The Rattlesnake Echo

    In Bear's Gulch in the Black Hills of South Dakota, A woman named Turtle Dove lived wither her daughter, Ohoteu, and her baby boy, Sage Cock. She would leave the children playing together, and, making sure they stayed out of mischief, would go and gather berries and food.

    A woman who lived on the mountain noticed how Turtle Dove left her children for periods of time. This woman was a witch, only because no one had married her. She observed that Sage Cock was a bright child, and vowed to make him her husband. This witch was not young, and if she had waited until Sage Cock was a man, she would not have any life left to enjoy with her husband. 

    This woman had supernatural power. She worked over Sage Cock all nigh, pulling and stretching until finally his limbs were to a man's size. She fed him well, with buffalos meant and fish, and in a few days he was as strong as any man in the region. 

    Now that Sage Cock was big and strong, the woman had another problem. She had made all of his limbs bigger, but his brain was still the one's of an infant. In order for him to be a good strong hunter, he had to be smart. She took him abroad, but she knew the mother would be watching.

    Turtle Dove had in fact discovered that her son was gone. She and her brother, Eagle, climbed the mountains and climbed the trees occasionally to get a farther view.

    One time Sage Cock cried to the witch, "I can hear my mother!" because indeed he could hear her crying for him. The witch told him it was a stranger, and if he tried to reach her, she would find him and eat him. She told him to crawl into a sheepskin, where he would be safe.

    Finding nothing, Turtle Dove and Eagle tried another strategy. They hung a dead rabbit in a tree, stripped the trunk about 8-10 feet high, sat in a thicket, and waited. 

    As they expected, the woman smelled the rabbit, and came and tried to climb the tree and get it; but she couldn't because the bark was stripped off the tree. 

    Desperate to get the rabbit, for she was very hungry, she kept trying to get up the tree. She did not see Turtle Dove and Eagle run to the sheepskin, pull out Sage Cock, and carry him off.

    As soon as they got him back to the hollow where the witch had found hem, he became normal baby size, and cried for milk. Turtle Dove and Eagle left Sage Cock with his sister Ohoteu, and went to find the and kill the witch.

   After discovering that Sage Cock was gone, she knew someone would come back and try to hurt her. She was scared, so she crept into the old skin of her grandfather, who was a rattlesnake. Then she went and laid on a ledge with a lot of other snakes, and carefully disguised, mocked the call of her enemies. She took pleasure in mocking people, and that is how she became known to be the echo.