"Great numbers will die, and those who remain will be driven to unkind lands."
"What of the Sauk?" White Bear asked, trembling.
"The many who follow Black Hawk across the Great River will be few when they cross back."
Oh, no!
This was what he had come here to learn, but hearing it was like being cast down from this lodge in the clouds to crash to the earth.
"Then the British Band should not go back to Saukenuk?"
"You cannot stop them. For you as for all of my people, this is to be a time of testing and pain. I charge you to see that those who hurt my children do not gain from it. You will be the guardian of the land that has been placed in your keeping."
"But I have already lost that land," White Bear cried.
As if he had not heard White Bear, the Turtle said, "Know that long after all who live now have walked the Trail of Souls, my children will be many again, and let the knowing lift up your heart." The Turtle touched his own claws to the deep crevice in his under-shell from which the water perpetually dripped.
White Bear knew it was time to go.