Case file · Folklore / legend
Wind Cave and the Lakota emergence
Lakota tradition tells that the first people emerged onto the Earth from beneath the ground through the breathing hole now called Wind Cave, in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
1881 CE · 43.56, -103.48 · status: legend
The account
In the story, the trickster Iktomi lured people to the surface, and the buffalo followed them out. Settlers Jesse and Tom Bingham noted the cave in 1881 when wind rushing from the small opening blew off a hat. It became the first cave national park in the world in 1903.
The sceptical view
A sacred origin story; the 'breathing' is caused by changes in air pressure between the cave and the surface.