Lone Man, in Mandan Numak-maxana and recorded by Catlin as Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah, 'the first or only man', is the central figure of Mandan sacred tradition and the protector of the village. With First Creator he raises and divides the primal earth, taking the level prairie country north of the Missouri with its lakes, scattered streams, and water animals. He preserves the people through the flood — in Catlin's eyewitness account of the 1832 ceremony the first man alone survives in his Big Canoe and visits each lodge relating the deliverance — and he founds the Okipa, the four-day midsummer ceremony that re-enacts creation and secures the return of the buffalo. The Okipa centers on his struggle with Hoita, the Speckled Eagle, master of the animals, which culminates in their reconciliation and joint establishment of the rite.