Brave Beginnings (26 page)

Chogan paused near his family’s lodge and
embraced her. “Citlali thinks of no one’s feelings. I will not take
another wife.”

She relaxed and rested her head on his chest.
“I saw Sarita. She’s not the nicest person I’ve ever come
across.”

“I know. This is why I didn’t marry her.
That, and you were the only woman who consumed my thoughts.”

“I was?”

“You know I couldn’t be with another woman
after we met. It’ll always be you and no other.”

“It’s the same for me, Chogan. I’ve never
felt this way about another man.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Don’t let
Citlali or Sarita trouble you. They are a minor annoyance and
nothing more.”

Pulling away from him, she nodded. “Yes. I
just don’t like anyone who tries to come between us.”

“Next time, take a bow and arrow with you
when you leave the lodge. No one will mess with a warrior who
defeated Hothlepoya. Wear the warrior feather in your hair
too.”

She laughed. “I often fancied the two of us
chasing Ernest out of Bismarck with a bow and arrow.”

“You tell me this now? I could have arranged
for a showdown.”

“Things worked out. I liked Millicent, but I
think Woape might be a closer friend, given enough time. It’s nice
to spend time with Penelope too, and once Aunt Erin gets here,
everything will be complete.”

“You do not miss the white man’s world?”

“I miss people but not the world, as you put
it.”

“Larry came by to offer me my job back.”

She blinked in surprise. “He did?”

“Yes,” he softly replied. “Are you
disappointed I said no?”

She thought over his question for a moment as
she imagined her husband spending the rest of his life working
indoors. Then she recalled the passion in his eyes when he picked
up his bow and arrows to get ready to hunt. He’d drop everything
and go back to Bismarck if she requested it, but the years of not
hunting would most likely drain him of the enthusiasm she loved so
much about him. With a slight shake of her head, she said, “You’re
a hunter, Chogan. Your place is not at the Tribune, and my place is
with you.”

He reached out and took her hand. “You should
come with me and hunt more often.”

Her cheeks grew warm. “Oh, I cannot. I mean,
not hunt all the time.”

“Why not?”

“Because I am a woman.”

“True, but you are a warrior too. You need to
earn your hunting feather.”

She bit her lower lip. Even as her heart
raced with anticipation, she couldn’t stop from protesting. “None
of the other women hunt.”

“They don’t hunt in Bismarck either,” he
pointed out with a mischievous gleam in his eye. “But you still
wanted to get the turkey for Thanksgiving.”

“It was a challenge.”

“And now you are ready for other challenges,
don’t you think?”

Shyly smiling, she said, “It would be
fun.”

“You make a more beautiful hunting companion
than Achai.”

“I hope so.” Giggling, she kissed him lightly
on the lips. “I’d love to go hunting with you, Chogan.”

“Good. Then we will go together.”

“Will Achai be coming too?”

“Of course not. He would get in the way.” He
squeezed her hand and stepped toward his family’s lodge. “Come. I
have something to show you.”

“What is it?” she asked, her head still
spinning with the knowledge that she’d get to join him in hunting
more often. As nice as it was to help Woape with Penelope and learn
what women in the tribe did, she longed to return to the open
prairie and see what else she might be able to get with her bow and
arrow.

“I caught a coyote today,” he told her as
they approached the front entrance. He stopped and added, “You will
have your first Mandan shawl.”

“I will?”

“It’ll be good when the warmer weather comes.
You don’t have to worry about putting on your coat to go outside.
By next winter, we’ll have a buffalo robe for you to wear. Next
summer, when we go on a buffalo hunt, I want to bring you back the
best one in the herd. You can decorate it any way you want.”

Her gaze lowered to his robe which was
painted in blues, reds and browns in a variety of diamond patterns.
Beads were sewn into the designs, and she wondered how she wanted
her robe to look when the time came for her to replace her
coat.

He smiled and placed his hand on the small of
her back as she stepped into the lodge. “You can decorate the
coyote fur to your liking as well. My mother and aunts will be
happy to show you how to do that, unless Woape wants to do it.”

She nodded and took a deep breath as his
mother and grandmother approached them. His mother had already
started to skin the coyote. His grandmother looked up from the
coyote and said something to Chogan.

Chogan turned to Julia and said, “She said
you will look lovely in that shade of brown. She says it will
compliment your blond hair.”

Pleased by the compliment, Julia replied with
a tentative thank you in Mandan, wishing it wasn’t taking her so
long to learn their words. Chogan seemed to have an easy time
learning English.

“You’ll learn. Give it time,” Chogan assured
her.

“You’re right. I need to be patient with
myself.”

“I learned some English as a boy, so it was
easier for me as an adult.” He helped her take off her coat. “Warm
up by the fire, and we’ll work on taking care of the animals. I’ll
take your coat to our room.”

As he carried her coat to the room, she sat
next to his mother and waited for her instructions. His mother
smiled at her and patted her hand. Julia felt some of the tension
ease. In so many ways, she felt out of place, as Chogan must have
felt when he first married her, but Chogan’s family had welcomed
her with the same enthusiasm Aunt Erin had welcomed him and that
made the transition to her new life better. With a grateful smile
in return, Julia got ready to cook the meat.

***

Onawa and her aunt were sorting through the
beads Onawa would sew onto her wedding garment when Gary entered
the lodge. They looked over at him as he stumbled and some of the
branches fell to the ground. Groaning, he kicked them toward the
fire in the center of the lodge.

Woape, who’d just put Penelope down for a nap
and was sitting in front of the fire to warm up after being
outside, glanced up at him. “What’s wrong?”

He rolled his eyes and dumped the branches
still in his arms near the entrance of the lodge. “Nothing. I’m
fine.” As he turned around, he slipped but managed to steady
himself.

Woape burst out laughing. “You are lying.
Something bothered you.”

“Chogan must have talked to him again,”
Onawa’s aunt whispered in her ear.

Onawa bit her lip so she wouldn’t
chuckle.

“Why do you let Chogan scare you?” Woape
asked.

Gary gave a heavy sigh as he took off his
coat. “I don’t
let
him scare me.”

Onawa turned away before she laughed along
with Woape.

Her aunt handed her the bowl and whispered,
“We will do this later,” and scurried to her other two aunts who
were cleaning a blanket.

Unsure of what to do, Onawa took her bowl and
set it on the bed in her small room. She wouldn’t be here once she
married Citlali. She’d be in his family’s lodge. The prospect
didn’t upset her. In fact, she got along well with his two sisters.
And, even better, Woape wouldn’t be there. She wasn’t sure what
Citlali thought of Woape, but it was better if he didn’t have to be
in this lodge and be reminded that he was once supposed to marry
her.

When she emerged from her room, she saw that
Gary sat beside Woape and tossed the branches into the fire. Woape
snuggled closer to him and kissed him on the cheek. Then she
whispered something that made him utter a playful growl before he
kissed her soundly on the lips.

Onawa lowered her gaze and hastened to her
aunts. She was grateful her sister had a husband she loved who
loved her back, and she was glad, more than anything else, that
husband was not Citlali. She supposed she could have married him
even if he married Woape. Such things were not unheard of, though
the practice had declined from the white man’s influence and the
missionaries who came to tell them about their Christian faith.
They didn’t take more than one wife, and though some of her people
continued the practice, she didn’t wish for it. Thankfully, she had
no younger sisters Citlali might marry.

One of her aunts handed her a newly made
necklace, breaking her out of her thoughts. “Amata might like your
gift.”

Figuring there was nothing else for her to do
at the moment, Onawa nodded and took the necklace. As she went to
her room to retrieve her robe, she glanced at Gary and Woape who
had their heads bent together so they could talk without being
overheard. She couldn’t wait to share such moments with
Citlali.

Once she wrapped the warm fur robe around her
body, she headed out of the lodge. She made her way across the
center of the tribe, and as she did, she passed the wooden circular
structure that was a testament to the Lone Man who was believed to
have taken a part in the creation of the world. He was also
believed to have saved her people from a great flood by building a
wooden wall to protect them. Mere myths was what Woape called the
accounts of their past.

It was further assurance that Citlali
wouldn’t have been happy if he had married Woape. He held so
steadfastly to the traditions of their people. He was surely
relieved she married Gary instead. The familiar rationalization
served to settle the doubt that threatened to discourage her
enthusiasm for her upcoming marriage. If only the assurance would
last longer than a brief moment.

Sighing, she tightened her grip on the
necklace and finished the walk to Citlali’s lodge. Every time she
came here, her stomach tightened into fierce knots. She stopped in
front of the lodge and took a deep breath before she entered it and
called out a greeting. When she realized Citlali wasn’t with the
seven women who were in the lodge, she released her breath, unsure
of whether she was relieved or disappointed.

Amata who was three years younger than her
smiled and left her place at the fire so she could walk over to
her. “Onawa, did you come to see my brother?” she softly
teased.

Blushing, Onawa shook her head. “No. I came
to bring you this.” She opened her hand so her friend could see the
green and white beads.

“Oh! My favorite colors!” She eagerly took
the necklace and hugged her. “I can’t wait until you marry Citlali
so you can live here. It’ll be nice to do more things
together.”

“I’m looking forward to it too.”

“Do you want to stay and talk?” Amata
motioned to her mother, cousins and aunts.

“I can stay for awhile,” she said and took
off her robe so she could join them by the fire.

An hour passed before she decided she better
return to her lodge so she could help the women make the evening
meal.

Amata stood up with her and said, “Come. I
want to show you something.”

Intrigued by the way her friend looked
excitedly at her, Onawa nodded and hastened to join her as she went
to her small room. “What is it?” she asked as soon as they were
alone.

“I’m working on something for you, for your
wedding day.”

“You are?” Pleased, Onawa waited while her
friend removed the lid to the large basket by her bed. “Is it
something you’re painting?”

“Yes. Remember the deerskin cloth you gave
me?”

She laughed. “Of course, I do. It wasn’t that
long ago.”

Amata smiled and took a neatly folded piece
of the cloth from the basket. “It’s something special that I want
to make for you. You can hang it on your wall after you marry.”

Leaning forward, she waited as her friend
unfolded it. “How long have you been working on it?”

“Only for a week. It took me two months to
figure out what I wanted to paint. I wanted to take something
important to both you and Citlali and combine them.”

She revealed the painting she had started on
the smooth brown material. So far, she’d painted the two sacred
turtles and a bushel of bluish-green flint corn to one side. Onawa
thought it was fitting since Citlali’s clan was in charge of the
objects that had once been used on a yearly basis for the Okipe
Ceremony. The yellow flint and dent corn that Amata had begun to
paint represented Onawa’s clan.

Amata pointed to the area above the objects
already on the cloth. “I will put a sunrise here to represent the
beginning of your lives together, and below the turtles and corn, I
will put the sunset with stars beginning to show for the night when
you will be due to pass on to the next life. The stars will be your
descendants who will carry on the ways of our people. And then
around the border, I will have a circle so that there will never be
an end to the joy you will find with each other.”

“It’s lovely,” Onawa whispered as she traced
the images of the turtles and corn. “You do such beautiful work.
Thank you.”

“I’m glad you’ll be coming to this lodge. I
know we both have sisters by blood, but you are the sister of my
heart.”

Blinking back her tears, Onawa smiled. “You
are closer to me than Woape, so I feel the same.” She hugged her
friend and added, “I’m glad I’ll be here too.”

When Onawa pulled away from the embrace,
Amata looked at her and laughed. “This is a good occasion.” She
brushed the tears from Onawa’s cheeks. “You cry too easily.”

“I can’t help it.”

“I know. I can tell what you’re thinking just
by looking at you.” She turned back to the cloth and carefully
folded it. “You’re so unlike Citlali that way. With him, no one
knows what is going on.”

Onawa watched as her friend put the gift back
into her basket. Clearing her throat, she asked, “Does he love
Woape?”