A Short History Of The Sacred Calf Pipe Of The Teton Dakota

In 1906 George Dorsey wrote in his introduction to the "Legend of the Teton Sioux Medicine Pipe" that his account was merely a fragment and that he hoped it would lead to further study in the future. It is my hope that this paper accomplishes this in some small way. The history is not complete and never will be complete so long as there exists the Sacred Calf Pipe bundle. However, the following is a brief history of the Pipe bundle and how the Dakota people see it today.

The field work for this manuscript was undertaken in the period of 1964-1966.