The Removed(13)

I refused to migrate west on the Trail, and that is why we died. I refused because it was not fair treatment, and I was willing to sacrifice my life for you, our family, and our people. Yes, I know an old man has a mouth full of thunder. So does an old spirit.

Before you were born, I helped Dragging Canoe and his son take the fleshy side of enemy scalps and paint them red and tie them to poles for the scalp dances. We imitated the Europeans who invaded us by dancing a foolish, awkward stomp to show their clumsiness. More importantly, the dance healed us by weakening the other races who were responsible for harm or sickness. It was also used to heal the sick for our own people.

At one of these dances I met a man named Dasi’giya’gi whose war medicine was an uktena’s shedded skin and burned turtle shell, which he used to smear on his face and body for protection from enemies. He had never been wounded because of wearing this war medicine, as strong as yellowroot. He warned me of the seventh hell we were living in, and soon I had dreams of the blood and destruction. Dragging Canoe told me, “You will be a visionary with prophetic gifts. You must learn to understand this.” He then told me the story of the young prophet:

STORY OF THE BOY WITH PROPHETIC VISIONS

The boy dreamed of words written on the leaves that he could not read. In his dream he stood beside the gristmill his father built for grinding corn and watched the leaves play in the wind. As he followed the leaves, he saw Nun-Yunu-Wi, the Stone Beings, who gave him a reddish-brown rock. They told him to break the rock and use the red color to paint his face to hunt. When he woke, his father was ill and not able to hunt for food that day, so the boy painted his face red and went out into the cold day to hunt.

The boy shot a doe and ran to it. When he got to the dead doe, he saw leaves covering its body. The leaves were blue, and one of the leaves was fluttering as if from a breeze. He picked up the blue leaf and saw letters that formed a message telling him to warn people of the coming soldiers. This message upset him greatly, and as he dragged the doe by its legs, he grew so angry he slipped and fell, knocking his head on a rock that left him unconscious.

Visions came to him then. He saw people walking wearily through the snow. On and on they trudged, hunched forward in the wind through a storm. He saw people falling to their knees, dying in the rain. He saw guards with their rifles and the scowls on their faces, and he felt the misery sweep over everyone like a cold wind. He saw the terror and brutality and heard the crying of infants and children.

He saw the transformation of a corn stalk into a beautiful woman whose drops of blood in the ground shook the earth and blossomed into a beautiful tree. Then he climbed the tree and saw, in the distance, the soldiers coming from far away. They were bringing oxcarts and wagons, and dust around them rose and formed into an image of a giant snake in the sky. He watched the snake cough dust so that soon enough he wasn’t able to see the soldiers or the snake anymore, just an enormous billow of red dust in the sky, growing larger and larger.

When the boy woke, he saw that the doe next to him was still breathing. He looked deep into the doe’s eyes, which were large and brown and watery. And the doe spoke: “Go and tell your people about your visions. Warn them about the coming soldiers, the cold winter, and the approaching suffering and death. I will see you soon.”

Then the doe stopped breathing, with her eyes still open.

Beside the doe was another blue leaf fluttering in the breeze. The boy picked it up and saw the message: he would die soon, too.

He lay beside the doe, crying out in sadness and anger until he wasn’t able to cry anymore. Then he slept for two days straight. He did not dream during this long sleep, and when he woke, he saw that the doe beside him had gone.

He walked all the way back to the village, where he warned everyone of the soldiers: “They will force us from our land!” he said. “A cold winter full of death is coming.”

“We’re afraid to tell people by the river,” they said. “The Great Leech of Tlanyusi’yi is there and is eating people who go fishing. They disappear and never return. How do we warn them?”

The river was frightening for many people. There was a rock to walk across the water, like a bridge. People stood on the rock and fished in the river, until they noticed a long red snake that kept itself rolled into a ball. Whenever it sensed the presence of a human, the red snake unrolled itself and leapt out of the water onto the rock, then dragged the people into the water and ate their faces. Their bodies were found drowned along the bank with their eyes and noses eaten from their faces. One person said these dead people had no tongues.

“It is not my time of dying, even if I had dreams,” the boy said. He set off for the river, happily singing a song:

Tlanu’ si’ gune’ ga digi’gage

Dakwa’ nitlaste’ sfi!

I will tie red leech skins

On my legs for garters!

But when he got to the rock, nobody was there. He looked down and saw the water began to boil and foam. This is the account told to us by the spirits who watched from nearby.

The boy became unable to move from fear. “You won’t kill me!” he shouted.

And the leech leapt up and carried him down underwater, and he was never seen again.

*

Beloved, we knew the soldiers were coming before they ever arrived. Our people knew long before, thanks to the prophecies. It was a time of fear, but we would never let fear bury us.