Chapter Twenty-Two

RENEGADES • CORN POE’S METAMORPHOSIS • OLD MAN STEALS FROM THE SUN

BEATRICE EVENTUALLY let Barney up and Corn Poe did his best to calm things, introducing his two friends to this newly formed band of renegades. The children walked back to their camp as Corn Poe told them of news from the outpost and how he came to be in the woods with Barney and the other Heart Butte students. Beatrice helped two of the smaller children onto Ulysses’s back and then led the horse by the reins. Barney walked at their side.

After the soldiers questioned Corn Poe in the Boss Ribs’ valley, he took another beating from his father and decided that enough was enough. He stole one of his father’s horses with the intention of joining Beatrice and Lionel in the mountains. That was over two weeks ago, and now the horse was dead.

Corn Poe ate what he could of the horse, but besides that, he’d had little in the way of food. He survived the journey to the edge of the woods by raiding the small gardens and chicken coops that he found along the way. He wandered in the Great wood for three days before he found this band from Heart Butte.

“There weren’t much news from the fort, exceptin’ that they started to send out search parties again and that the one that calls himself Jenkins claims he’s gonna kill you,” Corn Poe concluded, pointing at Beatrice.

Barney punctuated this grim announcement by staring at Beatrice. Beatrice seemed to be unaffected, but the whole exchange weighed heavily on Lionel’s mind.

Lionel walked along among this ragtag group, eventually wondering out loud, “How did the rest of you end up out here?”

“They wouldn’t let us from the Heart Butte School go to the Fourth of July horse races and Powwow. They think that we’re makin’ good progress at not bein’ heathen and didn’t want us to get wrongly influenced by the old folks, so we run away and come out here on our own accord.”

They continued walking until the thick canopy overhead began to thin. There, the wood opened into a clearing, and in the midst of it stood a small hovel covered in army blankets and animal skins. There was also the remnant of a large fire. A cold-water creek ran through the far side of the trees.

“We’re having our own Pow-wow,” Barney went on. “I know we’ll catch hell when we get back, but it’s worth it. I’m tired of them telling us what we can and can’t do.”

They entered the small camp, and a couple of children set about gathering more wood and starting the fire. Barney sat down on the ground and someone brought him a bucket of water from the creek. He drank from it and then offered it to Beatrice.

“What about you? I heard y’all ran away and stole the captain’s horse. where you been keeping yerselves?”

“Just travelin’ the woods,” Beatrice said. “Headin’ north.”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard. To Canada.”

“Yep, Canada.”

“Ya know the government put a bounty on yer heads? Five bucks a piece for your return, fifty for the horse.”

Beatrice looked up at Barney with an icy stare. “Is that right?”

“Yep, and they’re offerin’ up to ten whole cents for a gopher tail,” Corn Poe spat. “Tryin’ to rid the reservation of ’em for the farmers.”

Lionel looked over at Corn Poe, who stood over the fire. He couldn’t believe how different he looked. He thought that he must have grown a couple of inches to boot.

Corn Poe threw some more wood on the fire. “We’re gonna do a sweat, then dance. Last night I had a vision.”

“You ever had the vision?” Barney said, standing.

Beatrice shook her head.

“You should stay and join us,” Barney replied, placing a couple of smooth river stones directly into the hot coals. “We’ll heat these up and then bring ’em into the lodge. Pour on some water and they steam ’er right up.

“Saaám,” Barney concluded, more to Beatrice than anyone else.

Beatrice nodded as if she understood.

“We ain’t ate nothing in two days. Barely had any water. Right, Barney?” Corn Poe added. “Helps you get your vision.”

They sat by the fire, heating the rocks as the day crept across the woods into early evening. Lionel was hungry. He thought about the food that he and Beatrice had packed and was troubled that he would not be able to touch it until after the ceremony had taken place. Lionel considered that he and his sister had already done this ceremony “of not eating” the two days after they left the school, and he wasn’t all that excited about doing it again, especially when, this time around, they had more of a choice in the matter.

Barney stepped around the fire and toward Ulysses. Ulysses pawed at the earth and lowered his ears.

“Didn’t this horse win the pull last year?” Barney asked, trying to smooth Ulysses’s mane.

“Might have,” Beatrice answered suspiciously.

“Yeah, I can see why they put up the fifty. That there is a helluva horse you stole.” Barney left Ulysses and sat back down by the fire. “Did you ever hear about Napi the old Man?”

Lionel looked up, full of excitement. “Yeah, our grandpa told us about him.”

“He used to steal things too,” Barney said, poking a stick into the fire and looking at Beatrice.

Lionel noticed that Beatrice didn’t like the way that Barney emphasized the word “steal.”

“No, we never heard about that,” Lionel said.

“You ever hear that old Man and the Sun were friends?”

“The sun?” Lionel responded, now more confused than ever.

“You betcha, and they loved to hunt. See, the old Man liked venison, so he says, ‘I like venison. Let’s go hunt some deers.’ That’s all it took. So, the twose of ’em got their kit together for the hunt, with the Sun bringing out the most beautiful pair of leggings that Napi the old Man had ever seen. Porcupine quills were embroidered down the sides, along with feathers and pieces of strange shells the likes of which he’d never before laid eyes on.”

Lionel noticed that Corn Poe was reaching across a small kid sitting next to him, trying to touch the leggings that Lionel’s grandfather had made him. Beatrice saw too and promptly reached out and slapped Corn Poe’s hand.

“‘These here leggings carry big medicine,’ the Sun told the old Man. ‘when I’m wearing them, all I have to do is walk around a bush and it will light on fire. The fire drives all of the deers out of hiding so that we can hunt them.’

“With that, the two went out to hunt, and just as the Sun had said, the first bush they passed burst into flames. Two large white-tailed bucks ran from the brush, and the Sun and the old Man shot them. That night they went back to the Sun’s lodge, ate well, and with bellies full of venison, turned in….

“But the old Man could not sleep. He knew that the Sun was his friend, but he could not help but think about stealing the leggings from him.

“With them leggings, I’d never go hungry, the old Man thought. So, that night, after everyone was sound asleep, he stole them.”

With this, Barney looked from Beatrice to Ulysses. Beatrice looked from Barney to her knife. “Old Man ran as fast and as far as he could,” Barney continued. “But after a while he got tired, so he lay down, resting his head on the leggings, and fell asleep. The next morning the old Man woke and sat up with a start. He was back in the Sun’s lodge.

“‘Old Man,’ the Sun asked, ‘why are my leggings under your head?’

“The Old Man looked around. He couldn’t understand how he was back in the Sun’s lodge.

“‘Old Man, did you not hear me? why are my leggings under your head?’

“‘Oh,’ the old Man said, ‘I couldn’t find anything else for a pillow.’”

“A pillow?” Corn Poe blurted out. “Did they even have pillows back then?”

Barney answered by reaching over and popping Corn Poe on the back of the head. “That’s how I heard it. You mind if I finish?”

“No, go right ahead. Just wonderin’,” Corn Poe returned sheepishly.

“Well, the Sun believed him ’cuz they were friends, see? So, that night when they went to sleep, the Old Man stole them leggings again. This time, Old Man didn’t stop running until almost morning. He was so tired he put the leggings under his head and again fell asleep. when the Old Man woke, he was once again in the Sun’s Lodge. Old Man realized that the whole world is the Sun’s lodge and that the Sun was on to him.

“The Sun stood over the Old Man and said, ‘Pillow or not, seems that you like my leggings. If this is true, I will give them to you.’ The old Man said that it was true, thanked the Sun, and quickly went away.

“The Old Man continued his travels. He wandered across the land until he was out of food. Then he put on the leggings and set fire to the brush to hunt. once again, the fire drove the deers toward him, but the Old Man noticed that the fire was getting close, so he ran away. But the fire chased him. Old Man ran faster, but the fire gained on him, and the leggings caught on fire. old Man ran to the river. He jumped in, but when he hit the water, the burned leggings fell to pieces and floated down the river. Old Man couldn’t handle them leggings.”

“Boy, I’ll say,” Corn Poe emphasized.

“I think the Sun gave them leggings to the old Man to teach him a lesson.” Barney looked around dramatically. “You can’t escape the Sun. He sees everything.”

Barney sat silently for a moment and then motioned to one of the smaller children to bring the hot rocks into the sweat lodge. Barney drank what remained in the rusty bucket and tossed it toward another kid, who immediately picked it up and proceeded to the creek.

Lionel didn’t like the way that Barney pushed the other children around. It reminded him of the constant orders and directions back at the boarding school.

“Sstsiiysskaan nin,” Barney said, standing and stripping off his clothes down to his dirty long underwear. “I don’t think that they usually allow the women….”

But Beatrice did not let Barney finish. She stood, pushing past him toward the sweat lodge. She threw open the deer-hide flap, and looked inside.

“Kitái’kó’pohpa?” Barney pushed, calling into question Beatrice’s bravery.

Beatrice answered by stripping off her clothes, pausing only as she undid her belt to look at the sheath knife that Grandpa had given her. Lionel watched as she carefully wrapped the knife in her bundle of clothes and then disappeared into the low structure.

Barney did the same, and when he did, two smaller children pulled hot rocks from the fire and followed.

“Let’s go,” Corn Poe said, stripping off his clothes and following. Lionel took another look at Ulysses, then at the setting sun, and followed the others.