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| Shadows of The Past by � goeswith3faces The story took place in the time when the buffalo nearly disappeared from Mother Earth and the tracks of our four-legged brothers became rare. The first snow in this year was fallen and covered up the landscape with its white blanket. From our brothers and friends in the east we heard that the wasicuns had greedily appetite of our land. We heard that the wasicuns entered our land like ants and it should be nearly impossible to avoid the contact with them. Where yesterday stood a tree, stands today a wooden teepee and will stand tomorrow a town of the wasicun's wooden teepees. With every breath they became more and more - and we less. We were scared. We had been in our winter camp but our supplies were too sparse to stand the wintertime, so we were coerced to hunt. Since weeks, there was not even a track to find and the hunters returned without success and dejected. We heard that the wasicuns shoot our four-legged-brothers from an iron horse, without need, just for fun. We were very sad about this kind of disrespect. The elders were praying day by day, but there songs and prayers became silent without effects. Many tears were left and washed away belief and trust, but still left place enough for doubts and sadness. A twelve years old child called "Little Elk" was lying down with a heavy fever and his days were accompanied by darkness. Only some times his voice reached the daylight and when he speaks, he speaks about "shadows", but without any context and it seemed to be that the fever seized more and more possession of him. Running-Moon, Little Elk's mother, did not know what to do. Rivers of tears ran from her eyes and she did not left him for a second, not even to eat. The little supply that was left she gave her son, including her own ration, ignoring the fact that Little Elk was unable to eat. Friends and relatives came around and forced her to eat from their supplies. Sage and sweetgrass was burned and the air was filled with prayers for Little Elk's health. In this time of need, the people seemed to be unified by the worries about Little Elk. A group of hunters, leaded by One-Man-Standing, Little Elk's father, left the camp. They swear they won't come back without success. Running Moon wiped away her tears in the teepee before she dried Little Elk's forehead from the fever's sweat. The chilly wind let One-Man-Standing's eyes sparkling when they left the camp, but something else makes a tear running over his cheeks. Little Elks fever should take the next six days. At the third day, Little Elk's skinny body shivered under heavy cramps and the fever gets its highest point. His mother, relatives, her friends and the Wicasa Wakan, Ten-Bears, had to look at the little body's fight against what seemed to be inevitable. Little Elk's hands were pressed to fists as if he tried to keep his young life in his hand. In the night of the fourth day, Little Elk fell into a deep sleep. At first, they thought he left this world, but he was still alive. The next day the fever went down and at the night of the fifth day, he opened for a second his eyes and smiled at his Mum, before the fell again in the arms of the night. In the night of the sixth day, Little Elk was able to eat a bit, but he was to weak to speak and fell again in a deep sleep. In all that time his hand were pressed to fists and they were unable to open it. Running-Moon woke up at the seventh day because of the noises outside. The whole camp seemed to be awake and she heard people crying: "They are coming back, they are coming back!!!" Horses were neighing. People were running around the camp. She stood up. Little Elk was sleeping, his breath was normal, and the fever seemed to be away. Her sister Whirling-Water came into the teepee and told her that One-Man-Standing returned with food and that they all met in the teepee of the Wicasa Wakan Ten-Bears. The glowing fire in Ten Bear's teepee throw its warm and cozy light into the room and on the tensely faces of the people who were gathered there. In front of the teepee, the people saw the horses of One-Man-Standing and the other hunters, packed with the meat and robes of three buffalos. The eyes of One-Man-Standing and Running-Moon met. A question answered with a smile full of love made a tear of easement running from One-Man-Standing's cheek. When the holy pipe made its round the people became silent and only from time to time you could hear some people whispering. The atmosphere nearly explodes by the all the questions those needed to be answered, when One-Man-Standing took the word. "We went northeast, after we left the camp in order to find some wapitis or buffalos in the forests near the mountains, but we didn't find in two days even a track of an animal, as if the winter buried all lives under his white blanket. Two-Crow proposed to search some Big-Horn-Sheep in the mountains; maybe we will find also a buffalo that lost his way. We agreed. On our way up, we passed a small snow bridge. A packing horse slipped out and was thrown into the deep. It wasn't a good sign to loose a horse. A blizzard coerced us to camp in the mountains, protected under a small overhang. We were dejected and our hope melted away like snow in the sun. Two-Crow had the first vigil. Two-Crow reported: "I tried to keep the fire burning, that was why I searched around our camp for stuff to burn. Perhaps the horses started to become nervous. I couldn't see anything and I thought that they maybe scented wolves or a bear that wake up from his winter sleep. So I tried to find out the reason for it and I climbed onto a small plateau not far away to get a better overview of the area. The blizzard was nearly away and only a chilly wind was left, when I reached the plateau, but there was nothing to see. In the moment when I started to climb down, the wind took a mysterious noise to my ears. It sounded like uncountable, colliding, small silver beakers, those I saw the fist time used by the soldiers at Fort Fedderman, but there was no soldier to see. The atmosphere was unearthly and I decided to go back to our camp and to wake up the others. Yellow-Shirt reported: "Two-Crow came and woke us up. He told us about the mysterious noise that made the horses nervous. We followed him to the small plateau when we heard about what Two Crow had spoken. It was really a mysterious sound and we followed it from the plateau to a small way between two walls of stone. The noise became louder and louder. The small way ended in a kind of stony open-air hall. In this hall seemed to be the reason of this strange noise, but there was nothing in it. Perhaps the noise became silent and the moon shined directly into the hall. Our bodies did not throw a shadow and fear caught us like an icy hand that slowly clamped our hearts. One-Man-Standing saw at first the little shadow on the wall. We looked around but there was nobody else in there - without us. One-Man-Standing reported: When the moonlight filled the hall, I got the feeling that a hand took me to turn around. I saw the shadow of a child on the wall. I turned around again but there was nobody else - only we. In this moment, the others saw the shadow too but none of them could find out where it came from, so we were calling the child, but nobody answered us. Perhaps the shadow moved and we followed him through two stony pillars those stood at the end of the hall. Behind the pillars, the shadow disappeared as fast as he appeared. We found a small tunnel behind those pillars that ended after about a hundred meters. At the end of the tunnel, we could see the moon shining through the ceiling. We went the tunnel to its end. At the end of the tunnel, there was a big hole in the ceiling and the moonlight rained on us like the shine of a magical fire. We climbed through the hole out of the tunnel. What we saw made us speech-less. We stood on a large plateau from which we could see nearly the whole valley that was surrounded by mountains. The moonlight and its blue reflection from the snow gave the whole scene something mysterious and unbelievable. About 400 buffalos stood not even 500 feet from us; three of them seemed to wait for us not 60 feet away. They looked at us without fear -motionless. Their snorting left little white clouds in the air. We made a little fire in a little niche in the rocks and we thanked Wakan Tanka for his gentleness, before we took what he offered us. People whispered when One-Man-Standing shows with a gesture that he had nothing to add to his report. Perhaps the people paid their attention to something that happens at the entrance of Ten Bears teepee. Interjections of astonishment. People moved. Somebody new entered the teepee. It was Little Elk. Little Elk was jacketed in a buffalo robe and went like in trance to Ten Bears. He gave him something before he went back to the entrance in order to leave. Ten Bears looked amazed at something that looked like a black stone, before he gave it from hand to hand. It was a round, black stone with something silver in it, like quartz and it looked like the shadow of a child. Later Little Elk told us that he found the stone in is fist when he woke up, but he never remembered from where or what he got the stone ... I don't know how often I heard this story. It was the story of my Grand-Grandfather Little Elk. The story was told from generation to generation. The little valley surrounded by the mountains did really exist and it was told that some people of the tribe tried to live there after the massacre of Wounded Knee. They lived there some years until a squadron of the seventh. Cavalry ferreted them. They were never seen again, but we will never forget their names... Lost in thought I looked at the amulet in my hand. It was a round, black stone with something silver in it, like quartz and it looked like the shadow of a child. The stone was wrapped round with old rawhide. It was fall and the world was presented in an ocean of colors and beauty, when I stood at a large plateau from which I had a wonderful view over the valley that was surrounded with mountains. The sun threw my shadow over the rocks to small hole from where you could reach a tunnel. Not five feet from my place there was a little black niche in the rocks and it looked like as if someone made eternities ago a fire there. I put the amulet in this niche and speak without words a prayer to Wakan Tanka to thank him for his gentleness. A little hand took my hand and my little daughter came to me before my wife took me in her arms. It was wonderful when we three stood there together and enjoyed the moment. It started raining when we reached the highway. We stopped once again to look back to the mountains. A wonderful rainbow surrounded the mountains like a frame and the wind took a mysterious noise to our ears. A noise that sounded like ... The bridge between past and presence was made and the circle was formed. Now the way is free for new legends ... *** The story, names and places are (maybe) pure fiction *** |
