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SPIRIT
Senior Member

since 2002-12-29

Posts 1745
California Desert

0 posted 2003-08-16 01:27 PM

THE SCHOOL PROJECT

Come in, please
Make yourself comfortable.
You want to ask me questions,
What it was like to be the woman
Of a great chief and warrior?
A project for school - you say,
I can only tell you what I know,
Other native women… unfortunately,
Were not as lucky as I.

My beloved husband
Whom I called Feather,
Was indeed a mighty warrior,
A feared, yet much respected Chief.
I was fifteen when he first saw me,
I was bathing ‘neath the crystal waters
Of the cascading waterfall
At High River Point.
He was on his journey of manhood
To prove his right to be Chief,
After his father would pass
To a Higher Place.

It seems like such a short time later
He arrived at my father’s lodge,
Laden with furs and meat
And six ponies, asking my father
For permission to marry me.
His mother came also,
She delighted in telling my father
That he had proved himself worthy,
Would be the next Chief of the tribe
And that I would live in a fine lodge.
Thus my future was secured.

He was so handsome, so strong,
I could not help but love him.
He had a rage in him
That he showed to others,
But never to me.

In many tribes a man
Was proven a man,
By how many wives he had.
My husband’s father
Had five wives at one time,
He treated them all as slaves.
The elders chastised Feather
For taking to him only one wife,
They did it but once only.
His anger laid a black cloud
Over our tribe for many moons,
They questioned him no more.

A man was faulted if seen
To be helping his squaw
With the many bundles,
She might be carrying.
My husband let it be known
That he would help me,
And any man was welcome
To take him – their chief
To task, in hand to hand contest,
To the death… if they so disapproved
Needless to say, he had no takers.

My husband, my dear Feather
Allowed me to feel.
In the privacy of our lodge
I shed many a tear,
Over his many wounds
Received in too much fighting,
Too many skirmishes and small wars.
I cried also for the loss
Of my two youngest sons
And for the lack of a daughter.
But the most tears I shed,
Were, and still are,
Shed for my older son
Running Spring Buffalo,
For he is his grandfather’s image.
Believes in many wives,
That they are for his pleasures,
His to command,
They obey, or else.
He is a warmonger,
Unlike his father, who believed
That peace with the white man
Would be beneficial to all.

He is a fool, my older son,
Who is now Chief,
Since Feather’s departure
To the Hunting Grounds
Of the Greater Spirit.

You want to know… what?
Why I live with the Preacher
As part of his family?
Because they are my family now.
The children call me grandmother,
I like that very much, and I love them.
When Feather left me
Tribal custom said I should remarry,
My son did not want me in his lodge
No more than I wanted to be there.
I would never take another husband,
Custom or not… so I left my tribe.

I share my customs
With the preacher and his family,
They in turn teach theirs, to me.
You can see my happiness here,
Living proof that my dear Feather
Was correct… the white man
Can live in harmony with the Indian.
Feel free to see me again,
For I like to talk about my life
As wife to a respected chief
And feared warrior,
Remembering is good.

aries_luv_ppl
Senior Member

since 2001-09-20

Posts 1448
Universal Mind

1 posted 2003-08-16 05:20 PM

This is good

Eliza Simmons
~Every girl has a dream within.
~Yesterday insult, today gain.

Trillium

Member Patricius

since 2001-03-09

Posts 12098
Idaho, USA

2 posted 2003-08-16 05:29 PM

SPIRIT: A truly inspired write! I enjoyed it so much and it carries many messages. Great job on this.

Betty Lou Hebert

Joyce Johnson

Member Rara Avis

since 2001-03-10

Posts 9912
Washington State

3 posted 2003-08-16 06:22 PM

I am so glad to have you and your story poems back. This is wonderful. Love, Joyce

SharaRose
Member Elite

since 2003-07-19

Posts 2501
Somewhere out there~

4 posted 2003-08-17 07:25 AM

Your life is the things stories are made of. What a wonderful thing, and we are beneficiaries of that. Thank you so much for sharing this. What an honor it is to recieve!

SharaRose @-->--

Of sound, and speech let all lift the hearer!

cusick
Senior Member

since 2003-07-27

Posts 668

5 posted 2003-08-19 01:15 PM

Spirit this is so intense and rings true. I feel that you must know these people well. Thanks for the read.Maggie

gringakiwi
Member

since 2003-08-05

Posts 189

6 posted 2003-08-20 04:35 AM

Beautiful. *sob*

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