There are many stories of Native American people from various tribes who have had visions and dreams that have came true. Many of theses visions were warnings or certain protocols to follow to keep them safe.
People today would call these people “Shamans” and “Mystics”, but the Indigenous People would take these as messages from the spirits or Great Spirit.
We thought we would share with you some of the visions and dreams that some of these Native Americans had that came true.
Here are the 8 times that Native Americans had visions that came true:
Contents
1. Crazy Horse – Visions
Curly (Crazy Horse) went out on a vision quest to seek guidance but without going through the traditional procedures first.
In his vision, a warrior on his horse rode out of a lake and the horse seemed to float and dance throughout the vision.
He wore simple clothing, no face paint, his hair down with just a feather in it, and a small brown stone behind his ear. Bullets and arrows flew around him as he charged forward, but neither he nor his horse were hit.
A thunderstorm came over the warrior, and his people grabbed hold of his arms trying to hold him back.
The warrior broke their hold and then lightning struck him, leaving a lightning symbol on his cheek, and white marks like hailstones appeared on his body.
The warrior told Curly that as long he dressed modestly, his tribesmen did not touch him, and he did not take any scalps or war trophies, then he would not be harmed in battle.
As the vision ended, he heard a red-tailed hawk shrieking off in the distance. Curly’s father later interpreted the vision and said that the warrior was going to be him.
The lightning bolt on his cheek and the hailstones on his body were to become his war paint.
Curly was to follow the warrior’s role to dress modestly and to do as the warrior’s prophecy said so he would be unharmed in battle.
For the most part, the vision was true and Crazy Horse was rarely harmed in battle, except for when he was struck by an arrow after taking two enemy scalps.
2. Chief Big Bear – Visions
Mistahimaskwa was a traditional spiritual person.
His Manitou spirit was the bear: in his youth he received a vision from the Bear Spirit – the Cree’s most powerful animal Manitou.
His name, song, and power bundle were a result of the visitation. His power bundle consisted of a skinned-out bear’s paw with its claws intact, which was sewn onto a scarlet flannel.
Mistahimaskwa believed that when he wore this power bundle around his
neck nothing could harm him because the Bear Spirit’s power rested against his soul.
First Nations Oral Tradition maintains that Mistahimaskwa wore this
bundle during times of danger. He wore the necklace and never got harmed in a battle because of this vision.
3. Chief Piapot – Dream
“My children, I had a dream last night. I saw a buffalo bull with iron horns goring, stamping and killing us. We were unable to destroy it. After long meditation, I have come to the conclusion that we must abandon this venture and return home, otherwise misfortune awaits us.”
The Council was stirred by Piapot’s vision. Many heeded the warnings and turned back for home
Soon after the Cree attacked the Blackfoot Confederacy only to find they were outnumbered and over 400 people died that day. The vision had come to pass and it would be the last time the Cree and Blackfoot battled.
4. Sitting Bull – Visions
During a Sun Dance ceremony in early June 1876, he made 50 sacrificial cuts into each arm and danced for hours before falling into a trance.
“When he awoke, he claimed to have witnessed soldiers tumbling into his camp like grasshoppers falling from the sky—a vision he interpreted to mean that the Sioux would soon win a great victory. “
Just a few weeks later on June 25, the prophecy was fulfilled when Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer’s Seventh Cavalry attacked the encampment in what became known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Soon after his return, Sitting Bull had another mystical vision, like the one that had foretold Custer’s defeat.
This time he saw a meadowlark alight on a hillock beside him, and heard it say, “Your own people, Lakotas, will kill you.”
Nearly five years later, this vision also proved true.
5. Pleny Coups – Visions and Dreams
Early in his life, Plenty Coups started having prophetic dreams and visions. Many seemed so far-fetched that no one believed them, but when they started coming true, his fellow tribe members began to revere him and listened to him carefully.[2]
After the death of his beloved older brother when he was nine years old, he had a vision in which one of the Little People of the Pryor Mountains told him to develop his senses and wits, and that if he used them well, he would become a chief.[4] As he later said:
I had a will and I would use it, make it work for me, as the Dwarf-chief had advised. I became very happy, lying there looking up into the sky. My heart began to sing like a bird, and I went back to the village, needing no man to tell me the meaning of my dream. I took a sweat-bath and rested in my father’s lodge. I knew myself now.”[5]
Later, when he was 11 years old, Plenty Coups (along with other young men of the Crow Nation) was challenged to have a vision which might guide his people’s future.
After fasting and spending several days in the Crazy Mountains, he had a vision in which he saw many buffalo coming out of a hole. They spread over the plains, then disappeared.
Surreal buffalo with weird tails, different colors (even spots), and odd bellows then came out of the hole and covered the plains.
He saw himself as an old man, living near a cold spring in the foothills of the Arrowhead Mountains. He also saw a forest; strong winds blew down the trees in the forest until only one tree was left standing. In it was the home of the chickadee.[7]
His vision was interpreted by tribal elders to mean that the white man would take over the Native American lands and their way of life, like the wind that blew down the trees in the forest—all except one, which represented the Crow people.
The Crow tribe would be spared if they could learn how to work with the white man.
His spirit guide then became the chickadee, and he would carry a pair of chickadee legs in a medicine bag he used for protection and spiritual power.
This vision would guide his actions (and that of the Crow People) for the remainder of his life.
6. Sweet Medicine (Cheyenne) – Visions
Sweet Medicine is the Cheyenne prophet who predicted the coming of the horse, cow, whiteman, etc. to the Cheyenne.
He was named for motsé’eonȯtse (sweetgrass), one of the sacred plant medicines used by many Plains peoples in ceremonies.
At a very young age and he took refuge at the sacred mountain, (L), Bear Butte.
That was where he was taught inside a cave and stayed there for a period of four years.
One prediction that he said there was going to be other tribal persons. That meant other tribes was going to approach a dark skinned person and a light skinned person.
First going back to what the other prediction was, there’s going to be people coming to face you as Cheyenne. That person is going to have a long hair on his chin and on his legs. He’s going to carry with him sickness of all kinds and he is coming to you in the future. What he was talking about was the White man. The White man is now with us. He’s put us through a lot of atrocities and deprivations.
One of the predictions that was told by the spirits was they told him that there’s going to be different types of animals coming. These animals are very different from some of the animals that you’re facing today.
With the White man there’s going to be an animal that has flashy eyes and a tail that touches the ground and one hoof on each foot. This animal’s going to be coming and be very restless. The hairy person, the White man, will also be restless.
Do not try to be like them, is what he told us Cheyenne. This hairy person will also bring a spotted animal with horns, with big eyes and a long tail that will also touch the ground. This animal will live on dirt and eat anything. If you take after it and eat it, you will also eat almost anything else.
While he was inside this cave he was given special instructions, teachings and gifts from the supernatural power of spirits. Those spirits are the ones that guided him and told him, “These are going to be the ways of life for the Cheyenne people”.
7. White Feather (Hopi) – Prophecy
“My people await Pahana, the lost White Brother, as do all our brothers in the land. He will not be like the white men we know now, who are cruel and greedy. We were told of their coming long ago. But still we await Pahana.
“He will bring with him the symbols, the missing piece of that sacred tablet now kept by the elders, given to him when he left, that shall identify him as our True White Brother.
“The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
“This is the First Sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana – men who took the land that was not theirs. And men who struck their enemies with thunder.
“This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of the spinning wheels of wood filled with voices. In my youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes – the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.
“This is the Third Sign: A strange beast, like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his own eyes — the coming of the white mens’ cattle.
“This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be criss-crossed by snakes of iron.
“This is the Fifth Sign: The land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.
“This is the Sixth Sign: The land will be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.
“This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.
“This is the Eighth Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
“And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
The signs are interpreted thus:
- The First Sign is of guns, and the Second is of the pioneers’ covered wagons.
- The Third Sign is of longhorn cattle.
- The Fourth describes railroad tracks, and the Fifth is a clear image of electric power and telephone lines.
- The Sixth Sign describes concrete highways and their effect of producing mirages.
- The Seventh Sign predicts catastrophic oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez.
- The Eighth Sign suggests the hippy movement of the 1960s and 70s.
- The Ninth Sign was the US space station Skylab, which fell to Earth in 1979.
8. Manitou Stone Prophecy – Prophecy
A solid piece of Iron fell from the sky and landed in eastern Alberta. The Saulteaux tradition says that it was placed on a hill that overlooked Iron Creek by the Great Spirit. The Plains Cree called the rock “Papamihaw Asiniy” – Flying Rock.
The rock had a unique shape to it, some saw a face in the rock, while others saw a buffalo head. Overtime it became a great spiritual rock that many tribes left gifts and was a place where prayer and ceremony happened.
The 4.5 million year old 320 pound rock was taken by George McDougall because he felt it was a roadblock in his mission to convert the Indigenous people to Christianity. McDougall moved it to Victoria Methodist College in Ontario.
Medicine men prophesied that with the removal of the stone will bring war, plague, and famine would follow.
In 1869, warfare broke out between the Cree and Blackfoot and over 400 people died. The following year sickness swept through the land and claimed 3,500+ people. More people started to die off from starvation as the buffalo started to dissappear.
The prophecy had been fulfilled.
If you know of any more cool stories of Native American Visions…Please tell us in the comments below 🙂
