“Yes, I will appreciate that,” she mumbled.
“There are herbs you must eat to make the delivery easier and ginger root, to be boiled when the baby is ready to come. Come to my tepee, when Plenty Proud is away, and I will teach you all you must know.”
“That is very kind of you,” Mackenzie murmured.
“You have no mother to help you, and Eagle Eye’s mother lives with another tribe.”
“Thank you,” Mackenzie mumbled and turned away. She decided she would come for the instructions, knowing it was the only way she could learn what to expect when it was time to deliver her first child.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Mackenzie sat with her legs folded on the buffalo robe beside Little Bird inside White Wing’s tepee, waiting for the instruction that White Wing was about to give both of them on the importance of children and what to expect when giving birth.
“A Sioux child is the greatest gift from Wakan-Tanka after many devout prayers, sacrifices and promises, she can receive this gift,” she began as she looked seriously at both Little Bird and Mackenzie.
Mackenzie wondered about her statement, since she had not prayed or sacrificed in order to end up carrying the child that grew within her. However, she smiled, and continued to listen.
“We call ourselves human beings, and it is a great honor to be sent here by Wakan-Tanka. A child must grow up with health and all virtues expected, and with the hope that no misfortune may befall it. The father makes promises to vow to Wakan-Tanka by different elements of earth and sky that he will protect any child given him. A father must spare no pains to let the people know of his great love for his child and all children offered to him. The mother must help him in this effort.
“It is the White Buffalo Maiden, who in the beginning, was sent to the Sioux by the Buffalo tribe, who was the example of the true qualities each Sioux child must achieve. This Maiden was pure white, without a blemish and all souls of unborn children are pure. Once they are born, it is the desire of the father and mother that pure character of the child remains.
“I have labored over two quilled pouches for both of you, because neither of you have a mother to do so. One is a turtle and the other is a lizard. These animals are believed to live forever, and are very difficult to kill. It is the symbol of what we wish each child to achieve in life. Their protective powers will be with your children to give them long life and hardiness. When the baby is born, the belly cord will be put inside the turtle pouch, packed in tobacco and herbs, once it falls from the child’s belly. The lizard is a decoy to lure away malevolent forces. The turtle pouch will remind your child its life is a precious gift from its parents and it has a responsibility to take a mate in the future and pass the gift of birth and life on to their own children.
Once your child begins to walk, the pouches will be attached to its clothing to serve as a reminder of its purpose in life. If difficulties come during labor, and a priest has to be called for a medicine rite before a child is born, the child’s turtle will be decorated with a small design, representing a tortoise, which will charm further dangers away from the child. This also tells a story of the child’s birth that it can remember as it grows into an adult.”
Mackenzie had not realized that there was so much involved in having children beyond bringing them into the world. The Sioux seemed to have a certain history and plan for each child, long before it was even born.
White Wing continued with her instruction, teaching both girls the customs, which Little Bird already knew, but Mackenzie was now starting to discover.
“Once your child is born, there will be a festive naming rite a few days later. There, an ancestral name will be given your child, which it will keep unless it is a young brave. Then he will be given a new name at a special ceremony honoring his first great accomplishment in life. At the first naming, your child will be blessed in hopes it will live to have its ears pierced.
“The village will vow to protect the child until the ear-piercing is performed. After your child is old enough to walk, the first Sun Dance to be held will be the time of the sacred ear-piercing and from that day on it will wear earrings in its ears until it dies. The father will announce through the crier of the village the name of the warrior, who will perform the rite.
“I have gathered different herbs that you must take to help you to have a healthy baby. I have other herbs to be taken just before the baby is born to help expel the child. They are in different pouches so you can tell them apart. I also have gingerroot, which must be boiled just before it is time for the baby to come. It is to be placed where the baby emerges, to soften the tissue and help it to stretch so the baby will not have a hard time coming into this world.
“If it is spring when your baby comes, you must go to find a place to give birth, like a thicket in the woods. There your husband will follow, and stand guarding the thicket while you work to bring the baby forth. If a medicine man is needed, he can go bring you one. However, it is your job to deliver your child on your own. If it is winter, when your baby comes, you will remain in your own lodge, if you live alone with your husband. If you have family living with you, you must go to a birthing lodge to have your child. Your husband must stand without until after the baby comes.
“When the time comes, you will expel water, and great pain will come over you. This pain will come and go until the end, and will get harder until it is time to push the baby out. Once this pain starts, it is then that you must take the herbs to help expel the baby, and walk or dance in order to help bring the baby in position to be born. You must not lie down. When it is time to push the child out into the world, you will squat or sit on a low stool, letting the baby fall to the ground, either onto leaves, if you are in a thicket, or to something soft inside your lodge. This will startle the child and cause it to cry and take its first breath. Then you must tie something around the belly cord and take your knife and cut it, leaving enough to fall away later and put in turtle pouch.
“As soon as your child is born, you must feed it so it will help the after-birth to come and it can bond with mother and become healthy. Once the after-birth is expelled, your husband will take it and bury it. Then your child is to be wrapped in soft blankets and placed in a cradle board where it will feel snug and safe. There will be a time of bleeding, during which you will rest. Once the bleeding stops, you can return to your regular chores again. You must dip your child in the river twice a day, even if the water is cold, so it will grow strong and get used to the elements.”
White Wing gave each girl the pouches she had made for them and the pouches of herbs, showing them which pouch held which herb and how to prepare the herb before taking it.
Mackenzie thanked White Wing for her instructions. Only it made her worry all the more, because she was not sure if she could deal with having a baby all alone with no midwife or anyone beside her to make sure all things were working right. How would she know if she even needed a medicine man, she wondered, and what could a medicine man do to change anything? All they ever did was chant and burn certain leaves to cause smoke, and shake their rattles, when they were called to assist someone. She wasn’t sure she should dip the child in cold water all the time. Instead of making it strong, it may make it sick, she worried.
Mackenzie returned to her tepee, thinking about all the things White Wing had told her and trying to decide if she should follow such strange instructions. It would soon be time to move the village again and she needed to start packing things to get ready for the event, so she tried to put her worries behind her. There were still a couple of months before her baby would be ready to show its face to the world, so she would just worry about it later, she decided.
Once again the village moved with the same excitement and celebration they had experienced during the last move, making a big parade of it. Apparently all the people looked forward to each move, knowing they would have new surroundings and enjoy a different place in nature to dwell. Mackenzie felt it was taxing, wishing
they could remain in one spot. Just about the time she had gotten used to where the village was, it was time to dismantle it all again. She had liked the summer camp, and the fall camp, but had not been in either place long enough to get tired of it. Now she would have to get used to a winter camp.
The winter camp was situated along a river with cottonwood trees to shelter it. There would be plenty of wood to keep the fires lit, and they would not have to go far to gather it. The men would cut the branches, and break them up, but the women would gather the wood and bring it to their separate tepees. The Tepees were placed closer together, to help distribute the heat, once all the fires were built, and make the space between them shorter to navigate once the snow fell.
Eagle Eye informed Mackenzie that most of the winter would be spent resting and making love. He gave her a broad smile. When the families were not in their tepee together, they would often be in a sweat lodge, where the steam created there would help purify their body, and they could pour water over themselves to get clean. The men would spend time in their different societies discussing tribal business, and smoking pipes together. Women would toil over their sewing, using the hides prepared over the summer and fall, to make clothes, and improving their beading techniques. The men would make new arrows and weapons and other items created out of the buffalo parts collected. When the meat got low, they would go out on short hunting excursions. Before the snow fell, they would collect bundles of grass and harvest wild grain, to feed the horses over the winter. Everyone seemed to have something to occupy their time.
When the snow began to fall, Mackenzie could not help but think about the avalanche that destroyed her father’s cabin, and how she ended up having to stay with Griz. Though she tried hard to put it behind her, there were always little things that brought the memories back again, against her will.
As she got bigger, she felt more uncomfortable. It was hard to sleep, since she couldn’t find a comfortable way to lie down. She noticed that when Little Bird was in view, she eyed Mackenzie’s protruding belly curiously, realizing how much larger she was and yet had only been Eagle Eye’s wife for a short time. Little Bird was just starting to protrude enough to show she was carrying a child. When the naming ceremony came, Mackenzie thought, the whole village would know that she had been carrying the child a lot longer than the beginning of her tying to Eagle Eye. She wondered what they would think.
When the day came for Mackenzie to deliver, there was only a powdering of snow on the ground. She informed Eagle Eye that it was time for the baby to arrive, when her water broke. He became so excited she had to practically push him out of the tepee, even though she longed for him to be by her side to help her. Only the people would disapprove, and she felt she was already going to be in hot water, having the baby so soon after she became Eagle Eye’s wife.
She followed White Wing’s instructions, but did not realize how difficult and painful the ordeal was to be. Eagle Eye and every person within hearing distance could hear her screaming and vowing never to have another child as long as she lived. Walking and dancing was difficult as the pain made her double up, and she didn’t think she could stand. She longed to lie down and have the baby the way most women she had known had children. No one was in the tepee with her. How would anyone know if she broke the rules or not?
However, she knew that the Indians had lived for generations, using these rules of birth and had survived, and since there was no midwife or doctor to attend her, maybe that was why it was necessary to do it the Indian way, she decided. She boiled the gingerroot and applied it the way White Wing had instructed, took the herb to help expel the child, and continued to walk in circles inside the tepee, screaming every time the pain hit her again. Even if she needed a medicine man, she would never request it. Eagle Eye would be of more service to her inside the tepee, than some other man who knew nothing about helping out in child labor. This was a horrible experience to put a new mother through, she thought, telling herself she would never go through it again, even if it mean never making love to Eagle Eye from now on. It was no wonder that the Sioux women only had one or two children in their lives. That must be the reason a brave needed more than one wife, she thought sarcastically to herself.
Eventually, there was no other choice but to push the baby from its confines, creating a new kind of pain that was almost more than Mackenzie could bear. At last, the last push allowed the warm, wet, bundle to fall to the buffalo robe, she had covered with one of her blankets to protect it from the fluids that were expelled along with the child.
When she heard it crying, she scooped it up in her arms and looked upon her child. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and she hugged it to her against her breast so it could eat. She had delivered a strong little brave. His hair was soft downy fuzz, plastered to his head from the moisture, which was rapidly drying. When he looked up into her face, she saw his eyes were the same green color as her own. His skin was a light, bronze, and far from being small and weak, he was large and chubby. No one would ever believe he was an early baby, Mackenzie feared.
She pushed the concern aside and tied the umbilical cord, then cut it with her knife, waiting for the after-birth to appear as she nursed her newborn child. Once the after-birth came, she called for Eagle Eye to come take it away to bury it. After he returned, he sat beside Mackenzie on the buffalo robe admiring the child.
“I am sure it is my little brave,” he told her, but there was no sure way of knowing.
“He is beautiful, regardless of, who his real father is,” Mackenzie murmured. “However, you will always be his father as far as I am concerned.”
“I am proud to be his father and proud to be your husband. You worried that you could not be a good Sioux wife to Plenty Proud and you would disappoint him and make him lose face, but you were wrong. You are a good Sioux wife and have never disappointed me in all the time we have been together. I hope to have you as my wife forevermore.”
“And I hope to remain your wife forevermore,” Mackenzie smiled.
“You will always be my Firelight woman,” Eagle Eye breathed as he bent and kissed Mackenzie and then placed a kiss on his son’s head.
Mackenzie delighted in putting the little gowns she had made and diapers on her son. Eagle eye wrinkled his nose over it, but since the child would be wrapped tightly and put in the cradleboard, no one would ever discover the white man clothes she had made for their infant. In three days, the naming ceremony would be held and Eagle Eye had already picked out a name for his son. He wished to call him Ohiti ke Ista, (Oh-hee-dee kay Ee-shdah) which translated into Brave Eyes. He knew his son needed to be brave to face the life ahead of him, not only because of the difficult life of the Sioux, but because his mother was white, and while his people would never ridicule him, the white man might. He needed to look ahead with brave eyes and create his own destiny. Whatever a name was given to a child, was to help him on his journey into becoming an adult.
Mackenzie did not want to dip him in the river twice a day, but Eagle Eye insisted, saying he had been put in the river when he was little and he grew up to be a strong brave. She would be glad when the river froze over and it would no longer be necessary. Then she could give her son a proper bath in warm water, the way she believed it should be done.
The crier was sent out to announce the naming ceremony, and since bringing life into the world was such an important event, all the village would be expected to attend, so they could vow to protect the child until it the day of its piercing. A large circle formed in the center of the camp, and a priest was chosen to give the child its name. Then the medicine men would join in blessing it with good health, as they shook their rattles and beat their drums warding off dangerous spirits and ghosts that may try to interfere in the child’s wellbeing. Afterwards, the whole village chanted and sang, all dancing around the center fire to celebrate a new life.
Various members of the village came to look upon the baby and congratulate the parents, smiling and giv
ing good wishes, then going back to join in the dancing again.
Mackenzie was suddenly aware that Plenty Proud stood before her and Eagle Eye, but he was not smiling. He was looking down upon the small bundle, held in Mackenzie’s arms, his brows drawn and his lips pressed in a firm line.
“This child belongs to me,” he said gruffly. “It is too soon since your tying for you to deliver a child, and I took you before you left our village, which was nine full moons ago.”
Mackenzie took in her breath and let it out again. “You are right,” she murmured, “only it could very well be Eagle Eye’s child, because during the storm, on our way down river, we waited in a cave and I allowed him to keep me warm.”
Plenty Proud’s head snapped over to Eagle Eye, his eyes filled with rage. “You took my woman?” he roared.
“She was not your woman. She was leaving you. You had no hold on her except for the love that you harbored for her. She turned to me for protection, and I gave it.”
“You had pledged your love to me!” Plenty Proud accused Mackenzie. “Then you go to Eagle Eye? Your heart must not be pure!”
“And you vowed to remain like a widower if I left you, and how long did your heart stay pure before you took Little Bird as your wife?” she accused right back. “You thought the Great Spirit had brought me to you, but you must have been wrong, because we both chose another for our mate. Be happy, Plenty Proud, you too will soon have a child to name and then we can all go on with our lives.”
“Although I am tied to another, I shall never stop loving you, Firelight. My heart won’t stop loving you, even though I command it not to.” He looked at her with pleading eyes, knowing he could not change the circumstances that brought them to this point.
Mackenzie did not answer. She felt the same way, but she was not going to admit it to him or hurt Eagle Eye with such a confession. At least she loved Eagle Eye and that was all that counted, she told herself.
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