Free Walks the Fire by Stephanie Grace Whitson Page A

for her own child.” Prairie Flower took a breath and looked at Yellow Bird as she added, “Think how it would be if you were among the whites, Yellow Bird!”
    Yellow Bird retorted, “Rides the Wind has not wrapped her in his robe. There has been no feast. She is not his wife! She is only a slave. And, Prairie Flower,” she added hotly, “I would die before I would stay with a strange people!”
    Prairie Flower demurred. “I do not know why she stays. Perhaps Rides the Wind will not let her go. Perhaps she has nowhere else to go. She does not seem to care for him. But she stays. If she wants to learn our ways, I will help her.”
    Yellow Bird and her friends were already walking away from Prairie Flower, hurrying to their own tepees to begin the work of butchering and cooking their own kills. Prairie Flower’s defense ended abruptly as Howling Wolf pulled her away, scolding her for neglecting to erect the frame over their fire to cook their buffalo meat. He had erected the frame himself and brought in the small buffalo’s paunch. Filled with water, the paunch was hung on the frame over the fire. Soon, hot rocks and meat were added and allowed to boil.
    While some of their meat boiled, Old One showed Jesse how to cut other meat into thin strips, which were hung on a large frame to dry in the sun. Pointing to the drying meat, she said, “papa ” and Jesse repeated the word. Later in the day, they pounded thin-cut meat with marrow and choke-cherries. Wakapapi, Old One called it. Jesse was surprised to find that she liked it
    That night there was a huge feast. Dancing and singing ran late into the night. Jesse watched as Rides the Wind sat among his friends, telling some story of the day’s hunt, his hands waving the air as he re-created a scene for them all.
    Howling Wolf sat at the edge of the group, listening in stony silence. When the group joked about the size of Rides the Wind’s kill compared to his, Howling Wolf rose and stalked away without a word. When Rides the Wind protested and went after him, Howling Wolf refused the hand of friendship.
    Still, there was great happiness in the village, and they all ate until they could eat no more. Jesse watched the dancing with lively interest. Dressed in their finest dresses, the women stood about the edge of the fire, hopping about slowly from left to right, then right to left. Each dancer stepped out with her left foot and then dragged the right to meet it, then the direction was reversed. Drums played by the men seated in a circle inside the dancers provided the rhythm for the dance.
    She saw Old One with a band of crones and Prairie Flower smiling softly at a friend’s whispered secrets. Quietly, she slipped away from the campfire to the tepee of Rides the Wind. Two Mothers slept, but she scooped him up anyway. When Rides the Wind missed her and left the celebration to search, he found her sleeping soundly, Two Mothers nestled in the crook of her arm.
    In the days that followed, Jesse learned that nearly all of the buffalo would be used by the Lakota. Horns became ladles and cups. Hair from the scraped hides was collected and used to stuff pillows. The ribs were kept for the children to use in games. Old One claimed the bladder as a pouch for storing some of her precious herbs.
    Tanning the hide took all of Jesse’s strength. First, the skin was stretched on a large frame and allowed to dry in the sun. Once their hides were dry, the women began fleshing them, scraping fat and tissue away with an elkhorn scraper. Jesse worked hard, ignoring the aching shoulder muscles that complained about the new workout. The first scraping done, the skin was left to dry again, and in a few hours became stiff, dry rawhide. Still more scraping was needed to remove the hair from the hides.
    Jesse inwardly recoiled from the next step in the tanning process, but she tried not to show it. Buffalo brains were cooked and, when cooled, spread over the skin until it was totally covered