Fools Crow (Contemporary American Fiction) Read Free Page A

your party. Either way, because I offer my help, you must bring me two prime bull robes for my daughters during the helping-to-eat moon. It will go hard on you if you do not do this.’ ”

    The young men looked at each other with both fear and excitement. White Man’s Dog stood. “Fast Horse, there are many springs around Woman Don’t Walk. How will we know which is the right one?”

    “There is only one that is covered with ice. So said Cold Maker.” Fast Horse looked around the group with pride. “I will lead you to it. Even dog-lover here will drink from it and maybe steal himself a Crow woman. Next to the Liars they make the best lovers.”

    The young men laughed but Yellow Kidney did not. This dream was a complication he did not like. He had always been confident in his own medicine, and he was confident in his ability to lead these youths. Still, such a power dream could not be ignored. What if they could not find the ice spring? What if they could not move the rock?

    He heard a whistle and looked up. Eagle Ribs had returned and was motioning them forward. Yellow Kidney climbed up out of the cutbank. “Any sign?”

    “There was a party in the lodge not long ago. The ashes were high and I found this.” Eagle Ribs handed him a brass powder horn. It was filled with stinking-fire.

    Yellow Kidney replaced the cap. “Napikwan. I have never known the white men to use a war lodge.”

    “More likely one of the Snakes took it from a Napikwan. There were many moccasin tracks but no white-man shoes.”

    Yellow Kidney handed back the brass container. “You have taken the first spoils, Eagle Ribs. It goes good for you.”

    Eagle Ribs smiled, something he didn’t do very often. “There are also many wags-his-tails on the other side of Red Old Man. They are fat and do not look around.”

    “Good. You and I will kill one while the others fix up the war lodge.”

    The lodge was a frame of long poles tied together at the top. It was set in a stand of pines overlooking the eastern plains. The young men gathered brush and cut boughs, building from the bottom up until the poles were covered and only the dark mass separated it from the surrounding trees. By the time they got the fire started, Yellow Kidney and Eagle Ribs were back with a female wags-his-tail. They brought only the hindquarters and heart and liver. That night they feasted and told stories. One of the men had brought cold roasted turnips. Fast Horse said that White Man’s Dog should save his because the Crow women liked to sit on them. Maybe one would sit on White Man’s Dog’s turnip.
     
    On the fifth day out they came to the head of the Little Prickly Pear where it empties into the Big River. A short distance to the southwest lay the holdings of Malcolm Clark. Yellow Kidney had told how, before turning to ranching, Clark had been a trader among the Pikunis and had married Cutting-off-head Woman. The Indians called him Four Bears and the chiefs respected him, but he was also known for his ruthless ways and bad temper. Now he raised whitehorns and had a big say with the Napikwan chiefs.

    Yellow Kidney decided to ford the Big River downstream from Clark’s holdings, not because he was afraid of Clark but because he wanted to stay far north of the Napikwan town at Many-sharp-points-ground. There the big chiefs hated and feared the Pikunis and wished to exterminate them. They wanted the Pikuni lands. They wanted the blue-coated seizers to ride up and shoot all the Pikunis so that they could graze their whitehorns. The Pikuni chiefs had already signed away much of their territory. Yellow Kidney had been at the treaty place at the mouth of the Big River and had watched everything. He remembered how the people were happy because the Napikwans promised them many goods in exchange for their land. When the wagons came filled with crates, the people gathered around and the Indian agent began to hand out small things. Cut beads, iron kettles, knives, bells,