earth,
Assuming other shapes; and one must stay
Around its home, and, in the guise of bird,
Might hold communion with its former friends.
A third must in the body stay to guard
It, so that some time a new form might spring
Therefrom; and for this reason they preserved
The bones with care and buried them in mounds.
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