Free Bounty Hunter (9781101611975) by Bill Yenne Page B

English words to explain. It is not ‘sacred’ in the missionary way of being sacred, just as we do not ‘worship’ trees in the missionary way of worshipping.
Apóhkiááyo
is
important
to the Siksikáwa . . . not the same way as the buffalo . . . but . . . I don’t have the words . . .
apóhkiááyo
is greatly feared
and
greatly respected. I’m sorry that is the best I can explain.”
    Cole disagreed. “You have very good English words,” he said. “I know a lot of white people who do less of a job explaining things.”
    â€œDon’t let me be selfish,” she said.
    â€œHow do you mean?”
    â€œI am so happy to have someone . . . so I can speak my
Naapi’powahsin
 . . . my English words.”
    â€œYou’re not selfish at all . . . I’m happy to have someone to speak English words with myself.”
    She smiled and turned away.
    â€œBut about the grizzly . . . and it being sacred in the way that it is . . . and I know that’s the wrong English word . . . There’s something that I gotta tell you . . . gotta admit to.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œI killed one yesterday. I killed a grizzly.”
    Natoya-I-nis’kim looked at him with a mixture of shock and bewilderment.
    â€œYeah, I was coming across the plains and I came across a fresh elk kill,” he said. “The thing reared up and charged before I knew what was happening. I got off three shots . . . the last one was a lucky shot. So I killed a sacred bear. I’m sorry to say that, knowing that they’re important to your people . . . to the Siksikáwa . . . but it was him or me.”
    â€œIt is a very great thing to overcome
apóhkiááyo
in a fight,” Natoya said.
    She seemed impressed, rather than upset, a fact that caused Cole to breathe a sigh of relief.
    â€œBecause of their strength, and their great
nátosini
 . . . It is hard to kill him in a fight. Most men cannot. Most men die. A man who kills him in a fight inherits his power.”
    â€œHow does that work?” Cole asked.
    â€œPower . . . medicine . . . comes to all animals from
Natosiwa
, the sun. When
apóhkiááyo
is beaten in a fight, his power is then granted to the man. The man receives the character and spirit of
apóhkiááyo
. Of course he was powerful in the start . . . the man. He has to be to overcome
apóhkiááyo
. You are a powerful man, Mr. Cool.”
    â€œI didn’t feel any different,” Cole admitted, “except kind of dirty from having this sweaty bear dead on top of me.”
    Natoya laughed.
    â€œBy the way,” he said. “Since you seem to appreciate the grizzly, I’d like you to have this.”
    He reached into his pocket and took out a sharp and frightening six-inch grizzly claw.
    â€œI took this from that one yesterday,” he said, handing it to her. “I want you to have it.”
    She took the object as though it were a religious artifact, for to be given a grizzly claw by a man who had triumphed over
apóhkiááyo
in battle was an amazing gesture.
    She looked at it with an expression of awe. It was, Cole thought, like having handed a white woman a fistful of diamonds.
    Natoya then looked at him with an expression of speechless gratitude.
    *   *   *
    I N THE MORNING, ONLY N ATOYA- I -NIS’KIM AMONG THE three Siksikáwa accepted the coffee that Cole offered, though she found it not to her liking.
    By the middle of the day, the jagged peaks of the Rockies could be clearly seen, rising abruptly from the Plains.
    â€œ
Mistákists Ikánatsiaw
,” Natoya said with a nod as Cole pointed toward the snowcapped peaks. The trail of the horse thieves led toward the mountains, just as O-mis-tai-po-kah