The way they tell it, Him that we call the Horned came down from heaven. Like a star he came down.
He came down to bring us Fire.
They say he looked down and saw that the People were cold and hungry, and in darkness, so he brought us the Fire of the gods. Like lightning he fell from heaven, or a star.
And that's where he landed: the Mountain that stands in the Mississippi.
Hay-nee-ah-chah, the Indians called it (that would be the Ho-Chunk): “soaking mountain,” and Pah-hah-dah, “moved mountain” (that's the Dakota). Trempealeau, the Frenchies named it, le montagne qui trempe à l'eau: the mountain that wades in the water.
Stands-in-the-Water, they call it, or the Black Mountain, because it's dark with oaks and maples.
(There's rattlesnakes out there, they say, to guard it.)
They call it the Sabbat Mount.
Nobody goes out there much, except for kids. Well, Indians too. There's mounds out there, if you know where to look for them, old mounds, some of them shaped like birds, or deer.
Well, and witches, of course.
Ever since he came down, that's been Witch Country down there, the Driftless. Witches all over. That's where they go for their jamborees, the witches, out to the Mountain that stands in the River.
You've seen the fires burning out there at night, and heard the drums. So have I.
That's where he brought down fire from heaven: to the Mountain that Stands in the Water.
There's rattlesnakes out there.
Laurie Hovell McMillin (2006) Buried Indians: Digging Up the Past in a Midwestern Town. University of Wisconsin Press