Baez-Yahom Aff

1AC
Buffalo and Eagle Wing

(Blackfoot legend, http://www.native-languages.org/blackfootstory5.htm)

A long time ago there were no stones on the earth. The mountains, hills, and valleys were not rough, and it was easy to walk on the ground swiftly. There were no small trees at that time either. All the bushes and trees were tall and straight and were at equal distances. So a man could travel through a forest without having to make a path.

At that time, a large buffalo roamed over the land. From the water, he had obtained his spirit powerthe power to change anything into some other form. He would have that power as long as he only drank from a certain pool. 

In his wanderings, Buffalo often travelled across a high mountain. He liked this mountain so much that one day he asked it, "Would you like to be changed into something else?" 

"Yes," replied the mountain. "I would like to be changed into something nobody would want to climb over." 

"All right," said Buffalo. "I will change you into something hard that I will call 'stone.' You will be so hard that no one will want to break you and so smooth that no one will want to climb you." 

So Buffalo changed the mountain into a large stone. "And I give you the power to change yourself into anything else as long as you do not break yourself." 

Only buffaloes lived in this part of the land. No people lived here. On the other side of the mountain lived men who were cruel and killed animals. The buffaloes knew about them and stayed as far away from them as possible. But one day Buffalo thought he would like to see these men. He hoped to make friends with them and persuade them not to kill buffaloes. 

So he went over the mountain and travelled along a stream until he came to a lodge. There lived an old woman and her grandson. The little boy liked Buffalo, and Buffalo liked the little boy and his grandmother. He said to them, "I have the power to change you into any form you wish. What would you like most to be?" 

"I want always to be with my grandson. I want to be changed into anything that will make it possible for me to be with him, wherever he goes." 

"I will take you to the home of the buffaloes," said their guest. "I will ask them to teach the boy to become a swift runner. I will ask the water to change the grandmother into something, so that you two can always be together." 

So Buffalo, the grandmother, and the little boy went over the mountain to the land of the buffaloes. 

"We will teach you to run swiftly," they told the boy, "if you will promise to keep your people from hunting and killing buffaloes." 

"I promise," said the boy. 

The buffaloes taught him to run so fast that not one of them could keep up with him. The old grandmother could follow him wherever he went, for she had been changed into Wind. 

The boy stayed with the buffaloes until he became a man. Then they let him go back to his people, reminding him of his promise. Because he was such a swift runner, he became a leader of the hunters. They called him Eagle Wing. 

One day the chief called Eagle Wing to him and said to him, "My son, I want you to take the hunters to the buffalo country. We have never been able to kill buffaloes because they run so very fast. But you too can run fast. If you will kill some buffaloes and bring home the meat and the skins, I will adopt you as my son. And when I die, you will become chief of the tribe." 

Eagle Wing wanted so much to become chief that he pushed from his mind his promise to the buffaloes. He started out with the hunters, but he climbed the mountain so fast that they were soon left far behind. On the other side of the mountain, he saw a herd of buffaloes. They started to run in fright, but Eagle Wing followed them and killed most of them. 

Buffalo, the great one who got his power from the water, was away from home at the time of the hunt. On his way back he grew so thirsty that he drank from some water on the other side of the mountain not from his special pool. When he reached home and saw what the hunter had done, he became very angry. He tried to turn the men into grass, but he could not. Because he had drunk from another pool, he had lost his power to transform. 

Buffalo went to the big stone that had once been a mountain. 

"What can you do to punish the hunter for what he has done?" he asked Stone. 

"I will ask the trees to tangle themselves so that it will be difficult for men to travel through them," answered Stone. "I will break myself into many pieces and scatter myself all over the land. Then the swift runner and his followers cannot run over me without hurting their feet." 

"That will punish them," agreed Buffalo. 

So Stone broke itself into many pieces and scattered itself all over the land. Whenever the swift runner, Eagle Wing, and his followers tried to run over the mountain, stones cut their feet. Bushes scratched and bruised their bodies. 

That is how Eagle Wing was punished for not keeping his promise to Buffalo.

We should heed indigenous knowledge when attempting to increase the production of wind's power.
Fixico 96 (Donald L. Fixico. Defending Mother Earth: Native American Perspectives on Environmental Justice. 1996)
"A primary difference between...for generations to come."

Cloud and Wind
Maricopa
The Bearskin Quiver, 2002

The cloud and the wind were brothers. They were living at the west end of a village. The wind was the younger brother. The wind would say, "I want to whirl around a little." Then the older brother would let him go. But instead of a soft breeze, it blew so hard it knocked everything about. A second time he asked the older brother the same, but the older brother said, "No, I could not let you go. When you start you blow everything around and the villagers call us bad names. They call out our dead relatives' names, our dead father and dead grandmother. That is something I do not like." But the wind kept on begging to be allowed to go. So the older brother said, "All right, just go softly." Then the wind blew a little, but increased until it blew so hard everything was knocked about again. He got home in the evening. The cloud said, "I have not had anything to eat all day. I mourned all day because the people called out my dead relatives' names." But the younger brother said nothing. Next day he wanted to go again. The older brother would not let him go until noon. "You may go for a while, but do not blow hard." Suddenly the wind blew as hard as he could and knocked everything about. The villagers were very angry at this. The wind had not gone far, so the cloud called him back. He said, "Blow as hard as you can now. We have had people call us all kinds of names, mentioning our dead relatives." He told him to blow over a young girl who was coming through the village. So the wind blew harder than ever and blew all her clothing off. She was naked and was so angry that she called the wind bad names. They went up into the sky. There is a little round hole there, called mai'nyavutcu'lt. They went through this hole into another world exactly like this one. They made their home there. It rained and the wind blew there; everything was green, and they had plenty to eat. After they left the earth, there was no rain or wind here, so people were dying of hunger and the heat. At last when they found that all would die, they called a meeting to see if anyone knew where the brothers had gone. No one knew, so they asked the coyote to go all around the world to find them. . They gave him a downy feather from under the eagle's tail. They told him he must stop once in awhile and hold his feather up, to see if the wind would blow it. He did this as he went along, but found no sign of the wind. He started from the east, . went north and west all the way around by the south until he got back. As he was about to return, he thought, "If I tell them I failed, they would tell me to go again the next day. Now I am going to do this to make them believe I found them." He took the feather and blew it himself. Then he brought the feather home and gave it to the men gathered at the meeting house. He said, "I have been all around the world but could not find them, until I came to the place I started. Then I put the feather up again and this time I felt a little breeze." They knew he had tricked them, so they said nothing. Next day they sent the turkey vulture to go high in the air to find them. He went allover the sky but could not find them, until he came to the hole. Standing near that hole, he held the 34 ('fcud and Wind feather up, and felt the breeze. So he told them he was sure they were up in the other world. So he was told to go again and see where they were living. Next morning he went off to find them. He went through the hole. He went a little way and found where they were living: Just as he entered the door, the cloud, in the south side of the house, turned over toward the wall. The wind on the north side did the same. They did not say a word to him. He sat there all day right by the door. Next day he went again. He kept this up for three days. Then on the fourth day, when he went up there again, they got up and asked him what he wanted. He told them: the people were dying of heat and hunger. Then they said they would not come down to live any more, because of the bad names they had been called and the mention of their dead relatives. But the turkey vulture said he would see that people did not call them bad names. The cloud and wind said, "You go back and tell the people that they must repair their old houses. If they think a house is not strong enough, they should build a new one, and put enough dirt on top so it will not rain through. They should cut off all the brush on their land. On the fourth day, we will come down." When the turkey vulture came down he told the people. They did as they were told; they repaired their old houses and cleared out the brush. On the fourth day it rained and the wind blew hard. It stormed for four days and four nights. After that they went back to the world above. When the sun appears here, it is night in the land above the sky, and when it is night here, it is day there. They are living up there, so we do not have many hard storms. 

The exclusion of oral and indigenous knowledge about the world creates a hegemonic knowledge culture that makes the Indian disappear-knowing and experiential knowledge is key.
Tinker 4( George, Professor of American Indian cultures and religious traditions at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, member of the Osage nation, "the Stones Shall Cry Out: Consciousness, Rocks, and Indians:, Fall 2004, (CL))