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that Beatrice had been able to instill on Jenkins’s and Lumpkin’s scowling faces. This was a laughter that was, as is the case with young boys, beyond control. For this was a laughter that could not, no matter what the governments, teachers, or Jenkinses of the world said or did, be silenced.

The adjustment back to school was difficult for Lionel and Corn Poe, but they both worked hard and eventually finished their yearly studies. Lionel’s grandfather moved down into town for the winter to be closer and took a small room in the back of a lumber mill, where he swept the floors and watched over the place at night.

In the spring, Lionel’s grandfather took what little money he had saved, and with the two boys as his partners, invested in a small herd of cattle. The herd was matched cow for cow by the government, and when the snows melted, they moved their outfit to graze on their own “reservation,” the small plot on the banks of the Milk River near the northern end of the Blackfeet’s allotted lands.

Glossary

COMMON BLACKFOOT TERMS

AND EXPRESSIONS

O’káát!: Sleep!

Nítssksinii’pa: I know.

Ássa! Póóhsapoot: Hey! Come here!

Saaám: medicine or powers of healing

Sstsiiysskaan: sweat lodge

Kitái’kó’pohpa?: Are you afraid?

Niitsítapi: (literally) “real people”; original people

Po-no-kah-mita: “elk-dog” or horse

Nioomítaa: a great horse

Ninaimsskaahkoyinnimaan: medicine pipe bundle

OTHER TERMS

Travois: a vehicle used by Plains Indians to carry loads over rough terrain. It consisted of two trailing poles that formed a frame for a load-bearing platform or netting. It could be harnessed to a horse or pulled by hand or a shoulder harness.

Counting Coo: To count “coo” or “coup” means to touch an armed enemy with a special stick called a coup stick, or with the hand. The touch is not a blow, but serves to indicate how close a warrior could get to his enemy and escape unharmed. As an act of bravery, counting coup was regarded as greater than killing an enemy in single combat, greater than taking a scalp or horses or any prize.

Fourth of July Pow-Wow: A Pow-wow is Native American Indian ceremony or organized social get-together. At the time of this story, the U.S. government only allowed these to take place as a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. Independence Day was the only time that tribes were allowed to engage in traditional practices.

References

Coombes, Allen J. Trees. London: Dorling Kindersley Handbooks, 1992.

Duvall, D.C., and wissler, Clark. Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

Farr, william E. The Reservation Blackfeet, 1882– 1945: A Photographic History of Cultural Survival. Seattle: University of washington Press, 1984.

Frantz, Donald G. Blackfoot Grammar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Frantz, Donald G., and Russell, Norma Jean. Blackfoot Dictionary. 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.

Grinnell, George Bird. Blackfoot Lodge Tales: The Story of a Prairie People. Lincoln: Bison Books, 1962.

Harrod, Howard L. The Animals Came Dancing: Native American Sacred Ecology and Animal Kinship. Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 2000.

———. Mission Among the Blackfeet. Norman: University of oklahoma Press, 1971.

Linderman, Frank Bird (1969–1938). “Indian why Stories.” Edited by Simon Plouffe. Champaign: Project Gutenberg, 1996.

Macfarlan, Allan A., and Casey, Kathy, ed. Native American Tales and Legends. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1968.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to my editor, Jennifer Besser, without whom this novel would not have been written; and to Beth Clark, Monica Mayper, and everyone at Disney-Hyperion.

Thanks also to my friends and family who patiently read the many unpolished drafts and offered their opinions, support, and advice.

And a special thanks to the Blackfeet Nation, whose history and enduring culture continue to inspire.

Questions

for James Crowley, author of Starfish