Sacred Place: Devil's Tower, Crook County, Wyoming
The singular, scarred rock butte in the Bear Lodge Mountains of Crooke County, Wyoming holds the distinction of being the first National Monument, declared by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. It is composed of igneous or volcanic rock and rises almost straight up from the surrounding plains and the Belle Fourche River, for a height of 867 feet. Thousands of visitors flock to see it each year, some attempting the climb with equipment.
In 1875, Col. Richard Irving Dodge saw the butte and asked local Natives what it was called. An interpreter told him that it was called Bad God's Mountain. English-speakers quickly rechristened it Devil's Tower and the name stuck. Actually, the Tower is associated with legends of the Lakota, Kiowa, Crow and Cheyenne people, who have their own names for it. It is Bear's House, Bear's Lodge or Bear's Lair to the Cheyenne, Lakota and Crow. The Kiowa know it as Aloft on a Rock or Tree Rock. Local Native tribes, particularly the Sioux, have made several requests that the Devil's Tower name be changed and that the park be renamed as Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark. These efforts have been rebuffed on grounds that the name change would hurt tourism.
Most of the Native legends concern how this single piece of rock got to be standing so high above the surrounding countryside and the deep gouges down its sides. According to Lakota tradition, a group of girls went out to play and were being chased by a giant bear. They ran to a nearby hill and prayed to the Creator to save them. He elevated the butte high into the sky to protect them but the bear wouldn't be denied and continued to try to scratch and claw the rock to get at the girls. The Creator eventually placed them as stars in the sky, hence the Pleiades Constellation. Another legend substitutes two boys who were saved in a similar manner by the Creator. The boys were eventually returned home by an eagle. According to the Cheyenne, the giant bear pursues and kills most of the girls. Two girls return home and get two boys to come with them to hopefully shoot the bear. The bear clawed its way up the rock to get away from the arrows and never came back down. There are other legends, as well.
In 1875, Col. Richard Irving Dodge saw the butte and asked local Natives what it was called. An interpreter told him that it was called Bad God's Mountain. English-speakers quickly rechristened it Devil's Tower and the name stuck. Actually, the Tower is associated with legends of the Lakota, Kiowa, Crow and Cheyenne people, who have their own names for it. It is Bear's House, Bear's Lodge or Bear's Lair to the Cheyenne, Lakota and Crow. The Kiowa know it as Aloft on a Rock or Tree Rock. Local Native tribes, particularly the Sioux, have made several requests that the Devil's Tower name be changed and that the park be renamed as Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark. These efforts have been rebuffed on grounds that the name change would hurt tourism.
Most of the Native legends concern how this single piece of rock got to be standing so high above the surrounding countryside and the deep gouges down its sides. According to Lakota tradition, a group of girls went out to play and were being chased by a giant bear. They ran to a nearby hill and prayed to the Creator to save them. He elevated the butte high into the sky to protect them but the bear wouldn't be denied and continued to try to scratch and claw the rock to get at the girls. The Creator eventually placed them as stars in the sky, hence the Pleiades Constellation. Another legend substitutes two boys who were saved in a similar manner by the Creator. The boys were eventually returned home by an eagle. According to the Cheyenne, the giant bear pursues and kills most of the girls. Two girls return home and get two boys to come with them to hopefully shoot the bear. The bear clawed its way up the rock to get away from the arrows and never came back down. There are other legends, as well.
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