Reading Notes: The Indian Who Wrestled with a Ghost

The story starts out with, "a young man went alone on a warpath." Right off the bat I am curious about the journey this boy is on. He hears voices in the middle of the woods. The first was from an owl screaming out hello. The second, he claims from a woman screaming wondering about her son. His behavior remains unchanged. Maybe he figures if he moves or responds to the voices he will end up upsetting them. He claims a woman approached him wearing elaborate, olden clothing decorate with beads. The woman grabs his legs and throws it to the ground three times before the man finally moves to address the woman. She runs back into the woods. For the rest of the night, he lay awake.
Another night the man finds himself alone in the woods. This time he hears a woman singing and he shouts to her only to get no response back. He brought with him 'wasna' which is explained as, "grease mixed with pounded buffalo meat, and wild cherry." The 'ghost' approaches him asking if he has some of the mixture. At first he lies and says he doesn't but eventually offers it to the woman. He then sits to have a smoke with what he then sees as just a skeleton with no flesh. The ghost then asks the man to wrestle and he agrees. The ghost approaches him and wrestles with the man as just a skeleton and gives the man a good fight. The man struggles to beat the ghost but just as the morning sun rises, the man finds that the ghost is gone and he won the wrestling match.

Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).

Man standing in front of a campfire

Source: Adventurejay