Tiopa Ki Lakota (3 page)

This brought the attention of the other boys. They all considered what their fathers and brothers had told them of the hunt, comparing it to what Nupa had seen in his vision the night before. Eerily, the eldest boy was correct in all of his accounts.

"You should be a shaman," a boy said, his dark eyes wide. The others agreed with him.

Nupa shook his head in scorn. "No. I do not wish to be a shaman. It was just one dream. Nothing more."

"Maybe we should start our own society from your vision," Cinksi suggested.

Around her, the boys gave their heartfelt approval to the idea.

"We could create a ritual and a song," one added.

Another boy spoke up, fingering the feathers on his spear, "And a special dance."

As the pack bowed their heads together, ideas filling the air around them, a thunder could be heard in the distance. It took a few moments for any of them to notice, until Nupa suddenly sat upright and said, "Wait! Listen!"

The thunder grew louder and the reverberations in the ground under their behinds signaled something moving closer. Most of the pack stood and peered around, searching for the source.

It was still light out, the end of summer allowing for the long daylight yet. The warriors of the camp had noticed the approaching riders, as well, and were up and ready for whatever came their way.

In the distance, a group could be seen approaching on their ponies. As they came closer, their appearance became one of the Lakota band under the chief,
Zintkala T'e Zito

. They came from the south, but circled around the established camp until they reached the eastern entrance. There they rode into the cleared area, a group of seven warriors, none of them looking particularly happy.

As the party had entered through the proper entrance of the camp and the two bands were not at war, most of the warriors relaxed a bit. But their weapons were still kept close at hand. The pack of younger boys and Cinksi came pelting back into the clearing to watch the proceedings.

The obvious leader of the party glared down from his pony.

Their own chief,
Wagmiza Wagna

, approached with a welcoming smile on his face. "Please! Come to our feast this night! The great
wakan tanka

has blessed this camp with great bounty and we would enjoy it with the brave warriors of Zintkala T'e Zito!"

"
Hoh

!" the new arrival spat. "Your people have chased away the
tatanka

that we were preparing to hunt. We will not eat the meat offered from thieves!" His pony pranced around in response to the rider's agitation.

Wagmiza Wagna sobered at the insult, his face becoming stone. He cast warning looks at the younger warriors of his camp who bristled in response. "No man owns
tatanka
. The meat cannot have been stolen from you and yours. Had we known you were in the area, we would have offered to hunt with you."

"That is not acceptable! We will return to our people and seek a vision of war." And with that pronouncement, the leader whirled his pony around and raced out of the camp, his party of warriors following, whooping and hollering.

Cinksi watched the old chief sadly shake his head. A peek at her father and she could see a face comprised of worry and anger. "
Ate
?" she asked, reaching up to tug on the end of his shirt.

Wanbli Zi looked down at his daughter, the expression faded to one of love. "Yes, Cinksi?" He placed a large hand on her head, caressing the thick, dark hair.

"Are we going to go to war?"

His dark eyes looked up, into the distance where the riders had ridden off to. "I do not know, Cinksi. We shall see."

1768

It was the noise that woke her up. Bleary eyed, Cinksi sat up in her buffalo robes and rubbed her eyes. To her left was her father who was also rising, albeit with more energy. As he scooped up a spear and headed for the
tiopa

, the girl's mother was getting up, a dress being pulled over her head as she spoke rapidly to her three children.

"Wake up! Wake up! We are being attacked!"

Galvanized, Cinksi dived out of bed, still wearing her breechclout and grabbing for her own spear. Her heart beat a tattoo in her rib cage and fear was an icy trickle down her spine. As her older sisters both dressed, she dashed for the
tiopa
, ignoring the warnings of her mother.

Peeking past the leather covering, she saw the camp in a turmoil. Ponies were kicking up dirt in the central clearing, their riders howling and attacking her people as they ran about. Women and children were running away and the men were standing and fighting their attackers, who were painted in garish colors that could be clearly seen in the early dawn.

Cinksi saw her father standing before the tent in nothing but his breechclout, his long hair flying as he reached out with his spear and unseated an enemy. He clubbed the other man who sank into unconsciousness before tossing a look over his shoulder and seeing his youngest child.

"Cinksi! Protect your mother and sisters!" Wanbli Zi yelled. And then he turned back to parry another attack from someone else.

The girl could see several of the
ti ikceyas
were being brought down by the horsemen. Embers from the banked fires were scattering like fireflies under the ponies hooves.

Even as she watched, a face painted with streaks of blood red seemed to rear up in front of her, leering. Cinksi yelled in surprise and automatically thrust her spear at her attacker, scratching his face. As he cried out in pain, she scrambled backward into her mother's lodge.

Behind the man, Wanbli Zi turned and saw him. Within seconds, his spear was imbedded in flesh, turning red with blood.

Inside the
ti ikceya
, Cinksi's sisters were huddled at their mother's side. She prowled near the doorway, not sticking her head out of it again. It was frightening, the not knowing, but her father had given her a task and she would die doing it.

Above her there was a whipping sound and she looked up. The top of the lodge was ominously moving back and forth. As it toppled from the rope that had been thrown around the poles and pulled by a horse, she pounced on her family, shielding the youngest of her siblings with her own body.

There was a loud crash and a scream near her ear. A heavy weight thudded too close for comfort, grazing Cinksi's arm, and then buffalo hide was suddenly surrounding them. Followed by silence that was broken only by the attacking party's whoops as they raced away.

Cinksi gingerly raised her head, trying to see through the buffalo hide that was the
ti ikceya
. The younger sister was beneath her, crying, and she could hear her mother trying to get out from beneath the stifling weight.

The girl moved, trying to increase her range of motion. She was able to succeed and found she could move her spear. Just a little bit. With steady pressure, Cinksi edged the spear to a place against the hide, hoping to cut an opening since her knife was still at her sleeping area. All the while, she was murmuring encouragement to the sibling beneath her.

As she worked, she could hear her father's yell as he called for his family. Her mother responded, guiding him to where they were huddled. Other voices could be heard, the men gathering to help remove the large logs that were pinning Wanbli Zi's family beneath the hide.

And then they were free. And Cinksi was helping her younger sister from where she was cowering. She could see her mother fighting through, crying, blood on her arms though there was no wound.

Cinksi's eldest sister did not come out.

The wind was blowing gently, rustling Cinksi's hair which had been cut short in mourning. She stood next to her father as they regarded her elder sister's burial. Her mother and sister had already left, wailing in misery at their loss.

Wanbli Zi looked down at his youngest child and felt pride fill his heart. He was sure that, had Cinksi not thrown herself across her sister, there would be two children dead. "You are a very brave
wicincala

," he said. "You protected your sister from harm."

Cinksi's dark eyes were wet with tears and her lower lip was pouted out. "But, I could not save my
cuwekala

," she sniffed, grasping her father's hand. "Maybe if I had done something else...?"

The warrior crouched down in front of his daughter. "No warrior can save everyone who is in danger. Not even ones you love, Cinksi. And no warrior should question what is past. To do so will make you crazy with pain and grief. What is done, is done." He pulled her into an embrace. As she nuzzled his chest, her sobs becoming audible, he said, "I think that everyone in the camp is proud of what you have done, putting yourself into danger to save your sister. You have a true warrior spirit, my
cunksi

. For all of your seven winters, you are stronger and braver than most men."

Cinksi let her father's words wash over her as she mourned her elder sister's passing. To herself, she vowed,
I will always protect my people from harm. I will always strive to be stronger and braver than most men.
And then she thought,
I will be like my father.

1773

The sound of hooves approaching garnered Cinksi's attention. She looked up from her task, braiding leather and hair together with three small feathers, to see her friend. Nupa was considered a warrior now at fifteen winters, a man. He carried himself tall and proud in his saddle as his pony trotted closer.

"
Hau

, Cinksi!" he called as he neared.

The girl grinned and waved at him, tucking her project back into a pouch and jumping from a rock to her own pony. She noticed several other young men riding closer, relieving the older children of their duty to guard the herd of ponies as night grew closer.

They pulled up short next to each other.

"How was the day?" he asked with a smile.

"Bad. Nothing happened."

Nupa laughed, his voice still sounding strange to the girl's ears now that it had lowered. "Nothing happening is a
good
thing, Cinksi!" he insisted.

"Not if
you
were out here," she grumbled good-naturedly. Glancing at the other riders who were out of earshot, she asked in a low voice, "Do you know when we are to reach summer camp?"

"The elders say sometime in the next two days." Nupa scratched idly at one of the scars on his chest. "Are they going to allow you to do the Sun Dance?"

Cinksi hung her head. "
Hiya

. The elders say I am
wicincala

and only
hoksila

can do the Sun Dance."

Her friend's face frowned in sympathy. "I am sorry, Cinksi. You, of all of us, should be able to participate in the Sun Dance. You are the bravest warrior I know!"

The girl shrugged slightly, spirits raised a bit at her best friend's praise. "I will seek a vision when I reach my womanhood," she avowed.

"That would be good. And then, no elder can deny you." Nupa looked around at the change of guard. "Go home, Cinksi. Your mother is making a stew. I almost stopped at her lodge to eat before coming out here."

Cinksi chuckled. "I am surprised you still live with your own mother. You spend so much time with mine." She dodged under his expected swing and brought her arm around to touch him on the back as she kicked her pony forward. "You are slain!" And then she rode away. Fast.

It was a common belief among the tribe that Cinksi and Nupa would marry. They had been constant companions from the first, stirring up trouble wherever they set their minds and leading the pack of boys to all sorts of altercations. However, both of them had already decided that this would not be the case. He had no interest in marriage and knew that she would turn him down if he asked. Nupa wanted a woman like his mother, not to
live
with another warrior. And Cinksi couldn't even
conceive
of doing women's work, not even for her best friend.

The pair found the assumption amusing, however, and played it up upon occasion - becoming doe-eyed towards each other before suddenly bursting into an argument that would cause the both of them to tumble to the ground, wrestling. As time went on, Nupa was winning far less frequently and Cinksi's strength was growing. The elders would simply shake their heads and smoke their pipes while the younger members of the camp would bet on their favorites.

Cinksi arrived at her mother's
ti ikceya
and jumped off her pony. She stopped to scratch the reddish brown horse on the forehead before turning him back towards the herd. With a gentle slap on his withers, the pony trotted back the way he came, heading for the remainder of the herd and good grazing. The girl watched him go with great fondness.

He is getting older. Not as young and spry
, she mused as she turned towards the lodge.
I will need another soon.
She remembered the day her father had presented the horse to her - a reward for her bravery in saving her sister. It still saddened her that she hadn't saved her eldest sibling.
But her spirit is free now.

Cinksi moved to the firepit that was being utilized in front of the lodge and settled down.

Her father was seated to her left at the fire, the
tiopa
of the lodge at his back. Wanbli Zi glanced up at his youngest, flashing her a quick smile before returning to fletching an arrow.

Two women were across the flames from Cinksi. The younger one appeared to be no older than Nupa, a beautiful girl nearing full maturity. And sharing many characteristics with the youngest daughter of Wanbli Zi. The other woman was older and resembled them both, with hair turning gray like her man's. Both of them were bustling over the fire and a wondrous aroma was wafting towards the young girl, causing her stomach to rumble.