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Heart-in-the-Lodge 
 
 'All a Mistake 
 
 A. McGr BEEDE 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 •SITTING BULL-CUSTER" 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
E^9 
 
 DAKOTA 
 
 (A "Dakota" Mating-Dance Song, in the "Dakota" time- 
 rythm. Each fifth line a male voice solo repeat.) 
 
 The big Man-in-the-Moon is liigh leaping, 
 The gay tomtom is drumming quick time; 
 
 The glad stars dance a polka. 
 
 Over rose-clad Dakota; 
 The Missouri is singing sweet chime; 
 Ha-ha-ha, ha, the tomtom's quick time, 
 Ha-ha-ha, ha, the river's sweet chime; 
 Hah'-ha-ha-, ha, Dakota, ha ha. 
 
 The young maidens are coming shy tripping. 
 Who is shooting the love-waking darts, 
 
 In the starlight so ready, 
 
 With his bowstring so steady. 
 To awaken the maidens' sweet hearts? 
 Ha-ha-ha, ha, the love-waking darts, 
 Ha-ha-ha, ha, maidens' sweet hearts; 
 Hah'-ha-ha-, ha, Dakota, ha ha. 
 
 The big Man-in-the-Moon is sly peeping. 
 At the summertime love-waking star; 
 
 He is slapping his knee, 
 
 He is shouting in glee, 
 "Love is better than war-cUibs, ha ha!" 
 Ha-ha-ha, ha, the love-waking star; 
 Ha-ha-ha, lia, Dakota, ha, ha, 
 Hah'-ha-ha-, ha, Dakota, ha ha. 
 
 — A. McG. Beede. 
 
 mn 2 I9l5 
 
 CI,A;i<J1971. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Thanks to all for the kind reception of mj^ "Sitting Bull- 
 Custer" (out of print till another edition). 
 
 This drama, Heart-in-the-Lodge, is not difficult to play. 
 Players, generally, should be of the race before whom the 
 playing is done. 
 
 Do not misunderstand the tent scene in "Curtain I." No 
 violence was done the men in the tent. I have written the 
 scene faithfully. 
 
 The men of Ellendale heard the Indians tell the story of 
 the "Whitestone Battle," on which this drama is based. The 
 conference was long with questions freely asked and answer- 
 ed. Living with these Indians, I have heard their free con- 
 versations about the battle, enough to make books. 
 
 Did they intend "to make a night attack on Sully's army?" 
 One who knows them will not believe it. Under any circum- 
 stances they would not make a night attack when "the moon 
 was not right," and at this time "the moon was not right." 
 
 They had no part in the "Minnesota Massacre" in '62. They 
 were at home planting and harv^esting and hunting meat and 
 wild fruits by the Missouri River, where they had lived for 
 125 years. Their tribal motto was "Quit war, plant the fields" 
 (Wokicizeayustan, wozupo). 
 
 After the massacre a desire for revenge obsessed White peo- 
 ple. A murder by an Indian is chargeable to all Indians and 
 is unforgivable. The first book published in America (1634) 
 speaks of Indians as generally peacable. One hundred years 
 later an Indian murdered a White man in Groton, Mass., and 
 so a bounty was offered for Indian scalps. "Captain" Love- 
 well was soon paid eleven bounties. The purpose was to 
 scare Indians out of New Hampshire and Maine so the fron- 
 tier could expand. 
 
 After the "Minnesota Massacre" General Sibley went from 
 Minnesota west pursuing the retreating Santee (Sioux) In- 
 dians till they escaped across the Missouri. General Sully 
 went from the south up the Missouri to cut off their escape 
 across the river. Poor man, he was late, and so the Santees 
 escaped. Sibley's promptness left Sully late. Sully's boats 
 perplexed him. The Missouri was^.'low water," and he lacked 
 the civilian boldness to let a few hundred detached horsemen 
 
go on ahead living from buffalo meat, frontier stj^le. This 
 would have trapped the Santees, for their warriors had no 
 discipline. It was 13 years later when 400 Sioux with Gall and 
 400 Sheyennes with Crazy-Horse had sufficient discipline to hurl 
 themselves onto Custer as a unit, and 900 warriors with Red- 
 Cloud fought Crook to a standstill with his 1900 "regulars." 
 Indians were learning discipline when the failure of buffalo 
 meat and starvation made them "reservation Indians." 
 
 Sully knew Pope would blame him — and he did. What 
 could he do but take any Indian trail he saw and find some 
 Indians? The Hunk-pa-ti (Sioux) Indians had recently gone 
 from Long Lake (down river from Bismarck), where Sully 
 had now arrived, to Bigstone Lake, 20 miles northwest of 
 Ellendale. He saw their trail and took it. Up to this day 
 these Indians had not had any trouble with White men. Now 
 they will have trouble enough. The drama tells the story. 
 It is to be plaj'ed by a community, unmindful of "the audi- 
 ence." 
 
 Several men now living heard SuUj^ say, "The battle was 
 all a mistake." Sil)ley was a resolute frontiersman, inclined 
 to be over-prompt. He sav/ the necessity for order and gov- 
 ernment, though he knew justice for Indians was impossible. 
 I understand he said, "Bad faith on the part of some White 
 people has caused this uprising, and now I am sent out to 
 kill Indians." Indians knew^ him personally, and they say 
 lie was not "a man with murder in his heart." General Sil)- 
 ley had no part in the attack on these Hunk-pa-ti Indians and 
 the "Whitestone Battle." 
 
CURTAIN I 
 
 THE INDIANS FLEE AWAY 
 
 The Scene. A tall granite shaft erected on a hill twenty 
 miles northwest of Ellendale, N. D., is visible from a long dis- 
 tance away. Here the Hunk-pa-ti Indians (a Sioiiian tribe) 
 were in their summer home around "Bigstone Lake." 
 
 The stage has tents clearly visible on the right, with peo- 
 ple, children and dogs, and campfires by them. 
 
 In the center of the stage, back from the front, beneath a 
 skeleton wicker booth, there are four singers witli a tom- 
 tom and a drummer, who occasionally taps the tomtom, and 
 conversation is free. 
 
 An old Indian enters, starts "tlie sacred fire" with cedar- 
 tree twigs at the right of the booth. With arms outstretched, 
 palms down, he gesticulates with arms and bending body to- 
 ward "the sacred fire," then with palms upward, and so erect 
 that he bends backward, he gesticulates reverently toward the 
 heavens. Then he disappears, leaving "the sacred fire" to 
 quickly burn out. 
 
 As the "Fire-maker" retires the old l)lind "Herald" enters, 
 calling out musically. He goes around the stage, leaving where 
 he appeared. He supports himself with a cane in his right 
 hand, and a little girl leads him by a cane in his left hand. 
 
 OLD BLIND HERALD (sonorously) 
 
 Ho-po, ho-po! The buffalo dance, the sacred 
 biifTalo dance! The living shadow, moving, glid- 
 ing, marks the time. Listen, listen, hast<% haste! 
 The dancing and singing make human hear Is 
 kind. The tomtom quick music gives people good- 
 cheer. Haste, haste! Great Spirit draws near. 
 Dance merrily, sing cheerfully. Softly and ten- 
 derly, loudly, courageously, the tomtom sweet 
 music goes up to the sky. 
 
 (Many phrases are repeated.) 
 
 As the blind "Herald" leaves, the tomtom music and the 
 singing start, softly at first and then louder with a rythm- 
 accent impressing one with the sense of vastness. And the 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 men and women (normally in pairs), glide onto and around 
 the siage from rignt to left, and just before the circle is 
 completed Hiyoke darts to the center, by the booth. The cir- 
 cle now formed, they dance in a gliding sidestep movement 
 round and round while all, especially the women, dance up 
 and down with the elasticity of their bodies, as a Prussian 
 lady curtseys. The dancing, at first soft and easy, quickly 
 takes on energy in harmony with the sense of vastness in 
 the tomtom music. Hiyoke and the singers sing without 
 words, but when the dance has full "swing" and energy, Hi- 
 yoke with gestures sings in words. 
 
 HIYOKE (singing) 
 
 The hail came doAvn like rolling stars. 
 
 The waterfloods were pouring. 
 
 The lightning leaped across the fields, 
 
 The rushing winds were roaring. 
 
 The pumpkins, corn and beans and flowers 
 
 Were gone before we knew it. 
 
 The oaktree, groaning, leapt and fell 
 
 Where laughing whirlwinds blew^ it. 
 
 The buffalo, our sacred friends. 
 
 Will give us meat enough. 
 
 When winter storms are blowing cold. 
 
 And northwinds leap and puff. 
 
 Look, look, the piles of buffalo meat, 
 
 Too big for eyes to measure! 
 
 When winter fires are burning bright, 
 
 This food will give us pleasure. 
 
 (The "Fire-man" has slipped into the circle, and standing 
 where the fire was, he gesticulates as before, and all the peo- 
 ple sing the following together in words, with prolonged pro- 
 nounciation, and a musical "hold" at the end of each phrase.) 
 
 The buffalo, the buffalo, 
 
 The sacred buffalo; 
 
 The buffalo, the buffalo, 
 
 We praise, we praise the buffalo! 
 
 (A pause in the singing, but not in the dancing, while the 
 "Fire-maker" again gesticulates, then all join in the follow- 
 ing. Each half-line has two mellow tomtom strokes, and a 
 sharp pause.) 
 
 6 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 The sacred lire. The sacred fire, 
 Up high, up high — still higher, higher; 
 He gives us Life — ^He is our Sire, 
 The Life, the lire — the sacred fire! 
 
 (A messenger rushes in calling sonorously with the voice- 
 tone of the scared coyotes. (The coyotes were the Indians' 
 "outer guard watchdogs.") As the messenger reaches the 
 scene, he turns looking away and cries out. 
 
 MESSENGER (loudly intoning) 
 
 Ho-o-o-o ! Ho-o-o-o ! (Music and dance stop.) 
 
 A YOUNG MAN 
 
 What! What is it? 
 
 MESSENGER (sonorously) 
 
 The enemy! The enemy! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 We have no enemies. 
 
 xMESSENGER (with all energy) 
 
 The enemy! The enemy! The enemy! Look! 
 Look away on the hill! I see them. I feel them! 
 
 OLD MAN (looking) 
 
 They are White people, always friendly to our 
 people. 
 
 MESSENGER 
 
 Look, see the shadow-men coming on ahead of 
 them! They look grim! They mean evil! They 
 fill me with fear! The sacred dance gave me a 
 vision (wihanbde). I was sleeping when one of 
 their shadows came and tried to kill me. The 
 enemy! The enemy! Get ready to fight, or make 
 haste to flee! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Yes, they may mean us harm. Everything has 
 changed since the massacre in Minnesota by the 
 Santees. We hear that the White people have 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 gone crazy, and their hearts arc full of murder. 
 Two old Santees have come to us from Minnesota. 
 They say that when the White men were hauling 
 Santees in carts to hang them, the White women 
 were so crazy that they stahhed them with knives, 
 cut them with hatchets and poured hoiling water 
 onto them. Perhaps our old friends, the White 
 men, are coming here to do us harm. 
 
 CHIEF TW^O-BEAh (who has arrived) 
 
 We will send messengers, to iind out what they 
 want. Have them come and dance wdth us, and 
 feast with us, and sing with us, and smoke the 
 sacred i)ipe with us, and then their hearts will 
 feel good. Unless they are worse than Tetons 
 we can make peace with them, if we are hearty 
 and careful. 
 
 OLD WOMAN 
 
 We will give them blankets and food to carry 
 liome. 
 
 CHIEF TWO-BEAR 
 
 And give them a few of our sacred things to 
 make them feel peacable. 
 
 HIYOKE (singing and dancing) 
 
 Don't give white men our sacred turtles 
 To make their wives still more prolific; 
 For their unmeasured big tent-circles 
 Already make them feel bombastic. 
 
 (A woman hits Hiyoke with a stick, and he darts away, 
 soon reappearing and listening.) 
 
 A YOUNG MAN 
 
 If these White men are making war on the 
 Santees, have them come and see, see with their 
 eyes that we are tiot Santees. We are Hunk-pa-ti. 
 We are corn-raisers like the Mandans and the 
 Arikaras. (Arikara means Cornsheller.) 
 
 8 
 
HEAR T-IN-THE- LODGE 
 
 CHIEF TWO-BEAR 
 
 See, see! What is it to see? Mad men can- 
 not see. Men believe what they feel in their 
 hearts. Goodness in the heart is like the rain- 
 bow, it makes the earth green, and the clouds 
 beautiful. 
 
 A YOUNG MAN 
 
 Young men are here. Let us go and find out 
 what these White men want. 
 
 CHIEF TWO-BEAR 
 
 And old men will go witli you also. Be friend- 
 ly in the meeting, but do not show fear. If they 
 want clothing and food, we will give it to them. 
 If they want a battle we will flee away. All to 
 your tents and make ready. Let the "Herald" call 
 out the orders. 
 
 (All leave the stage but tlie Chief and a few more. The old 
 blind "Herald," moving and led as before, calls out in a musi- 
 cal stentorian voice. (I have heard such an Indian "Herald" 
 two miles.) 
 
 HERALD (calling sonorously) 
 
 At-ten-tion! At-ten-tion ! All to the tents! All 
 to the tents! Haste, haste! Each family pack up 
 the few best things! Save the things on which 
 our life depends! Make ready! Make ready! 
 Hasten like birds Hying to the woods before a cy- 
 clone coming! Help the old people! Help wom- 
 en with babies! Helj) lame people! Do not for- 
 get the sacred things! Do not forget the house- 
 hold turtles! Do not forget the bows and bow- 
 strings! Do not forget the fire-flints! Do not 
 forget young babies in the cradles! Do not for- 
 get the little dogs too young to bark! And if you 
 flee, do not forget the old l^lind "Herald." 
 
 (A few men enter, joining the Chief and his men.) 
 CHIEF TWO-BEAR 
 
 You ten men will go as messengers. Others will 
 Follow and remain nearby. Make haste. Be 
 careful and wise. Show no fear. 
 
HEART -IN- T HE-LODGE 
 
 (The ten men depart, leaving the Chief with three men on 
 the stage. A youth comes running, out of breath.) 
 
 YOUTH 
 
 Three White men just in sight out of a ravine 
 are coming straight to our village. Some think 
 they are old trappers, and some think they are 
 spies from the army of White men. 
 
 CHIEF TWO-BEAR 
 
 Open wide this tent right here. We will be 
 friendly with them. 
 
 (They lift up the side of one of the tents. As the men come 
 the young men shake hands with them awkwardly, and an 
 old man embraces each White man old Indian style, by throw- 
 ing arms around nis shoulders and rubbing his face on the 
 White man's face (Poskin yuza). The Wnite men awkward- 
 ly return this Poskin-yuza salutation. The White men, with 
 sign language, are seated in the rear part of the tent, the 
 place of honor. All leave the tent but the Chief. A little In- 
 dian girl, a child, comes to the White men, bringing plums 
 which they receive, and give her pretty trinkets. They pet 
 the child, and the Chief with moist eyes and a smile points 
 to Great Spirit, to his heart and to their hearts, because this 
 petting the child is, as he supposes, a pledge that they have 
 no evil intent to the Indians' homes.) 
 
 FIRST MAN 
 
 Slic is pretty and sweet as a rose. 
 
 SECOND MAN 
 
 She makes me think of my little girl at home. 
 
 THIRD MAN 
 
 It's wicked to l)()ther these poor devils; why not 
 let them alone? 
 
 SECOND MAN 
 
 Well, how many warriors are there do you 
 think? We must do our spying. That's what we 
 are here for. 
 
 FIRST MAN 
 
 I don't see anything looks like a man spoiling 
 for a fight. • 
 
 10 
 
HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 THIRD MAN 
 
 There's nothing round here looks much like a 
 warrior. 
 
 FIRST MAN 
 
 They simply want to be let alone, that's about 
 the size of it. 
 
 SECOND MAN 
 
 What the devil's the use trying to make White 
 men out of them. Why not give them a piece of 
 this big country and let them be Indians? 
 
 (The child leaves the tent and the man who has spoken of 
 his little girl at home sheds a tear. Old Indians enter and 
 make "the sacred fire." Then the oldest man lights the sac- 
 red pipe and holds it to the Heavens and to the Earth and to 
 the West, North, East, and South. Then, when he has taken 
 a couple of whiffs, the pipe goes to the Chief and to each of 
 the old men, who take a couple whiffs. W^hile this is going 
 on the White-men, knowing tliey are not understood by In- 
 dians, converse.) 
 
 FIRST MAN 
 
 What sort of a heathen ceremony is this? 
 
 THIRD MAN 
 
 Safer to keep out of it. It seems mighty sol- 
 emn. 
 
 SECOND MAN 
 
 They'll have me married to a squaw before 1 
 know it. I've heard of such things. If I was 
 unmarried I wouldn't mind it, with that sweet 
 little girl thrown in. 
 
 (They offer the sacred pipe to the white men who gently 
 refuse it with hand gestures. The Indians pointing to the 
 Great Spirit and to their hearts, urge the White men to take 
 the pipe, but they refuse it, thus putting themselves in the 
 attitude of spies who have been bold even to the point of 
 sharing the tent, while not wanting peace. Again they are 
 urged to take the pipe, but they refuse it. Then the Indians 
 show anger. Other j^oung Indians come, in anger. The White 
 men attempt to leave their seats, but are not allowed to do 
 so. The pipe is laid before their feet, indicating Divine 
 
 11 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 wrath to them if tncy make war after accepting the hospital- 
 ity of the home. Tomahawks ;>■•" hrandished in their faces, 
 Indians come with Hudson Bay axes, and whet them before 
 their faces. They are offered the pipe once more, and when 
 they refuse it, it is laid at their feet, and as all the Indians 
 but a half dozen go out, the tent is closed tight.) 
 
 HIYOKE (looking, dancing and singing) 
 
 The messengers will not go far, 
 
 The White men come this way; 
 Their flag has many a stripe and star, 
 
 And they are quick and gay. 
 Perhaps the "Captain's" voice is wheezy 
 
 From sleeping out of doors. 
 And so he wants to hear my singing 
 
 To cheer him while he snores. 
 But ril not go to see the captain, 
 
 I'll let him come to me. 
 For I can sing the old songs hetter 
 
 Beside my own tepee. 
 
 (Hiyoke looks awaj', and then hides behind a bush. A 
 "Captain" and soldiers and a half-blood Indian interpreter en- 
 ter. Indian messengers enter and meet them, awkwardly 
 shaking hands with tlie White men.j 
 
 AX LXDIAX (to the Captain") 
 
 What do our friends, the White men want? 
 We wish to make them Iiappy. 
 
 IXTEHPHKTEK ( officiously) 
 
 The "Ca])tain" does not know your language. 1 
 know 3^om^ language and the ''Captain's" language. 
 I am the interpreter. The "Captain" tells me 
 what to say. What are you doing here? 
 
 YOUXG IXDIAX 
 
 We are getting ready for winter. 
 
 OLD IXDIAX 
 
 The storms destroyed our fields hy the Missouri 
 Biver. There were never such storms hefore. We 
 must get ready for winter, and may Great Spirit 
 help us. ^ 
 
 12 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 INTERPRETEH 
 
 We are looking for Santees who made the mas- 
 sacre in Minnesota. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Why do you turn away from following the 
 Santees and come here to us? We are not San- 
 tees, we are Hunk-pa-ti. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Are there any Indians hesides Hunk-pa-ti In- 
 dians here? 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Yes, there are thirty Yankton Indians here. 
 They have come to hunt with us. Big-Head is 
 their Chief. Do you wish to see him? 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Who is your Chief? What other Indians are 
 here besides Yanktons? Where were you last be- 
 fore you came here? 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 A wolf has a head, and a body and a tail. When 
 a man asks three questions in one breath, he is 
 like a wolf humped up into a badger to deceive 
 prairie dogs and catch them. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Answer the questions. The "Captain" demands 
 it. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 You followed our trail from Long Lake. Why do 
 3^ou ask where we came from? You know we 
 are Hunk-pa-ti by our faces, tell it to the "Cap- 
 tain." You know our Chief is Two-Bear, tell that 
 to the "Captain." 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 There are two Santees here; they are with me 
 in my tent. Does the "Captain" wish to see them 
 with his eyes? 
 
 13 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Oil, Santees with you! This looks suspicious. 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN (angrily) 
 
 Why? 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 No doubt they ran away to you from Minne- 
 sota, after tliey helped kill women and children in 
 their houses! 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 They are old men. One is lame in both legs, 
 one is blind in one eye, and he has a goitis on his 
 neck. It makes him breath, "e-e-he-e-e-he-e-e-he," 
 when he walks. I don't see how he can run. He 
 couldn't kill a jackrabbit unless the jackrabbit at- 
 tacked him. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Oh, yes, perhaps they became disabled (hunke- 
 sni) fighting in Minnesota. What other wounded 
 Santees have you here? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 These two are all. They are all we picked up. 
 Old men, old men! Old men "hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-you" 
 in the twilight, and think of the good land 
 (makoce-waste) where Great Spirit is merciful. 
 Old men do not fight! 
 
 OTHER OLD INDIAN 
 
 We found them over beyond the James i liver 
 starving. Great Spirit told us to feed theiv fliey 
 say they left Minnesota as fast as they could last 
 spring, because they were afraid White-men 
 would kill them. 
 
 INTERPRETER (emphatically) 
 
 And what other Santees have you taken hi out 
 of pity? 
 
 OLD INDIAN (sharply) 
 
 No, these two are all. They are all we found. 
 If we had found more starving men, we should 
 
 14 • 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 have given them food. This is Great Spirit's law. 
 Does not the "Captain" know Great Spirit's law? 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 The "Captain" knows his own business. A holy 
 man put holy water on his head, and that makes 
 him wise and religious. Have you seen Santees 
 fleeing away before the big army of General Sib- 
 ley? 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 No, we did not see it. Some of us up north 
 hunting saw the big army of White men going 
 back home, and the Santee warriors were follow- 
 ing them. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 And did 3^our warriors help the Santee war- 
 riors ? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 We have no warriors. Great Spirit taught us a 
 song (singing) : "Leave off war, till the soil, till 
 the soil." (Okicize ayustan po, wo ju po, wo ju po). 
 
 OTHER OLD INDIAN 
 
 We have no war feast. Instead of the war feast 
 we have "The Feast of Corn," which we learned 
 from the Mandans. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 You have war songs, don't lie ! 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 No, we have no war songs. We know a few war 
 songs which men from other tribes sing. In the 
 old times our fathers had war songs. 
 
 OTHER OLD INDIAN 
 
 Since we have forgotten our war songs, we 
 have no wars, except a few quarrels which are 
 nothing. The music of the Missouri River run- 
 ning past our fields, and the music of the corn 
 growing in our fields is sweeter than war songs. 
 
 15 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 We have no guns, except eighteen curious tilings, 
 some way so long — and some so short (using 
 hands and arms), and we cannot make fire in 
 them. We hunt with bows and arrows. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Where did you get these eighteen guns? 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 From Santees. 
 
 INTERPRi'TER 
 
 When 3^ou were up north hunting? 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Yes, they gave us these guns when we gave them 
 buffalo meat and pemmican. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Why did they give you guns instead of other 
 presents? 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Why does a fox want meat and not grass, tell 
 me that. When a man makes a present he gives 
 whatever he wants to. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 You talk like an Indian. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 You try to talk like a wise man. How does any 
 man know why a man or a beast or a bird wants 
 one thing and does not want another thing? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 You may have the eighteen guns if you need 
 them. They are rusty and old. We like to look at 
 them, but you may have them if you think the 
 Santees stole them. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Did the Santees give you any other presents? 
 
 16 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Or.l) INDIAN 
 
 Yes, they gave my son some strange tilings. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Strange things; what are tliey? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 I don't know. I tliink they are sacred tilings 
 which White people use in worship. They are 
 round like stars. They are yellow like the sun- 
 set, and each one has a man on it like the man in 
 the sun. 
 
 INTERPRETER (quickly) 
 
 Give them to me. 
 
 (The old Indian gives him an envelope with gold coins and 
 gold-dust in it. The Interpreter passes them to the "Captain," 
 and he and the "Captain" converse in a low tone.) 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Where did these things come from? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 I thought White people knew where they came 
 from. We do not know. We think they fell down 
 from the stm, and dust crumbled off when they 
 Iiit the earth. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Now the "Captain" is sure that you are wicked, 
 wicked people, or you would not have these 
 tilings. Tell the truth, where did you get them? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 I told you the Santees gave them to my son. 
 He gave a wounded Santee his horse, because he 
 pitied him, and he gave him these strange things. 
 If it is wicked to have them we will throw them 
 away, or else the storms may destroy our fields 
 again. 
 
 17 
 
HEART -IN- r HE-LODGE 
 
 INTEHPRKTEK 
 
 These things were stolen from a boat eoniing 
 down the Missouri River a month ago, just after 
 General Sibley's army turned baek from pursu- 
 ing the Santees. All the white people in the boat 
 were killed, men women and children. The boat 
 was sunk in the river. You people must have 
 done that wicked deed. Tell us the truth. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 No, we do not want such things. We do not 
 use such things. We do not have boats. We 
 cross rivers swimming, or hanging onto the tails 
 of ponies. 
 
 OTHER OLD INDIANS 
 
 Do these sacred images make the boats go on 
 the river? We thought the fire made the boats 
 go, and so we call the boats fire-boats (peta- 
 wata). 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 How many more of these things have you got? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 No. These three are all, and we do not want 
 them. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 White people kill each other to get these things. 
 Did you not kill the people on the boat? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 We heard that the people on the boat made 
 fire with big guns to kill the Santees, and so the 
 Santees killed them. We did not know these 
 things were used to run the boat with. We did 
 not know they were in the boat. It is good to 
 have big boats and to have these sacred things 
 to run the boats with. But if these sacred things 
 make White people kill each other, it is better 
 to throw these things and the boats away and 
 go foot or stay at home. 
 
 18 
 
HE ART -I N-T HE-LODGE 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 These are the very hest things in the world. 
 White people have hecome a great people be- 
 cause they have them. Wicked people kill each 
 other for them, (iood men make them, or buy 
 them. 
 
 OLD INDIAxN 
 
 How many bufit'alo skins does one of them cost? 
 
 INTERPRETER (laughing) 
 
 Oh, ten or twenty, if they are good ones. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN (angrily) 
 
 Why do you laugh at the old man? Why do 
 you make fun of him? You know^ it is impolite. 
 You are an Indian and you were brought up to 
 be polite like an Indian, not rude like the w^hite 
 trappers who come up the river. Of course the 
 old man does not know all the white men's cus- 
 toms. Since you are with White men 3'ou have 
 become impolite. You make yourself big (tanka- 
 nici-da). You make yourself bigger than the 
 "Captain." And the bigger you make yourself, 
 the bigger liar you are. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 How do you know so much about the war in 
 Minnesota, the way the Santees tell it? Are you 
 a San tee? 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 They told us this when we saw them up north. 
 We asked them all about the w^ar, and they told 
 us. Why do you call me a Santee when you 
 know by ni}^ face I am a Hunk-pa-ti? I am not 
 ashamed of my people. We are not warriors 
 like the Santees and the Tetons, but wc are re- 
 spectable people who attend to our own affairs. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 And do you believe what the Santees told you 
 about the war? 
 
 19 
 
HEART -IN- r HE-LODGE 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Yes, I do. Fire-water and wicked thieving 
 White men caused the war. Why don't you ex- 
 plain these things to the "Captain"? You are 
 a traitor to your own people. You are an un- 
 civil dog. (He strikes him with a whip.) 
 
 INTERPRETER (biting his teeth) 
 
 The "Captain" says you must all surrender 
 immediately, men, women and children, tents and 
 everything. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 If we surrender, will they hang the men, and 
 have the families for themselves? 
 
 (Many Indians gather around the "Captain" and his men, 
 brandishing knives and tomahawks.) 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 The general, back over the hill, has an army 
 big enough to kill all of you, and many more. If 
 you do not surrender, he will come and fight 
 with you. His men have guns, you have noth- 
 ing but bows. His men have swift horses, you 
 have nothing but dogs and small ponies. You 
 are not warriors like the Tetons. The Tetons 
 despise you. They let you live along the river 
 and raise corn so they can come and buy it when 
 they want it. And sometimes they steal your 
 corn. Does a man steal from his friend? The 
 Tetons are not yoiu* friends. The White men are 
 your true friends. You are the slaves of the 
 Tetons and the Gutheads. The White men will 
 make you free men. The White men will not 
 steal from you. What you raise out of the ground 
 they will buy, and pay for it. But first of all you 
 must surrender. 
 
 (Note: This speech, witli its good promises, and its unen- 
 durable harsh tone counteracting all the good in it, does not 
 exaggerate the interjji-etations Indian ears heard at this time 
 and for many years after. If Indians had known our lan- 
 
 20 • 
 
HEART -IN- r HE-LODGE 
 
 guage or we theirs, what a difference! White men, with pa- 
 tience and "Sprachansicht" like German students, should have 
 been sent by the government to learn each languagL" with its 
 thought, feeling and throb.) 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 No, let US have a council. We will choose men 
 to meet men from the army and consi^ler every- 
 thing. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 There is no reason for a council. If we wait 
 for a council, perhaps you will run away. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 We could not run very fast with our children 
 and our tents and our property (woyuha). We 
 will give our Cliief and our honorable old men 
 to the "Captain," and he can keep them till after 
 the council. If he can tind more than two San- 
 tees with us, or if we have done the White peo- 
 ple any wrong, let the army punish us. We can- 
 not surrender till we know what is going to be 
 done with us. 
 
 (An old Indian, having lighted the sacred pipe and held it 
 ceremonially to the Heavens, the Earth, the West, North, East 
 and South, offers it to the interpreter, saying) : 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Smoke this pipe, and tell the "Ca])tain" to 
 smoke it and let its truthful spirit testify in his 
 heart whether or not what we are saying is true. 
 
 INTERPRETER (with a hand motion) 
 
 Away with the pipe, the "Captain" does not 
 want it. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Oh, has he no reverence for Great Spirit? Alas! 
 (He-he-he!) 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Well, are you going to surrender or fight? 
 
 31 
 
HE ART -IN -T HE-LODGE 
 
 OLD INDIAN (after having tried to talk with the "B Cap- 
 tain" in sign hmguage in vain.) 
 
 Oh, he does not know the sacred language 
 which all Indians in this island know, and the 
 interpreter does not explain to him what we 
 mean. Alas! 
 
 INTERPRETKH 
 
 You insult me. What I say goes. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN (jerking him l)y the arm.) 
 
 It goes, does it? 
 
 OTHER YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 What wrong haYe we done these men? Why 
 ha Ye they come so far from home to light and 
 die? What bitter sorrows till their hearts, aiul 
 so they go away to fight and die because the sa- 
 cred law forbids suicide? 
 
 OTHER YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 He does not tell anything honestly to the "Cap- 
 tain." Let us whip him! 
 
 (Indians who have heen threatening the "(Captain" and his 
 men now turn attention to the interpreter. While they are 
 pushing him to the right of the stage, the "Captain" says, 
 ''We will go to the hill where our troops are and hold our 
 ground till the general comes, Indians or no Indians," and 
 they leave the stage (left). They whip the interpreter un- 
 mercifully. By a sudden lunge he hreaks away from them 
 and dashes away (left) calling out:) 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 I will haYe rcYcnge for this! 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Pursue him ! Kill him ! 
 
 (The young men rush from the stage (left). Chief Two- 
 Bears enters (right.)) 
 
 CHIEE T\YO-BEARS 
 
 A battle is coming unless we can get away. The 
 three white men iii the tent are spies, but tliey 
 
 33 • 
 
H E A R T -IN -THE-LODG E 
 
 have not smoked the pipe with us, and so tliey 
 are not traitors. Open up the tent and let them 
 go and liave a man's chance for life. 
 
 (The tent is quickly opened up, showing each man f()rcil)ly 
 held, seated on the earth, while a man hrandishes a whetted 
 Hudson's Bay axe over his head. Then they are lifted up and 
 rushed out of the tent and let go, while manj' shout "SSH'EE- 
 K'DA PO"— DOGS! BE GONE! The three men glide away 
 from view, not crossing the stage.) 
 
 OLD INDIAN (looking) 
 
 The interpreter has mounted his horse, and he 
 is speeding away like the wind. They have sent 
 him over the hill to tell the general what has hap- 
 pened and other men are following him on swift 
 horses. Our young men did not follow him far. 
 They are coming hack, right here. 
 
 (The young men enter the stage.) 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Young men are fools. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Our hearts cannot hear everything. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 He will tell everything wrong to the general, 
 and make up more besides. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Well, are w^e going to stay here like prairie dogs 
 driven out of their homes by rattlesnakes to be 
 eaten up by coyotes, or what. 
 
 CHIEF TWO-BEARS 
 
 Tell the "Herald" to announce that all will 
 pack up a few things hastily and tlee away by 
 the old trail to the James River. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Are we going to be cowards? Let us fight and 
 die. 
 
 23 
 
HEAR T-IN-THE- LODGE 
 
 OTHER VOrXd INDIAN 
 
 Let the young iiicii light and die, it is better 
 tlian to he hanged. 
 
 OLD BLIND HERALD (led l)y the child as previously) 
 
 Flee away! Flee away! Flee away! Be brave, 
 be strong, pray and flee! Flee away east toward the 
 rising sun! i'lee by the old trail out past the 
 waterspring to the James River! Leave the tents 
 behind! Take the dogs and i)onies and every- 
 thing that ean walk! Take the sacred things and 
 the few things needful to life. Leave the orna- 
 ments and the luxuries behind. Don't leave the 
 old people and the lame people behind, and don't 
 forget the babies in the cradles. Be brave! Be 
 brave! Be brave and young, as I am till I die! 
 
 (All leave the stage hastily, and people can be just seen at 
 the right of the stage packing and getting ready. Hijoke who 
 has continuallj^ been looking from behind the bush, where he 
 skulked, comes out and dances and sings.) 
 
 HIYOKE 
 
 When water covered ever^^ hill 
 
 The wise old spider did not drown. 
 
 He rolled himself into a pill. 
 
 And tloated till the Hood went down. 
 
 I wish I was a spider man, 
 
 A spider man, a spider man. 
 
 (Looking away). 
 
 The white men's horses mope, I see. 
 Their mules are lean like leafless trees; 
 Their haughty general seems to be 
 A turtle crawling on his knees. 
 I wish I was a spider man, 
 A spider man, a spider man. 
 Whee! Like a morning prairie lire, 
 Increasing in the noontide sun, 
 They gallop now, and I'm a liar. 
 Unless our tribesmen have to rim ! 
 I wish 1 was a spider man, 
 A spider man, a spider man. 
 
 24 
 
HE ART- IN -THE -LODGE 
 
 While Hiyoke continues dancing and humming the air of 
 the song, the curtain falls. 
 
 ihen when stage facilities permit, the curtain rises several 
 times, showing the flight in a realistic way. Small ponies 
 or dogs or hoth are hauling travois with papooses and other 
 things on them. Dogs are running with hundles of dried meat 
 and other tnings tied onto them. A few l)ig dogs have pa- 
 pooses tied onto their l)acks. Little l)oys are riding dogs 
 astride. Women with i)apooses on their hacks are trying to 
 carry a lot of stuff l)esides. Some women are singing lulla- 
 hies to their papooses, others are hitterly crying. Children 
 run along, holding onto each other's hands, some screaming 
 and some showing great sagacity. Some are lame and hob- 
 bling. Some are praying. Some are yelling. They are try- 
 ing to help each other in ways that hinder. All is a bedlam 
 of confusion. One old man, holding the pipe to the sky, cries 
 out: "Great Spirit, help us! Pity us poor creatures, O Thou 
 who are the Life in everything. And Thou, O sacred Earth 
 (holding the pipe to the Earth), help us today." 
 
 Last of all comes the old blind 'Herald," led by the child, 
 and sonorously shouting: 
 
 "Breathe deeply, breathe the living air! All life, (Woniya) 
 is in the living air and in the clouds and everywhere. Breathe 
 deeply ! Breathe out all fear. Rise up, rise up above all 
 fear ! Untie yourselves from fear, then if we die our souls 
 will suffer nothing. Lead on, lead on, out past the water 
 spring, over the hills to the old camping ground where the 
 trees are tall and the wild artichokes grow." 
 
CURTAIN II 
 
 GIVE ME WATER, WATER, WATER! 
 
 Scene. A valley one mile southeast of the former place. A 
 few Indians are in the valley with hills near on the North 
 and South, and hills farther away on the West and East. 
 More Iiulians enter the valley, the men armed with hows. 
 
 AX OLD INDIAN 
 
 This valley is the place for the battle. 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 No, no, they will kill us here like bufYalo driven 
 over a blufi\ 
 
 AN OLD INDIAN 
 
 Here is the place to tight oft" the soldiers till 
 darkness comes, and then escape. 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 The soldiers have cut oft' our escape. They are 
 all around us. They will come uj) on top of the 
 liills and kill us. The wicked iron-hunnners from 
 their guns kill a man seven bowshots away, I have 
 heard. 
 
 AN OLD INDIAN 
 
 Look! Tlie hills on the south and north are less 
 than one bowshot away. If soldiers come up on- 
 to these hills our arrows will reach them and 
 drive them back, unless they are anxious to die. 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Yes, but the hills up the valley, where the sun 
 is setting, are only three bowshots away, and their 
 iron-lunmners will reach us and kill us from 
 these hills, whiU^ we cannol reach them with our 
 arrows. 
 
 26 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 OTHER YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 And the hills down the valley in the east, by 
 our old trail out past the waterspring, are only 
 two bowshots away. And from these hills every 
 iron-hummer will kill one of us, while we are 
 helpless, because one bowshot is not two bow- 
 shots. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Ugh! You are so excited that you cannot reck- 
 on up numbers. Two and three do not make 
 eight or seven. Two and three make only live. 
 The soldiers in the West and the soldiers down 
 the valley in the East will be only live bowshots 
 apart. The iron-hummers kill a man seven bow- 
 shots away. And so, when the soldiers begin to 
 shoot, those up the valley and those down the 
 valley will kill each other. And then the sol- 
 diers in the East will move away South so that 
 the big hills just South of us will protect them 
 from the iron-hummers of their own brothers in 
 the West. (Intoning). Look, look! I can see 
 them leaving the East hills and going South! 
 This leaves our old trail out past the waterspring 
 unguarded, hi-ho-hi-ho! And the darkness is 
 hiding us from all eyes but the eyes of Great Spir- 
 it, good, good! And silently we are stealing away, 
 stealing away! Ti-li-ii-li-ta-la-la-lu, ti-li-li- 
 li-ta-la-la-lu! 
 
 OTHER OLD INDIAN 
 
 And look how thick the grass is here in the 
 valley! We will lie on the ground like turtles 
 in the grass, while their iron-hummers kill their 
 own brothers, i)assing over us like hawks flying 
 over green frogs in waterpools, k' boo, k' boo! 
 
 HIYOKE (dancing and singing) 
 
 Old men are for wisdom, old men are for prayer. 
 Young men are for chasing the elk and the hare. 
 Old women for telling the stories of old, 
 Young women for beauty, for beauty untold. 
 
 I wish I was a spider man, 
 
 A spider man, a spider man. 
 
HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Hiyokc, lie down snug to the ground and sing 
 a melody, floating far away in the holy earth. 
 Our trihesmen with their ears to the earth listen- 
 ing, will hear it, and know where we are gath- 
 ering in this valley, and they will come, 
 unless (ireat Spirit has helped them escape. 
 
 (He sings as directed while those present hum a little. 
 Immediately the people hegin to come.) 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Did any of the ])eople get away out past the 
 watersj)ring? 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 No, no, we hurried that way, and our escape 
 was cut ofi' hy the soldiers on swift horses. Oh-he- 
 he-he. (She cries.) 
 
 OTHER WOMAN 
 
 We turned South through the Gray-stone Hills 
 Valley, and a lot of our people got away, but our 
 escape was cut off. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 We heard Hiyoke singing the "Home-Return- 
 Song," and so we have come. 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Were many of our people killed over there in 
 the Gray-stone Hills Valley? 
 
 A WOMAN (crying) 
 
 Yes, yes, a lot were killed, men, women and 
 children. 
 
 OTHER WOMAN 
 
 An iron hunnner went through my little boy's 
 head and split it wide open. (She shrieks awful- 
 ly) 
 
 A A\OMAN (consoling her) 
 
 Ishta, islita, don't cry. Did he^ suffer? 
 
 28 
 
HEART-IN -THE -LODGE 
 
 WOMAN 
 
 Oh, oh, they chased us so fast I couldn't pick 
 up his hody. Oli, oh, oh! Ee-e-h'e, e-e-e-h'e! 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN (running in ahead of others) 
 
 They chased us over the flat, beyond the south 
 hills. We turned West, trying to escape in that 
 direction. We saw the soldiers on the West hills. 
 Then we heard the music here, and so we are 
 coming. 
 
 (A volley is tired from the West.) 
 
 OLD INDIAN (sonorously; 
 
 All down ! All down ! Low, low ! Hide the 
 children low in the grass like turtles. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Sing softly the death dirge for the souls of those 
 who are going to die. 
 
 (They sing a death-dirge. "Simple Confessions," in a mi- 
 nor key, is like an Indian death-dirge. "Return," by Petro, an 
 Italian, is like an Indian "Home-Return" Song, only put a 
 little minor key into it, and make the accent pronounced, and 
 the tone falling at the end.) 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN (running in) 
 
 The soldiers down the valley on the hills are 
 moving away South, as the old man said they 
 would. This leaves the old trail out past the 
 waterspring unguarded and safe for us. As soon 
 as darkness comes we can tlee away out past the 
 waterspring and escape — those of us who are 
 alive. 
 
 MANY 
 
 Good! Good! Good! 
 
 (Several volleys are fired from the west.) 
 OLD INDIAN (sonorously) 
 
 Lie low! Be brave! Darkness is coming! 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN (running in) 
 
 The soldiers are coming up onto the South 
 hills right close to us. I la}^ there watching till 
 they got near, then I came to give the news. 
 
 29 
 
HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 OLD INDiAN 
 
 Lie low! Be brave! Pray, pray, and lie low! 
 
 OTHER OLD LNDLAX 
 
 Bowmen, be ready with the arrows! Let your 
 fingers be ready! Let your bowstrings be steady! 
 Shoot hard! Shoot straight! And do not hurry, 
 wait till you see a man's head ! 
 
 (A vollej^ is fired and answered with arrows. Tlien a few 
 more volleys are fired and answered with arrows.) 
 
 A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 The soldiers are retreating! 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Too many wounded men so far away from home 
 is bad for*^ them. They will not come again to- 
 night. They will watch behind the hills till morn- 
 ing. But we shall not be here in the morning. 
 Be brave! Darkness is coming fast! 
 
 OTHER OLD INDIAN 
 
 Are many killed? 
 
 A VOICE 
 
 Six are killed and many are wounded here with 
 us. All the women and children are brave. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Get ready to flee away! Pick up the wounded 
 people. 
 
 YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Hold, hold! Lie low! Lie low! Down, down! 
 Do not move! Soldiers are coming up on top of 
 the north hills. Be ready with the arrows! Let 
 every arrow kill a man ! 
 
 (A few volleys are fired and answered with arrows.) 
 • A YOUNG INDIAN 
 
 Now the soldiers retreat. They do not like the 
 arrows. They will not come again till morning. 
 
 :u) 
 
HEART-IN-THE-LODGE, 
 
 OLD INDIAN (sonorously) 
 
 Listen! Listen! We t.re now sale ! All danger 
 is past! 
 
 (A woman shrieks and immediately the whole place is full 
 of shrieking and wailing indescrihable.) 
 
 HIYOKE (with twice his usual voice) 
 
 Hide away! hide away! keep still! keep still! 
 The soldiers are coming up onto the hill! 
 Shoot away! shoot away sharp arrows to kill! 
 An arrow's as good as an iron pill ! 
 
 (The shrieking and wailing stops, and all lie low again. 
 A young Indian, Takes-his-Shield, tall, calm and resolute, 
 moves along among the people, telling them to be calm and 
 brave. He comes to Heart-in-the-Lodge, his lover, who is 
 wounded.) 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Heart-in-the-Lodge, is this you? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Yes, Takes-his-Shield, and I am wounded. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Why didn't you call for me? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 We must all he hrave. You are fighting for 
 the people. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Are you suffering? 
 
 heart-in-the-lodge 
 I can hear it. Give me water. Water, Water! 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 You are trembling. Are you dying? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 No. I don't know. Water, water! 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Ah, there is no water here! 
 
 31 
 
HEART -IN- T HE-LODGE 
 
 A VOICE 
 
 Yes, down the valley a little there is water. It 
 is bad water. The wounded people have been 
 crawling to it to drink. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Down, down! Something on the north hills 
 looks like soldiers. 
 
 SEVERAL VOICES 
 
 Down, down ! All down and still ! 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD (sonorously) 
 
 No, I will not down. My wounded lover and all 
 the wounded people shall have water from the 
 waterspring before they die. 
 
 SEVERAL 
 
 Down, down! Wait a little! 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Hark! Hark! A vow has leapt into my heart 
 like Life into the earth from the sun. 
 
 WOMAN 
 
 Are you crazy, grandchild? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Wait a little, and we will all go. The soldiers 
 on the north hills are all gone. They will not come 
 again. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Yes, we will all go in a moment, safely. The 
 vow in my heart gives me eyes to see in the night. 
 Over yonder east of the Gray-stone Hills Valley 
 stands an officer. I have vowed to rush upon him 
 with my sacred tomahawk and kill him. I have 
 given my life a sacrifice for the people. When 
 I rush upon him singing the "Self-Sacrifice Song," 
 the soldiers will move that way. Then all of you 
 will flee away safely. 
 
 32 
 
HEART -IN- T HE-LODGE 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Oh, do not leave me alone! 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Child whom I love (Cinca wastecida) the All- 
 Life (Woniya), has made the sacred vow in my 
 life, and I cannot call back my vow. And your 
 brave heart does not ask me to call back my 
 vow. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 No, no! 1 must not, I must not! It would make 
 dark shadows forever. Oh-oh-oh! 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Come here, Brave-Bear. You and 1 are friends 
 by a vow. Take this sacred household turtle 
 which you gave me when Heart-in-the-Lodge gave 
 me her love. I give this turtle to 3^ou now, and 
 with it I give you Heart-in-the-Lodge. Vow to 
 me that you will treat her tenderly, and gently 
 love her as long as you both are in this life. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE (crying) 
 
 Oh, Takes-his-Shield, what will become of you? 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Since the All-Life (Woniya) came into my 
 heart, the earth and the stars are music to me. 
 Child whom I love, I shall see you again. Here, 
 Brave-Bear, take the turtle and Heart-in-the- 
 Lodge. 
 
 (Takes-his-Shield puts the turtle into the right hand of 
 Heart-in-the-Lodge and places her hand with the turtle in it 
 between the hands of his friend, Brave-Bear, saying:) 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 I give her to you with the vow I lay upon you, 
 and with her I give you this sacred household 
 turtle. 
 
 BRAVE-BEAR 
 
 Yes, friend. Your voice sounds lo me like the 
 voice of Great Spirit. 
 
 33 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD (suddenly) 
 
 All ready! All ready to flee away! Pick up 
 the wounded people and be ready! Now is the 
 time! My vow is in the strength of Great Spirit! 
 When Hiyoke with his ear on the earth hears the 
 soldiers moving toward the otlicer where I am 
 rushing, then all of you will flee away. Flee 
 eastward past the waterspring. Countless dead 
 men are here to help us. I see them! I feel their 
 strength! All ready, now!! 
 
 (With his sacred tomahawk in hand he rushes away. In a 
 moment the people move away' carrjnng their wounded 
 friends. Brave-Bear carries Heart-in-the-Lodge on his back, 
 as an Indian mother carries her child. But Hiyoke stays be- 
 hind and when all are gone, he dances and sings.) 
 
 HIYOKE 
 
 I'll stay behind a little while, and see this conflict 
 
 o'er. 
 For my two feet can run a while, and then keep 
 
 running more. 
 
 (Hearing something, and looking, Hiyoke hides behind a 
 bush.) 
 
 (An officer and a few attendants with the half-blood inter- 
 preter are crossing the scene when tne interpreter stops sud- 
 denly and says:) 
 
 IXTERPBETEB 
 
 Hold, there's danger, let us flee! 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 I'll slioot you if you run away. 
 
 IXTERPBETEB 
 
 Listen, listen ! 
 
 OFFK.EB 
 
 What is it? What's the matter? 
 
 IXTEBPBi:.TEB 
 
 He's coming for us! It's worse than a cannon! 
 
 34 
 
HEART-IN- r HE-LODGE 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Who's coming? 
 
 SOLDIER 
 
 He means that hidian liowHng like a coyote 
 shot tln-ough endwise. 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Oh, that's it, is it? Well, let him howl. 
 
 SECOND SOLDIER 
 
 Is he crazy, or is he trying to sing a powwow? 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 No, No, it's magic, and — 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Magic! To —11! 
 
 THIRD SOLDIER 
 
 It's the most unearthly thing I've heard in Da- 
 kota. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him quick! 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Where is he, what's he ahout? 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 You White people do not understand. He's 
 sacrificing himself. 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 All right, let him go ahead, as long as he don't 
 sacrifice me. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 He — he is sacrificing himself to bring dead men. 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Doing what? 
 
 35 
 
HE ART -IN -THE- LODGE 
 
 IXTERPKETEU 
 
 When an Indian sacrifices liinisclf it brings a 
 tliousand dead men to lielp tlieni fight, or get 
 away. 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Well, they better get away, then, if they can, be- 
 fore we get them. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Yes, I know tliat is true among Indians. Look 
 out ! 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 The devil! I thought you had some sense and 
 a little courage. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 The ghosts are in his song. Slioot him before 
 he can see us! 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 What's he singing; can you understand? 
 
 INTERPRETER (intoning) 
 
 He is singing, "The dead men have come to 
 help me kill the captain, and help the people get 
 away." 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Oh, that's it. Well, let him come; the nearer 
 the better. Is he alone, can you see? 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Yes, he's alone, all but the dead men. 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 The dead men, — 11! What ails you, you act 
 sick? 
 
 INTER I>Ri.rER 
 
 He means me, he means me. Indians call the 
 interpreter captain, because he is the head man in 
 talking with them. 
 
 ^ 36 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Well, I'm general here just now, so don't wor- 
 ry about being captain till you get a uniform. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 He's almost here, he'll kill me! 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 What's he got for a weapon? Can you see. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 He's got a sacred tomahawk, and it's worse than 
 a cannon, when a man's sacrificing himself. 
 And, — 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 And what? 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Sometimes that tomahawk flies a mile in the 
 air, like a holy rock. 
 
 OFFICER (laughing) 
 
 Now, don't be telling ghost stories. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him ! 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 If any body shoots him, I'll give him the worst 
 devil of a licking he ever had in his life. We want 
 to catch him, and put him into a museum for a 
 specimen. 
 
 INTERPRETER 
 
 His tomahawk will kill me. He almost killed 
 me once today. 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Well, if his tomahawk flies a mile, and kills 
 you, we'll put your corpse and the tomahawk and 
 the Indian into a museum for choice specimens. 
 He has no bow and arrow, has he? 
 
 37 
 
HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 INTER PR KTER 
 
 No, the tomahwk, the tomahawlv! And the dead 
 
 men 
 
 OFFICER 
 
 Well, be ready now to catch liini. I can see him, 
 he's just here. 
 
 (Takes-his-Shield appears just in sight and throws the tom- 
 ahawk, and it kills the officer. Immediately the interpreter 
 shoots Takes-his-Shield three times. At first all stand dazed, 
 then they roll Takes-his-Shield a little to see that he is dead. 
 Then they pick up the officer and carry him away. The in- 
 terpreter picks up the sacred tomahawk, saying, "I want this." 
 
 SOLDIER 
 
 Throw away that devilish tomahawk and take 
 hold and help carry this man. We want to get 
 out of here as quick as God'U let us. 
 
 (Thej- all disappear. Hiyoke peeps a few times, then comes 
 out from hehind the hush, looks at Takes-his-Shield compas- 
 sionately, then dances and sings.) 
 
 HIYOKE (dancing and singing) 
 
 The fearless fighter, Takes-his-Shield, 
 Dressed in an elkskin Indian frock, 
 Has showed the White men how to wield 
 The sacred Indian tomahawk. 
 I saw him fight his battle well, 
 I'll tell the people how he died, 
 More gleefull}^ than songs can tell. 
 Because his wounded lover cried. 
 
 (A couple of guns are heard, and Hiyoke, startled, says, 
 "Ugh, whee-e-e !" and darts away like an elk.) 
 
 38 
 
CURTAIN III 
 
 LESS THAN A MAN- 
 MORE THAN A MAN. 
 
 Scene. A grassy meadow l)y the James River, with tall 
 trees. Heart-in-the-Lodge lying on a hiiffalo blanket by a 
 tree, and women near, one of them fanning her with an eagle- 
 wing fan. The Chief and a few old men present. A medicine- 
 man is mixing medicine in a wooden medicine-bowl with a 
 bone mixer. Rrave-Rear nearby, downcast. Young men en- 
 ter, each taking Brave-Bear's hand and saying, "How, Koda," 
 while he is silent. (Indian style.) 
 
 HERALD (cheerfully and musically) 
 
 Good luck, good luck! (Wapipi, wapipi). 
 Hear the good luck! The watchmen signal from 
 the hill. The soldiers are not coming this way. 
 Good luck, good luck! 
 
 SEVERAL 
 
 Good! Good! (iood! 
 
 CHIEF TWO-BEARS 
 
 Signal the watchmen to use their eyes intent- 
 ly. If the army starts to come, we will flee away. 
 
 HERALD 
 
 Is all well in the camp.^ 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 Yes, yes. As well as we can expect. Poor 
 Heart-in-the-Lodge is suffering terrihly. The 
 most of the wounded people are getting well, some 
 are dying. All are brave. 
 
 SECOND HERALD (excitedly) 
 
 He-e-yu-po! He-e-yu-po! (All startle). Draw 
 near! Draw near! and hear the bad luck (woak- 
 ipe sica). The watchmen signal from the hills. 
 
 39 
 
HEART-IN -THE- LODGE 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 The soldiers! The soldiers! 
 
 SECOND HERALD 
 
 Still! Still! Not the soldiers! Our summer 
 home and all we have is leaping up-up-up in flam- 
 ing fire and smoke! It is like a yellow sunset 
 turned into a fiery cyclone. 
 
 vThis catalog of 'osses which he intones \aries sliglitlv with 
 various recitals. It need not l)e staged. It shows the essen- 
 tial equivalents of what White people have in a larger and 
 possibly better circle of community life. How few things 
 the^ have from White men ! \Vhy { They must not offend 
 their quaasi overlords, the Tetons, who were maintaining 
 the policy of strict isolation from White men, and were of- 
 fended at any Indians who allowed themselves to become 
 "White-man-ized," "Wiciyela," as tliey called them. What 
 wealth, for soul and body health! Half the world is poorer.) 
 
 Their bone and wood field implements are not mentioned; 
 they were at their "winter home" on the Missouri River. 
 
 THE CATALOG OF LOSSES 
 
 "Touch-wood" and flints for starting fire. 
 
 Cedar twigs for sacred incense; 
 Rone and ash-wood sacred pipes 
 
 Carved with alligators and lizzards; 
 Old canes with effigy snakes and toads. 
 
 Household turtles left behind; 
 Medicine for charming rattlesnakes. 
 
 Medicine-bowls and rattlesnake tails; 
 Stone spades and knives and saws and hoes. 
 
 Shell dishes and stone arrowheads; 
 Dance moccasins, belts, breast-bands, head-bands. 
 
 Dance slippers scented with perfume; 
 Rone needles, awls and digging sticks. 
 
 Medicine mixers, lances for sores; 
 Rone knives and forks for eating food. 
 
 Shell knives for skinning animals; 
 Playthings, hoops ^and balls for games. 
 
 Stones, bones and sticks to gamble wilii; 
 Good-luck journey moccasins. 
 
 Rawhide harnesses for dogs; 
 40 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Kffigy l)ear and buffalo stone pipes, 
 
 Sinew-made halters, ropes and thread; 
 (Ju ill-ornamented pony bridles. 
 
 Bone and wooden saddles; 
 Karthen dishes, shell ladles, horn spoons, 
 
 Wooden washdishes and scrubbing stones; 
 Braided l)ags and sacks and baskets. 
 
 Braided swinging baliy cradles; 
 Tomtoms, ottertail strings for hair. 
 
 Wing-fans whicli make holy shadows; 
 Brushes, brooms, whips, sweetgrass mats. 
 
 Yucca-leaf braided hats and caps; 
 Yucca-root soap for washing hair. 
 
 Head combs with ornaments ; 
 Cat-tail pollen whicn mothers use 
 
 To wrap their tiny Ijabies in; . 
 Sacred bearclaws to protect the home, 
 
 Sacred elks' teeth for good luck; 
 Pumice-stones for rubbing bowstrings. 
 
 Bones for straightening arrow-shafts; 
 Grindstones for linives and hoes and axes. 
 
 Grindstones for pointing arrow-heads; 
 The ornamented buffalo-skin tents. 
 
 Long Black Hills pine tentpoles; 
 Valices, sewing-bags, wallets, trunks. 
 
 The childrens' playful whirligigs; 
 Piles of pemmican sausage and buffalo fat, 
 
 Piles and piles of dried buffalo meat; 
 Quill-worked buffalo blankets and beds. 
 
 Quill-worked dance buffalo blankets; 
 Quill-worked deerskin and elkskin quilts. 
 
 Soft-tanned quill-worked womens' shawls; 
 Paints, paint-dishes to make faces fair, 
 
 Shell neck-chains for ornaments; 
 Womens' red and blue and white breastplates. 
 
 Quill-ornamented womens' sashes; 
 Wing-bone whistles, box elder flutes. 
 
 Ointments to make the muscles strong; 
 Bows, arrows, tomahawks, spears, 
 
 F'lint fleshers and scrapers for tanning skins; 
 Tanned buffalo skins to sell to traders. 
 
 Piles of other animals' skins; 
 
 41 
 
HE ART -IN -THE- LODGE 
 
 Skill buckets, kettles and l)ladcler bags. 
 
 Ten clumsy whitenien's iron kettles: 
 Dried plums, wild seeds and grains for soups, 
 
 Nuts, dried herbs and turnips and cherries; 
 Elkskin pants and coats and shirts. 
 
 Dance elkskin pants with rosebud beads; 
 Elkskin jackets, chemise and skirts. 
 
 Women's leggings with White men's ])eads; 
 Young dogs too small to follow us. 
 
 Their faithful mothers dying with them. 
 (Singing) All, all ihat could not leap away 
 
 Is leaping up in tlames of fire. 
 
 (The women start a wailing. Hij^oke, true to his duty to 
 stem the tide of woe with wisdom and comedy, leaps to his 
 feet, dancing and singing.) 
 
 HIYOKE (with many gestures) 
 
 Look, look! the shirt I gambled for 
 
 Is dancing gaily in the smoke. 
 It sings a song, "The soul of war 
 
 Will help us if we laugh and joke." 
 
 (Men shout. How, how how. Women try to laugh with 
 their eyes while crying with their faces.) 
 
 Oh look! my sister's elkskin skirt 
 
 Is gaily dancing higher, higher. 
 Her skirt is jolly with my shirt. 
 
 And both are laughing in the fire. 
 
 (Hiyoke starts a "Sacred Fire Song," and the peoi)le join, 
 while the tomtom gives two soft beats for each half-line. 
 There is a sharp stop at the end of each half-line.) 
 
 The sacred fire — the sacred fire — 
 Wafting souls — of creatures liigher — 
 Makes them pure — like Life, the Sire — 
 
 (Woniya) 
 Ha-lia the fire — the sacred fire. 
 
 (Hiyoke continues with much comedy in tones and ges- 
 tures.) 
 
 42 
 
HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Brave men will not be crying 
 
 For their pants and their shirts. 
 Brave men will not be sighing 
 
 When the angry arrow hurts; 
 The women's tearful crying 
 
 Makes it rain and makes it dark, 
 The women gaily laughing. 
 
 Bring the singing meadowlark. 
 
 (The drum strikes two heavy three-stroke heats for hravery, 
 and the people shout, Well done, well done! Tanyan, tan- 
 yan ! There is a general stirring among the people, with 
 quite cheerful faces. A few old men enter and one of them 
 
 says: ) 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 The wounded i)eople feel better since they hear 
 the music. How is Heart-in-the-Lodge, is she get- 
 ting better? 
 
 WOMAN 
 
 The tomtom and the singing make her face look 
 brighter. 
 
 OTHER WOMAN 
 
 The medicine men have got the iron-hummer 
 out of her breast. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Is the wound bad? 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 No, the wound is not bad. Her mind is strange. 
 
 WOMAN 
 
 Her mind is miraculous. It is tipped over bot- 
 tom side up, you know. (lye tawacin kaptain, ye.) 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 Her other self, her spirit self, is over-leaping 
 her mind and her body, you know. If her other 
 self gets full and strong control, you know how 
 it will be. Heart-in-the-Lodge, her other self, her 
 
 43 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 sweet self will be in the dead men's country, and 
 her body self which we call Heart-in-the-Lodge, 
 will be here with the people, always trying to find 
 Takes-his-Shield, her lover, till she goes to the 
 other life (Unnia wiconi.) 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Poor child! 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 Sleep is what she needs. I have given her an 
 herb. I hope she will sleep. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 She does not sleep. She dreams, then she rises 
 up and cries out, singing, "He is coming! He is 
 coming, I see him coming, over the hills, over the 
 hills." Then she falls back onto the bed and 
 dreams again. 
 
 OTHER WOMAN 
 
 She throws out her arms like this, and she 
 sings, "You have come, oh, you have come, and 
 my heart is full of joy." Then she smiles and 
 folds her arms across her breast like this. Then 
 she dreams again. 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Perhaps Takes-his-Shield is not dead. He may 
 be there alone suifering, longing to come to her. 
 And so his other self comes here, and she can see 
 him, you know, the same as a man on a journey 
 homeward bound, longs to get home, and his oth- 
 er self outspecds his body, and they see him at 
 home two or three days before he gets home. 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 Hiyoke saw him die, and he has made a song 
 for the people, to celebrate his bravery. 
 
 44 • 
 
H E ART -I N-T HE-LODGE 
 
 HIYOKE (singing) 
 
 I saw him iight, I saw him die. 
 
 One iroii-hiimmer pierced his breast. 
 
 One iron-hummer l)roke his tliigh. 
 He's dead; his spirit is at rest. 
 
 HEART-I\-THE-LODGE (rising up on tlie bed and singing) 
 
 He has come to me singing a song 
 
 In tlie meadowlarlv's musical strain. 
 And tlie winter was, oh, so long. 
 
 Till the meadowlark brought him again. 
 
 Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha, 
 
 Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha- (shuddering) 
 
 U-ugh, Takes-his-Shield, your hands are so cold! 
 
 Grandmother, make a tu'e, and let him warm his 
 
 hands. 
 
 A HERALD 
 
 He-yu-po! He-yu-po! Takes-his-Shield is 
 coming right here, or else one of his spirits is com- 
 ing. 
 
 (Takes-his-Shield glides in. Heart-in-the-Lodge leai)s from 
 the bed and they embrace fondly liy taking each other's hands 
 and dancing gleefully. The people sway and the tomtom 
 beats in harmony with their dancing.) 
 
 HIYOKE (singing) 
 
 If he's alive Hiyoke's dead; 
 He scares me so I've lost my head — 
 And was it I who bled and died, 
 And he has come to claim his bride? 
 
 (The people laugh at Hiyoke, and some cry out.) 
 SEVERAL 
 
 The-man-always-afraid ! (Wakokipe-wicasa) ! 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Heart-in-the-Lodge, lie down on the bed and 
 rest. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 What for. Grandmother, it is not night yet. 
 Don't make me go to bed in the davtime, 
 
 45 
 
HEART-IN-THE- LODGE 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Grandchild, you are sick. Lie down and rest. 
 
 HEART-IX-THE-LOI)GE 
 
 Why, Grandmother, I know when I'm sick. I 
 feel like dancing, don't make me go to bed. 
 
 A vVOMAN 
 
 Child, they have been doctoring you all night. 
 
 HEAirr-lX-THE-LODGE 
 
 What for? See how well 1 am. (She dances.) 
 
 GRAXDxMOTHER 
 
 Child, obey your grandnH)ther, and sit down 
 here. 
 
 HEART-IX-THE-LODGE 
 
 Yes, Grandmother. 
 
 (Heart-in-the-Lodge and Takes-his-Shield sit down side by 
 side on the l)uffalo l)lanket.) 
 
 MEDK:IXE-MAX (passing a small howl of medicine) 
 
 Here, drink tliis. You and Takes-his-Shield, 
 drink it. 
 
 HEART-IX-THE-LODGE 
 
 Don't make me drink medicine. Uncle. Is it 
 bitter? Here, Takes-his-Shield, you drink it for 
 me. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 I will let the Earth, our mother, drink it for 
 the health of the people. (He Pours it out.) 
 
 ^iEDKJXE-MAX 
 
 They are just now coming with the tomtom. 
 They will make a wa-pee-ya for you and for 
 Takes-his-Shield. 
 
 46 • 
 
HEART -IN- r HE-LODGE 
 
 HEART-IX-THE-LODGE 
 
 No, don't make the wa-pec-ya for me. I am 
 not sick. I am as well as a meadow, full of buf- 
 falo and elks and brooks and singing meadow- 
 larks. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 The sacred wa-pee-ya of the people, with the 
 voice of the tomtom reaching far aw^ay, and sing- 
 ing that comes from the heart echoing over the 
 hills, is good for well peo])le and for sick people. 
 It helps the living men and it helps the dead men. 
 And all my heart is full of joy to her the wa- 
 pee-ya of our people once more. It will strength- 
 en me for the long journey. 
 
 HI YOKE (quickly) 
 
 Long journey, what? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Back to our winter home on the Missouri river. 
 
 HIYOKE (approaching Takes-his-Sliield) 
 
 Friend, tell me truly, is this your grave-spirit, 
 or your tent-spirit, or your journey spirit, or your 
 dead self, or your body self, or your other self? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Why, this is Takes-his-Shield. Have you for- 
 gotten him? 
 
 (The pLMjple laugh at Hiyoke and he is perplexed.) 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Look at me and see wdiat I am. Hi^^oke's poet 
 eyes can see things inside out, and bottom side 
 up. Hiyoke knows what a man is better than a 
 man knows himself. Do I look strange? 
 
 HIYOKE 
 
 My mind and my eyes are tied up in a loop. 1 
 saw you die and 1 have made a song to celebrate 
 your bravery. 
 
 47 
 
HEART -IN- T HE-LODGE 
 
 takes-his-shii:li) 
 Save the song till I am gone awaj^ somewhere. 
 
 ( The people laugh.) 
 
 HIYOKE (singing dizzily) 
 
 You are less than a man. 
 
 You are more than a man. 
 And by straining my eyesight 
 
 The most that I can, 
 I cannot explain 
 
 The mysterious plan 
 Of the shadows that follow 
 
 An eagle- wing fan. 
 
 (Ihe people laugh at Hiyoke and the tomtom is tapped in- 
 dicating that he is sick and needs a wa-pee-ya.) 
 
 HIYOKE 
 
 I never felt so sick before. I will lie down. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 His fear makes him sick; he needs the w^a-pee- 
 
 HEART-IX-THE-LODGE (laughing 
 
 Yes, make the wa-pee-ya for Hiyoke. He needs 
 it, and we do not need it. (Laughter.) 
 
 SEVERAL 
 
 How, how, how, make the wa-pee-ya for Hi- 
 yoke, the poet. 
 
 (The tomtom heats lustily one long three short notes. The 
 singers emphatically and melodiously intone the) 
 
 "Hi, Hi-hi-hi-i, Hi, hi-lii-hi-i. 
 Hi, hi-hi-hi-i. Hi, hi-hi-hi-i.'^ 
 
 (The key is quasi minor in keeping with the 6-note scale of 
 the Hunk-pa-ti Indians. The lines are repeated any numher 
 of times, a falling tone at the end of each line, and with 
 varying pitch and tone in each line. The people join in 
 emphasizing the rythm of the music with elastic movements 
 of chest and hody. A few dance on their feet. Hiyoke gets 
 up and walks dizzily.) 
 
 4S 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 Hiyokc, how are you feeling now? 
 
 HIYOKE (trying to sing) 
 
 My head is whirling 
 
 Like treetops in a cyclone, 
 My heart is hurling 
 
 Itself against my hreast-hone. 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 Why, you are better; you are well; you can sing. 
 
 HIYOKE 
 
 No better, no better. 
 
 I feel so sick I cannot smile, 
 
 I cannot put away my fears; 
 My mother, rock me for awhile. 
 
 And bathe my cheeks in your kind tears. 
 
 (He staggers into his mother's arms, and she and his annt 
 lead him out.) 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 The-mind-tipped-over (tawacin kaptan) is gen- 
 erally a woman's disease, but Hiyoke has got it 
 as bad as any woman I ever saw. He has no dis- 
 ease in his body. 
 
 (The people laugh, and the tomtom is tapped.) 
 HERALD 
 
 Listen! Listen! The watchmen signal from the 
 hills. When our young men go too near trying 
 to pick up the wounded men, women and child- 
 ren, the soldiers shoot at them, l)ut no one has 
 been killed yet. 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 Tell them not to go too near. Tell them not to 
 make the soldiers angry. How many of our peo- 
 ple are now missing? 
 
 HERALD 
 
 Six hundred and eighty-two. 
 
 49 
 
HEART -IN- T HE-LODGE 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Missing? So many of our people missing? What 
 is the matter? I thouglit Takes-his-Sliicld was 
 the only one missing. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 Child, there was a battle yesterday. 
 
 HEART-L\-THE-LODGE (sobbing) 
 
 I just begin to remember it. 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 The missing people are not all killed. Seven 
 families have just come into camp. Many more 
 will come in. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 How many wounded people have been brought 
 in? 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 Forty-eight men, women and children. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Fort^^-eight of our people wounded? Where 
 are they? 1 will go and help take care of them. 
 (She starts.) 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 No, stay here. They are taking care of the 
 wounded ones. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Why do the soldiers want to kill our people? 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 They want revenge for what the Santees did in 
 Minnesota. The Santees killed White women and 
 children in Minnesota, and so the White soldiers 
 do not spare Indian women and children any- 
 where. The Santees got across the river and es- 
 caped. The anger in the White men's hearts must 
 be satisfied, and so they came here to kill us. 
 
 50 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Will they follow us and kill us all? 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 We hope to make peace with them some way. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 How can the old men make peace with men so 
 full of wicked thoughts? 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 The Santees tell us we shall have to give them 
 all our land. When a Teton is angry a feast and 
 a present cures his heart. When White men are 
 angry no tiling will cure their hearts but giving 
 them the land. This beautiful land, our summer 
 home, from the Gray-stone Hills to the James Riv- 
 er, we must give to the White men, and leave it 
 forever. And we must give them our land along 
 the Missouri River, as much as they want. When 
 the White men get all the earth, they will fence it 
 in to keep Great Spirit and the dead men out of 
 it. 
 
 (Brave-Bear approaches Takes-his-Shield and Heart-in-the- 
 Lodge.) 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Why here comes Rrave-Bear. I remember now, 
 he brought me away from the battle last night as 
 tenderly as my mother carried me when I was a 
 child. Are you offended for that, Takes-his- 
 Shield? 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 He and I are friends by a vow. Is not a man's 
 friend one of his spirits? Is he not the same to 
 3^ou as I am? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE (taking Brave-Bear's left hand in both 
 her hands and crying) 
 
 Last night he was two of your spirits to me, 
 your grave spirit and your journey spirit. (Kissing 
 his hand). How good you were to me! Was I 
 heavy? 
 
 51 
 
HE ART -IN -THE- LODGE 
 
 BRAVE-BEAR 
 
 No, you were not heavy, but my own feet got 
 so lieavy that I had to rest a few times by the 
 trail. My friend, Takes-his-Sliield, liere is tlie 
 sacred turtle you gave me last night. I now give 
 back to you this turtle, and my vow, and Heart- 
 in-the-Lodge. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 What? Why? Can a man give back, or take 
 back, his vow? 
 
 BRAVE-BEAR 
 
 Your vow was made for death, when you made 
 a sacrifice of yourself for the people. You have 
 come back to the people alive, so take back the 
 vow. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Death and life are oue, when a man has seen 
 both of them. Give the turtle to Heart-in-the- 
 Lodge when you marry her. 
 
 HEART-I\-THE-LODGE (startled) 
 
 No, give the turtle to Grandmother. 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 To me! Me a bride? Children and grandchil- 
 dren for me? The sacred turtle's good luck for a 
 maiden is no more for her grandmother. 
 
 HEART-IX-THE-LODGE (startled) 
 
 Oh no, foolishness, foolishness! What is the 
 matter witli me? No, it can't be! 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Child whom 1 love, there is a good thought in 
 your mind. Tell out the good thought, and do not 
 hide it. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 I don't know. No, no, I am confused. 
 
 52 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 BKAVE-BEAK 
 
 A thought like the morning star is in the mind 
 of Heart-in-the-Lodge. Let the thought arise out 
 of your mind, as the morning star arises out of 
 the earth. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 Let the thought come out of your mind as a bird 
 comes out of an egg, tlien it will fly away and be 
 happy. 
 
 BRAVE-BEAR 
 
 You know what the old people say: 
 "A thought that will not break the egg 
 And fly away on high. 
 Is like a warrior with one leg. 
 Who cannot fight or fly." 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE (nervously) 
 
 Grandmother, what shall 1 do. 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 The first prairie rose said, "If I come up out 
 of the earth. Whirlwind will blow out my life." 
 But when Whirlwind came to her, he said, "It is 
 not in my heart to blow out the life of the little 
 girl with a sweet breath, and a bright dress." And 
 that was the beginning of beauty in the land. Let 
 the thought come up out of your mind, if it is 
 new and bright. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE (sobbing) 
 
 They will scold me. Oh, let me sleep and dream 
 first, then — perhaps, 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Remember the old song (singing) : 
 "Sleeping makes a bright thought dull. 
 It kills the grain and leaves the hull. 
 Dreaming makes a dull thought bright. 
 
 And gives it wings for morning tlight." 
 If the thought is dark in your mind, dream over 
 it. If it is new and bright, let it fly away. 
 
 53 
 
HEART -IN- T HE-LODGE 
 
 HEAKT-lX-TIiE-LODGK 
 
 I thought — I tliouglit — A man in our trihe some- 
 times has two wives, (crying) and wliy can't a 
 maid liave two liusbands? (Slie cries bitterly.) 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Oli-o-o-o, Gliild! You sliould have dreamed 
 over tliat tliought for a liundred moons! Such a 
 strange tiling was never heard of among our peo- 
 ple! 
 
 (With her hand she throws her long loose hair forward 
 over her face and cries pitifully.) 
 
 BRAVE-BEAR 
 
 Here, my friend, take back the sacred turtle. 
 Your hesitation gives the poor child this pain. 
 
 TAKES-HIS-SHIELD 
 
 Friend Brave-Bear, always truthful like the sa- 
 cred pipe, you are doing this out of the honesty 
 in your mind, not out of the feeling in your heart. 
 (Rising to his feet) A vow is sacred in life and in 
 death. I have seen both. In the dead men's 
 country I saw people who think they are still 
 here in our Dakota country. The sacred wa-pee- 
 ya did not make their minds clear at the moment 
 when they were going away from us, and so they 
 are confused. But they can still hear the music 
 of the wa-pee-ya softly and faintly, and it is cur- 
 ing them. And some people who think they are 
 here in our Dakota country, are really in the dead 
 men's country. It bothers them to live by our 
 Dakota customs. We blame them and call them in- 
 efficient (hunke-sni), and they themselves do not 
 know what is the matter with them. As I was 
 coming back from the dead men's country, I met 
 an old Uncle who went to the dead men's country 
 long before our people came here to our Dakota 
 country. He told me what to do, and he had me 
 vow to do it. He told me to go on a journey far 
 Northwest, the same as men in our tribe went on 
 
 54 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 long journeys in the old times before White men 
 came to this island to bother the people. He said 
 my journey would last for many moons, and 
 perhaps I would never come back to my people 
 in this life. (Heart-in-the-Lodge fondling and 
 kissing his right hand and crying). Sweet child 
 whom I love, I am sure the sacred goodness (Mak- 
 piyate Wowaste) in your virgin heart does not 
 wish to hold me back from the vow which the old 
 Uncle in the other life laid upon me. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE (convulsively weeping) 
 
 I must not! I must not! It would make dark 
 shadows follow us both forever. 
 
 (With a quick movement of the head assisted by the hands 
 she clears the hair from lier face and rises up saying:) 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Come wdth me, come with me, we will go and 
 help take care of the wounded people. May I go, 
 Grandmother? 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Yes, but do not tell any more of your thoughts. 
 (She leaves followed by Brave-Bear and Takes - 
 his-Shield.) 
 
 OLD BLIND HERALD (led by the child as formerly, and in- 
 toning) 
 
 He-yu-po! He-yu-po! Good luck! Good luck! 
 Great Spirit is helping us, we shall not starve! The 
 morning was cold, the night dark, but the noon- 
 tide sun in my face is warm and cheerful. Great 
 Spirit is with us, have no fear! We have some 
 food! We have some food! Be merry and eat 
 the food! Give thanks and eat the food! The 
 hunters are returning to camp with buffalo meat! 
 The tribe will feast in a circle, roasting their meat 
 on the sacred embers in the old-time way. Let 
 
 55 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 us be merry, let us be pious as our fathers were 
 in the old times! First of all, before an^^ man 
 eats meat or tastes of meat, make buffalo meat 
 soup for the wounded people and the old people 
 and the sick people! First of all, first of all, re- 
 member the helpless people ! 
 
 HIYOKE (who has reappeared, dancing and singing) 
 
 Give Hi^^oke the singer a buffalo hump. 
 Let him roast it on embers, don't make it in soup; 
 For there's joy in his heartbeats, instead of a 
 thump. 
 
 When he eats with his tribesmen, who eat in a 
 
 group. 
 The glad tone of the tomtom is curing his mind. 
 And the tone of the singing is soothing his fears; 
 And he tells you the Summer-god (Mdoketu), 
 
 loving and kind. 
 Will restore to his tribesmen the life-giving years. 
 
 (The tomtom is given 3-note heavy equal taps.) 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 How, how, how, SO let it be ! (He-ecetu-ye-do.) 
 
 HERALD (with a starling, musical tone) 
 
 Ho-o-o ! Ho-o-o ! 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 What? What is it? 
 
 HERALD (musically) 
 
 Takes-his-Shield has gone away miraculously. 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 Where, where? 
 
 HERALD (musically) 
 
 Over the hills, over the hills, away, away! 
 
 56 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 Did he bid the people good-bye? 
 
 HERALD (musically) 
 
 A whisper to Heart-in-the-Lodge, away, away! 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Where is Heart-in-the-Lodge? 
 
 HERALD (intoning) 
 
 She looked and wept, and when she started to 
 follow him, the women caught her and held her 
 back. 
 
 SEVERAL 
 
 Here she comes! Here she comes! 
 
 (As she is rushing across the stage women seize her.) 
 riEART-lN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Let me go ! Let me go ! 
 
 WOMAN 
 
 Listen, listen! Stay here with your people! 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Let go of me! Look! See him! Let me follow 
 him! 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 Child your feet cannot follow him, he speeds 
 away like the ghost of an elk. 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Call a meadowlark to help me fly, ha-ha-ha, ha- 
 ha-ha ! 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Child, obey your Grandmother and stay here. 
 
 57 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 HEART-L\-THE-LODGE 
 
 My heart is bad, you scold me lately! Let me 
 go! I will go! 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Sweet Child, remember the sacred law, and 
 obey yom- Grandmother. Stay here! 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 Get away from me! Let go of me! 
 Look, look, he is gone, he is gone! 
 The shadow-men with him are gone ! 
 Their footsteps in the zephyrs are gone! 
 Grandmother, fan me, my breath is gone! 
 It is cold, it is dark ! Grandmother help me ! 
 Grandmother, make a fire; I am freezing! 
 Grandmother, Grandmother, where are you? 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 This is your grandmother, do you see her? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 No. 
 
 GRANDMOTHER (kissing her) 
 
 Do you know her kiss? 
 
 HEART-IN-THE-LODGE (smiling) 
 
 Yes. I am tired. I want to rest. 
 
 GRANDMOTHER 
 
 Sweet Grandchild, come with me. I will find 
 a place in the shadow of a tree where you can 
 rest till the soldiers are gone. 
 
 (The women lead her away.) 
 
 HIYOKE (singing) 
 
 If he'd staid for the feast 
 
 And bidden her goodbye. 
 She could bear it at least. 
 
 When her heart heaves a sigh. 
 
 58 
 
HEART -IN -T HE-LODGE 
 
 (Note: Indians wish this song inserted here. I said: "It 
 lacks the true Hiyoke tone." They answered, "Hiyoke had not 
 recovered from his tawacin kaptan fully.") 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 See, see the toad! 
 
 SEVERAL 
 
 Where, where? 
 
 OLD INDIAN 
 
 Hopping along, hopping along. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 She is lost. The home of the toads is down the 
 river, over the hills. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 She must have come for something. What does 
 it mean? 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 I want the toad. My mother's wound is bad. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 My uncle's wound is sore and aching. 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 Young men have gone to the home of the toads. 
 They will soon come back with a plenty of toads 
 to suck the poison from many wounds, and kiss 
 away the pain. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 Oh, see how large she is. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 And see how old she is! Her face has a hun- 
 dred wrinkles. 
 
 59 
 
HEART -IN-THE-LODGE 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 And see how coiiipassionatc (waonsida) her 
 eyes are. 
 
 AN OLD WOMAN 
 
 Why, this is the grandmother toad! 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 How, how, the grandmother toad! 
 
 A CHILD 
 
 Where did the grandmotlier toad come from? 
 
 OLD L\DL\\ 
 
 She has her liome in tlie eartli under a hill. 
 
 AN OLD WOMAN 
 
 Her house is huilt of sparkling jewels, red, yel- 
 low, green and blue, like the rainbow. 
 
 AN OLD WOMAN 
 
 I saw her once before when I was a little girl. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 She must have come for something important. 
 
 HIYOKE (singing) 
 
 Takes-his-Shield has sent her here 
 To cure his lover's aching breast: 
 Because he holds her ever dear, 
 Wherever he may roam or rest. 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 How, how, how, that is it. He has sent her. 
 
 CHIEF 
 
 Where is Heart-in-the-Lodge? 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 She is over yonder in the sliadow of a tree, cov- 
 ered up with blankets, in a deep, deep sleep. The 
 noise of manv battles would not awaken her now. 
 
 R D «« 1 4: 8 ^ 
 
HE ART -IN -THE -LODGE 
 
 BRAVE-BEAR (with a trembling voice) 
 
 1 am not unmindful of the many wounded people, 
 but, oh I do want the grandmother toad for 
 Heart-in-the-Lodge. 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 How, how, how, that is right. 
 
 MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 The women will place the grandmother toad 
 on the poor child's breast. Then if she awakens 
 from her deep sleep in the morning, her wound 
 will be well, her mind will be cured, and we shall 
 have the chidren and grandchildren of Heart-in- 
 the-Lodge in the tribe. If she does not awaken 
 from her sleep, the grandmother toad will guide 
 her to the place where Takes-his-Shield, her lov- 
 er, has gone. 
 
 (The medicine man gives the grandmother toad to Brave- 
 Bear in a medicine bowl, and he carries her away^ while the 
 tomtom beats softly and the people sing.) 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 The grandmother toad 
 Has full many a jewel, 
 The red and the yellow, 
 The green and the blue; 
 And when you are sad 
 And this life is most cruel, 
 The grandmother toad 
 Has a jewel for you. 
 
 (Note: An old Indian digging coal, thrust the bar, a sharp- 
 ened steel gunbarrel, into a seam, prying it up, and out came 
 a large toad. The bar had wounded the head of the toad 
 and some blood was manifest. The Indian cried bitterly. 
 Then, as an offering, he took from his own neck a beautiful 
 sacred elk's tooth and tied it onto the neck of the toad.) 
 
 61 
 
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