The Tower and Black Hills area has been a gathering place and home to many people, with archeological discoveries showing that native people lived here 10,000 years ago. Over time, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone peoples all developed cultural and spiritual connections with the Tower, and they continue to hand down their beliefs from one generation to the next. In a Lakota account of the origin of the red rocks that circle the Black Hills and the Belle Fourche River Valley at the Tower, the buffalo believed they were the most powerful creature, and humans thought this unfair, so the buffalo, humans, and all the animals held a race. Because humans have only two legs, four birds were chosen to race for them. The race was long and hard, and the animals ran bleeding from their noses and mouths, staining the earth red. Their hooves struck the earth so hard that the racecourse sank and the land in the middle rose up to form the Black Hills. The magpie defeated the buffalo for the humans, which is why Indian people hunt and kill buffalo. An 1859-60 topographic map from the Raynold’s Expedition shows the Black Hills with Devils Tower labeled as Bear Lodge, and the race track is identified with the red rocks of the Spearfish Formation, which circles the perimeter of the Black Hills.