From the Dakota prairies comes the legend of a wailing woman who haunts the area known as the Badlands. It is said that the Badlands Banshee will find those who dwell in her barren realm after shadowy.
Deep in the Mako Sica of the Lakota Tribe, better known as the Badlands, is a sandstone landscape of rugged terrain ranging from towering cliffs to deep canyons. Amidst all of this lies the legend of the Badlands Banshee.
The Dakota Badlands are often described as hell without fire, due to the barren terrain and the smoke rising from the ground. That's where the word comes from, because it sounded like “bad terrain to traverse“. Despite this, there are many people who have traveled through these lands and returned with a story of meeting a weeping woman.
Badlands Banshee
The most famed version of the legend tells of three cowboys who were traveling through the Badlands many years ago and stopped for the night by a campfire, the only lightweight in the barren landscape, while their herd grazed the grass.
This area was once the bottom of the sea, but today it is full of rattlesnakes and coyotes, and the prairie is home to buffalo grass. This also attracted settlers from Europe to farm, and cowboys led their herds through the grasslands.
While preparing for the night, the three cowboys noticed that something was wrong and that someone was watching them from a distance. Suddenly, they saw a woman through the darkness, almost limpid. She was described as handsome before she became terrifying and it was clear that she was not human, at least not alive. Without saying anything else, she let out a bloodcurdling scream, her jaw twisted unnaturally wide and her eyes darkened.
However, the nightmare of the night was far from over, they heard music played on a violin that resounded in the darkness, although no one was playing. The night passed in this way, and the woman disappeared, and the music grew louder and louder.
Eventually, the two cowboys fell asleep, exhausted by all this. The next morning, when they woke up to blue skies and the music having stopped, they discovered that one of them was missing and followed his massive boot tracks up a steep cliff before disappearing just compact of the edge.
The cowboys quickly left, as they did not want to become Banshee's next victims.
Behind the Prairie Legend
So who, or what, is the Badlands Banshee? There are two conflicting accounts of who she was in life, with some saying she was a native woman killed by a settler or vice versa. The first written account of this legend comes from Charles M. Skinner in 1896 in his collection titled Myths and legends of our landbut it suggests that it is a much older story.
People who claimed to have seen her approached her, not suspecting her supernatural presence. It is said that unless questioned, the Banshee of the Badlands simply silently watched the people pass through her domain. But when they spoke to her, she would unleash her terrifying scream. Her terrifying shrieks were different from the wolves and prairie dogs of the desert, piercing the silence of the Badlands, echoing deep into the night.
Stories say that the Badlands Banshee looks handsome from a distance, bathed in an eerie blue lightweight, but when she begins to scream, her eyes blacken into a shadowy void and her jaw opens unnaturally wide as she screams. Others, however, say that she looks damaged and gestures to people passing through the Badlands as if she needs lend a hand or wants to talk to them.
Haunting Watch Dog Butte
Her hauntings are reported to be particularly common around Dog Butte, also known as Watch Dog, and it was here that the woman behind the ghost was killed many years ago. It is one of the sandstone cliffs that define the Badlands landscape.
But how did the Badlands Banshee die? Was she pushed off a hill, as some versions of the legend suggest?
It is also said that the Banshee of the Badlands had a lover who died with her, which is the reason she screams, true to her name and legend.
According to legend, cattle refuse to graze near the hill because they have a sixth sense that they never come near her domain. Cowboys guarding herds are also said to avoid the area because it is believed to be haunted by the Badlands Banshee.
Skeleton Musical Companion
But what about the music that the tale of the three cowboys who encountered her tells? To further heighten the horror, it is said that the Badlands Banshee sometimes brings along a ghostly companion—a ghostly skeleton who revels in the eerie melodies of the music around the campfire.
According to the story, the skeleton companion is looking for music and if he hears it, he will sit down and listen to it. It is even said that the skeleton will play the violin if he sees it and will play it all night long.
They say that if you hear the music fade as day begins to lightweight up the sky, never follow the sound! Apparently, the skeleton will only lead you astray, into rocky traps from which you will never escape, as happened to one cowboy. Similar to what supposedly happened to the Badlands Banshee herself.
The Haunting of the Badlands Banshee
Today, Badland National Park, where the legend of the Badlands banshee originated, is managed by the National Parks Service and the Oglala Lakota Tribe, who inhabit the southern part of the park.
So what is the Badlands Banshee? Ghost or monster? Who was she in life? Is this from senior Native American folklore or a tale that Irish settlers brought back from Europe to explain the piercing shrieks of an unknown animal across the prairie?
Bibliography:
12 Haunted National Parks | Shaka Guide
Bad Lands Banshee – American Legends
Image Source: Pixabay.com
