SINGING WATERS AND THE MEDICINE WELL Singing Waters’ work as an Indian maiden in the Teton-Dakota tribe was typical of the work of Indian maidens across the continent. Each year she would make new clothing for her family and each day of the year she would cook and do the many little things that were the duty of a good Indian squaw. The work was hard but Singing Waters did not mind, for she loved her husband and her children and was very happy and proud to be able to help them. When she found that she had some free time, Singing Waters would join the other women of the tribe to boast about her husband’s great deeds on the hunt and in battle. This was a favorite pastime of all the squaws. They would spend many hours throughout the years to talk, over and over again about the adventures of their braves. Each time they would repeat the stories with even more enthusiasm. One day, all the tribe’s braves had left to hunt down a great buffalo herd for food and clothing for the tribe. Singing Waters was seated in front of her tepee, teaching her two daughters how to cook, when the morning sky grew suddenly very black. A great quiet fell upon the village. Even the dogs that seemed to spend their day barking for no good reason were silent. Singing Waters heard only the wind as it whispered through the village. Then from the distance, there came a rumble that seemed to come slowly nearer and nearer to the village. Singing Waters realized quickly that a dust storm was heading for her village. The other squaws had heard it, too, and were rushing to gather their children into their tepees and bind the skins across the entrances as tightly as they could. The dogs whimpered and scattered for whatever shelter they could find. The village did not have to wait long, for the winds were soon lashing against the tepees, straining their fastenings, and the dust was whipping through the village like a flood tide rushing over the rocks on the seashore. The dust reached into every opening in Singing Waters’ tepee. It wasn’t long before a fine coating of it covered everything and everyone inside. Her two daughters huddled close to her, crying slightly because of their fear of the storm. But soon the wind blew out of the village, and the last dust clouds settled to the ground. One by one the flaps of the tepees swung back. Mothers, children and old men began to come out. They found that many things, left outside in the haste of escaping from the storm, were covered with coats of light brown dust. Everyone began cleaning up the village and sweeping away the dust which had piled up against the sides of the tepees.