A Different Blue(40)

Her name was Sapana, a beautiful girl who loved the birds of the forest. One day, Sapana was out

collecting firewood when she had saw a hawk laying at the base of a tree. A large porcupine

quill stuck out of his breast. The girl soothed the bird and pulled the quill out, freeing the

bird to fly away. Then the girl saw a large porcupine sitting by the trunk of a tall cottonwood

tree. “It was you, you wicked thing! You hurt that poor bird.” She wanted to catch the evil

porcupine and take his quills so he wouldn't hurt another bird.

Sapana chased after him, but the porcupine was very quick and he climbed the tree. The girl

climbed after him but could never seem to catch up to him. Higher and higher the porcupine

climbed, and the tree just kept extending itself higher and higher into the sky. Suddenly,

Sapana saw a flat, smooth surface over her head. It was shining, and as she reached out to touch

it she realized it was the sky. Suddenly, she found herself standing in a circle of teepees. The

tree had disapeared and the porcupine had transformed himself into an ugly old man. Sapana was

afraid and tried to escape, but she didn't know how to get home. The porcupine man said, “I

have been watching you. You are very beautiful and you work very hard. We work very hard in the

the Sky world. You will be my wife.” Sapana did not want to be the wife of porcupine man, but

she did not know what else to do. She was trapped.

Sapana missed the green and browns of the forest and longed to return to her family. Each day

the old man brought her buffalo hides to scrape and stretch and sew into robes. When there were

no hides to stretch, she would dig turnips. The porcupine man told her not to dig too deep, but

one day the girl was daydreaming about her home in the forest and paid little attention to the

depth she was digging. When she pulled the large turnip from the ground, she saw light shining

up through the hole. When she looked into the hole, she could see patches of the green earth far

below. Now she knew how to get home! She rolled the huge turnip back into the hole so the

porcupine man would not see what she had discovered.

Each day Sapana would take the leftover sinews from the buffalo hides and tie them together.

Eventually, she had a very long rope she could use to lower herself back to the earth. She tied

the rope to a nearby tree and rolled the turnip from the ground. She lowered herself down

through the clouds, and the patches of green grew closer and closer, but she was still high in

the sky. Suddenly, Sapana felt a yanking on her rope and looked up to see the porcupine man

peering down at her from the hole in the sky. “Climb back up or I will untie the rope from the

tree and you will fall!” he roared. But Sapana would not climb back up. Suddenly, the rope

loosened, and she was falling through the air. Then something flew up beneath her, and she

settled onto the back of a large hawk. It was the hawk Sapana had helped in the forest the day

she had chased the porcupine. He flew to the earth with her on his back. Sapana's family was so

happy to see her. From then on, they left bits of buffalo meat for the hawk and other birds of

prey as a symbol of their gratitude for Sapana's protection and return.

“You are like the hawk that saved Sapana!” I had squealed, delighted by the story. “I wish my

name was Sapana! Then I would be Sapana Echohawk!”

Jimmy had smiled at me. But he seemed sad, and he muttered, “Sometimes I feel more like the