For the Cheyenne Tribes, the buffalo is a sacred animal. Throughout time it provided food, clothing, and shelter; essentially, it was the tribes source of life. It is interesting then, to read the buffalo as a villain. The tale of The Quillwork Girl And Her Seven Star Brothers (page 205) depicts the buffalo as a bully, wanting the talented sister for their own, and believing they have the right to claim her. The story never reveals why the buffalo nation would want a human girl, one who is revered for her quillwork and beauty, but perhaps this lack of context would further explain the relationship between the Cheyenne and the buffalo. A relationship that seems both sacred and challenging. The Cheyenne were very dependent on the buffalo, uprooting the tribe to follow in the movement of the herds. This is perhaps why some of the tribes myths have a sense of resentment rooted in them. The humans in the stories always outsmart the buffalo, being illustrated as the higher authority. I think the tribe often worried about this dependency, and did not always feel comfortable with their relationship with the buffalo. Another tale that makes light of this theme is The Great Race (page 390) in which the buffalo and the humans race to see who will eat who. With the help of other animals, the humans end up winning and the buffalo must give their flesh for the prosperity of the people. The tales consistently show the humans ending with the upper hand, but I think the stories were spawned from the tribe’s self-counscious dependency on the buffalo for life. Yet they still maintained their gratefulness for all that the buffalo sacrificed to them. 
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