Fools Crow

Near the end of winter, three young riders approach the village of the Lone Eaters from the south, driving twelve large horses, like the kind the Napikwans use to pull their wagons. Fast Horse recognizes Owl Child, a member of the Many Chiefs band. Owl Child has a many-shots gun in his lap and a hand gun tucked near his waist. He is an outcast even in his own village, and while he is feared and hated by many, Fast Horse admires his ferocity.

Three Bears comes out of his lodge, and Owl Child asks to feast with them. Three Bears questions the ownership of the horses and suspects that they are stolen from the Napikwans. “What difference does it make?” asks Fast Horse. Since the white man steals their land, Fast Horse considers stealing from the Napikwans fair. Three Bears disagrees. Stealing from the Napikwans will bring trouble. Now that the great war is over in the East, the blue-coat seizers have moved West. The white men have warned Three Bears that if they make life difficult, they will ride against the Lone Eaters.

Three Bears gives Owl Child a package of boiled meat. As the young men ride away, Owl Child invites Fast Horse to visit their camp in the south: “We will show you what real Pikunis do to these sonofabitch whites,” Owl Child says.

Later, White Man’s Dog visits with Mik-api. Winter is over, and he is excited to go to the trading fort and secure his own many-shots gun. Still, White Man’s Dog thinks about Yellow Kidney and feels that his loss outweighs any benefit of Crow horses. Like the others, White Man’s Dog suspects that Fast Horse is to blame for Yellow Kidney’s disappearance. White Man’s Dog also feels guilty about killing the young rider. He had little choice but to kill, but he is still remorseful about the attack.

White Man’s Dog tells Mik-api about his dreams of the white-faced girl. After a purifying sweat, Mik-api performs a ceremony over White Man’s Dog’s body. He sings cleansing songs and places a magical paste made of roots and leaves on White Man’s Dog’s body, and then he blows his medicine whistle. With this ceremony, Mik-api drives the bad spirit from White Man’s Dog’s body—but he warns him that it is still floating around the village and can infect another.

White Man’s Dog asks Mik-api how he became a many-faces man. Mik-api tells him that as a young man, he heard crying by the river. He suspected it was a coyote, and when he went to investigate, he discovered that it was Head Carrier—the very warrior whose shirt Fast Horse now wears—shot through with two arrows.

Head Carrier told Mik-api to let him die in peace, and Mik-api left him. As he walked along the river, a big frog person came up from the water and asked Mik-api why he seemed so sad. Mik-api told the frog person about the dying Head Carrier. The frog person dove back into the water and resurfaced with a ball of green mud. The mud was given to him by the chief of the Underwater People and had powerful medicine.

After Mik-api applied the mud to Head Carrier’s wounds, he made a full recovery. Mik-api later told this story to his aunt, a healing woman, and she informed him that he was a chosen one. She taught him the ways of healing, Mik-api says, and he has been a many-faces man ever since.