“The dancing place was prepared, and the next thing was to find the _chun wakon_ [the sacred tree] which would stand in the center of the circle. It must be a tall slender cottonwood and everything had to be done just right. When I was young I heard the old men say why this was so. A long while ago--beyond so many snows and grasses that the oldest man’s grandfather and his grandfather before him, and his and his could not remember--there was a beautiful girl who was big with child. The child was a boy and would grow up to be a great _wichasha wakon_. And while he was still inside his mother, at the time when cherry seeds harden and the sun is strongest, he had a great vision about the sun dance, and everything was shown to him just as it should be. So when he became a young man he remembered his vision and taught the people. He was the first _owankara_, the first to prepare a sun dance. This is what the old men told when I was young. “Four were chosen to go forth and find the _chun wakon_--two men and two women. Both men were great warriors and _wichasha yatapika_, and no bad thing could be said of them. They belonged to the Chante Tinza society [Strong Hearts]. The two women were mothers, neither young nor old, and they were always helping the sick and the needy, and no one among all the people could say anything but good of them. So these four went forth with axes to find the sacred cottonwood, and after them went young warriors wearing their war bonnets and painted as for war. Maybe the tree was a long way off; maybe it was near. But when it was found, standing tall and straight with a fork near the top, the young warriors charged upon it, crying, ‘_hoka-hey_,’ as in a battle, and couping the tree with their coup-sticks. When this was done, the two chosen men took their axes and struck the tree; and between strokes they told of brave deeds they had done. Then when the tree was cut more than halfway through, the two chosen women approached with their axes and chopped carefully, so that the tree did not fall all at once, but slowly; and as it fell it cried out as with great pain. When it was lying on the ground, four poles were placed under it and eight men lifted it so, placing the butt towards the quarter whence comes the sun, bringing light and wisdom and the peace that wisdom gives. Then the two women began chopping off all the branches, and only the two forks were left at the top. The young warriors now were riding fast back and forth between the sacred tree and the happy people, who were feasting; and to these they brought the news of the tree, telling all that the four chosen ones were doing. ‘They have found the _chun wakon_--they are chopping it--the tree has fallen--the women are cutting the limbs away,’ Every little thing the young warriors told the people, riding fast back and forth; and the people heard, crying, ‘_hi-yay_,’ and singing as for a victory.