Lakota Winds (Zebra Historical Romance) (47 page)

To thank the participants for their diversions and offerings, Mitchell
passed out items from his own supplies: coffee, sugar, salt, tobacco,
flour, and a few blankets he had brought with him.

Wind Dancer observed as the Whites met in a shady setting on
Sunday morning to sing, pray, and listen to their shaman's words as
the gray-haired man read from a large and worn black-covered book in
his hands. It jogged his memory to travel to seasons long past when
Omaste performed those same actions, and when Sunshine tried to
teach Cloud Chaser to do the same, though his half-white brother
rebelled against a custom which conflicted with the Indian beliefs taught
by their father and people. He could not help but wonder if Cloud
Chaser was still alive somewhere and if he could ever return to them.
If so, how would a man with mixed bloods be greeted and treated by
their people and by other tribes, especially if this attempt at peace
between the two so dissimilar cultures failed?

Monday morning, the cannon was fired to signal the opening of the
treaty talk. Many Indians were surprised and angered when the officer's
wife sat with the White leaders, as their women were never permitted
to sit in council, and some viewed it as a bad sign. Even so, neither
her husband, nor Mitchell, nor Fitzpatrick, nor the highest ranking
military officer present sent her away.

As the ceremonial Peace Pipe was being smoked, the Crow, Gros
Ventre, and Assiniboni arrived in a large and noisy party, swelling the
count of Indians to over ten thousand. Another White shaman rode
with them-Father DeSmet, a Catholic missionary and Culbertson of
the American Fur Company which had once owned Fort John and
Laramie.

Yet, it was the Apsaalooke which swarmed down on the previously
serene setting like buzzing insects as they whooped, shook feathered
lances overhead, and made their highly decorated horses prance or paw
the air. They, too, were clad in their finest array and had adorned
themselves with wooden or trade combs and dangles in their hair, extra
feathers on their bonnets, rings on their fingers, numerous layers of
neck beads, and glass trade beads in various colors sewn on their possessions. Many wore seashells or suspended thongs with beads in their
ears. Some had their hair chopped off at different lengths near their
faces; others displayed topknots secured by decorative thongs and oddly
placed feathers.

Wind Dancer sighed a deep breath of relief; for once, he was happy
to see Crow faces, and he recognized many of them from the camp
they had tricked and others from past conflicts.

At the first meeting, Mitchell said the multi-band Indians had to
select one man as a head chief to meet, speak, and sign for their tribal
bond at the second talk in two days.

Wind Dancer was amazed that friend and foe alike agreed to that
unfair demand; all but the Dakotas. Their Nation was one of the largest
and most powerful with three distinct branches growing from the Dakota
trunk, with thirteen smaller tribal branches thrusting outward, and with
many twiglike bands extending from those thirteen limbs. How could
one man, he and others asked, speak and vote for numerous bands when
many were diverse and secluded from others? How could a woodland or
plant-growing tribe speak for what was best and just for a Plains tribe;
or the other way around? How could a stranger represent them as head
chief, particularly in such an important matter? How could that man
know which points they would agree to and which they would reject? How could he know if they considered the goods offered as sufficient
recompense for the white man's unknown requests? Yet, Mitchell stuck
to his strange requirement.

As chiefs talked with their bands concerning the offensive matter,
Wind Dancer spoke privately with his father. "Cast your vote for Brave
Bear as the white leaders and many others desire, for he has no power
or influence over our people," he urged. "When the time comes and
the truce is strained and they say we break our word, we can tell them
your name is not signed upon their paper, so we have not broken our
word. If they say you helped choose Brave Bear, you can say you spoke
against their desire for a head chief but they would not continue the
treaty talk until you agreed, and you did so because you wanted peace
between us and all enemies."

"That is good, my son, and I will follow your wise words."

Soon the Brule Brave Bear was selected by a majority vote, a warrior
who did not think and feel he was best in all ways to be the head chief
of all Dakotas, to speak and sign a treaty which would affect all of them
in similar and in different ways. Yet, Mitchell was satisfied.

The second talk began on Wednesday morning, September tenth,
with the head chiefs in control of the Indians' fates, and with their
peoples crowded behind them to listen to the provisions of the treaty.

Ateyapi Broken Hand Fitzpatrick praised them for allowing his people
to live in or to cross their lands. He admitted they had come and done
so without permission, and apologized.

Wind Dancer decided that Thomas Fitzpatrick, a tall man with gray
hair, was trustworthy, brave, and strong in body and spirit. It seemed
to him as if Broken Hand sought what was fair for both sides, a matter
which existed only because his people had encroached on their lands.
Yet, since the Whites had come and would remain until or unless driven
out by force, Broken Hand wanted them to live in peace with each
other; he wanted the Indians to cease their hostilities which often
encompassed the Whites in the area of their dispute. He spoke of the
Indians' past and future losses and said they would receive reparations for them. He said food and other needs would be given out to all tribes
once every circle of the seasons.

Certain numbers, amounts, and words meant little to Wind Dancer:
"$50,000" worth of cattle, "staples," and other goods "annually" for
"fifty years." Yet, he was certain that was a lot of meat and goods and
would be passed out for a very long time. Long enough, he feared, for
many Indians to become too dependent upon the Whites, a conclusion
which seemed to be accurate when an interpreter put the offer in
revealing terms. He was concerned when the ateyapi spoke of Whites
teaching them and their children the wasicun ways and tongue, and
teaching them how to "farm" the land. They were not growers of seeds
and plants as some tribes and bands were, he mentally scoffed; they
were hunters, mainly of the buffalo! Yet, as Broken Hand pointed out,
how long could the buffalo feed them when herds were hunted by
Indians and Whites, and more and more each season? Forever, Wind
Dancer's mind scoffed again, if only slain by Indians for food, garments,
shelter, and other needs; as the Indian always left alive enough bulls for
breeding and enough cows for bearing offspring who would repeat that
sacred Circle-of-Life! It was the wasicun who hunted only for hides and
left meat to rot or feed scavengers, or persuaded greedy and foolish
braves to do so in exchange for whiskey and trade goods! Still, things
were shifting so drastically that perhaps there was no way to stop the
deadly changes.

When disputes arose over territorial boundaries, Father DeSmet, Jim
Bridget, ateyapi Broken Hand, and others parleyed together and came
up with suggestive lines of segregation for enemy tribes. The dispute
between Crow and Dakota over hunting grounds was given much
consideration and it was decided that each nation would have an area
where they would live and hunt, but when the buffalo roamed from
their territory, they could follow and hunt as long as they did not attack
others in that location.

Wind Dancer was especially interested in that part of the meeting
since he had been captured and tortured on Dakota lands by an encroaching Crow band. Now that an agreement had been reached,
any Crow who raided or killed in another's territory during the hunting
season would be punished both by the Bluecoats and other Indians.

Wind Dancer wished he could read the white man's markings on
the papers, as he suspected more was recorded there than was revealed;
just as he feared the head chiefs did not understand many words and
terms and their repercussions. How, he reasoned, could they live in
peace forever-Indian with White, and foe with foe-when neither
the Whites nor their enemies of many generations would keep their
promises? If his half-white brother had not been stolen from them long
ago, Cloud Chaser could expose the words, as Sunshine had taught him
to "read" them.

Wind Dancer recalled that painful period in his life when his mother
had been stolen from them. Winona had escaped captivity and returned
home after the passings of two circles of seasons with the enemy when
all believed her dead. That had been twenty winters past. It was during
that lonely time for his father that Chief Rising Bear had taken the
captive white woman to his sleeping mat to appease his torment, and
Omaste had born their half-Lakota son before he vanished at ten winters
old. Following his mother's return, she had given birth to War Eagle
and Hanmani, and Sunshine had died. It was as if both people with
white blood flowing in them had been sent away so his father would
not have to confront his moment of weakness anymore. It was strange,
he reasoned, how the Great Mystery worked His way at times.

Wind Dancer wondered why his lost brother had visited his mind
so many times recently. Were these thoughts, he wondered, connected
also with the Great Mystery? He could not forget what Nahemana had
told him only one moon ago: "The past is not wrapped in a blanket
or buffalo hide and does not rest on a death scaffold. It hides in clouds
and will be seen before many more seasons pass. This I saw in a dream
when last we slept."

"What does the dream mean, Grandfather?" he had asked.

Nahemana had shaken his head and said, "I have not been shown."

Despite many difficulties, the head chiefs finally signed the Treaty
of the Long Meadows on Wednesday, September seventeenth. A great
celebration ensued. Indians held more processions in their full regalia
and displayed many warrior skills. They sang, danced, drummed, and
feasted joyously. Soldiers fired the cannon several times, did many
multiple gun salutes, sang their songs, and gave demonstrations of their
skills with sabres, rifles, and horsemanship.

"Do we leave for camp now, Father?" War Eagle asked.

"No, my second son, we must await the gifts or the Peace-Makers
and other tribes will think we do not honor the agreement. The ateyapi
says the loaded wagons will arrive in three suns; then we will leave."

"That is a wise plan, Father," Wind Dancer praised him. "I am glad
you were not chosen as a head chief to make such difficult choices and
to be held responsible for the paper they signed. I would not want you
to travel far away to the white man's Big Council Lodge. Broken Hand
takes eleven of the signers with him when he carries the treaty paper
to the Great White Chief in the place called Washington."

"That is true, micinksi, "said Nahemana, "But when they return, we
must visit with them to learn of the wasicun's ways, numbers, and
powers."

Wind Dancer smiled. "You are also wise, Grandfather, and it will
be as you say: we will seek the wasicun's secrets to learn more about
them. We must be prepared for the sun when a great war comes between
us.

After the combined Red and White Shields party returned to their
winter camp, the gifts given to them by the Peace-Makers were passed
out amongst their people and a report was given on the council and
treaty.

Wind Dancer and Red Feather were joyously greeted by their loves.
As the two couples shared a cozy evening meal, they talked about many
things, including the mate Cetan had found during the men's absence
and the joining of Zitkala and Red Feather in two suns.

As they lay together on their sleeping mat, Wind Dancer murmured,
"We have much to give thanks for to the Great Spirit, micante. Our
people have truce, peace, food, shelter, and safety for now. Our
visionquest is over and our victory was large. We have been joined for
the passings of five full moons and have done much together. We have
been blessed with each other and with the child you carry which will
begin its Life-Circle on or near the moon we were joined in the last
rebirth season. My heart and mind are filled with love and eagerness
to see it born."