The Vengeance of Mothers by Jim Fergus

Author:Jim Fergus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

LEDGER BOOK VII

The Strong-heart Women’s Warrior Society

Violence begets but more violence, and from it we learn that there are no limits, no boundaries to the savagery, the butchery of which human beings are capable. Nor can there be any understanding of it, or coming to terms with it. I hope it is true that the meek shall inherit the earth, but in the meantime, sadly, this is the world we have inherited.

(from the journals of Margaret Kelly)

14 May 1876

Me and Susie have left the greenhorns to their own devices. We figure we’ve babysat them long enough, have done our job by bringing ’em this far. After all, that’s what we said we would do, and we weren’t all that thrilled about the idea in the first place. Now it’s time for them to start sortin’ things out themselves, makin’ their own way in the village. Aye, and we must say, it’s a relief not being any longer responsible for ’em.

So we’re turnin’ our attention to our own business … the important business of war, of vengeance, preparin’ to kill soldiers, which moment me and Susie have been living for since they took our wee babies from us. Because they proved themselves in battle during the Mackenzie attack, our Phemie and Pretty Nose were both named war chiefs by the tribal council, and have been given permission by the elders to form a women’s warrior society. It is said that there have only been a handful of women chiefs in the long history of the tribe, and only occasionally in times of need when the number of men warriors has been reduced, or when a special woman, or two, comes forward to fill the role … Aye, and this is such a time, and Pretty Nose and Phemie are such women.

The men themselves have seven such warrior societies, each with their own specialty and way of bein’: the Kit Fox Men, the Elk Soldiers, the Dog Soldiers, the Red Shields, the Bowstrings, the Chief Soldiers, and the Crazy Dogs—this last mostly young warriors, known for their recklessness and the need to prove themselves in battle … it is with them our lads rode on that terrible day they took the Shoshone baby hands … and brought the vengeance of gods down upon us.

Given the right to name their own society, Pretty Nose and Phemie call us Imo’ yuk he’ tan à’e—it’s a mouthful in Cheyenne, to be sure, but in English it means Strong-heart Women. Me and Susie went to our first meeting today, held in a special ceremonial lodge Phemie put up near her and her husband Black Man’s tipi. Only we members of the Strong-heart Women, or those personally invited, are allowed to attend these meetings. And everything said or done there is to be kept secret. It is explained that if we even speak of it to others outside the society, we risk bringin’ bad fortune upon us when we go into battle.

When the meeting is over, we

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