Nakoa's Woman by Gayle Rogers

Author:Gayle Rogers [Rogers, Gayle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781419695056
Google: FtKMngEACAAJ
Amazon: B005EINVYA
Barnesnoble: B005EINVYA
Goodreads: 2516263
Publisher: Sojourner Publishers Inc
Published: 1971-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Early the next morning the camp criers announced the erection of the Sun Dance pole and the building of the Medicine Lodge. The blood bands sent young men of the tribe to bring in trees. Nine forked trees were needed for the lodge poles, branches for rafters, and green boughs to cover the lodge sides. The Mutsik went forward as a war party to bring back the center pole, counting coups as they cut it and broke off its branches. The pole was dragged back to the village by lariats and a travois.

Sikapischis had already purchased the Sun Dance Bundle and now in the lodge of Isokinuhkin, Chief Medicine Man, it was transferred from the former Sun Dance Woman to her. For the first time the village saw their Sacred Woman, now in her fifth day of fasting, as the ceremony of transferring the Sun Dance Bundle was witnessed by everybody who could crowd into Isokinuhkin’s lodge. Sikapischis was still painted with sacred red, and she was dressed in ceremonial clothing of deer and antelope skins; singing in unison, her women attendants placed the sacred headdress upon her head. Then they put an elkskin robe upon her shoulder and sang the elk song, and those listening outside knew that it was time for Sacred Woman to emerge from the lodge.

The Medicine Lodge was yet unfinished, but a temporary shelter had been built for Sikapischis and Isokinuhkin. Maria watched her friend and the Medicine Man move toward it. Sikapischis was weak and could not stand without the help of a staff; leaning heavily upon it, she moved slowly toward the Medicine Lodge, faltering twice. Isokinuhkin waited for her in her failing, staying reverently behind her; she gained new strength and walked on, her eyes fixed upon the earth. In the ritual, it was not yet time for her to face the sun. Toward the unfinished lodge she walked, east to south, following the course of the sun through the sky, and finally she and Isokinuhkin entered the shelter.

Offerings were now brought to her from many warriors, and then women came, bringing their collections of sacred tongue. One woman came to Sikapischis, and faced with her the setting sun. “Father Sun,” she said. “Hear my words, and pity me in my pain! I have lived straight, and I have been always a clean woman! I bring this tongue that my husband might live, my husband Wunnestou, messenger to the great Mutsik.”

A strange look came to Sikapischis’s face. She stopped looking at the sun and looked instead at the wife of Wunnestou. The woman became flustered, and bowed toward the sun. “You bow, when your words do not,” Maria heard Sikapischis say softly. “Will you speak again?”

“Yes,” the woman answered. “In pain I ask that my husband may live.” Sikapischis nodded, and the woman departed. Natosin, head chief, entered the shelter, and with Sacred Woman and the Medicine Man, faced the sun. “It is time now for the raising of the Sun Dance pole.

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