A tribe of Native Americans generally referred to their woman by the
animal hide with which they made their blanket. Thus, one woman
might be known as Squaw of Buffalo Hide, while another might be
known as Squaw of Deer Hide. This tribe had a particularly large
and strong woman, with a very unique (for North America anyway)
animal hide for her blanket. This woman was known as Squaw of
Hippopotamus hide, and she was as large and powerful as the animal
from which her blanket was made.
Year after year, this woman entered the tribal wrestling tournament,
and easily defeated all challengers; male or female. As the men
of the tribe admired her strength and power, this made many of the
other woman of the tribe extremely jealous, . One year, two of
the squaws petitioned the Chief to allow them to enter their sons
together as a wrestling tandem in order to wrestle Squaw of the
Hippopotamus hide as a team. In this way, they hoped to see that
she would no longer be champion wrestler of the tribe.
As the luck of the draw would have it, the two sons who were wrestling
as a tandem met the squaw in the final and championship round of
the wrestling contest. As the match began, it became clear that
the squaw had finally met an opponent that was her equal. The two
sons wrestled and struggled vigorously and were clearly on an
equal footing with the powerful squaw. Their match lasted for
hours without a clear victor. Finally the chief intervened and
declared that, in the interests of the health and safety of the
wrestlers, the match was to be terminated and that he would
declare a winner.
The chief retired to his teepee and contemplated the great struggle he
had witnessed, and found it extremely difficult to decide a
winner. While the two young men had clearly outmatched the squaw,
he found it difficult to force the squaw to relinquish her tribal
championship. After all, it had taken two young men to finally
provide her with a decent match. Finally, after much
deliberation, the chief came out from his teepee, and announced
his decision. He said...
"The Squaw of the Hippopotamus hide is equal to the sons of the squaws
of the other two hides"
Three squaws were each preparing for the birth of their first child. The
first squaw placed a large bear hide by a river, the second squaw placed
an elk hide by a tree by a river, and the third squaw placed a
hippopotamus hide by a path, near the river and the tree so that the
three formed a triangle....
