CHAPTER EIGHT
"My son, do you need me to tell you that I and your mother would like to see you happy?"
"I am happy, Father," said Red Fox.
"But, no man is truly contented without a woman by his side," observed Weasel Plume. "And, your mother believes Little Elk Woman would be a good woman for you. She is a good-looking woman and a hard worker. You could not do better."
"I am certain she is all a man might like, but I am not interested, Father."
"Not interested in a woman?"
"I did not say I am not interested in women, Father. I like women well enough."
"It is the white girl, is it not?"
"Of course it is, Father. I have loved her for many years, and now she is grown up, I may at last make her mine."
His father hesitated a few moments before he replied, "You must do as you must. But, remember this: our family still mourns for my sister and her children, who are no longer with us because of the white man's desire to kill all life, there on the Marias."
"I, too, mourn the loss of my auntie and her children. But, Poka'aki and her family had no part in what happened. This you know."
"áa, what you say is true. But, this I would say to you, my son. The whites are different from us. They kill without regard of ensuring they attack the right village. And, it was a family quarrel that killed the husband of Cocothima. Do the whites now interfere in family matters?"
"What you say is true, Father. But, this is not only a problem for the whites, but for all men."
"All men?"
"Do not all tribes go to war for even less?
Even our own men have made war on a people of an enemy tribe who had nothing to do with a killing.
How are the whites so very different from us?
I believe they love and they hate as much as our own people.
If I were to bring a Crow woman home, would you object? "
"áa, I would speak up if you wished to make her your sits-beside-him-wife, though I would be silent on the matter to you if you disregarded my caution and brought her home as your woman."
"My father, listen to me. Poka'aki and her people did not commit this crime against us. The Long Knives, alone, are responsible. Are you not committing the same offense as the Long Knives? Attacking all whites and not those responsible, like Poka'aki and her family?"
Red Fox's father sat silently for several moments. But, at last, he said, "You speak wisely, but without experience in these matters, I think. Blood will win out. And, I believe she would disrupt the smooth running of our family."
"How so?" asked Red Fox. "People are people, regardless of being white or Pikuni.
Poka'aki is a brave woman; she is kind, and she will bring honor to our family and our people.
Besides, you are forgetting our family is already tied to hers.
My sister is married to the one we call Otahko'sstss, Yellow Fire, or as the Americans call him, George. He is Poka'aki's brother."
"This is different. Otahko'sstss is an honorable man and has been a Pikuni warrior and hunter. He has gone on raids with us. He is one of us. But, Poka'aki…she does not know how to do a woman's work. She does not seek to work as a woman. Instead, she hunts like a man; she rides a man's horse—"
"I gave her the horse she now rides."
"But, she is more like a man than she is a woman."
"Do you insult me, Father? Do you believe I am less a man because I love Poka'aki and wish to make her my woman?"
"I say to you now: she will be a burden to you.
Being white and unused to women's work, she could not and will not make you a proper sits-beside-him-woman.
Why, you would have to take several other women as wives to do little more than keep the white woman.
And then, what will you do when you find yourself burdened because of having to hunt for so many women? "
"She will make me a proper wife, Father. Tell this to my mother and my almost-mother, your second wife, because I fear my anger might seep into my words and I do not wish to say bad words to my mother and my almost-mother."
"But, my son, do you not see Poka'aki might bring the wrath of the white men down upon us?"
"No, Father, I do not. I think it would be the opposite.
You insult her, this woman I love, and I will speak of this to you no more.
" And so saying, Red Fox came up to his feet, and, pacing toward the lodge's entrance, he bent over to step out of the lodge, leaving behind the home of his mother and his father.
Niitá'p, he could stay not a moment longer in the lodge of his parents.
Unlike most unmarried Pikuni men, Red Fox at least owned his own lodge, it having been given to him by his mother and his sister.
He would go there now to ponder what he must do to make the woman he loved his own.
And, he also must decide where he might find a camp of people more friendly to himself and his new wife.
It might very well be the only way they could be together.
Indeed, he had much to consider.
****
Taking hold of the invitation József Fehér had given him this day, Red Fox read over the words slowly. Was the note from József Fehér or from another?
Although Red Fox had learned to decipher a few of the white man's scratches put to paper, he was by no means able to do so quickly.
It was an invitation to a party, but he could not decipher enough to know when the party was to take place.
He could, of course, take the paper to one of the white women married to his friends, but they were currently encamped at the homestead of Poka'aki's father, a half-day's ride from camp.
However, there were three other white women in the camp, though they were all his grandmother's age. Still, he knew they would help him. One of these women was Laylah, wife of the great medicine man Eagle Heart. He would go there at once.
Approaching their lodge, he scratched briefly on the entry flap and was bid to enter.
Ducking down under the flap and stepping over the circle which was the entrance into their lodge, he came to stand up within their large and unusual home—unusual because it exhibited both white and Pikuni relics.
Niitá'p, such a mixture of cultures was so clearly in evidence here, he was instantly set at ease, realizing these two people had created a home which was filled with both Indian and white possessions.
The elder, Eagle Heart, smiled at him and indicated a spot next to him where Red Fox should sit; it was a place of honor. Said Eagle Heart in Blackfeet, "Welcome, Red Fox, healer of our horses, dogs and many other animals. Will you smoke with me?"
"áa, I will smoke."
Eagle Heart nodded, and, picking up a coal from their lodge fire, he lit the pipe. Meanwhile, his wife, Layla, prepared some roasted ribs over the fire.
Eagle Heart was still a handsome man, though he was now sixty-plus winters in age.
His face held all the appearance of a wise man, every wrinkle upon his brow attesting to a life spent in the service of helping others of their band.
His wife, Laylah, who was his assistant whenever the medicine man was called upon to help another, was a beautiful woman, her golden hair showing only a few gray hairs in the two braids at the side of her face.
Long had she been known to the people as one of the most beautiful women of their tribe.
As soon as the pipe had been properly held up to the Creator and to the Above Ones, as well as the four corners of the world, Eagle Heart passed the pipe to Red Fox, then asked, "What brings you here today, young Red Fox?"
Waiting for a moment before replying, as was tradition, Red Fox at last said in Blackfeet, "I have with me a note handed to me by József Fehér, and although I have been taught to read these letters, I have had no call to practice the skill and I fear I cannot tell what these scratches on the paper mean.
I have come to see if your wife might be able to read this note to me. "
Eagle Heart nodded and gestured first toward Red Fox and then to his wife, Laylah. He said, both with signs and with words, "I believe she can read it. Do you agree, my woman?"
"Of course I will read it to this young man, Red Fox."
"Soká'pii, good. Go ahead and give her the note."
Red Fox obliged and handed the paper to Laylah.
This still-beautiful golden-haired woman took the note from him and read over the writing quickly. As she looked up, she smiled at Red Fox, and he was impressed at once not only by her beauty but by her kind countenance as she said, "It is an invitation to a ball."
"A ball?" Red Fox asked.
"Yes, a ball, which is an elegant and fancy white man's gala.
At this kind of celebration," said Laylah, "the people wear their very best clothing and there are many ways in which they dance together, but the footwork they do is quite different from the steps of our own Pikuni festivities.
Mostly the people dance about and sway in time to what is called the waltz. Do you know how to waltz?"
"I do not," Red Fox answered.
"Do not worry," she went on to assure him. "I have seen you dance, and I know you will be able to learn the steps and what is expected of you quickly. Perhaps Briella might teach it to you?"
"Perhaps," Red Fox answered. "But, when is this event to take place?"
"Let me look," said Laylah, glancing again at the note.
"Oh, it is to be this very night. You might consider dressing in the best clothing you possess, if it is your wish to attend this ball.
All the men and women there will be clothed in their very best and elaborate clothing," she said, passing the note back to Red Fox.
"It is to take place this night? So soon?"
"áa, this very night."
"Nitsíniiyi'taki, I am grateful. Thank you for reading this to me. Can you tell me who the note is from?"