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| This Honor We Hold by � sbcloud Chapter 1 Night breaks into the beginnings of a new day, Red Elk steps out of the tipi,stretching abit as he looks around him. He see's families getting started ,children sleepily making their way down to the stream. Mothers fastening their infants into their cradleboards and propping them where they can be seen,as his own wife has done,with Otter girl. Scouts were seen leaving to follow the herd,it would soon be time to move the tribe,once the buffalo were spotted. Stepping back into the tipi,he gathers his pipe and herb pouch,and then leaned and gently shook Little Turtle,to awaken him,then he stepped back out into the morning's rays.Today,he would take his son,Little Turtle with him, it was time to begin his teachings,he looked to his wife Morning Dove,and their newborn daughter. He smiled with pride,as any father would. "I will pray for a name for our daughter," he thought to himself. She's six days old ,its time. Little Turtle, hurries to gather his things,at five winters,he was a strapping young fellow with coal black hair and sharp brown eyes, his bronze flesh glistened in the sun as he bolted out of the tipi, he was his father's shadow in every sense , or so it would appear. They left Morning Dove,to tend to the work she had to begin and followed a well worn trail. Morning Dove,kneeling on the ground,begins grinding grasses she had gathered the day before,into a fine powdery flour and begins to hum a tune as her daughter dozes in the shade of a small bush. Soon the village is alive with sounds of children's laughter,and she chuckles to herself as two small boys chase after a rabbit. "This is a good life" she thought to herself. After the grains were in a powdered form,she added berries and buffalo fat,from the last hunt and patted the mixture into small round patties,and wrapped them into large leaves and covered the leaves with hot ash from the fire,and turned to tend to the large deer hide that laid stretched out. This would be a new shirt and leggings for Little Turtle. Walking in silence,as Red Elk often did,even in the accompany of others,he kneeled down on one knee and pointed to a track . Without hesitation,Little Turtle spoke,"Chipmunk". His father nodded approvingly. Little Turtle beamed as brightly as the sun. They walked for a spell longer til they came to a clearing and Red Elk,laid his things carefully on a fallen tree . And Together they took sage and smudged and began praying , quietly , each lost in their own thoughts. A otter,playful and engergic appeared to him and then his daughter appeared, it was then Red Elk saw, that the otter had chosen to be his daughter's guide,and her name sake .. Little Otter Girl. "That is a good name" he thought to himself. Red Elk held a great reverence to the members of his tribe,gifted by the Great Spirit himself, as a youngster no bigger than Little Turtle was. Although he spoke little of the visions he's been having for quite sometime, those visions soon pushed Otter Girl's spirt aside and blue coats with fire sticks soon embedded themselves into his thoughts. People in fences as if they were animals, this made him shudder but the horror that flashed made him sick to his stomache as bodies in death formed. The "Change" , the Way of life would end , but as to when , he didn't know but he feared it would be soon ..... Whites were no stranger to him , he had seen a family once,and gave aid to them as it was in the heart of winter,when the snows covered the ground and the winds cut through one's flesh like a knife.He was riding,and upon the plains, he came to a wagon , there were no horses or oxens ,and one wheel had been broken.He first thought it was abandoned til he saw a child peek around from behind it,and then a woman screamed when she spotted him sitting a few feet away ,on a horse. He turned and just before sundown, he returned and dropped a deer nearby and gave his own buffalo robe and left it . As to whether they made use of the gift or not, he didn't know,as silently as he appeared , he disappeared into the folds of the new fallen snows. It puzzled him, this vision . Earth mother with her spacious lands, plenty of room and yet this vision showed a different story , one he had hoped would vanish. Morning Dove,tended to Little Otter Girl,as she woken up with a soft meow of a cry and this gave a slight chuckle to her mother, as the infant scrunched her little face and then as gas passed ,smiled. The infant had sparse black hair,and like her parents and brother,deep brown eyes. Morning Dove,looked up as Red Elk and Little Turtle were returning,and she reached for the two empty bladders and called to Turtle, "take these and fill them for me ", Little Turtle obiendently took them and ran down to the stream. The Chief and another man walked towards Red Elk,and then the three disappered there were talks and descisions to make for the hunt. It was a busy time for all,and with the hunt coming up, much work for even the smallest child would help , even if it was to watch their siblings that were in cradle boards. Little Turtle ,thought to himself "this is better than watching the baby sleep" as he kneeled down on the bank of the stream and dipped the bladders into the cool water,filling them up. Jumping Squarril was also down at the stream, he and Turtle were the same age only born a few days apart, they were like brothers,as Jumping squarril's mother had little milk to provide for her infant as she taken ill shortly after his birth,and Morning dove had nursed him along side Turtle . Jumping Squarril's mother had lost many babies before they entered into the world and he was a blessing to her, her only child. The Two boys,were practically inseparable and they gathered their load and began walking back toward the camp. "My father said , he would take us to see the buffalo up close but we'll have to down wind of them so not to spook them." Jumping Squarril spoke with a ting of excitement. "Oh that will be fun to see,"replied Turtle. They struggled with the filled bladders,but careful not to slosh any out as they first stopped at Jumping's home and then to Turtle's. Morning Dove, was changing the stuffing in Otter Girl's cradle board when the boys returned with the water. The infant laid naked on a soft piece of hide ,cooing to herself . Morning dove, crumbled dried buffalo patties into the bottom of the cradle board and then added rabbit fur, this would absorbe the infant's wastes . She then crumbled more of the dried buffalo patty and rubbed it on the infant's groin area to prevent the rash that some infants suffered from. She lifted her daughter and cradled her. She had suffered a miscarriage shortly before Otter girl was conceived . The ache of a lost child pierces a heart ,and Morning Dove was no acception. to be continued... |
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