The Porcupine is depicted with very trusting and innocent characteristics to demonstrate that the exterior of a image can be deceptive. The buffalo is illustrated in a silhouette with the colors blue and red to represent the heavenly spirit connected with flesh and blood. The backgrounds include the color red for the blood of humanity, the blue for the presences of heaven and sunburst to represent the morning and evening of each day. The river is portrayed as a diagonal line. Porcupine quills, six grouped together and one that is set apart, stands for the quill that kills the buffalo in the end. Two feathers symbolizes the two worlds; traditional/modern, life/death and positive/negative decisions. Six rectangles corresponds to the semi-cardinal directions of the Arikara people. A lone tree stands for the tree of life and this is the tree the porcupine climbed to look for a place to cross the river. In the story the porcupine and the buffalo refer to each other as brother, friend and relative; this is presented to the story to help illustrate healthy boundaries and the collection of people we allow or don’t allow into our life. As the porcupine gets in the stomach of the buffalo he explores the buffalo’s vulnerable interior to find a weakness to this powerful animal. When he finds it and gets what he wants, with a shake of his tail, the porcupine kills the buffalo with a single quill to the buffalo’s heart. The moral is, “Be careful of the ones we let close to us, they can hurt us the most”.