DANCE OF THE SACRED CIRCLE

The buffalo herd diminishes, and a prairie tribe goes hungry. A young orphan boy cared for by the tribe decides to find the Great Chief in the Sky in hopes that He might restore the buffalo to the grasslands. Guided by the morning wind, the boy travels far and wide. One morning, awakening to thunder, the boy opens his eyes and sees the chief, resplendent in buckskin and eagle feathers. The chief rewards the boy's courage with a gift: the first horse. At first it is just a raw mud figure, but a council of all living things is called, each to give the raw horse something special—the pine tree gives it a tail, hooves come from the turtle, swiftness from the hawk. As the boy returns to his tribe, the one horse slowly turns into a herd, which gives the tribe all the mobility it needs to find the buffalo. A gentle creation story from Blackfoot legend, this tale is particularly well grounded in its magic, and Rodanas's (The Dragonfly's Tale, 1992) illustrations have an appropriately soft and dreamy quality. It's not easy to hit the right note of both substance and etherealness when myth-making, but Rodanas comes comfortably close. (Folklore/Picture book. 4-8)