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The brightly colored pieces of cloth that you find
hanging in some of the trees along the Tower Trail
and elsewhere in the Monument are referred to as
prayer cloths, prayer bundles, prayer ribbons, prayer
ties, and prayer flags. They are physical, symbolic
representations of prayers and are here by American
Indian people as part of their religious ceremonies.
Please do not touch, take, or disturb these prayer
cloths in any way. It is considered culturally
insensitive to photograph these items and we request
that you do not do so.
According to the Native American tribes of the Kiowa and Lakota Sioux, some girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears, who began to chase them. In an effort to escape the bears, the girls climbed atop a rock, fell to their knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. The bears, in an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep to climb. (Those are the marks which appear today on the sides of Devils Tower.) When the girls reached the sky, they were turned into the star constellation the Pleiades.