American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings (Penguin Classics)

by Zitkala-S̈a

  Nestling into her bed of sweet-scented grass, she dozed away into another dream. Still the guardian star in the night sky beamed compassionately down upon the little tepee on the plain.

  A Warrior’s Daughter

  In the afternoon shadow of a large tepee, with red-painted smoke lapels, sat a warrior father with crossed shins. His head was so poised that his eye swept easily the vast level land to the eastern horizon line.

  He was the chieftain’s bravest warrior. He had won by heroic deeds the privilege of staking his wigwam within the great circle of tepees.

  He was also one of the most generous gift givers to the toothless old people. For this he was entitled to the red-painted smoke lapels on his cone-shaped dwelling. He was proud of his honors. He never wearied of rehearsing nightly his own brave deeds. Though by wigwam fires he prated much of his high rank and widespread fame, his great joy was a wee black-eyed daughter of eight sturdy winters. Thus as he sat upon the soft grass, with his wife at his side, bent over her bead work, he was singing a dance song, and beat lightly the rhythm with his slender hands.

  His shrewd eyes softened with pleasure as he watched the easy movements of the small body dancing on the green before him.

  Tusee is taking her first dancing lesson. Her tightly-braided hair curves over both brown ears like a pair of crooked little horns which glisten in the summer sun.

  With her snugly moccasined feet close together, and a wee hand at her belt to stay the long string of beads which hang from her bare neck, she bends her knees gently to the rhythm of her father’s voice.

  Now she ventures upon the earnest movement, slightly upward and sidewise, in a circle. At length the song drops into a closing cadence, and the little woman, clad in beaded deerskin, sits down beside the elder one. Like her mother, she sits upon her feet. In a brief moment the warrior repeats the last refrain. Again Tusee springs to her feet and dances to the swing of the few final measures.

  Just as the dance was finished, an elderly man, with short, thick hair loose about his square shoulders, rode into their presence from the rear, and leaped lightly from his pony’s back. Dropping the rawhide rein to the ground, he tossed himself lazily on the grass. “Hunhe, you have returned soon,” said the warrior, while extending a hand to his little daughter.

  Quickly the child ran to her father’s side and cuddled close to him, while he tenderly placed a strong arm about her. Both father and child, eyeing the figure on the grass, waited to hear the man’s report.

  “It is true,” began the man, with a stranger’s accent. “This is the night of the dance.”

  “Hunha!” muttered the warrior with some surprise.

  Propping himself upon his elbows, the man raised his face. His features were of the Southern type. From an enemy’s camp he was taken captive long years ago by Tusee’s father. But the unusual qualities of the slave had won the Sioux warrior’s heart, and for the last three winters the man had had his freedom. He was made real man again. His hair was allowed to grow. However, he himself had chosen to stay in the warrior’s family.

  “Hunha!” again ejaculated the warrior father. Then turning to his little daughter, he asked, “Tusee, do you hear that?”

  “Yes, father, and I am going to dance tonight!”

  With these words she bounded out of his arm and frolicked about in glee. Hereupon the proud mother’s voice rang out in a chiding laugh.

  “My child, in honor of your first dance your father must give a generous gift. His ponies are wild, and roam beyond the great hill. Pray, what has he fit to offer?” she questioned, the pair of puzzled eyes fixed upon her.

  “A pony from the herd, mother, a fleet-footed pony from the herd!” Tusee shouted with sudden inspiration.

  Pointing a small forefinger toward the man lying on the grass, she cried, “Uncle, you will go after the pony tomorrow!” And pleased with her solution of the problem, she skipped wildly about. Her childish faith in her elders was not conditioned by a knowledge of human limitations, but thought all things possible to grown-ups.

  “Hähob!” exclaimed the mother, with a rising inflection, implying by the expletive that her child’s buoyant spirit be not weighted with a denial.

  Quickly to the hard request the man replied, “How! I go if Tusee tells me so!”

  This delighted the little one, whose black eyes brimmed over with light. Standing in front of the strong man, she clapped her small, brown hands with joy.

  “That makes me glad! My heart is good! Go, uncle, and bring a handsome pony!” she cried. In an instant she would have frisked away, but an impulse held her tilting where she stood. In the man’s own tongue, for he had taught her many words and phrases, she exploded, “Thank you, good uncle, thank you!” then tore away from sheer excess of glee.

  The proud warrior father, smiling and narrowing his eyes, muttered approval, “Howo! Hechetu!”

  Like her mother, Tusee has finely pencilled eyebrows and slightly extended nostrils; but in her sturdiness of form she resembles her father.

  A loyal daughter, she sits within her tepee making beaded deerskins for her father, while he longs to stave off her every suitor as all unworthy of his old heart’s pride. But Tusee is not alone in her dwelling. Near the entranceway a young brave is half reclining on a mat. In silence he watches the petals of a wild rose growing on the soft buckskin. Quickly the young woman slips the beads on the silvery sinew thread, and works them into the pretty flower design. Finally, in a low, deep voice, the young man begins:

  “The sun is far past the zenith. It is now only a man’s height above the western edge of land. I hurried hither to tell you to morrow I join the war party.”

  He pauses for reply, but the maid’s head drops lower over her deerskin, and her lips are more firmly drawn together. He continues:

  “Last night in the moonlight I met your warrior father. He seemed to know I had just stepped forth from your tepee. I fear he did not like it, for though I greeted him, he was silent. I halted in his pathway. With what boldness I dared, while my heart was beating hard and fast, I asked him for his only daughter.

  “Drawing himself erect to his tallest height, and gathering his loose robe more closely about his proud figure, he flashed a pair of piercing eyes upon me.

  “ ‘Young man,’ said he, with a cold, slow voice that chilled me to the marrow of my bones, ‘hear me. Naught but an enemy’s scalp-lock, plucked fresh with your own hand, will buy Tusee for your wife.’ Then he turned on his heel and stalked away.”

  Tusee thrusts her work aside. With earnest eyes she scans her lover’s face.

  “My father’s heart is really kind. He would know if you are brave and true,” murmured the daughter, who wished no ill-will between her two loved ones.

  Then rising to go, the youth holds out a right hand. “Grasp my hand once firmly before I go, Hoye. Pray tell me, will you wait and watch for my return?”

  Tusee only nods assent, for mere words are vain.

  At early dawn the round camp-ground awakes into song. Men and women sing of bravery and of triumph. They inspire the swelling breasts of the painted warriors mounted on prancing ponies bedecked with the green branches of trees.

  Riding slowly around the great ring of cone-shaped tepees, here and there, a loud-singing warrior swears to avenge a former wrong, and thrusts a bare brown arm against the purple east, calling the Great Spirit to hear his vow. All having made the circuit, the singing war party gallops away southward.

  Astride their ponies laden with food and deerskins, brave elderly women follow after their warriors. Among the foremost rides a young woman in elaborately beaded buckskin dress. Proudly mounted, she curbs with the single rawhide loop a wild-eyed pony.

  It is Tusee on her father’s warhorse. Thus the war party of Indian men and their faithful women vanish beyond the southern skyline.

  A day’s journey brings them very near the enemy’s border-land. Nightfall finds a pair of twin tepees nestled in a deep ravine. Within one lounge the pa
inted warriors, smoking their pipes and telling weird stories by the firelight, while in the other watchful women crouch uneasily about their center fire.

  By the first gray light in the east the tepees are banished. They are gone. The warriors are in the enemy’s camp, breaking dreams with their tomahawks. The women are hid away in secret places in the long thicketed ravine.

  The day is far spent, the red sun is low over the west.

  At length straggling warriors return, one by one, to the deep hollow. In the twilight they number their men. Three are missing. Of these absent ones two are dead; but the third one, a young man, is a captive to the foe.

  “He-he!” lament the warriors, taking food in haste.

  In silence each woman, with long strides, hurries to and fro, tying large bundles on her pony’s back. Under cover of night the war party must hasten homeward. Motionless, with bowed head, sits a woman in her hiding-place. She grieves for her lover.

  In bitterness of spirit she hears the warriors’ murmuring words. With set teeth she plans to cheat the hated enemy of their captive. In the meanwhile low signals are given, and the war party, unaware of Tusee’s absence, steal quietly away. The soft thud of pony-hoofs grows fainter and fainter. The gradual hush of the empty ravine whirrs noisily in the ear of the young woman. Alert for any sound of footfalls nigh, she holds her breath to listen. Her right hand rests on a long knife in her belt. Ah, yes, she knows where her pony is hid, but not yet has she need of him. Satisfied that no danger is nigh, she prowls forth from her place of hiding. With a panther’s tread and pace she climbs the high ridge beyond the low ravine. From thence she spies the enemy’s camp-fires.

  Rooted to the barren bluff the slender woman’s figure stands on the pinnacle of night, outlined against a starry sky. The cool night breeze wafts to her burning ear snatches of song and drum. With desperate hate she bites her teeth.

  Tusee beckons the stars to witness. With impassioned voice and uplifted face she pleads:

  “Great Spirit, speed me to my lover’s rescue! Give me swift cunning for a weapon this night! All-powerful Spirit, grant me my warrior-father’s heart, strong to slay a foe and mighty to save a friend!”

  In the midst of the enemy’s camp-ground, underneath a temporary dance-house, are men and women in gala-day dress. It is late in the night, but the merry warriors bend and bow their nude, painted bodies before a bright center fire. To the lusty men’s voices and the rhythmic throbbing drum, they leap and rebound with feathered headgears waving.

  Women with red-painted cheeks and long, braided hair sit in a large half-circle against the willow railing. They, too, join in the singing, and rise to dance with their victorious warriors.

  Amid this circular dance arena stands a prisoner bound to a post, haggard with shame and sorrow. He hangs his disheveled head.

  He stares with unseeing eyes upon the bare earth at his feet. With jeers and smirking faces the dancers mock the Dakota captive. Rowdy braves and small boys hoot and yell in derision.

  Silent among the noisy mob, a tall woman, leaning both elbows on the round willow railing, peers into the lighted arena. The dancing center fire shines bright into her handsome face, intensifying the night in her dark eyes. It breaks into myriad points upon her beaded dress. Unmindful of the surging throng jostling her at either side, she glares in upon the hateful, scoffing men. Suddenly she turns her head. Tittering maids whisper near her ear:

  “There! There! See him now, sneering in the captive’s face. ’Tis he who sprang upon the young man and dragged him by his long hair to yonder post. See! He is handsome! How gracefully he dances!”

  The silent young woman looks toward the bound captive. She sees a warrior, scarce older than the captive, flourishing a tomahawk in the Dakota’s face. A burning rage darts forth from her eyes and brands him for a victim of revenge. Her heart mutters within her breast, “Come, I wish to meet you, vile foe, who captured my lover and tortures him now with a living death.”

  Here the singers hush their voices, and the dancers scatter to their various resting-places along the willow ring. The victor gives a reluctant last twirl of his tomahawk, then, like the others, he leaves the center ground. With head and shoulders swaying from side to side, he carries a high-pointing chin toward the willow railing. Sitting down upon the ground with crossed legs, he fans himself with an outspread turkey wing.

  Now and then he stops his haughty blinking to peep out of the corners of his eyes. He hears some one clearing her throat gently. It is unmistakably for his ear. The wing-fan swings irregularly to and fro. At length he turns a proud face over a bare shoulder and beholds a handsome woman smiling.

  “Ah, she would speak to a hero!” thumps his heart wildly.

  The singers raise their voices in unison. The music is irresistible. Again lunges the victor into the open arena. Again he leers into the captive’s face. At every interval between the songs he returns to his resting-place. Here the young woman awaits him. As he approaches she smiles boldly into his eyes. He is pleased with her face and her smile.

  Waving his wing-fan spasmodically in front of his face, he sits with his ears pricked up. He catches a low whisper. A hand taps him lightly on the shoulder. The handsome woman speaks to him in his own tongue. “Come out into the night. I wish to tell you who I am.”

  He must know what sweet words of praise the handsome woman has for him. With both hands he spreads the meshes of the loosely woven willows, and crawls out unnoticed into the dark.

  Before him stands the young woman. Beckoning him with a slender hand, she steps backward, away from the light and the restless throng of onlookers. He follows with impatient strides. She quickens her pace. He lengthens his strides. Then suddenly the woman turns from him and darts away with amazing speed. Clinching his fists and biting his lower lip, the young man runs after the fleeing woman. In his maddened pursuit he forgets the dance arena.

  Beside a cluster of low bushes the woman halts. The young man, panting for breath and plunging headlong forward, whispers loud, “Pray tell me, are you a woman or an evil spirit to lure me away?”

  Turning on heels firmly planted in the earth, the woman gives a wild spring forward, like a panther for its prey. In a husky voice she hissed between her teeth, “I am a Dakota woman!”

  From her unerring long knife the enemy falls heavily at her feet. The Great Spirit heard Tusee’s prayer on the hilltop. He gave her a warrior’s strong heart to lessen the foe by one.

  A bent old woman’s figure, with a bundle like a grandchild slung on her back, walks round and round the dance-house. The wearied onlookers are leaving in twos and threes. The tired dancers creep out of the willow railing, and some go out at the entrance way, till the singers, too, rise from the drum and are trudging drowsily homeward. Within the arena the center fire lies broken in red embers. The night no longer lingers about the willow railing, but, hovering into the dance-house, covers here and there a snoring man whom sleep has overpowered where he sat.

  The captive in his tight-binding rawhide ropes hangs in hopeless despair. Close about him the gloom of night is slowly crouching. Yet the last red, crackling embers cast a faint light upon his long black hair, and, shining through the thick mats, caress his wan face with undying hope.

  Still about the dance-house the old woman prowls. Now the embers are gray with ashes.

  The old bent woman appears at the entrance way. With a cautious, groping foot she enters. Whispering between her teeth a lullaby for her sleeping child in her blanket, she searches for something forgotten.

  Noisily snored the dreaming men in the darkest parts. As the lisping old woman draws nigh, the captive again opens his eyes.

  A forefinger she presses to her lip. The young man arouses himself from his stupor. His senses belie him. Before his wide-open eyes the old bent figure straightens into its youthful stature. Tusee herself is beside him. With a stroke upward and downward she severs the cruel cords with her sharp blade. Dropping her blanket from her shoulders, so that i
t hangs from her girdled waist like a skirt, she shakes the large bundle into a light shawl for her lover. Quickly she spreads it over his bare back.

  “Come!” she whispers, and turns to go; but the young man, numb and helpless, staggers nigh to falling.

  The sight of his weakness makes her strong. A mighty power thrills her body. Stooping beneath his outstretched arms grasping at the air for support, Tusee lifts him upon her broad shoulders. With half-running, triumphant steps she carries him away into the open night.

  A Dream of Her Grandfather

  Her grandfather was a Dakota “medicine man.” Among the Indians of his day he was widely known for his successful healing work. He was one of the leading men of the tribe and came to Washington, D.C., with one of the first delegations relative to affairs concerning the Indian people and the United States government.

  His was the first band of the Great Sioux Nation to make treaties with the government in the hope of bringing about an amicable arrangement between the red and white Americans. The journey to the nation’s capital was made almost entirely on pony-back, there being no railroads, and the Sioux delegation was beset with many hardships on the trail. His visit to Washington, in behalf of peace among men, proved to be his last earthly mission. From a sudden illness, he died and was buried here.

  When his small granddaughter grew up she learned the white man’s tongue, and followed in the footsteps of her grandfather to the very seat of government to carry on his humanitarian work. Though her days were filled with problems for welfare work among her people, she had a strange dream one night during her stay in Washington. The dream was this: Returning from an afternoon out, she found a large cedar chest had been delivered to her home in her absence. She sniffed the sweet perfume of the red wood, which reminded her of the breath of the forest,—and admired the box so neatly made, without trimmings. It looked so clean, strong and durable in its native gen uineness. With elation, she took the tag in her hand and read her name aloud. “Who sent me this cedar chest?” she asked, and was told it came from her grandfather.