Sans Arc (Itázipčho, ee-TAH-zeep-choh): The Lakota Who Hunted Without Claiming the Kill On the plains a hunter’s arrows were normally marked so everyone could see who had brought down which animal. The meat then belonged to that hunter’s household to distribute as they chose. The Sans Arc tradition was to leave arrows unmarked. Itázipčho combines itázipa (“bow”) and čhóla (“without”). French traders rendered the name Sans Arc. By leaving arrows unmarked, a successful hunter publicly declined to claim the kill for himself. The meat went into the general camp supply, and the hunter gained prestige for the generosity. Oral tradition holds that White Buffalo Calf Woman (Ptesáŋwiŋ, pteh-SAHN-ween) brought the sacred Čhaŋnúŋpa (CHAN-noon-pah) pipe to the Lakota through this band because they already practiced that form of open giving. White Buffalo Calf Woman is the central sacred figure in Lakota oral tradition. She appeared to two young hunters as a beautiful woman. After one approached her with disrespect and was destroyed, she instructed the other to return to camp and prepare a lodge. There she presented the people with the sacred pipe and taught them the seven rites that still structure Lakota ceremonial life. When her teaching was complete she walked away, transforming into a white buffalo calf as she departed. In the Sans Arc telling, she chose their band as the first keepers of the pipe because of the generosity already visible in the way they hunted. Among the seven Lakota divisions the Sans Arc form part of the central group. They lived, camped, and married most closely with the Minneconjou (Mnikȟówožu, mnee-KOH-woh-zhoo, “those who plant by the water”) and the Two Kettles (Oóhenuŋpa, oh-oh-HEN-oon-pah, “two boilings”). These three bands moved together far more often than they did with the southern Oglala (oh-GLAH-lah) and Brulé (broo-LAY) or the northern Hunkpapa (HOONK-pah-pah). Their range covered the northern plains of present-day western South Dakota, eastern Montana, and northern Wyoming, following the buffalo herds between the Missouri River and the Black Hills. After the wars of the 1870s most of the surviving people from these three bands were settled together on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in central South Dakota. That remains the primary home of enrolled Sans Arc today. Their ceremonial life centered on the classic Lakota rites: Inípi (ee-NEE-pee, the sweat lodge), Hanblečeya (hahm-bleh-CHEH-yah, the vision quest), and Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačípi (wee-WAHN-yahng wah-CHEE-pee, the Sun Dance). The pipe stayed at the center. Generosity of this kind was both a social ideal and a practical way to keep large mobile camps intact. In 1880–81 the Sans Arc medicine man and artist Black Hawk filled a ledger book with drawings that still give one of the clearest views of those ceremonies and daily scenes. In June 1876 about fifty-five Sans Arc lodges stood at the Little Bighorn (Greasy Grass). Their principal leader, Spotted Eagle (Waŋblí Glešká, WAHN-blee gleh-SHKAH), fought with Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and the combined Lakota and Cheyenne forces. Many of the band later followed Sitting Bull into Canada before returning to surrender near Fort Keogh around 1880. The photograph shows Spotted Eagle, Sans Arc Buffalo Medicine Man, standing in full regalia on the open plains. He wears a buffalo-horn headdress with fur, a fur-trimmed shirt, and armbands, and he holds a large hoop that was almost certainly a medicine or ceremonial object. Other people gather in the background. The caption printed on the image reads “Spotted Eagle, Buffalo Medicine Man of the Sioux Tribe.” Photo: Historical photograph of Spotted Eagle, Sans Arc Lakota, circa 1870s–1880s, commonly held in public-domain collections such as the Denver Public Library Digital Collections.