Full Circle

by Rosanne Bittner

  “Don’t try to feed me your lies, Mr. Bridges! Anyone can see why you adopted them. You needed a woman to do your cooking and cleaning and washing and most of your own chores! You chose little girls because they are more easily intimidated than a grown woman or a couple of boys. I hate to even think the other reason you might have chosen girls. The thought of it turns my stomach! There must be some kind of authority or law that can stop you from what you are doing, and I will find a way!”

  Lucille and Katy stopped working. They stared dumbfounded at the pretty, courageous woman who faced Seth so boldly. Both of them were afraid for her. Seth leaned closer, and neither Lucille nor Katy had to see his face to know the look he had in his eyes at that moment. They were amazed that Miss Gibbons did not back away.

  “Missy, you send anybody to take my girls from me, and I’ll shoot them! I’d have every right! There ain’t no laws can take away a man’s legally adopted kids, and no law that gives them girls any rights against me.” He poked his finger toward her, jamming it into her chest twice as he spoke. “And if you come nosin’ around, you’ll regret it, lady, in more ways than one!” He ran the finger down between her breasts before taking his hand away. “You’d be trespassin’ on my property. Now you get away from me and my girls before I call some soldiers to come and drag you away. We’ve got work to do, and you’ve got your own work in store tryin’ to teach ignorant Indians. You stick to the reason you came here, and keep that pretty little nose out of other people’s business, or it’s likely to get broke.”

  To Lucille and Katy’s amazement, Miss Gibbons still did not back away. “Those girls had better be cleaner and better dressed the next time I see them, Mr. Bridges; and you had better start sending the younger one to school, or I can and will make trouble for you!”

  Evelyn had no idea how she would do that, but she hoped there was enough sureness in her voice that he would wonder, at least enough to make life a little more bearable for the girls. She saw a hint of worry in his eyes, and she hoped she was doing a good job of hiding her own fear. Before he could answer, Bill Doogan came outside.

  “Well, I see you’ve met our pretty new schoolteacher!” the man said his already ruddy complexion reddening more with delight at the sight of Evelyn. “My own young ones are not old enough for school yet, but soon as the oldest boy turns seven in December, I’ll be sending him. I promised Miss Gibbons. She’s too pretty to say no to, wouldn’t you agree, Seth?”

  Seth still glared at Evelyn. “I’ll agree she’s pretty, all right.” As he turned away, Lucille and Katy immediately began grabbing armloads of corn and dumping it into the bushels.

  “The wife has some fresh Indian bread inside,” Doogan told Evelyn. “You come and get some later for your evening meal with the good preacher and his sister.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Doogan. We might do that. I appreciate your wife’s generosity. How are the little ones?”

  “Oh, the baby keeps the wife up with feedings, and the others keep her running with the mischief they get into.” He turned to Lucille and Katy. “Well, girls, you’re working pretty fast there. Doing a good job. Looks like a good crop, Seth.”

  “Came in early because of all the rain we had last month. We could use more of that rain now. It’s damn hot and dry for picking, but the girls get out in the fields early.”

  Doogan turned and winked at Evelyn. She realized he must have heard part of her conversation with Seth and was trying to smooth things over before they got out of hand. “You making much progress in getting any Indian children to school?” he asked.

  “Not so far.”

  “Well, it will take some time. Maybe you should convince them that if they don’t send the children to the reservation school, they risk having the children taken from them by force to off-reservation schools. It could happen, you know.”

  “I will be meeting this afternoon with Anita Wolf. I am hoping she can help.”

  “Anita has been visiting the Rosebud Reservation, trying to help out there. I didn’t know she was back,” Doogan answered. “She is a nice young woman. Got a good education at the Genoa school.”

  Evelyn realized the man was just making idle conversation, turning attention away from her confrontation with Seth Bridges.

  “Well, anything you can do to help me will be appreciated, Mr. Doogan. You see a lot of them on a daily basis when they come to trade with you.”

  Several baskets were filled with corn by then, and Seth began carrying them into the rear storeroom. Evelyn glanced at little Katy, who took advantage of the moment and smiled at her. Evelyn started toward the girls, but Doogan took hold of her arm. “Stay away, Miss Gibbons.”

  Evelyn met his eyes. “I am not afraid of Seth Bridges, Mr. Doogan.”

  “Then stay away for the sake of the girls. If you get him riled, he will only take it out on them. Nobody around here likes what goes on over there, but there’s no law that allows anybody to do anything about it. Your job here is to teach the Indian children. Stick to your business, for your own sake and for the sake of those girls.”

  Evelyn drew in her breath. “I understand what you are trying to tell me, Mr. Doogan, but I am not going to give up on this.” She walked around the other side of the wagon, taking a quick glance at the two girls, who stared back at her. She could see how pretty they would be if they were cleaner, their hair washed and curled. Both had dark hair and blue eyes. Lucille had a lovely shape to her. Like Seth said, she was a woman in body; but what about on the inside? What kind of damage had been done to both her and her sister emotionally? “If there is anything you need,” she said to them, “anything you want to tell me; if you need any kind of help at all, you come to me. Will you both please remember that?”

  Lucille glanced at the door to the storeroom to make sure Seth was not watching them. She looked back at Evelyn. “Thank you, ma’am, but there isn’t anything we’ll be needing.”

  Evelyn glanced at Katy, who looked ready to cry. She started to say something to the girl, but quickly turned away when Seth came out the door. She headed toward the little house in the distance where Janine had taken the cough medicine to Little Otter. In the background she could hear Seth cussing at Lucille and Katy for not working fast enough. “We’ve got more to pick when we get home! Quit wasting time! Time is money, and I want those bushels filled quick as you can load them!”

  She felt sick inside at what they must suffer. Perhaps, as Janine had said she must do, she should just put it out of her mind and concentrate on the Indian children. She was to meet Anita today and officially open the school tomorrow. She had a lot of work to do, and she would have to set aside her concern for Lucille and Katy Bridges for the time being.

  She headed across the open ground between the trading post and the mixture of tipis and log and frame homes where several hundred Sioux lived. Actually, families were scattered all over Standing Rock, an area eighty miles long and forty miles wide. Most of the villages were on the west side of the agency, an area she had not yet visited.

  So much to do. So much ground to cover. Somehow she had to find a way to reach every family, introduce herself, get to know as many of them as possible. That especially included Many Birds, Black Hawk’s sister. That was another situation that needed taking care of. After what she had heard last night, she was more curious than ever about Black Hawk.

  She had nearly reached the sorry-looking home of Three Bears and Owl Woman when Janine came out and stepped off the sagging porch. “Stay away from here for now,” she warned. She blinked back tears. “Little Otter died last night. Owl Woman thinks it is some kind of omen, that it means the new white woman should never have come here. She is in deep mourning, and she says she will not send her other three children to school.”

  Evelyn closed her eyes in disappointment. “I am certainly getting off to a grand start, aren’t I?”

  “They’ll get used to you being around, and they’ll begin to realize how sincere you are. It
will just take time. Come with me and we’ll go visit Anita. I heard she is back from Rosebud and is visiting her father and brother. They don’t live far from here, about a mile. They still live in a tipi, so Anita has to live there also. She has no place else to stay here on the reservation. She has a fine education but still must live the old way because that is all there is for her.”

  “It’s too bad her father and brother are always drunk and don’t do anything to better themselves.”

  “Yes. It has made life doubly hard for Anita. Half of her people shun her and don’t trust her because of her white man’s education, and the other half shun her because her father and brother are part of those who bring shame to all of them.”

  “We must go and see her today, Janine. I am so anxious to meet her, and I need to talk to her. Maybe she can arrange for me to meet Black Hawk.”

  “Don’t you ever give up on the impossible?”

  “No.”

  “You’re determined to do something to get you into trouble, aren’t you?”

  “I just think getting Black Hawk’s son to school would change a lot of things.”

  “Of course it would. But that will never happen. If you want to meet his sister, you’re welcome to. She lives with her grandmother in a village to the northwest. When we get the time I’ll take you there. Right now, you have taken on enough responsibilities. How did it go with Seth Bridges?”

  “Not very good. He is a vile, ignorant, uneducated man whom I detest. I am going to help those girls one way or another, Janine.”

  “Interfering will only hurt them, not help them. Do like I said and stick to what you came here for.”

  “That’s what Seth Bridges told me. You can’t be that unconcerned, Janine. You’re too soft-hearted and intelligent.”

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t concerned but I understand there is only so much a person can do, Evy, and I also know that getting too involved can only bring harm to those girls. If God intends for you to have a hand in helping them, He will show you the way.”

  Evelyn wished she could talk to her mother about Lucille and Katy, and about the best way to reach the Sioux children… and about Black Hawk. Her mother had always been so easy to talk to. She had considered asking her father to come to Standing Rock, but he was getting old and this life would be hard for him. He had already donated a lot of years to the Indians.

  “I’m sorry about Little Otter,” she told Janine.

  “So am I. They brought in their own medicine man, but when prayers and chants and special treatments failed he claimed it was because of the new white woman who had intruded, wanting to steal away the children. Owl Woman said he claims the Great Spirit came to take Little Otter before the white woman—you, of course—could steal her away to the white man’s world.”

  Evelyn sighed. “Oh, Janine, how am I going to fight things like that? I haven’t even started yet, and they’re all against me.”

  “God will provide a way, Evy.”

  Evelyn decided God had better do so soon or there would not be much reason to stay. She still believed Black Hawk was the key to reaching the rest of them. If he did not come to his sister’s birthday celebration and she was not able to talk to him by then, she decided she would ride out herself into the hills and try to find the man. Somewhere deep inside, perhaps because of her dream, she was sure he would not harm her. Her mother had been afraid of Wild Horse at first, but they had become good friends, more than friends. So many times she had wanted to tell Janine everything about her mother, but she feared the prim and proper spinster-woman would never understand.

  “There don’t seem to be a lot of Indians around, Janine. Are they hiding inside to avoid me?”

  Janine smiled and shook her head. “I found out from Owl Woman that many of them snuck off last night to a secret place to celebrate the Sun Dance.”

  “The Sun Dance! The government no longer allows them to go through that ritual. They’re afraid it will stir them to making war again.”

  “Let alone the fact that it is a barbaric practice.”

  Evelyn silently disagreed. She had studied the Sioux culture and knew how vital the Sun Dance was to their basic spiritual beliefs. Yes, it was bloody, and in the minds of people like her father and John and Janine, it was a heathen practice, but part of her understood that it was also beautiful, a fiercely spiritual, moving experience for those who practiced it.

  “Every year John preaches against it, and the soldiers try to stop it,” Janine went on. “So now they sneak away in the night to a place far from agency headquarters and from Fort Yates. The soldiers know they do it, but it isn’t worth the risk of possible bloodshed on both sides to try to stop it, so they let them go. Owl Woman and Three Bears will take Little Otter’s body to the secret celebration. They will include her burial in the ceremonies.”

  “And by the time they’re through, with the rest of them all worked up over the Sun Dance, the whole nation of six thousand Sioux here at Standing Rock will be against me.”

  Janine smiled sadly. “There are a few who stayed here, including, I am sure, Anita. She no longer believes in the old ways of worship. She is a Christian. Maybe you’ll feel better after you’ve met her. Things will change, Evy. It just takes time.”

  Evelyn nodded, her heart heavy with concern. “Let’s get on with our task here. I’m anxious to meet Anita and talk to at least one Indian who accepts me.”

  The two women started walking again. Evelyn longed to witness the Sun Dance for herself. If she could see the ceremony, perhaps she could get a better grasp on its importance to these people, find a way to connect the old with the new. That was her only hope of reaching the stubborn ones… like Black Hawk.

  Black Hawk leaned back, straining against the skewers that pierced his breasts so that they pulled at his skin until he nearly hung free. The skewers were attached only by his skin to strips of rawhide that were tied to the sacred central Sun Dance pole, around which he danced, pushing his starved body to the limit of endurance. The pain caused him to blow his bone whistle often and loudly. He kept the whistle between his lips as he pranced to the rhythmic drumming, and he felt himself falling into another world, a world where no white man existed, where the buffalo roamed so thick that a man could almost walk across their backs.

  Yes, that was a beautiful time, when he was a small boy. His father used to tell him that the years before he was born were even better, and better still for his grandfather, for with each older generation there were fewer white men in the vast lands that once belonged to the Sioux. It was all different now, except in times like this, when he could dance and worship in the old way, when his people sang their celebration songs and defied the white man’s government by conducting the sacred Sun Dance, even though they had been ordered not to do this.

  He had already shed his blood this way twice before in his life, an offering to Wakantanka, praying that the Great One would help his people through these terrible times. This was his third sacrifice, and he was doing it for Little Fox, who he knew was watching him now. He wanted to teach his son everything about the old ways. He spoke only Sioux to the boy, and he took him along on the hunt. He talked about what life was once like for the People of Paha-Sapa, the sacred Black Hills. He had known Crazy Horse, had ridden with him at the battle of the Greasy Grass, the one the white man called the Little Big Horn. He had been only thirteen then, but he remembered it all well. He remembered how strong and victorious his people had felt that day! He longed for those times again, but since then the soldiers had come by the thousands to hunt them down. His parents and a brother had been killed. For a while he had lived in the land of the Queen Mother with Sitting Bull and several of his people, but they were soon forced by starvation to return to their homeland, where things were not much better. Now Crazy Horse was dead. Sitting Bull was dead, killed by some of his own Indian police. Everything was changed, and his biggest fear was that Little Fox would be forcibly taken from him. He
would kill whoever tried to do that!

  He felt his flesh tearing, and he blew even more frantically on the whistle to keep from crying out in pain. He continued dancing, the beating of the drums and the prayer songs that filled the Sun Dance lodge seeming louder now. Two of the warriors who had joined in the shedding of flesh and blood had already passed out, the skewers torn away from their breasts. Black Hawk was determined to remain dancing longer than the others. Now sounds of the drumming and singing became dimmer, and he felt himself floating in a deep trance. He rode his spotted horse, yet he could hardly feel the animal beneath him. It was as though he and the horse were one.

  Fast! So fast the horse galloped, across the wide prairie, while somewhere in the distance his people sang and danced and urged him on. The land was vast, and it all belonged to him. To his left was a huge herd of buffalo, and all around the grass was green and plentiful. In the distance someone waited for him, hand outstretched. Could it be his wife, Turtle Woman, come back to life? How could this be?

  The woman stood alone. As he came closer he realized she was not Indian at all! Her hair was light, and her eyes the color of the sky. Somehow he knew her. The spirits told him she was important to him. This woman was close to his heart, yet he had never met her. He came closer, ever closer. She must belong to him! Her heart was good, even though she was white. He reached out to grasp her hand, but the instant he touched her she disappeared.

  At that very moment the skewers tore loose from his flesh, and he fell unconscious to the ground.

  Six

  Anita Wolf rode up to the schoolhouse, a little boy perched in front of her. Evelyn recognized He-Who-Hunts, eight-year-old William Eagle. “How did you do it?” she greeted Anita with a smile as she reached up to lift William down from the big roan mare Anita rode.