Iktomi can speak the languages of all living things. In order to get the meat and skins for Anunk Ite to prepare for her Pte relatives in the underworld, Iktomi made a deal with the wolves. The wolves would assist him in gathering meat and skins for Anunk Ite, and he would not annoy them any more.

Even though the narrative says the wolves felt no shame at looking foolish when Iktomi played pranks on them, nevertheless they must have welcomed the opportunity to strike a deal that would prohibit him from ever pestering them again. Another way to keep Iktomi away is to play music. In particular, the sounds of rattles, flutes and drums torment him.

A wolf’s portrait, perhaps the leader of the wolves Iktomi dealt with, dominates the painting by Roger Broer. A wolf looms large throughout the Lakota emergence narrative; not as a predator, but instead as a messenger and guide who travels between this world and the underworld. The wolf carries gifts from Anunk Ite to her relatives in the underworld; he guides scouts from the underworld to this world and back; and then he guides the first Pte families as they make their way through the cave to this world above.

In Roger’s painting, beneath the wolf portrait is a grid of eyes peering out from the canvas, perhaps representing some sort of ledger the leader of the wolves used to tally the animals Iktomi asked the wolves to provide to Anunk Ite. To the right side of the eyes are busts of a moose, a deer and a bear–the three animals specified by Iktomi in this passage. The moose and bear are in profile, whereas the deer is looking directly at us.

Hanging from Roger’s painting is a gourd-shaped, paper mache rattle, a subtle warning to Iktomi to keep his distance. “There’re two things Iktomi is afraid of,” according to Roger, “the whistle and the rattle. If you want to run him off, shake a rattle. He’s everywhere, playing his tricks. Not just in the past; he’s around us every day. He’s gonna be at the exhibition. Indians know that. Just you wait and see. So I thought it would be good to have a rattle in my painting.”

He called the wolves and told them that if they would help him he would bother them no more. They agreed to help him and since that time he has never bothered the wolves. Then he told the wolves to make a drive for game and to give to the double-woman as much meat as she wished. They drove and gathered many moose, deer, and bears, and killed them near the tipi of the double-woman.