BACK
The old medicine man awoke with a start. He was covered with a cold sweat that had nothing to
do with temperature. Rather, it was the result of a dream, the fifth such in as many nights.
He had had dark dreams before, but these were different. Each new dream had picked up where the
previous dream had left off and depicted a series of events.
Large, strange canoes had come across the big water. The canoes had trees growing from them, but
instead of leaves, the trees had clouds attached to them that pushed them across the water. When
the canoes had reached the shore, strange, pale skinned people had gotten out of the canoes.
These people carried thunder sticks that made smoke and killed from a distance. They also
carried long knives made of some strange shining material.
But worse yet, they had bad medicine, not bad for them, but for the people. In his dreams, he
had seen entire villages sicken and die and nothing could stop the sickness.
The pale skinned people had come like ants. They had cut down the trees and built their villages
with high walls around them. And always more and more of them had come.
Some of them had come pretending to be friends until they had established a certain number, then
they claimed the land as their own and killed the people. Others were more honest, they openly
came as conquerors, killing as soon as they arrived even though the people in that area had tried
to welcome them as friends. Some of these strangers had tried to make slaves of the people, and
failing that, had simply killed the people, entire villages. Some of them had brought large dogs
on which they could ride as swift as the wind.
In some areas, they had even paid some of their kind to hunt the people, paying them a reward
every time that they had killed one of the people. But they were not satisfied with killing,
they would then commit atrocities on the dead bodies.
Still, they came in greater and greater numbers. They had cut down the forests and torn up the
land. They poisoned the waters and killed the animals.
Then they had driven the people onto barren lands and made them live there, always treating them
as less than people, and in some cases as even less than their animals. They had spread across
the land, from the big water on one side to the big water on the other side of the land. They
had confined the people to small areas, at least those of the people that were left alive and
kept them in poverty.
The old medicine man knew that these dreams were prophetic and that other medicine men all up and
down the coast of the land were receiving the same dreams. He knew that it was not just the
villages that were immediately on the coast, but also inland as far as a swift runner might cover
in five days that the dreams were occurring.
The old medicine man got up and went outside. Day was just breaking and the village was starting
to come to life. Women were starting to build up their fires to start cooking food for their
families. The sun would be coming up soon, the old man decided to greet it from one of the sand
dunes in sight of the water so he headed east.
The chief of the tribe was just coming out of his door when the old medicine man passed. He
greeted the old man but only received a mumbled reply. That was unlike the medicine man. The
chief had never seen him so distracted and resolved to have a talk with him to find out what was
troubling him.
It was mid morning before the chief managed to find time to visit the old man. He found the old
man sitting on the ground in front of his door, just staring at the ground a little in front of
himself. "Good morning, Walks with Lightning," the chief greeted the elder.
"What?" the medicine man looked up. "Oh. Hello, Broken Spear."
"You seem troubled this morning. Is there something that I can do to help you?"
"Yes." Walks with Lightning lifted his hand toward Broken Spear and said, "You can help me up,
then come with me to the sweat lodge and build a fire in it for me. I must talk with the spirits
of the ancestors."
Broken Spear took the elder's hand and gently pulled him to his feet. The two men headed for the
sweat lodge and as they walked, Broken Spear said, "I have known you for many years, old friend.
But I have never seen you so disturbed. May I ask what troubles you?"
"Another of the dreams that I told you about walked through my sleep last night."
"Was it like the others?"
"Yes."
"What do these dreams mean?"
"I will tell you after I talk to the ancestors."
As they passed Broken Spear's home, he stopped and gathered some coals from his fire in a conch
shell, then they continued on.
At the sweat lodge, the two men disrobed and entered the lodge and Broken Spear soon had a fire
going. Walks with Lightning started chanting, calling to the spirits of the ancestors. Then he
fell silent, apparently listening. Even Broken Spear could feel the presence of the ancestors in
the sweat lodge with them. Finally, Walks with Lightning said, "I understand." The two men rose
and left the lodge.
As the two men headed back to the medicine man's home he said, "Dark days are coming, Broken
Spear. I have been shown what the future will look like if the people do nothing to stop it.
And it does not look good at all for the people of this land."
"What can we do, Walks with Lightning?"
"The first thing that we must do is to send fast runners to the other villages, all of the
villages as far away as a fast runner can go in the time that it takes the moon to go from a new
moon to a half full moon. That is seven days. Tonight, the moon will be new. The runners must
ask all of the other medicine men and chiefs to come here to our village on the second full moon
from now. Other medicine men in other areas are taking the same action. We must plan how we
will stop this dark future from taking place."
"I will make the necessary preparations," said Broken Spear. He left the elder and went to find
the necessary runners. Then he set about making preparations to accommodate the visitors.
Walks with Lightning was the eldest and most respected medicine man in his area, the other
medicine men and chiefs started making plans to attend his council as soon as they received the
message. In the due course of time they started arriving at the village of Broken Spear and he
saw to their comfort.
Finally the evening of the second full moon arrived. The council fire was lit and a drum started
beating. The assembled medicine men, many chiefs and warriors were seated in the council circle.
They started chanting, calling to the spirits of the ancestors to attend their council. Broken
Spear looked around, it was the largest council circle that he had ever seen in all of his many
years. There were even those present who traditionally were rivals, but here they met in peace.
Walks with Lightning stood to speak and all fell silent. With remarkably accurate detail, he
told to all the dreams that he had received. He was an old man, but his voice was still strong,
none had any trouble hearing him.
When Walks with Lightning finished and sat, one by one the other medicine men stood and agreed
that they had received the same dreams with but one difference. Each had seen in detail what
would happen to their own village and tribe.
Eventually, all of the medicine men had talked, telling of their dreams. Then, as host chief,
Broken Spear stood.
After looking around he began, "There are many here that if they were to meet under other
circumstances, they would immediately begin fighting. But Walks with Lightning and the other
medicine men have shown us that we have other enemies in this world that are far worse than any
among us. He has also told me that the future that the medicine men have told us of is only one
possible future, and is the future that faces us if we do nothing, or if we greet these strange
pale skinned people as friends. He has told me that if we all work at it, that we can prevent
these terrible things from coming about. It is up to us, this night to decide what we must do."
He sat.
One by one, the other chiefs and many of the assembled warriors arose and spoke. The council
meeting broke up about three thirty in the morning and reconvened the next evening. That meeting
broke up about one in the morning. The next day, all of the visitors departed with grim
satisfaction. They all felt that they had made the proper plans to prevent the future that the
medicine men had foreseen.
"Yes, we have. And I shall claim this land in the names of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain. Then those fools who laughed at me will see who was right."
When they got near enough, the ships furled their sails and dropped anchors.
On the shore, all of the warriors who lived on the island waited. With them were more warriors from the mainland who had come to help. They watched as the clouds that pushed the large canoes were pulled up and tied to the branches of the trees on the strange canoes. Then they watched as smaller canoes were lowered from the large canoes and men clambered down into them. They watched as the warriors in the canoes paddled them toward the shore. In the bow of the lead canoe, a man stood, holding a pole from which flapped a red and yellow cloth. They waited until the canoes were in range, then at a shouted command, a flight of arrows flew outward toward the canoes. It was quickly followed by a second flight.
In the canoes, some of the men were obviously injured. But some of the arrows bounced off of the strange, shining skins that some of them wore. Nevertheless, the canoes quickly turned back and headed for the larger canoes. On the shore, the defenders cheered.
The small canoes soon reached the large canoes and the men climbed back into them. Then, the defenders saw great clouds of smoke belch outward from the large canoes and heard thunder issue from them. They had been warned of this, they took shelter behind the dunes. Round, black stones bounced off of the dunes, or crashed into the trees behind them. They continued to wait. Eventually, the bombardment stopped, and when the defenders looked, they could see the small canoes coming toward them once more. Again they waited until the canoes were in range and again fired their arrows at the enemy with the same results as before. Four times the invaders tried to land before giving up and the large canoes left. Once more the defenders cheered. But they did not quit their vigil, the medicine men had told them that the strangers would visit three islands, this was only the first.
The strangers did visit two other islands and were repelled. Then they did something that was not expected, they visited a fourth island that was unprepared and took prisoners before sailing back across the big water. It was only after they left that the medicine men told the defenders that they had left and they relaxed their watch.
It took time because of the lack of a common language, but the strangers made it known that they wished to establish trading posts in this land. Then it took longer for the defenders to make known to the strangers under what conditions such trading posts could be established. No trading post could contain more than two tens of people, if at any time two tens and one of the strangers came to a trading post, all of them would be killed. And no two trading posts could be closer than the distance that a fast runner could run in three days, if a second trading post were to be built closer to an existing trading post than that, all in both posts would be killed and the posts would be burned. None of the trading posts could have walls around them. And none of the strangers could stray further than the distance that a man might walk in one hour.
Naturally, the strangers did not like the conditions, but they did want to trade so they finally agreed. In time they had trading posts all up and down both coasts of the land, and their canoes changed, they became larger and in time they no longer had the trees with clouds attached to them, rather they had hollow trees from which smoke poured out, and they were no longer made of wood. Every few years, some of them would try to violate the original terms and would pay for their errors. They tried to renegotiate the terms of their presence, but the people were steadfast to the original terms that had been given to the pale faces and they kept their land. They did have to make some changes in their culture, they eventually formed a loose confederation that spanned both continents.
Twice during the wars that the people in other parts of the world engaged in, the land was invaded by soldiers. But the invading soldiers were all killed by the people and the land remained free.
� 1999 Charles H. Grooms