Even though one of his schemes had caused him to be banished into this world, Iktomi could not stop scheming. In order to lure more people onto this earth, he had to work with the Pte people who were here. But he was afraid of Wazi and Kanka, the parents of Anunk Ite. So, his best chance was to work with Anunk Ite. She, however, was suspicious of him because of all the suffering he had brought to her life. In this passage he assumes the guise of a young man in an effort to entice Anunk Ite to visit with him. If you look closely at Renelle White Buffalo’s bold abstract painting, you can find two spiders with very long legs. The literal translation of “Iktomi” is “spider.”

The first passage of the emergence narrative offers a glimpse into the thinking of Iktomi, the trickster, who will be the mastermind of a plan to bring the people from the underworld into this world. Renelle’s vivid painting is of a headdress, which is an insignia of leadership, of a person who goes first. Her painting is also a portal, or gateway, into this exhibit in two senses. Literally, it is the first piece in this exhibit. Metaphorically, it foreshadows a threshold Iktomi and Anunk Ite will cross when he “leads her on another pathway into unknown consequences.” Anunk Ite, who James Walker calls “double-woman,” but whose name literally means “Double Face,” wants nothing to do with Iktomi, but she is lonely and desperately wants the companionship of her people.

Renelle’s use of vibrant blue and red color may suggest the two most powerful spirits in Lakota cosmology. Blue is the color of Skan, the ultimate authority among the spirits, whereas red is the color of Wi, the sun, who is even higher in the sky than the top of Skan’s dome. When Ite sat next to Wi in his wife’s place of honor during a feast of the spirits, she set in motion the events that would lead to the odyssey of emergence that the Pte people would go through in becoming Lakotas. Just as Anunk Ite had to change and adapt to this new world, Renelle’s creative process also involves risk and experimentation and new challenges. She may start with one idea in mind, but as she says “I never force anything, so sometimes a painting eventually turns into something totally different or totally new.” This is also how it was when the Pte people emerged onto this earth.

Iktomi tricked the animals and laughed at the misery he caused them, but they were not shamed, so he longed to play his pranks on mankind. At that time the only persons of mankind on the world were the old man, the old woman, and the double-woman. Iktomi feared the old man because he was a wizard and the old woman because she was a witch, but the double-woman feared him because he had caused her much shame and misery. He appeared as a young man before the tipi of the double-woman, but she knew who he was, and went inside and drew the flap over the door.