"Most Native Americans respected the wolf's prowess as a hunter, especially his ability to always secure game, his stamina, the way he moved smoothly and silently across the landscape. They were moved by his howling, which they sometimes regarded as talking with the spirit world. The wolf appears in many of their legends as a messenger in fact, a great long-distant traveler, a guide for anyone seeking the spirit world.
The wolf was also held in high regard because, though he was a fiercely loyal family animal, he was also one who took the role of provider for the larger community (for carrion eaters like the fox and raven). This was something the tribal Indians understood very well, for in difficult times a man had the dual responsibility of feeding his own family as well as others. With such a strong sense of interdependence among all creatures, and an acute awareness of the ways in which his own life resembled the wolf's, the Indian naturally turned to the wolf as a paradigm - a mirror reflection.
To fit into the universe, the Indian had to do two things simultaneously: Be strong as an individual, and submerge his personal feelings for the good of the tribe. In the eyes of many Native Americans, no other animal did this as well as the wolf.
The wolf fulfilled two roles for the Indian: He was a powerful and mysterious animal, and so perceived by most tribes; and he was a medicine animal, identified with a particular individual tribe or clan. That each perception contributed to and reinforced the other - as the individual grows stronger, the tribe grows stronger, and vise versa - is what made the wolf such a significant animal in the eyes of the hunting peoples.
The inclination of white men to regard individual and social motivations in themselves as separate led them to misunderstand the Indians. The Indian was so well integrated in his environment that his motivation was almost hidden; his life was as mysterious to white men as the wolf's."
Some of my favorite Native American sites:
Native American Sites: