Olaf Baker (–1964)

Originally published in 1915 in the St. Nicholas Magazine for children, this story by expatriate Englishman Olaf Baker was reprinted in 1981 with illustrations by Stephen Gammell. The result is a beautifully illustrated picture-book, awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1982. Where the Buffaloes Begin is the tale of Little Wolf, a young Indian boy who sets out to find the lake described by Nawa - his people's wise old storyteller - as the origin place of the buffalo. Little does he know that his show more triumphant return with a herd of buffalo will save his people from attack...

Described as a legend of the "Plains Indians," I think this must be taken from the traditions of either the Blackfeet or Gros Ventre peoples, as the Assiniboine are mentioned as enemies. Clearly the Assiniboine themselves wouldn't have related legends in which they themselves featured as the villains, so this cannot be a tale told by all the Plains nations, although I believe that many of them do have legends which tell of the underground origin of the buffalo.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about either the folklore of the Blackfeet or Gros Ventre to judge the authenticity of this tale, but the deliberate vagueness of attribution makes me feel rather skeptical, especially given the well-documented history of European and Euro-American appropriation and misinterpretation of Native American cultures. The black and white illustrations by Stephen Gammell are lovely, but this is not one I would recommend for folklore study, unless its origin can be documented.

Addendum: Although I continue to think very poorly of the editor's choice here, to exclude any information as to specific cultural origin for this folktale, some new information, which I discovered reading the critical introduction to Where the Buffalos Begin in the anthology Adventures in the West: Stories for Young Readers, makes me think more kindly of the original author, Olaf Baker, and of his retelling. Apparently Baker spent some considerable time with the Blackfeet people, and it is from their tradition that this selection springs. I'm glad to see that my guess was partially correct, and to know the origin of the story, and have therefore increased my star rating from two to three. Hopefully future reprints of this picture-book will include more such information about the story's cultural origin and roots. show less

Where the Buffalos Begin is a book about an Indian boy named Little Wolf who saved the people in his tribe by stirring up the buffalos, and by accident had stopped an attack by another tribe on his people. The story is one of chance, but of great courage also.

I liked this book because it had a sense of excitement through every page. I thought that it was going to be a boy who helped his tribe find buffalo to kill and it was not anything like that. It was a legend, a folktale of a small show more curious boy who saved his people by more or less scaring the buffalo and making them run in a stampede killing the enemies of his tribe making him a hero.

This would be a good book when learning of some of the Indian culture and even about buffalo. It could raise the question of why the tribe had enemies and why was Little Wolf a here to his people. show less

I really enjoyed this book and I thought it was a great Native American myth. It begins with Nawa, an elder, telling a story about where the buffaloes begin. Little Wolf is the main character and he is a ten year old boy that is very brave and fearless. Once spring comes, Little Wolf leaves his camp and searches across the prairie to find the lake where the buffaloes begin. It takes him all day and along the way, he sees a shape in the distance that he dismisses as a herd of animals. At the show more time, he doesn’t realize it is a group of the enemy tribe heading towards his tribe, trying to attack them. He continues on and finds the lake. He waits all evening and falls asleep. He is woken by the sounds of the buffalo and sees that the legend is true. The buffalo rise up out of the lake in a huge herd and are standing there in on the water. Little Wolf gives a huge cry and waves his arms, trying to communicate with the buffalo. They see him and start galloping towards him. Little Wolf runs for his pony and they take off toward their camp. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen and wonders if the buffalo will trample them. He knows they can’t outrun them because his pony is tired from the trip out to the lake so they just keep going as fast as they can until they are surrounded by buffalo. They are running with the buffalo towards his tribe’s camp. That’s when they see the enemy. They are running away from the tribe’s camp. They heard the buffalo and are trying to escape and get to their ponies. They haven’t yet attacked the camp. The enemy is fleeing the scene and Little Wolf and his pony are galloping among the huge herd of buffalo toward his camp. The enemy is easily overtaken by the buffalo and they are trampled. Little Wolf has unknowingly saved his tribe by bringing the buffalo. show less

Where the Buffaloes Begin takes us on a journey alongside of Little Wolf, as he becomes victorious to his enemies. Illustrator, Stephen Gammell, completed phenomenal work! The illustrations were magnificent, and brought the story of Little Wolf to life. I particularly enjoyed how the author portrayed his audience to feel like Little Wolf himself. It was extraordinarily easy to get lost in Little Wolf’s adventure and relate to him throughout the picturebook. The introduction of Where the show more Buffaloes Begin provided background knowledge of the setting, teaching me more about Native American’s and their culture. After finishing this book, I truly learned more! This was a wonderful read, I would fully recommend this book as a teaching tool for Native American based units. This book was lengthy, so I would suggest reading it in segments to our younger audiences. show less