Suddenly, Tanka heard a lone howl… He looked up, and high upon the cliff, above the city, he saw Maksu, the Wolf. Even though the People were but few and the Panther had many, they knew that they must somehow reclaim their home.

Panthers are actually not thought of this badly in most Native American legend. But we needed a symbol for evil, and the black coat, the sneakiness of a cat seemed to fit Indians generally didn’t fight wars for territory, so this part of the story deviates somewhat from Native American culture. Usually, wars were fought by counting coup, which were individual acts of bravery. But even this type of conflict could easily result in death or injury, and even mass retreats and advances.