Devil Moon

Chapter Eight

Tihikanima found her son seated on a log in a sunlit glade. He was sitting so still and blended in so well, with his green buckskins, she almost didn’t spot him. He was gazing off toward King Lake with a longing expression she had seen many times of late. He wasn’t really looking at the lake; he was pining for the new female in his life. She strolled out of the trees, her arms crossed over her bosom, her doeskin dress the same shade of green as his. He was so enrapt, he didn’t notice her until she was almost on top of him.

“Mother!” Degamawaku stood. “What brings you here?”

“I was out for a walk,” Tihi lied. She had come specifically to see him, but he must not know that. “May I join you?”

“Of course.” Dega motioned at the log. “There is plenty of room for both of us.”

“What were you thinking about when I came up?” Tihi reminded herself that she must not be obvious or he would resent it.

“About a buck I saw this morning,” Dega said.

“Does this buck have a name?” Tihi countered. “And would the name be Evelyn King?”

Dega smiled and sat next to her. “I do not think of her all the time.”

“Only most of it.”

“I have made no secret of my fondness for her. She is a fine girl, Evelyn.”

“Yes, she is,” Tihi was quick to agree. In that, at least, she was sincere. She did think that Evelyn was a fine person: cheerful and courteous and caring. But to Tihi that wasn’t enough.

Out on the water, mallards were swimming and geese were honking. A large fish leaped clear and splashed down.

“What are you intentions with her?” Tihi asked. She had to force herself to keep her tone unemotional.

Dega shifted. “Why do you ask?”

“You are my son,” Tihi said. “You are my oldest. I have nurtured you from when you were a baby in a cradleboard. I care for you and want only the best for you.”

“Did Father send you to talk to me about her?” Dega asked.

“I am here on my own,” Tihi admitted. Her husband would be upset if he knew. She had broached the subject with him and he had made it plain that he did not want her to interfere. But she couldn’t stand by and say nothing. Too much was at stake.

“I should think you would be happy if Evelyn and I become close,” Dega said. “I could do worse than pick her as my wife.”

There it was, out in the open where Tihi wanted it. Now she must be extra careful. “You are young yet to think of that.”

“I have seen almost nineteen summers.”

“Evelyn has seen only sixteen.”

“So?” Dega said. “You took Father as your husband when you were that age. And Evelyn tells me that among her people many take husbands and wives when they are as young as she and I are.”

“Among her people,” Tihi repeated. He had unwittingly given her the opening she wanted.

“Why do you say it like that?”

“She is white and you are not.”

“So?” Dega said again. “Nate King is married to Winona, a Shoshone. Shakespeare McNair is married to Blue Water Woman, a Flathead. Zach King is half and half, and he has a white wife. What difference does it make that Evelyn looks white and I do not?”

Tihi chose her next words with great care. She didn’t want him angry with her. He must think she shared his fondness for Evelyn, even if she didn’t. “When two hearts are in love, only their love matters.”

“That is how I feel, too.”

“But there is more than just your hearts involved, my son. She is white. You are Nansusequa.” Tihi paused. “Need I mention that our family is all that is left of our people? That the rest of our people were wiped out by whites who sought our land for themselves?”

“I was there, Mother,” Dega said bitterly. “It was the most terrible day of my life. I do not understand why Manitoa deserted us.”

To the Nansusequa, Manitoa was the source of all that was. Their other name for it meant That Which Was In All Things. They revered the Manitoa above all else. Because of that reverence, for untold generations they had striven to live in harmony with all that was around them, and by doing so, be close to That Which Was In All Things. For untold generations they were a peaceful people devoted to one another and their customs. Then, in one brief burst of brutal violence, all that they were and all that they believed had been nearly wiped out by greedy whites.

Only their family escaped. The five of them were the last of their kind, the very last of the Nansusequas.

“Did Manitoa desert us or did we desert Manitoa?” Tihi responded. She’d had a hard time reconciling the tragedy herself. She could still hear the screams and see warriors and women she had known all her life having their brains blown out or their bodies skewered on sharp blades. “But it is not That Which Is In All Things that I have come to talk about.”

“Then what?”

“Our responsibility to those we lost.”

Dega scratched his handsome head in puzzlement. “I am confused,” he confessed.

“As the last of our kind, we owe it to those who fell to live as Nansusequa should.”

“We do that,” Dega said.

“We wear Nansusequa clothes and live in a Nansusequa lodge,” Tihi said. “But what about in here?” She touched her head. “Or in here?” She touched her bosom over her heart.

“We are Nansusequa through and through, as the whites would say,” Dega declared.

“Are we?” Tihi paused for effect, then said, “A Nansusequa does not give his heart to an outsider. Nansusequas only marry Nansusequas.” There. She had said it.

Dega stared at her for the longest while, his face impossible to read. Finally he said, “I cannot believe what I am hearing.”

“Why not?”

“You are saying that you do not want me to feel for Evelyn as I do. You are saying that you do not want the two of us to be together.”

“She is an outsider.”

“The Kings are our friends,” Dega said. “They helped us when no one else would. They gave us a place to live.”

“Nate and Winona do not hate our kind, I will grant them that,” Tihi conceded. “But as friendly as they have been, they are not Nansusequa. As generous as they have been, they are not Nansusequa.”

“It makes no difference to me.”

“It should,” Tihi said. “If you love your people, if you mourn for them every day as I do, then you should want to honor their memory by not giving up their ways.”

“You have thought this all this time?”

Yes, Tihi had, but her husband insisted she not interfere, and until now she had abided by his wishes. “I did not have cause to think about it until you took up with her.”

“I care for Evelyn greatly, Mother.”

To soften the sting, Tihi smiled and ran her hand over his long black hair and caressed his cheek. “I know that, son. It is why I have been reluctant to bring it up. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt your feelings.”

“I care for her greatly,” Dega reiterated.

“Enough to take her for your wife. When will that be?”

“I…” Dega hesitated. “I have not thought that far ahead.”

Tihi felt a twinge of anger. Not at him, at Evelyn King. For he was plainly lying to protect Evelyn, and she could count the number of times that he had lied to her on one hand and have fingers left. “Let us talk that far ahead, if you do not mind.”

“I always do as you say,” Dega said, but he did not sound happy about it.

Tihi’s anger climbed, but she kept her self-control. “Let us say that Evelyn and you continue to see each other. Let us say there comes a time when you think that you love her and she thinks that she loves you.”

“It will not be because we think it,” Dega said. “It will be because we are in love.”

“Of course. My mistake. And when that time comes, you will naturally want her to be yours and she will naturally want you to be hers. So let us say that you become husband and wife. What then?”

Dega appeared puzzled. “We would live as Father and you do.”

“Will you come live with us?”

“What?”

“You heard me,” Tihi said. “It is Nansuseqea custom for a man to bring his new wife to live in the lodge of his father and mother. If you take Evelyn King for your wife, will she come live in our lodge?”

“I do not know if she would like that.”

“Have you asked her?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It has not come up.”

“All right. Let us put that aside for the moment.” Tihi went on smiling to show her forbearance. “One day you will have children. How will you raise them?”

“As Father and you raised me.”

“As Nansusequas? Or as white? Evelyn’s mother is Shoshone, but Evelyn prefers white ways to Shoshone ways.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Dega said.

“You should. How your children will be brought up is important. Will you raise them as whites so they never know their Nansusequa heritage? Or will you raise them as your father and I raised you and your sisters, as true People of the Forest?”

Dega put his elbows on his knees and his chin his hands. “There is more to marrying her than I imagined.”

“I am happy you see that. It is why I brought it up.” Tihi shammed interest in a bald eagle soaring above distant peaks. “We are the last of our kind, my son. Once we are gone, the Nansusequa are gone. Unless…” She rubbed his shoulder. “Unless you and your sisters raise your children in the Nansusequa way, and their children after them.”

“Speak plainly, Mother. Are you against me marrying Evelyn?”

“Did I say that?” Tihi hoped she was hiding her emotions well enough. “Should you decide she should be your wife, I will stand by you as I have always stood by you in all that you have done. But it would be a shame, would it not, to have the Nansusequa way be lost to the world?”

“Yes, it would.”

Tihikanima smiled sweetly. Now she must feed the fire of doubt she had planted so it became a raging bonfire. “Think about it, my son. We are the last of our kind. I keep saying that because it is important for you to fully understand. After we are gone, the Nansusequa will be no more.” She paused and gently squeezed his arm. “Unless you and your sisters carry on the beliefs and customs of our people. On your shoulders rests whether the Nansusequa die out or are reborn.”

“Reborn?” Dega repeated.

“Your children, my son, and Tenikawaku’s and Mikikawaku’s, are our future. They will in turn have children of their own, and their children after them. Hopefully, large families. If each of you has five children and each of them has five children and so on, in a hundred summers there will be a hundred Nansusequa where now there are only five.”

“I had not thought of that, either.”

“Do you see how important it is? In your hands rests the rebuilding of our people. In your hands is the future of all that we are.”

Dega gazed off toward the lake, and a troubled look came over him. “In our hands,” he said softly.

Tihi pressed her argument. “They must be raised as Nansusequa. Not in any other way. Certainly not as whites. They will not be Nansusequa then. Do you see that?”

“Yes.”

Tihi patted his shoulder. “Good. I was worried that perhaps you did not, which is why I brought all this up.”

“Have you talked to my sisters about it?”

“I have talked to Teni. She is of the age where she might take a husband if she finds one who suits her. Miki is young yet. I will wait until she is a little older.”

“You have given me much to think about.”

Tihi decided to give him more. “Think of how different we are from the whites. We believe in living in harmony with all that is. The whites believe they must control all that is and bend it to their will. We believe in That Which Is In All Things and respect the right of all living things to the gift of life the Manitoa has bestowed. To us, our fellow creatures are our brothers and sisters. The deer in the woods. The elk in the thick brush. The birds in the trees. To the whites they are nothing but animals. Beasts, they call them, and slaughter them for furs and for food. Is this not true?”

Dega said reluctantly, “With most whites it is.”

“I ask you. Does Evelyn King believe in the Manitoa as we do?”

“No.”

“Does she regard the deer and the elk as her brothers and sisters, or does she regard them as animals?”

“To her they are animals,” Dega said, with an odd rasping to his voice.

“Does she give thanks each day to That Which Is In All Things for the breath of life in her, or does she take that breath for granted?”

Dega sadly stared at the ground.

“I have spoken enough for now.” Tihi stood and caressed his head. “Ponder my words and you will agree. You must take for your wife a woman who will live the Nansusequa way. No other will do. Do you agree?”

Barely audible, Dega said, “Yes, Mother.”

“Good. I am sorry if this has upset you.”

“No. You did right.”

“Thank you.” Tihi smiled and walked off. When she was out of his hearing she declared, “So much for Evelyn King.”

Tihikanima laughed.