Free Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt Page B

in little islands and make us be like Wasichus. So before we had gone very far, some of us broke away and started for the country where we used to be happy. We traveled fast, and the soldiers did not follow us. But when our little band came to the Powder River country, it was not like it used to be, and we were not ready for the winter. So we kept on traveling north, and we went fast, 1 because we wanted to be with our relatives under Sitting Bull and Gall in Grandmother’s Land. *
    It was very cold before we reached Clay Creek 2 where our relatives were; but they were glad to see us and took care of us. They had made plenty of meat, for there were many bison in that country; and it was a good winter. The soldiers could not come to kill us there.
    I was fifteen years old that winter, and I thought much of my vision and wondered when my duty was to come; forthe Grandfathers had shown me my people walking on the black road and how the nation’s hoop would be broken and the flowering tree be withered, before I should bring the hoop together with the power that was given me, and make the holy tree to flower in the center and find the red road again. Part of this had happened already, and I wondered when my power would grow, so that the rest might be as I had seen it in my vision. But I could say nothing about this to anyone, because I was only a boy and people would think I was foolish and say: “What can you do if even Sitting Bull can do nothing?”
    When the grasses appeared again we went bison hunting, and I was big enough now to hunt with the men. My uncle, Running Horse, and I were out together alone one day. I was riding a bay and leading my roan, which was very fast. My uncle was riding a roan and leading a brown horse. We came to Little River Creek and crossed it, and just then I began feeling queer and I knew something was going to happen. So I said to my uncle: “I have a queer feeling and I think something is going to happen soon. I will watch while you kill a bison and we will make quick work of it and go.” He looked at me in a strange way awhile. Then he said “How” and started after a bison. There were several grazing in the valley. I held my horses and watched. When he had killed a fat cow, I went to help him butcher, but I held my horses while I was doing this, for I still had the queer feeling. Then I heard a voice that said: “Go at once and look!” I told Running Horse I would go to the top of the hill and see what was there. So I rode up and I saw two Lakota hunters galloping after a bison across a valley toward some bluffs. Just after they went out of sight behind a bluff, my horse began to prick up his ears and look around and sniff the air. Then I heard some fast shooting over there, then many horses’ hoofs. Then I saw a band of about fifty horsebacks comingout from behind the bluffwhere the two hunters had disappeared. They were Crows, and afterwards we learned that they had killed the two hunters.
    So my uncle and I took as much meat as we could and rode fast back to our village and told the others.
    This showed that my power was growing, and I was glad.
    In the Moon of Making Fat (June), Sitting Bull and Gall had a sun dance at Forest Butte, 3 and afterwards we went hunting again. A man by the name of Iron Tail was with me this time, and we were out alone. I killed a big fat bison cow and we were butchering, when a thunder storm was coming up. Then it began to pour rain, and I heard a voice in the clouds that said: “Make haste! Before the day is out something will happen!”
    Of course when I heard this I was excited and told Iron Tail I had heard a voice in the clouds and that we must hurry up and go. We left everything but the fat of the cow, and fled. When we got to the camp of our little band, we were excited and told the people we must flee. So they broke camp and started. We came to Muddy Creek. It was still raining hard and we had trouble getting across because the horses sank in