A Peak-Headed Member of Reborn Triplets

by Mark J. Green (Pı̨́kík’ųga)
translated by Bill Hall (Hų̄ka)

William Hall, ca. 1895

Preamble: Story of three men who return to life as triplets after two have picked up a third on their return to earth. The third is reborn in the middle and has a peaked head or lack of space. He decides to go back to where he came from and dies.¹

(1) There was a man regarded to be impossible to kill in battle. The weapons of his foes had no effect on him. He was destined to be holy. He was destined to destroy many. He laid there, his son also was there, and a third man. All three of us came to some Indians at their home. We thought to join them, and become a part of them. There was a woman who cared for us and we lived with her. We were like triplets, all of us were regarded as being born there.

This was told to the Indians at their ceremonial lodge. In the middle of the lodge sat a man with white hair wearing a necklace. One of the two near me said, "You are not like him, a war bundle keeper. A woman is what you are. To look at, it's shameful." "As for me I am going to go home. How am I to get home?" Someone said, "You should not have said that. We are here to do things."

He went toward the boat. Before he got to it he fell dead. This left just the two of us.²

	A. Ross Diefendorf, M.D.
	A Woman with SCS (Peaked Head)

Commentary. "peaked head" — this condition is called "craniosynostosis." It's caused by the premature fusion of the skull's growth seams. This early fusion, called turribrachycephaly or oxycephaly, forces the skull to grow upward, causing the head to become cone or peak shaped. There are quite a number of disorders that produce this effect: Pfeiffer Syndrome, Apert Syndrome, Saethre-Chotzen Syndrome, and Carpenter Syndrome. The best fit seems to be the Saethre-Chotzen Syndrome. SCS is the most common craniosynostosis syndrome and affects 1 in every 25,000 to 50,000 people.³ SCS is caused by a mutation on the TWIST gene on chromosome 7p21.⁴

"all three of us came to some Indians at their home" — the narrator, who is one of the triplets, is describing their descent from heaven to be born, or rather reborn, in a village on earth. It was believed that those who were killed in action had the power to elect to return to life on earth. After a time in Earthmaker's paradise, they will have been granted an audience with Earthmaker himself. There he will have shown them the whole world as it lay stretched out before them from heaven's vantage point. The warriors given this privilege invariably choose to be reborn in their own village. This is the presupposition of this story.

"we were like triplets" — the caveat "like" is a complicating factor. The preamble tells us that they were triplets, but this designation implies that they strongly resembled one another; however, one of them had a peaked head. He is the one who was destined for greatness. We may infer that they were all together in the same womb and were born together, but one of them differed markedly in appearance.

"you" — this must refer not to the narrator, but to his peak-headed brother, inasmuch as the man says "to look at, it's shameful."

"to go home" — meaning back to where he came from, which in this case is Earthmaker's paradise.

"we are here to do things" — that is, they have a destiny, provided that they live out their lives. At a funeral, especially of a young man, the participants will ask the ghost to give them all the things that he was destined to have were his life not cut short. All the animals that he would have killed could be given to others to kill, but it is not at all clear that everything that he was destined to do could be redistributed in this way.

"us" — in the story "The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara," it is the Shawnee Prophet who is one of the triplets. It therefore seems likely that the person narrating this story, who is one of the triplets himself, is none other than the Prophet. The third triplet, we may infer, is Tecumseh. This is purely mythological, as the Prophet and his brother were not twins or a surviving pair from triplets.

Paul Kane
A Flat Headed Salishian Woman and Child

Comparative Material. Many of the Indian cultures along the Columbia River region deliberately flattened their heads to produce people who would be peak-headed. An example of a mother and child with peaked heads is seen in the painting at the left made by Paul Kane in 1846. This was widely practiced among the Salishian tribes, and among the Chinook.⁵

Links: Earthmaker.

Stories: about triplets: The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara.

Themes: multiple births: The Birth of the Twins, The Twin Sisters, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Man with Two Heads, The Children of the Sun, The Two Boys, The Lost Blanket, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, A Peak-Headed Member of Reborn Triplets, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Two Brothers; one of triplets is born with a peaked head, and after a lifetime of ridicule, decides to go home and dies: The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara.

Notes

¹ this preamble is found only in the translation of the audio tape recording 60.SCY 182501:54, at the Archives of Traditional Music.

² Archives of Traditional Music (ATM), Indiana University, translation by William Hall, recording by Milford G. Chandler of Mark J. Green - vocals, bef. 1920, Black River Falls, Jackson County, Wisconsin (duration on cylinder: 01:53). ATL no. 527.11 8742.25, tr. 2, Recording 60.SCY 182501:54. Collection number (collection identifier): 54-196-F, p. 63 of 87.

Corresponding Retelling in Hōcąk: Reading by Sheila Shigley, from the audio tape in the American Philosophical Society. Fraenkel, Gerd. Stacy, Stella. "A Peak-Headed Member of Reborn Triplets," Mss.Rec.29, recorded 13 July 1959, 1 .mp3; 00:00:16.7 - 00:02:22. Copy made by Gerd Fraenkel of an original tape held at the Archives of Languages of the World, Indiana University. This program comes from original tape 527.11. APS accession number 7259; APSdigrec_0964; Recording Number: 02; Program Number: 25.

³ Seattle Children's Hospital, Saethre-Chotzen Syndrome (electronic text, viewed: 28 June 2026).

⁴ Stacey L. Blanchford, The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders (Michigan: Gale Group, 2002) 1019–1021.

⁵ Trevor Engel, "A 'Most Remarkable Trait': 'Flathead' Skulls, Indigenous Pathologization, and Transinstitutionalization," Osiris, 39 (June 2024): 117-134.