The Gift of the Sacred Dog

The Gift of the Sacred Dog by Paul Goble, 1980. A Native American tribe is starving because they haven’t been able to find any buffalo. They send out searchers and try to do a dance to call the buffalo. One boy decides to go into the hills to ask the Great Spirit for help. When he asks for help, Thunderbirds swoop down from the sky, and a figure rides toward him on an amazing animal. The figure tells him that the “Sacred Dog” he is riding will help his people because it can travel faster than the buffalo. The rider disappears, and other Sacred Dogs appear, in various colors. When he wakes up the next morning, a herd of Sacred Dogs rushes out of a cave. The boy leads the Sacred Dogs to his people so the hunters can ride them in pursuit of the buffalo. The book ends with the English translations of Sioux songs about horses and the return of the buffalo. My Reaction I love folktales, and this is a colorful story to explain how Native Americans came to have horses. Historically, horses…

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