While the Mandans lived at Pipestone they were visited by Lone Man
and First Creator.
Catlin "for their tradition says,that at a very ancient period such
a man did actually come from the west,,that his body was of white
colour,as this mans body is represented,,that he wore a robe of 4
white wolf skins,,his headdress was made of 2 ravens skins,,and in his
left hand was the huge pipe. He said he was at one time the only
man,,he told them of the destruction of everything on earth,s surface
by water,,and that he stopped in this big canoe on a mountain in the
west." What a great legend...
Just to the north of Pipestone minnesota and across the Minnesota
River is Kensington..and .the mountain top where the grape vine grows
that they crawled up on.???
A few years ago I visited On-a-slant,,the Mandan village where Lewis
and Clarke spent there first winter. They had noticed too that the
earth lodges were getting newer as they headed UP the river and then
these oldest lodges where the Missouri meets the Mississippi had once
too been there home but the Souix nation fought with them and then
they moved north.
The village of On-a-slant was about one sixth white.
La Verendryes 1738 eyewitness account" the nation is mixed white and
black. The women are fairly good looking especially the light colored
ones, many of them have blond or fair hair."
NO missionarys in these parts at this time yet.Others have made that
assumtion too.
There was another possible runestone found along the Missouri but
then destroyed in France during WW2.


--- In americanrunestones@yahoogroups.com, Doug Weller <dweller@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi hilgren,
>
> Saturday, December 23, 2006, 9:12:42 PM, you wrote:
>
> > Sheheke gives this answer when asked about where
> > his people had come from and tells them a fantastic story about a
> > flood cermony where they have an alter they call an ARC(ship) and it
> > had brought them to this world.
> "The lord of life created the first man, Lone Man. As Lone Man went
along, he met several animals, deciding that they must have been
created before him. Lone Man asked a duck to bring land up from under
the water, and this was the first land. Another man came along, and
at first Lone Man thought the man was his son. The second man
suggested that both men sit and the first man to rise was the son of
the other. After ten years, Lone Man rose, thinking that the other
man was dead. The second man then declared that he was Lone Man?s
father. The lord of life asked the Lone Man to create the north bank
of the Missouri, and when he did, he made it flat. The lord of life
said that it was not good because it would be impossible to sneak up
on buffalo and deer, and that men would not be able to avoid each
other and would kill each other.
>
> Along with the land, Lone Man created more animals, medicine
pipes, tobacco, and humans before becoming one of them and helping
them. When an enemy tried to drown Lone Man?s people with a flood,
Lone Man built a wall around them. Because of this, the Mandan built
a sacred ark in the middle of their village: a wall made of wood poles
with a hoop around it to show the highest level of the water.
>
> In his book An Indian Winter, Russell Freedman explains: "According
to Mandan [a tribe that was near the upper Missouri River] belief, the
First Man was a powerful spirit, a divine being. He had been created
in the distant past by the Lord of Life, the creator of all things, to
act as a mediator between ordinary humans and the countless gods, or
spirits, that inhabited the universe." Mandan belief even included a
flood legend. "Once, when a great flood swept over the world, the
First Man saved the people by teaching them to build a protective
tower, or 'ark,' that would rise high above the floodwaters. In his
honor, every Mandan village had a miniature replica of that mythical
tower-a cedar post about five feet high, surrounded by a plank fence."
> Catlin however wrote ""During the whole of this day
Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) travelled through the
village, stopping in front of each man's lodge, and crying until the
owner of the lodge came out and asked who he was, and what was the
matter? To which be replied by narrating the sad catastrophe which had
happened on the earth's surface by the overflowing of the waters,
saying that 'he was the only person saved from the universal calamity;
that he landed his big canoe on a high mountain in the west, where he
now resides; that be has come to open the medicine lodge, which must
needs receive a present of an edged tool from the owner of every
wigwam, that it may be sacrificed to the water; for,' he says, 'if
this is not done there will be another flood, and no one will be
saved, as it was with such tools that the big canoe was made.'"
>
> This has been used to prove Mandan ties with Atlantis, that they are
descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel, and now evidently that they
are part Viking (where does that 1/6th come from?). To me it simply
shows missionary influence upon the Mandan creation story.
>
> Doug
>
> --
> Doug Weller Moderator, sci.archaeology.moderated
> Director and Moderator The Hall of Ma'at http://www.thehallofmaat.com
> Doug and Helen's Dogs: http://www.dougandhelen.com
> Doug's Archaeology Site: http://www.ramtops.co.uk
>