CHAPTER FIVE
The spirit-killer golden rock…
As Stands Strong trod out of their camp and into the blackness of the night, he scolded himself for aligning himself with this woman and her family.Áa, it was true: a man was duty-bound to help a woman in trouble, but he had gone so far as to extend his commitment to her by making her "one of his women."
He was now alarmed at himself for doing so. Assuming Czanna to be similar to his almost-mother in moralities, he had gladly welcomed her into the fold of his life. He could see now he had been mistaken to do so.
Ha'ayaa,it appeared she was the same as all other white people. They came here without permission; they brought with them whiskey, the wicked spirit water, which drove his people crazy; they carried sicknesses into Indian Country which the medicine men of the tribes had never before experienced; and these people stole from and murdered one another in their mad rush to find the golden rock.
And she has, this night, offered the spirit-killer rock to me. Is it her intention to drive me into acting in a manner as crazy as the white man?
Through his Lakota father, Stands Strong had been taught to respect the medicine ways even though he wasn't a true medicine man. Indeed, all his life he'd had familial ties to and experience with the traditional approaches to healing. And, although his Lakota family was now gone, those traditions of the medicine men had been carried on by his almost-family's ties.
Indeed, his almost-father, Strikes Fast, was a great medicine man, and Strikes Fast, along with his friends Eagle Heart and Gray Falcon, could cure most of the ailments presented to them. But, the crazy spirit within the white man's whiskey, as well as the madness brought on by the golden rock, eluded all three of them, their "cure" being to simply never indulge in them and their mind-altering ways, and to keep them far away from those who could not resist their temptation.
And yet, here was this white woman attempting to lure him into the white man's sickness by offering him the golden rock. And why? To lead her and her family to their cousin in the Backbone-of-the-World Mountains? It was a journey he would gladly do for her simply because she asked it of him.
But, perhaps he should not blame himself for trusting her, since his mistake was a natural oversight. After all, his almost-mother was white, as were his two aunties who had married into the Pikuni tribe. Not only was his mother, as well as these white aunties, beautiful in both spirit and body, they had showered him with motherly love over these many years of living with the Pikuni people. There was nothing, indeed, he would not do for these women; without hesitation, he would die for them.
Thinking back, within his memory was no incident of these women indulging in the madness of whiskey, although the white man stocked the dangerous brew within his forts. Truth be told, these beautiful women upheld the Pikuni ideal of what a woman should be, and they blended so well into the life of the Pikuni, he often forgot they were white.
His error was this: upon first meeting and speaking with the woman Czanna, he had extended to her the same allegiance he upheld for his mother and his aunties. He could see now this woman, Czanna, didn't deserve it.
Or did she? Was he certain she meant to lure him into losing all sense?
Ha'ayaa,in this he must be truthful, and the truth was he was not completely certain this was her intent. Yet, she had offered the evil spirit rock to him as "pay" for a thing he would do simply because he wished to know her better.
But, could his assumption about her faults be in error? Should he, perhaps, ensure he knew all the particulars before he became even more infuriated? Instead, rather than spit angry words at her, he had left.
He sighed. Because he had already vowed his aid to this woman, his sense of honor gave him no choice but to return to where she was and speak to her as calmly as he was able, perhaps discovering why—in her own mind—she had offered the evil rock to him.
Glancing up into the star-drenched sky overhead, he called upon what had once been his medicine helper, the white bear, asking her for her aid in calming his anger enough to keep his tongue and his mind straight.
But, truth be told, he would rather face a raging buffalo than talk to the white woman.
****
He did not find her where he had left her. Instead, he discovered Czanna had returned to her sleeping robes, there beside the wheel of the white man's wagon.
Perhaps this was good. In this way, their conversation would be private.
He trod right up to her and sat down in a position where he and she would be forced to face one another—the best pose in which to council together. As he sat down, he took note of the warmth and the softness of the buffalo robe upon which both he and she sat. Idly, he wondered where she had obtained the robe.
But, her head was down, her face in her hands, and she appeared to be so deeply steeped in her thoughts that she had not yet taken notice of him. He cleared his throat as a means of bringing her attention to him without startling her.
Immediately, she gazed up at him and gasped, perhaps because of the shock of seeing him. Maybe she, like many of the other white men Stands Strong had known, closed all her other senses when her eyes were shut. If this were so, she had probably not been aware of his silent approach.
Although the night was dark, it was not black enough to hide the paths of the many tears that were streaking downward over her lovely face, some of those tears so recent they were still wet. But, although his heart went out to her, he set his mind against the allure of her beauty. He had to do so; he had to be firm in his resolve against her until he learned more about her.
In a low voice, he uttered, "I have returned here with the hope of speaking to you with good words upon my tongue. Is this agreeable to you?"
She merely nodded.
"Soka'pii,good. If I ask it of you, will you tell me why you have an urgent need to make this journey into the Backbone-of-the-World Mountains?"
She nodded and said in a soft voice, "I will tell you what I can. But, first, may I please ask why you left? I don't understand. All I did was bid you to help us. Did I not offer you enough of the gold or silver coins as the price for your services? I could give you more if this be your upset."
Stands Strong calmed his urge to shoot back angry words in answer to her question, amazed and disconcerted at how she continued to tempt him into evildoing. At length, he said, "There is a madness the white man brings into my country, and the Indian, who must defend his family and his tribe, seeks to keep his distance from the white man's evildoing. This is why I left."
