A Galileo Educational Network Site
“There’s the spiritual connection that some people have horses come to them in dreams, which means they’re going to be blessed with certain powers. But only certain people (have these dreams), not just anybody. And because of that, we also have legends about horses. I call them legends, but believe me, they are real.”
Sykes Powderface, Stoney Nakoda coordinator, remembers his grandparents and other elders talking about the horses living in Kananaskis Lake. He says it’s very seldom these horses are seen, and when they are, there is a good reason why they’ve made an appearance.
“One, they (the horses) have a story or they have information we think we need to carry on to the people. Secondly, they’re seen by people who need to change. And those changes, the reason for seeing the horses, are interpreted through dreams by Elders who are given the gift or ability to read horses. If you see these horses, make sure you let the Elders know and the Elders would then have a ceremony, where it might not be even through a dream, but through a ceremony in the sweat lodge. The reason for seeing these horses are interpreted to them.”
A student asks, “Where did the first horses come from?” Bill McLean talks about the coming of the first horses and how they replaced dogs to carry loads.
The Story of the Three Horses
Oilfields High School
Foothills School Division
Wild Horses
École Senator Riley Middle School
Foothills School Division
Wonderful wild horses are being slaughtered;
In their suffering, their killers’ emotions have not been stirred.
Horses appear in many stirring native legends and myths;
Long ago they boldly rode to the edge of many a cliff.
In one tale about the UpperKananaskisLake,
Three horses of different shades tell what the day, month, or year will make.
Palomino for good, black for bad, and bay for in between,
But this prophecy can not always be seen.
In fact, the horses were so sacred to the First Nations
That they did not mount them until the European invasion.
But when the outlanders rode so proudly as the two cultures met,
The First Nations knew that they, too, should race their steeds into the sunset.
Reader, if you have listened, then you know it to be true,
The horses mean as much to the natives as me or you.
You also realize the goal we must achieve:
We must stop the mindless murders… do you believe?
