Yankton Indians -- Government relations; Yankton Indians -- Social conditions; Yankton women -- Biography; Zitkala-Sa, 1876-1938
"Hunha!" again ejaculated the warrior father. Then turning to his little
daughter, he asked, "Tusee, do you hear that?"
"Yes, father, and I am going to dance tonight!"
With these words she bounded out of his arm and frolicked about in glee.
Hereupon the proud mother's voice rang out in a chiding laugh.
"My child, in honor of your first dance your father must give a generous
gift. His ponies are wild, and roam beyond the great hill. Pray, what
has he fit to offer?" she questioned, the pair of puzzled eyes fixed
upon her.
"A pony from the herd, mother, a fleet-footed pony from the herd!" Tusee
shouted with sudden inspiration.
Pointing a small forefinger toward the man lying on the grass, she
cried, "Uncle, you will go after the pony tomorrow!" And pleased with
her solution of the problem, she skipped wildly about. Her childish
faith in her elders was not conditioned by a knowledge of human
limitations, but thought all things possible to grown-ups.
"Hähob!" exclaimed the mother, with a rising inflection, implying by the
expletive that her child's buoyant spirit be not weighted with a denial.
Quickly to the hard request the man replied, "How! I go if Tusee tells
me so!"
This delighted the little one, whose black eyes brimmed over with light.
Standing in front of the strong man, she clapped her small, brown hands
with joy.
"That makes me glad! My heart is good! Go, uncle, and bring a handsome
pony!" she cried. In an instant she would have frisked away, but an
impulse held her tilting where she stood. In the man's own tongue, for
he had taught her many words and phrases, she exploded, "Thank you, good
uncle, thank you!" then tore away from sheer excess of glee.
The proud warrior father, smiling and narrowing his eyes, muttered
approval, "Howo! Hechetu!"
Like her mother, Tusee has finely pencilled eyebrows and slightly
extended nostrils; but in her sturdiness of form she resembles her
father.
A loyal daughter, she sits within her tepee making beaded deerskins for
her father, while he longs to stave off her every suitor as all unworthy
of his old heart's pride. But Tusee is not alone in her dwelling. Near
the entrance-way a young brave is half reclining on a mat. In silence he
watches the petals of a wild rose growing on the soft buckskin. Quickly
the young woman slips the beads on the silvery sinew thread, and works
them into the pretty flower design. Finally, in a low, deep voice, the
young man begins:
"The sun is far past the zenith. It is now only a man's height above the
western edge of land. I hurried hither to tell you tomorrow I join the
war party."
He pauses for reply, but the maid's head drops lower over her deerskin,
and her lips are more firmly drawn together. He continues:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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