Mr. Newman,

Thanks for a great story…please keep writing.

One of my best friends is Kim Soo Goodtrack. Her great-grandparents were part of Sitting Bull’s people who stayed in Canada and eventually settled in Saskatchewan on the Little Mountain Reserve.

I met her through Vancouver’s Urban Ghost Band, the majority of whom were of Indigenous ancestry: Ojibway, Lakota, Cree and Algonquin. I got to play my old Gon Bops conga while their native drums kept this wonderful heartbeat…it was a sophisticated fusion band bringing out the best of Indigenous and western rock. Imagine if Redbone had decided to jam with Van Morrison. It felt as if I had come home.

One night, a Lakota Medicine Man came for a visit. The music carried all of us past the sweetgrass and sage to this other place. To say it was magic would be understatement.

Later that night I had what most would call a vision. I entered a Mandan style lodge. Inside were elders of both genders, all in marvel at the birth of a coyote pup. I smiled as it reminded me so much of the nativity plays and scenes I had witnessed as a child: how universal I remember thinking.

I felt however that I had intruded. They turned to face me as if they had ‘heard’ this thought.

They looked at me. But you have been here before, they said.

I nodded my thanks but left nonetheless. Outside the lodge on a birch tree was a mirror. I looked to marvel at my coyote face which transformed itself into a massive buffalo head, complete with shaggy mane and horns.

When I told Kim and others of this dream they said I had been given a Lakota name: Buffalo Coyote. I am not sure of the syntax but it roughly translated to tatanka iktomi or iktomi tatanka.

I cherish that name: thanks for reminding me to try and live up to that vision’s gift.

She’s quite the artist. Maybe you could use one of her skulls or designs on this great story, which I urge you to please, continue…you hooked me.

Her website: https://www.kimsoogoodtrack.com/