Devils Tower, or Mato Tipi (Bear's Lodge) in Lakota, was so named by the US because of its unusual, forbidding appearance. Best known among non-Plains Indian people as the landing strip for an alien spaceship in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Mato Tipi rises out of the northwestern Black Hills to a height of 5,117 feet above sea level. The product of an ancient volcanic eruption and centuries of erosion, this dramatic 867 feet monolith became the US's first officially-recognised National Monument, in 1906. Its shorn-off summit and pronounced geometric columns, which encase the column from top to bottom and all the way around, has drawn the attention of Indians and non-Indians alike. Myths have gathered around the Grey Horn Butte, from the Lakota, the Kiowa, and the Cheyenne tribes, and it is one of the seven sacred sites of the Lakota.
A Lakota account of its origin goes as follows: A band of Lakota was camping in the Black Hills region. One day, two little girls wandered away from the camp and found themselves lost. They were followed and then chased by some bears. As they were running, a voice spoke to the girls, instructing them to climb on top of a small knoll. The girls huddled on top of the knoll and hid their faces from the bears that were climbing up after them. Suddenly the earth began to shudder and groan and the strange voice commanded the knoll to grow. It rose out of the ground and carried the girls high into the air. As the mound rose higher and higher, the bears growled in frustration and clawed at the side, but failed to reach the girls. The children were safe but knew not how to get down again. The strange voice appeared again, telling them to befriend the birds. Many birds appeared. In the meantime, molten rocks were pouring down the sides of the tower, burying the bears. The girls each climbed upon a bird's back and were carried back to the safety of their band's camp. The voice had been that of Lakota culture hero Fallen Star, who, by that time, had returned to his home in the skies.
© 2002 by Bornali HalderSite, Page and Article © Copyright 2002 by Bornali Halder