Joseph M. Marshall III Read Online Free

against her bare breasts even as one of the women wrapped a large warm robe around them both, binding mother and son together.
    By 1840 much of the northern Plains of North America was unmistakably a Lakota world. From the Muddy River (Missouri) on the east, the Running Water (Niobrara) and the Shell (North Platte) rivers on the south, the Shining Mountains (Big Horns) to the west, and the northern border stretching from the Elk River (Yellowstone) east to the Knife flowing into the Muddy, the size of this far-flung world was in keeping with the population of the nation and the determination to protect it. Within this world the people lived by hunting. The people moved camp several times each year to flow with the change of seasons and the movement of the animals they depended on for food and clothing. The tatanka, the bison, was the main source of livelihood. The horse had arrived several generations before and was by then a very important part of Lakota life. It was the other reason the territory was so large.
    In this Lakota world the life path for sons flowed in two directions that were closely tied to each other, like twin trunks of the same tree. Every boy grew up to be a hunter and a warrior, a provider and a protector. Every boy born was a promise that the nation would remain strong. Families prayed that each boy would grow up strong of body and mind, that he would heed the lessons of his fathers and grandfathers and honor the path already laid out for him. This was the way. So this new life come into the Lakota world, into the small community encamped in the place known as the heart of all things, was welcomed as new hope, and the people prayed that he would grow straight and strong.
    The next morning the circle of women who had attended the birth escorted the mother and her new son from the woman’s tipi into the main encampment, to the door of her own lodge, singing songs as they went. People watched and some joined the procession and gifts of welcome were laid next to the door. Among the gifts was a tiny bow with its own tiny arrow, an unmistakable sign of the journey that lay ahead for the new life.
    Bison robes covered the floor of the lodge and painted rawhide containers—some square and some rectangular—were neatly arranged against the interior wall. A small girl, no more than three, waited anxiously, as did the man of the lodge. The woman entered and walked around the center fire pit and then lowered herself and her bundle carefully into a willow chair set next to the stone altar at the back of the room. Rattling Blanket Woman opened the bundle to show her daughter the thatch of wavy black hair atop her new brother’s head, and then lifted the baby into his father’s arms.
    He was a modest man, a healer. Crazy Horse was his name, the same as his father’s and which was passed down to him. They were a humble family, part of the Hunkpatila band 1 of the Oglala Lakota. She was Mniconju Lakota. Their children thus carried the blood of the Oglala and Mniconju Lakota people. The little one, this new life, this new hope for the people, squirmed in his arms and Crazy Horse felt the promise of goodness and strength within the tiny bundle he held.
    So the father sang a welcoming song for his new son.
    Thus the journey began.

Two

    The father of an infant boy would sometimes say to his wife and to all the women in his family, “He is yours for the first years of his life.” Even if it were not spoken, it was the way things were done. And so for those first important years when a child plants the roots of his being that will support him throughout life, he is left entirely to his mother and grandmothers, not to mention all the mothers and grandmothers in the tiyospaye, the community, who might take a liking to him.
    For most of the first year of his life the son of Crazy Horse and Rattling Blanket Woman stayed quite contentedly within the protective folds of his cradleboard, which, if not strapped to his mother,