SECTION 3 - New Times Media Corporation

Section 3
All Wyoming Area Codes are 307
quests. 2 The stone dream houses were about as
long as a man is tall. A man would recline inside
with his head to the east and feet to the west,
“like the rising and setting sun.”
The Crow believe Devils Tower was “put there
by the Great Spirit for a special reason, because it
was different from other rocks.” 2 It is looked
upon as a holy place.
Kiowa
The Kiowa call Devils Tower “Aloft on a Rock”
and “Tree Rock.”
The Kiowa people have a sacred narrative or
legend on the origin of Tree Rock. 1
“…origin memories of American Indian people
reveal none anywhere ‘as bright- and remote-’
as the Kiowas memories of their days in the Black
Hills and at Devils Tower.” 2
Lakota (Sioux)
The Lakota call Devils Tower “Bear Lodge,” “Bear
Lodge Butte,” “Grizzly Bear’s Lodge,” “Penis
Mountain,” “Mythic-owl Mountain,” “Grey Horn
Butte,” and “Ghost Mountain.” The Lakota people
have a sacred narrative or legend on the origin of
Bear Lodge. 1
The Lakota often had winter camps at Devils
Tower. 2 This is documented at least as far back
as around 1816. 1
The Lakota claim to have an ancient and
sacred relationship with the Black Hills of South
Dakota and with Devils Tower and Inyan Kara in
the Black Hills of Wyoming. The Black Hills are
the Lakota’s place of creation. 1
A Sioux legend tells of a Lakota band camped
in the forest at the foot of Bear Lodge. They were
attacked by a band of Crow. With the supernatural
assistance of a huge bear, the Lakota were able
to defeat the Crow. 2
At Devils Tower, they fasted, prayed, left offerings,
worshipped the “Great Mystery” (the
essence of Lakota spiritual and religious life), and
performed sweatlodge ceremonies. Lakota pray
for health, welfare, and personal direction. 1
The healing ceremony is known to have been
performed at Bear Lodge, conducted by a healing
shaman. The Great Bear Hu Nump imparted the
sacred language and ceremonies of healing to
Lakota shamans at Bear Lodge. In this way, Devils
Tower is considered the birthplace of wisdom. 1
“White Bull told of ‘honor men’ among the
people who went up close to Devils Tower for
four-day periods, fasting and praying. There they
slept on beds of sagebrush, taking no food or
water during this time. Once, five great Sioux
leaders-Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud,
Gall, and Spotted Tail-went there together to worship.
We did not worship the butte, but worshipped
our God.” 2
Vision quests are a very intense form of
prayer requiring much preparation, fasting,
sweating (sweatlodge), and solitude 1 . It is a ritual
integral to the construction of Lakota identity. In
addition to learning lore and moral teachings,
individuals who seek visions, “often regain clarity
of purpose in their lives and a secure identity as a
member of their tribe.” Men and women may
seek a vision for a variety of reasons: to give
thanks, to ask for spiritual guidance, or simply to
pray in solitude. 3 One of Devils Tower National
Monument’s archeological sites, assessed by
archeologist Bruce Jones in 1991, is a post-1930’s
shelter made of stone and wood which could
have been used for vision quests.
A Lakota legend tells of a warrior undergoing
a vision quest at the base of Bear Lodge for two
days. Suddenly, he found himself on the summit.
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He was frightened since he did not know how to
get back down. After praying to the Great Spirit
for assistance he fell asleep. Upon awakening, he
found himself back down from the butte. 2
The Lakota traditionally held their sacred Sun
Dance at Devils Tower around the summer solstice.
The Belle Fourche River was known to the Lakota
as the Sun Dance River1. Bear Lodge is considered
a sacred place of renewal. The Sun Dance is a
group ceremony of fasting and sacrifice that leads
to the renewal of the individual and the group as a
whole. The Sun Dance takes away the pain of the
universe or damage to Nature. The participant suffers
so that Nature stops suffering. The Sun Dance
is “…the supreme rite of intensification for the
society as a whole…” and “…a declaration of individual
bravery and fortitude…” “Young men went
through the Sun Dance annually to demonstrate
their bravery as though they themselves had been
captured and tortured, finally struggling to obtain
their freedom.” 3 The tearing of the pierced flesh is
symbolic of obtaining freedom and renewal. NPS
records indicate that modern Sun Dance ceremonies
have been held at Devils Tower since 1983.
The Lakota also received the White Buffalo
Calf Pipe, the most sacred object of the Lakota
people, at Bear Lodge by White Buffalo Calf
Woman, a legendary spiritual being. The sacred
pipe’s sanctuary was located within a secret cave
on the north side of Bear Lodge. 1 In 1875,
General George A. Custer swore by the pipe that
he would not fight Indians again. “He who swears
by the pipe and breaks oaths, comes to destruction,
and his whole family dies, or sickness comes
upon them.” 3 Pipes often are held as sacred
objects used in vision quests, Sun Dances, sweatlodge
rites, and in making peace.
Eastern Shoshone
The Eastern (Plains) Shoshone claim to have a
sacred association with Devils Tower. Their religious
world, however, is kept very secret and, as
a result, cannot be documented at this time. 1
1. Hanson, J. R. and S. Chirinos. 1991. “Ethnographic
Overview and Assessment of Devils Tower National
Monument.” University of Texas, Arlington.
2. Gunderson, M. A. 1988. “Devils Tower - Stories in
Stone.” High Plains Press. Glendo, Wyoming.
3. Evans, M. J. et. al. “NAGPRA Consultation and the
National Park Service.” An Ethnographic Report on
Pipe Springs National Monument, Devils Tower
National Monument, Tuzigoot National Monument,
Montezuma National Monument, and the Western
Archeological and Conservation Center. March 4,
1993. Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology,
University of Arizona.
Devil’s Tower Geology
The Tower’s Geology
Devils Tower rises above the surrounding grassland
and Ponderosa pine forests like a rocky sentinel.
Northern Plains tribes worshipped at this
remarkable geologic formation long before white
men wandered into the West, and fur trappers,
explorers, and settlers alike were awed by the
Tower’s majesty. In 1906, President Theodore
Roosevelt established Devils Tower as our nation’s
first national monument. Many have gazed at the
Tower and wondered, “How did this amazing formation
get here? How did it form?”
The Stage is Set
Most of the landscape surrounding Devils
Tower is composed of sedimentary rocks. These
are rocks which are formed from broken or dis-
National Park Service Graphic
solved fragments of other rocks and are usually
deposited by water or wind. The oldest rocks visible
in Devils Tower National Monument were laid
down in a shallow sea during the Triassic time,
225 to 195 million years ago. This dark red sandstone
and maroon siltstone, interbedded with
shale, can be seen along the Belle Fourche River.
Oxidation of iron minerals causes the redness of
the rocks. This rock layer is known as the
Spearfish formation. Above the Spearfish formation
is a thin band of white gypsum, called the
Gypsum Spring formation. This layer of gypsum
was deposited during the Jurassic time, 195 to
136 million years ago. Seas retreated and
returned. Climates changed and changed again.
Gray-green shales (deposited in low-oxygen environments
such as marshes) were interbedded with
fine-grained sandstones, limestones, and sometimes
thin beds of red mudstone. This composition,
called the Stockade Beaver member, is part of
the Sundance formation. The Hulett Sandstone
member, also part of the Sundance formation, is
composed of yellow fine-grained sandstone.
Resistant to weathering, it forms the nearly vertical
cliffs which encircle the Tower itself. Seas again
retreated and advanced. Landforms were eroded;
new sediments were deposited. About 65 million
years ago, during the Tertiary time, pressures
within the earth climaxed, uplifting the Rocky
Mountains and the Black Hills. Molten magma
welled up toward the surface of the earth, intruding
into already-existing sedimentary rock layers.
The Tower is Formed—An Ongoing Debate
Geologists agree that Devils Tower was formed
by the intrusion (the forcible entry of molten rock
into or between other rock formations) of igneous
material. What they cannot agree upon is how,
exactly, that process took place!
Numerous theories have evolved since the official
discovery of Devils Tower. Geologists
Carpenter and Russell studied Devils Tower in the
late 1800s and came to the conclusion that the
Tower was indeed formed by an igneous intrusion.
Later geologists searched for further explanations.
In 1907, scientists Darton and O’Hara decided
that Devils Tower must be an eroded remnant
of a laccolith. A laccolith is a large mass of
igneous rock which is intruded through sedimentary
rock beds but does not actually reach the
surface, producing a rounded bulge in the sedi-
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