Plenty Proud

by Jeanie P Johnson

  She was trying to decide whether she should show herself or not, when she saw him turn, and realized he wore no clothing. She heard a woman giggling, and saw it was Little Bird. Her heart fell when she now discovered they were making love by the river shore. She felt shock. He must have taken her to become his wife after all. Her heart fell and her hopes came crashing down. She couldn’t possibly present herself to him, hoping he would take her back. Even if he could take another wife, she would not humiliate herself so. Besides, she knew she could never share Plenty Proud with Little Bird and remain happy.

  Mackenzie pushed the canoe back out into the river as quietly as possible, not wanting to attract the attention of either of them. Now she didn’t know what she was going to do. As the canoe got caught by the current, it pulled her farther downriver. It was then she heard someone calling her name. Yet it wasn’t her name. It was the name… Firelight. She turned to look and saw Eagle Eye running along the shore, and then he was leaping into the water and swimming out to her canoe. He was alive and safe, her heart thumbed overjoyed!

  “Firelight, you have come back! Only why are you heading away from village?” He was now hanging onto the side of the canoe, as it continued downriver.

  “Eagle Eye, whatever happened to you, I thought you were dead!”

  “It is long story. What of you? Why are you here and now leaving again?”

  “I had no place to go and decided to come back to see if Plenty Proud would have me after all. Only I saw him with Little Bird. I know he doesn’t want me now.”

  “He claims never to stop loving you, but thought you would not come back. He had no choice but to take Little Bird as his wife. A brave needs a wife.”

  “So much for claiming he would remain like a widower,” Mackenzie mumbled.

  “Little Bird said you told her yourself it was better if Plenty Proud took her as his wife. She felt it was your wish.”

  “It was my wish back then, only now…” she could not finish.

  “Now you are back,” Eagle Eye smiled. “Did you wish to join our tribe?”

  “I had thought about it but… I dreamed I would be with Plenty Proud. Now everything is all wrong!”

  “Where will you go?”

  “That is just the problem. I have no place to go and…” Tears started to streak down her cheeks.

  “You could become Plenty Proud’s second wife,” he suggested.

  “No, I would never agree to that,” she sniffled.

  “If you need a husband to protect you, I have not taken a wife yet,” he smiled broadly hoping against hope he did not lose Firelight for a second time.

  “Do you wish for me to be your wife?” she hiccupped, as her tears started to dry.

  “Had Plenty Proud not taken Little Bird as his wife I would not have dared to offer because you belonged to Plenty Proud. If you won’t become his second wife, and you wish to join the tribe, you will need a husband. I was supposed to watch over you for Plenty Proud, and I failed. Now I have a second chance to prove myself worthy of you.”

  “First, I must tell you something,” she murmured. “I was hoping Plenty Proud would take me as his wife because I believe I am carrying a child. It is either his or yours, I don’t know which.”

  Eagle Eye smiled. “It could just as well be mine,” he said. “Plenty Proud has a wife to give him children. I will believe the babe within you belongs to me.”

  “Only we can’t tell him. He will have to believe I conceived it after we became husband and wife. Otherwise… no telling what he will do if he discovered it.”

  “You are right,” Eagle eye agreed. “He would kill me if he knew I betrayed his trust, and if he believed the child is his, he would demand you become his second wife.”

  “Then I will agree to become your wife,” Mackenzie accepted.

  “Good. Come back to the village with me. Only I don’t know what Plenty Proud will do when he sees you, now that Little Bird is his wife.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I am pledging my love to you now.”

  Eagle eye beamed, as he swam beside the canoe and helped Mackenzie guide it back to shore.

  “I must tell you, though;” Eagle Eye muttered, “Plenty Proud has broken our friendship because I took you instead of waiting for him. Once you become my wife, he will shun you as well,” Eagle Eye told her.

  “Maybe it is for the best so we can both get over each other,” Mackenzie mumbled.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN’

  “We will leave the canoe and your belongings here until after I take you to Sapa Kagi, (Sah-pah Kahn-ghee) the chief of our tribe. I will ask his permission to take you as my wife and to adopt you into our tribe. First we adopt you and then we be tied. We can do it all in one day.”

  “Just like that? Isn’t there any kind of preparation for such things?”

  “We are always prepared to have a celebration or ceremony when called for,” he told her. “It is best we speak to the chief before Plenty Proud even sees you. Then he cannot put a stop to it. Once you are my wife, he will turn his back on you anyway.”

  “It is sad that I have to lose Plenty Proud as a friend,” Mackenzie mumbled. Only she knew if she had to see him each day and be pleasant to him, it would almost break her heart, especially if she saw him with Little Bird all the time.

  “Maybe he will reconsider,” Eagle eye said, hoping something would soften Plenty Proud’s heart. “After all, he has a wife now, and shouldn’t begrudge me for taking you as my wife.”

  “I brought gifts for him and his family. I even brought a gift for Little Bird,” Mackenzie told him.

  “After we are tied, you can give your gifts. The whole village will celebrate together. Hopefully, he and his family will join the celebration too.”

  “I hope so, but I am almost afraid to face him, now that he has taken Little Bird for his wife.”

  “He took her after I returned and told him what happened,” Eagle Eye informed her as he tied the canoe up to a tree on the bank. “It took time before I could tell him. I had to recover and Little Bird helped nurse me.”

  “What did you have to recover from? What happened to you that day you went hunting, anyway?”

  Eagle Eye began explaining to Mackenzie what had transpired that day, as they walked towards Black Crow’s tepee.

  “I was so worried about you. I waited for two days and when you didn’t return, I thought you may be dead. I didn’t know what to do. I am so glad you were able to escape. I am sorry for what my people did to you.” She turned impulsively and gave him a hug.

  As she hugged him, Mackenzie looked over his shoulder to see Plenty Proud staring at them. Within two strides, he was at their side.

  “What is this?” he questioned. “Why are you here, and in Eagle Eye’s arms?”

  Mackenzie pulled away, feeling at a loss for words.

  “She is my woman now,” Eagle Eye told him. “Since you have Little Bird, Firelight has agreed to become my wife. I go to Chief Black Crow to get permission and to ask that she be adopted into the tribe.”

  “I thought she wished to return home and did not want to be the wife of an Indian. Why has she come back?”

  “My home was taken away from us. My father and brother never showed up there. I had no place to be. I wanted to come back to you, Plenty Proud, only I discovered you had already taken Little Bird for your wife. I started to leave, but then Eagle Eye offered his protection and I have accepted.”

  “You were to be my woman! If Eagle Eye had waited until after my vision quest, I would have been with you when you discovered this. Then you could have become my wife!” he growled.

  “It is too late for that now. You made your choice. I wish you happiness with Little Bird, as you should wish me happiness with Eagle Eye."

  "Never! The Great Spirit wanted you to become my wife.”

  “Then you should have waited and asked Wakan-Tanka before taking Little Bird for your wife,” Eagle Eye spat back. “You cannot change it now.”


  “Firelight can become my second wife,” he insisted, grabbing her hand.

  Mackenzie pulled her hand away. “I will not share my husband with another woman. It goes the same for Eagle Eye. If he takes me as a wife, he can have no other wife besides me.” She looked into Eagle Eye’s eyes to emphasize her words, and saw him nod.

  “I could love no other but you,” Eagle Eye told her. “Apparently, Plenty Proud has more room in his heart to love another besides you,” he said, almost sarcastically.

  With that statement, Plenty Proud turned on his heel and stomped away. His heart had fallen to his feet. Eagle Eye was right. He had chosen too hastily to take Little Bird as his wife after Firelight had left, but his mother had kept encouraging him. He should have waited to make sure. He had vowed never to love another, and had broken that vow. The second part of his vision kept returning to him, though. Nowhere had he seen the face of Little Bird in his vision. He still did not know what it meant.

  Eagle Eye could see Mackenzie shaking. “Do not worry, Firelight,” he whispered, taking her into his arms again. “I will love you more than Plenty Proud ever could. When he first brought you to our village, I was envious. I wanted you the same way he wanted you. It was the reason I agreed to take you down the river, against Plenty Proud’s wishes. I wanted you to myself, even if I had to let you go in the end. It was selfish of me, and then I betrayed my friend. I am sorry that I have lost his friendship, but I am not sorry for loving you.”

  He placed his mouth over hers feeling her melt as their lips touched. He had no idea if she could love him as much as she had loved Plenty Proud, but he decided not to question it. After all, she was to become his wife and that little life inside of her may well belong to him, if not to Plenty Proud. It was a question that could never be answered, though.

  As their lips parted, Eagle Eye gave Mackenzie a reassuring smile, and then continued to guide her to the chief’s tepee. Permission was granted for Mackenzie to be adopted into the tribe. The ceremony would be performed later that afternoon, and then that evening, the chief would tie Mackenzie and Eagle Eye together as one.

  When they left the chief’s tepee, the two returned to the river. “We shall take your belongings to my tepee,” Eagle eye suggested. He wrinkled up his face at the tin tub. “What is that?” he asked. “Is it some kind of white man’s canoe?”

  Mackenzie laughed. “It is a bathtub. When the river is too cold to bathe in, we can fill it with water and put it over a fire to heat up,” she explained.

  “We take sweat baths in the winter time but it would be nice to bathe in our own tepee when the snow is on the ground.”

  “Besides, it worked well as a little boat to carry my things in,” Mackenzie added. “I brought extra food my mother and I put up last year. You will love our berry jam. I will make biscuits in the reflector oven I brought with me, and we can eat some tonight, after we are tied.”

  Eagle Eye smiled. “Do you know how to make the white man’s bread?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Mackenzie nodded. “I brought a block of yeast with me too!”

  This woman was bringing new ideas to his people. He had heard about how the white women baked bread in their portable ovens they brought with them on their wagon trains. It was unlike any bread his people ever made. Someone from a neighboring tribe had told him how he had been with a group of Sioux who had gone to discuss their grievances with the leader of the wagon train for crossing their land. They had been invited to share the newly baked bread with the white people. He said it was the best thing he had ever eaten.

  Eagle Eye decided he was going to like having Firelight as his wife in more ways than one. He helped her carry her belongings to his tepee, eyeing the strange glass bottles that held the food. He had seen bottles like them at the trading post before and wondered how they had been made.

  “What are these?” he asked, picking up some books Mackenzie had tied together, which were some of her favorites, she decided to bring along.

  “They are books. They have words written in them. I will teach you how to read and write if you want,” she offered.

  “I have heard of treaties written in the white man’s words that our people cannot read. They mean little to us since the white man never keeps their word.”

  “Well it is not the words that mean little, but the way people respect the words that are written,” Mackenzie explained. “Both sides have to respect the words. If you learn to read, you will know what the words say, so you can decide if it is good.”

  “I am not important in our tribe. I am merely a brave. I do not sit with the council of chiefs and give instruction to our tribe. One must belong to one of the societies that govern the tribe, to do that. There are other societies that a brave can be invited to join if he becomes worthy of them, though. I have not become worthy to join a higher society. I am too young and have not earned enough coup.”

  “Well, I am sure you will become worthy of such an honor, eventually, and if you learn to read the white man’s words, you will become very valuable to your tribe.”

  Eagle Eye smiled. Already, Firelight was making him feel good about himself. Perhaps the Gods were on his side after all, even if he had to lose his good friend because of it.

  When the canoe and tub were empty, Eagle Eye brought the tub to his tepee. “We shall fill it with water, and put it over the fire to heat. When the celebration is over, we can bathe afterwards,” he suggested.

  “Yes, that is a good idea,” Mackenzie agreed. “I will bathe you, and then you can bathe me. The tub can only hold one person at a time,” she smiled.

  The two began bringing buckets of water from the river, not far from Eagle Eye’s tepee, to fill the tub.

  “It will soon be time to adopt you into the tribe. You will be brought to the river and the old person along with the ways of the old person will be washed off of you, so the new person, who will become Sioux, can emerge.” He explained. “The tub is filled, so we shall go join the tribe at the river to adopt you as one of our people.

  “The Chief is worried, because he knows the white man does not approve of us taking white children and women into our tribe or keeping them in our village. If the white man comes to accuse us, you must tell them you joined us willingly.”

  “Of course I will tell them. Only there is no one to worry about me or even look for me, except for Griz, and I would not let him near me. I believe my father and brother must be dead, so no one will be looking for me anyway.”

  Eagle Eye took Mackenzie’s hand and led her to the river where many of the tribe had gathered. She noticed Little Bird among the group, but she did not see Plenty Proud beside her. His parents stood a ways off, watching. She could not read their expressions, but she smiled at Little Bird as she passed. She couldn’t help but remember the way she felt when she had seen Plenty Proud making love to Little Bird by the river earlier that day, but she tried to ignore her jealousy. Now she was to become Eagle Eye’s wife, and everything else had to be put behind her from this moment on.

  Mackenzie’s dress was removed and a woman led her out in the water. Eagle Eye told her she was a wise woman of the tribe. The wise woman said some things in the Sioux language. Then she pushed Mackenzie under the water. When she was brought up out of the water, another woman was holding a blanket to dry her with.

  After she was dried, they placed a white doeskin dress over her head. The fringe had little bells sewn to it, which tinkled as she walked. Someone put strings of shells around her neck, and gave her moccasins with bells sewn to them as well. Then shells were hung in her pierced ears, and two young women began combing out her hair, and braiding ribbons into it. When they were finished, the women led her over to Eagle Eye, who also was dressed in a white-buckskin shirt and leggings.

  He handed her his bow and quiver of arrows along with his lance and shield. “You are to carry my weapons to show your gratitude that I will provide you with protection and food,” he told her. “It is a great honor to carr
y a brave’s weapons, which he has labored over to make so he can protect and proved for his family.”

  When she took them from him, he placed her up on his dappled war pony that was painted as though to go to war. A red handprint, indicated enemy killed in combat. There were little white dots which were believed to bring hail at just the right moment on a pursuing enemy. Several short lines stacked on top of each other indicated the amount of coup a warrior had counted. Hoof marks indicated a successful horse raid or number of horses that had been stolen. Both sides of his horse was painted with the same number of symbols, so people on either side of him, as he rode, could tell of his achievements.

  Now Mackenzie sat atop his horse, carrying his weapons, the bells tied to the mane of the horse jingled as it walked, led by Eagle Eye, to the place where they would be tied as husband and wife. Once they approached, Eagle Eye lifted her down from his horse.

  “I love you,” he said as he looked into her eyes. “I think I love you more than Plenty Proud ever could,” he added.

  Then he was bringing her to Black Crow, who officiated over the ceremony in his own language, as Eagle Eye translated.

  “Young people, you are brought here to honor one another by becoming one. A man must honor his wife and a woman must obey her husband. They both must protect their children. If either of you die, the members of the tribe must vow to continue to protect your children. It is the way of the Great Spirit that we do so. Now present to me your thumbs.”

  Both Eagle Eye and Mackenzie held out their thumbs and the chief took his knife, cutting a small slice enough for the blood to flow, in each of their thumbs, and put their thumbs together.

  “Now your blood will run as one blood,” he told them. “You will become one family sharing your burdens and your happiness together. Stay happy and keep your children happy. It is done.”