When the tree flowered

by John G. Neihardt

“Then Last Dog came out, and after him his woman, who was He Crow’s sister, and Running Wolf’s, and she was holding her man back by his arm. When Last Dog straightened up from stooping through the flap and looked at Running Wolf, they say he tried to smile, but only looked sick all at once. He was saying, ‘Kola, kola [friend],’ and was holding out his hand. And Running Wolf looked hard at Last Dog for a while, and said, ‘I have seen where Last Dog butchered.’ Then he leaped from his horse upon Last Dog and bore the man to the ground. His knife was out, and the people near by saw it slash the throat, and stab and stab into Last Dog’s breast, and with each stab, he grunted, ‘hawnh!’ It was still around the village where the people were looking; still between one breathing and the next. Then the woman screamed and seized her brother. But he threw her off and leaped upon his horse, and cried, ‘Let my brothers come and see where Running Wolf has butchered!’ And then he put his horse into a run and fled, not through the opening into the village but through the hoop of tepees; and the people watched him over the ridge.

“That night the sister mourned in Last Dog’s tepee; and there was mourning in the tepee of the dead man’s father, Standing Hawk. Some of us who had fought Shoshoni horsebacks in the snow listened that night and talked. A young woman could find another man, and maybe a better one, when her hair grew long again. But Standing Hawk was old, and Last Dog was the only son he had left. We did not say evil things of Last Dog, for his spirit would be hearing; and we did not call him Big Mouth; but we did not like him, and Running Wolf we liked, for we knew how it was in his heart. We talked of Standing Hawk and of his sorrow. He was a good old man. Everybody liked him, and he was one of the wichasha yatapika, men of whom no evil could be said. For he was a great warrior when he was younger, and he had always given to the needy; and often when men spoke of wachin tanka [magnanimity], they remembered stories about him.

“We talked of Running Wolf too, hardly more than a boy, and of what he had done. Hardly more than a boy, and a te-wichakte [kills-home, murderer], and all the people against him. We spoke low when we spoke of him, for he had done the worst thing a man can do; and we liked him. Maybe we would have done it, too, with five brothers feeding the crows and wolves yonder. But we spoke low when we said it, for it was the worst thing that he had done. Kill a stranger, many strangers, and the people cried, ‘hiyay,’ and sang the victory song, and danced the victory dance. Kill a Lakota and you killed a home, you broke the sacred hoop of the people a little. Maka [the Mother Earth] herself you struck when you killed. It was the worst thing a man could do.

“When the day came, the council got together; and when they had talked, they sent for two akichitas, and to them the head chief said, ‘Find Running Wolf and bring him here. If he will not come, then leave him for the crows to eat where you find him.’ And the two akichitas rode away.

“They did not have very far to go, for the day was still young when we saw three horsebacks coming over the ridge; and Running Wolf rode in the middle with his chin upon his breast. Afterwards I heard how they found him sitting on a hill and weeping, with his horse grazing near. I think he had been crying there all night, and his anger was washed out of his heart. When the two rode up and stopped their horses, he stood, and looked at them; and if he had been witko, he was not so any more. He just said, ‘I am ready.’

“While the three came riding, the people were out in front of their tepees, watching all around the hoop. Old Standing Hawk was sitting in front of his tepee, with his dead son, Last Dog, lying beside him, washed and dressed, ready for the world of spirit. They had not wrapped the dead man yet, so that the kills-home might look upon his face again. In the center of the hoop the council and the chiefs and the wichasha yatapika were sitting, watching too. And there was nothing to hear but the voices of the mourning ones.

“The three rode in through the opening and around the hoop, to the left, with their horses walking slow, until they came to where the old man sat beside his dead son. There they stopped and waited, facing the mourner, and in the middle Running Wolf sat upon his horse with his head hung low. When they had waited so for a while, old Standing Hawk lifted his face to Running Wolf and said, ‘Come here and sit with me, young man.’ Running Wolf got down and came. Then the old man pointed to the body on the ground and said, ‘Sit there upon him while I speak to you.’ And Running Wolf sat down upon the man he killed, with his face in his hands. Then Standing Hawk raised a mourning voice, like singing, and said, ‘I had a son, and he was all I had. One son I had, and now my son is dead, and I am old, and there is none to look to in my need. One son I had and Running Wolf has killed him. My days are made empty now, and I am old.’

“People near by saw Running Wolf’s shoulders shaking and tears running through his fingers.

“Then Standing Hawk took his pipe and filled and lit it, and to the four quarters of the earth he offered it and to Wakon Tonka and to Maka, the mother of all. And when this was done, he held the mouthpiece of the pipe towards Running Wolf, and said, ‘Look up and do not fear.’ And Running Wolf looked up with tears upon his face, and took the pipe and touched it with his mouth. And when the people saw this done, they knew that he was sorry and would do whatever he was told; and with one voice they cried, ‘Hiyee! Thanks! Hiyee!’

“When the voice of the people was still, Standing Hawk spoke to Running Wolf again, ‘My son, you have done the worst thing a man can do, but I have seen your tears and looked into your heart. Do not be afraid of anything, my son, for when you come again to me and are cleansed with lamenting, you shall be my son until I die.’ Then he asked that a cup of water be brought to him; and when it was brought, he gave Running Wolf to drink, and tears fell into the cup. Then Standing Hawk said, ‘Bring food that my son may eat.’ And when meat was brought to him, he cut it up himself and gave it to the killer of his son, and Running Wolf ate a little of the meat with his tears upon it.