The characteristics as fierce and skilful hunter attributed to the wolf (Canis lupus) have caused the admiration and symbolic valorisation of this animal by the Amerindian peoples, in particular in association with the functions of the warrior and the hunter. Various narratives of the peoples of the Plains told of war expeditions whose members met casually a wolf, which foretell them the victory over their enemies. The scouts of the Oglala Lakota wore wolf skins when they went patrolling in enemy territory and howled in imitation of wolves to signal that they had located an hostile group. Analogously, the Pawnee, in preparation for a war party, imitated the wolves dancing and howling at the end of each song (Comba 1999: 149).

The wolf appears in numerous mythical tales, where it plays the role of partner of the Creator or Transformer. In the Algonquian myths, the Wolf is the younger brother of the cultural hero, who is killed by the water monsters and is avenged by his brother. The Wolf then turns into the Master of the Land of the Dead and his vicissitude was the pattern for the journey of the dead to the spirit world.

		During the Massaum ritual, an ancient Cheyenne ceremony celebrating the relationships between humans and animals, two masked characters appeared, wearing wolf masks. They represented the spirit guardians of the animal world. These two figures represented also two stars: the White Wolf (Sirius) and the Red Wolf (Aldebaran), whose heliacal rising  (the appearance of the star in the Eastern sky just before the rising of the sun) determined the time span of approximately two months, between June and August, when the ritual had to be performed  (Schlesier 1987).
	The Red Wolf and the White Wolf representing the stars Aldebaran and Sirius in the Cheyenne Massaum ritual. Painting by Cheyenne artist Dick West for Schlesier's volume (1987).

	Wolf Mask collected among the Nootka by Captain James Cook in 1778 (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlino).		Nootka Wolf Mask collected by George Hunt for Anthropologist Franz Boas (Rancho Santa Fe, California).