"The white man called them buffalo." "We called them Tatanka, the majestic ones." "Their story is the story of our people." "Tatanka lived in the underworld, until he saw our people in a vision." "He saw that we were needy." "And for the love of us." "Tatanka came up out of the earth and became flesh so that we could eat, make our clothes and our dwellings from his hide." "Pte Taoyate, he called us:" "The Buffalo Nation." " LAKOTA VILLAGE 1825 " "The prairie opened up like a dog mouth yawning." "The hole was very big." "I looked down into the darkness and the buffalo went into the hole." "I saw the last buffalo go back into the earth." "I saw our people starving and living in square lodges." "Lakota people, Growling Bear is wrong." "Soaring Eagle, a medicine man, could not accept the terrible vision of Growling Bear, that the buffalo would disappear and the Lakota would live in square houses." "It would be good if Soaring Eagle was right." " WHEELERTON, VIRGINIA 1825 " "I suppose the best place to begin our family's story is with" "Grandsire Abraham." "Many was the time as a boy I listened to his tale of how a cannon subtracted a leg at the Battle of Yorktown." "I'd have wagered both mine to see what he saw." "My misfortune was to be born in a drab age and to have lived in the stifle of a barn where a man was only as good as the things he crafted." "Wheelwrights we were, going back to the time when they invented the damn thing." "Wheelers made wheels." "But in my day, it seemed the wheels made the Wheelers." "All the long day, I lived in my books." "And by night." "I dreamed of a better life beyond the Mississippi." "Morning, Enoch." " Hi, Papa." "How are you?" " Good." " Good." " Nathan." "Morning." "Now that is a thing of beauty." "Anybody see Jacob?" "Jacob?" "At your age I was repairing cannon wheels at Valley Forge." "At least you got to see a bit of the world." "The was the war." "We had no choice." "Thank God you live in a time of peace." " Yes, sir." " Apply yourself to the anvil and you're set for life." "It takes ten years to make a journeyman wheelwright." "Another ten for master." "You'll never lack for work." "They need wheels in time of peace." "They need wheels in time of..." "Don't you sass me, young man!" "Yes, sir." "You boys knock off for lunch now." "Except Jacob." "You already had yours." "Plough-horse needs shoeing out there." "Good morning." "Who do I see about replacing a rifle cock?" "That'd be me, sir." "If I may, sir, how did you come by that scar?" "Difference of opinion with a Cheyenne warrior." "Savage thought my scalp might look better hanging from his belt." "But..." "I favoured where God put it." "But then I fancied his locks on my belt." " May I?" " Sure." "My goodness." " What in the Sam Hill is that?" " Whoa!" "Sacred." "Grizzly." "On its hind legs, 'bout where that first rafter starts." "Goodness gracious." "Must be hell out there." "More like a Garden of Eden, son." "You come across some tribes that give you the girls." "You got mountains covered with snow in summer." "And forests that go on forever." "Rivers that you can't hardly see across." "Sometimes you wait half a day for a buffalo herd to run past." "Big shaggy beast, three times a horse, horizon to horizon." "Then the Pacific." "Unsullied by human hands, as it was on the eighth day of the world." "See if that'll work for you." "Thank you." "Did you finish shoeing that plough-horse like I told you?" "It's a fine young man you got here." "If he doesn't get knocked into a cocked hat first." "And you let the fire burn down too." "We could have turned out another wheel before the end of the day, but not now." "Think you could put a sharper edge on this for me?" "Yes, sir." "Is that... human blood?" "Arkansas toothpick ain't for cutting your steak." "So where are you headed, sir?" "O'er St. Louis, meet up with Mr Jedediah Smith." "The Jedediah Smith?" "God made only one of him for all of us to look up to." "Who's that?" "Well, Mr Smith opened up the deep West for trappers." "Looking for a few good mountain men to explore the beaver populations out around the Great Salt Lake." "How much can a man make off of beaver?" "As long as they keep buying beaver hats in London and Paris, upwards to four or five thousand a year." "Time for you to get back to work now." "All of you." "Oh, now Margaret, that is a fine-looking goose." " Believe that beaver story?" " Not a word." "Sunday dinner was another form of labour with my father Enoch, my mother Margaret," "Can we say grace first?" ", my brothers Ezra, Nathan and Jethro," "For what we are about to receive..." "Grandfather presided over the ritual with Grandmother Hannah," "The Wheelers pounded iron six days a week, but on the seventh, we pounded each other," "President Adams is saying to Europe, "Keep out." "It's all ours."" "It needs another Jefferson to take it all." "But isn't the West just one vast desert?" "A common untruth, Mama." "The West has all kinds of trade." "It's a veritable Garden of Eden." "Yes, Jacob's just returned from the west wing of the house." "Jacob, in fact, has yet to discover the western side of the barn." "As with all rituals, nothing ever much changed," ", until that Sunday when I looked around the table and said my silent goodbye to each and every Wheeler," "Where are the buffalo?" "Heyoka, the clown, tried to lift their spirits after Growling Bear's dark vision," "For the boy, White Feather, there were only questions," "He sought answers among his family," "What you did was wrong, grandson." "Yes, grandfather." "Is the dream of Growling Bear true?" "White Feather..." "Eat." "But who killed the Lakota?" "They just told you to eat." "White Feather was determined to discover the meaning of Growling Bear's vision, and if the future it predicted could be changed," "Your dream... is it true?" "A man called Drinks Water had the same vision long ago." "White Feather did not have words to match what he knew to be true," "But he knew that a vision was a dangerous thing," "He knew a vision could kill a man," "Jacob!" "You hold up!" " Jacob!" " Jacob!" "Jacob, wait!" "Wait!" "So, what do you figure?" "Just run out and not tell nobody, hope your scheme works out?" "I don't expect Mr Smith and Mr Fletcher are gonna" " tarry in St. Louis." " Ma and Pa?" "What do we tell them?" "Tell them I love them." "I ain't got time to lose." "I made my last wheel in Wheelerton." "Why would a frontiersmen accommodate you?" "Ask and you shall receive." "Mr Eternal Optimist." "Nathan, I thought you had more enterprise in you." "Jethro, you've always been a blade of grass:" "Bends with the wind." " Wait up." " No!" "You'll be the first Wheelers to give up the trade." "You'll stay behind, pound on dead iron till you become as dead as iron." "Come on, Jethro." "Now or never." "Oh, come on." "White Feather could not accept Growling Bear's vision that the buffalo would not return," "A ceremony was performed," "The people danced to give gratitude to Tatanka, and prayed that he would live again and again in the great circle of life," "White Feather!" "Come!" "Buffalo have come!" "To lead the buffalo to the jump was to taunt death," "White Feather knew that his brothers," "Dog Star and Running Fox, were chosen for their ability and courage," "He was proud of them, but afraid also," "You have never jumped before." "When you run and jump, you must not stop." "The run, jump, and swing must be one." "Otherwise, you will not swing into the cave." "Help me!" "Tatanka spared the boy, so on the day the boy's mother was put to rest," "White Feather was renamed Loved by the Buffalo, and all agreed that he had been called to walk the road of the medicine man," "Let White Feather be known as Loved by the Buffalo." "One of my sons a holy man?" "That brings honour to the family." "But Soaring Eagle killed Growling Bear with evil medicine." "You give too much power to Soaring Eagle." "We must keep all eyes on this boy." "And so Loved by the Buffalo took no food or drink in four days," "He cleansed his body and mind to open his spirit for a vision to enter," "TENNESSEE THREE MONTHS LATER" "Stash the horses over there." "Wait till dark." " What the?" " Hey!" "Hey!" " Get your black hands off of me!" " Let go of him." "When he let go of me." "When he let go of me!" "You're dead as mutton if you don't." "So's your friend." "All right, I'm gonna let go." "You let go." "Who's in there?" "You answer me, by God." "Just a couple of hungry boys out for some eggs, sir." "How many are ya?" "Just two of us in here stealing eggs, sir." "Regret to say the wolf in our stomachs overcame our God-fearing souls." "You only had to knock on my door to discover Christian charity." "Had your fill of eggs to boot." "We only took enough to keep the wolf at bay, sir." "Well, go on." "Take a few." "Had my hopes up, what with a big reward for a runaway slave." "You don't say." "How much was that reward?" "Hundred silver dollars." "With your permission, we'll be on our way." "What about the?" "Nathan!" "Let..." "let the good Christian man go back to his warm bed." " Thank you." " Thank you heartily, sir." "God bless, boys." "What objection do you have when the thing stands between us and ruination is $ 7?" "Man kept his word." "I intend to keep mine." "What man?" "He's a runaway." " That money's mine." " No, it's my rifle!" "Poor as Job's turkey." "You won't even bend down to pick up $100" " laying on the ground." " Man's got to draw a line." " He did the honourable thing." " You're a dreamer." " Let go, Nathan." " No!" "Who made you captain of this enterprise?" "You won't be laughing when I catch you, boy." "There goes our hundred silver dollars." "Damn you, Jacob." "Stop running!" "Nice shootin', farmer boy." "See ya." "ST." "LOUIS, MISSOURI 1826" "Nice to see you." "How are you?" "We'd been in St, Louis long enough to see the sights and then some, but it took more than a fortnight longer to find what we'd come for," "Mr Fletcher." "Mr Fletcher!" "Jacob Wheeler!" "You remember my brother, Nathan?" "Yeah, I remember." "You said you needed men, sir." "Yeah..." "I said I needed men." "Mountain men." "Well, we'll pull our weight, sir." "Do you suppose you could introduce us to Mr Smith?" "We sure did come a long way." "St. Louis is raining mountain men, Jacob, my boy." "Nathan." "Seasoned men." "Men more Indian than white." "Men who can speak Apache, Cheyenne and Mexican." "Nathan, hold on!" "Sorry, Jacob." "Maybe next time." "Where the hell you been?" "St. Louis loves the Brothers Wheeler." "I couldn't lose a hand." "Ten times I tried to quit, ten times they made me stay." "I won this." "It is an escritura, That's Spanish for "deed."" "I won that at poker too." "It's a mere hundred acres in Tejas." "You 25, me 75." "What do you say about that, Brother Jacob?" "Tejas ain't even in the United States, Nathan." " So what?" " They don't speak English." " They're Catholics." " With a hundred acres, who cares?" "I made up my mind." "I'm going with Jedediah Smith." "You see that furry creature?" "That's the kind of man Jedediah Smith wants." "But who cares beans?" "We've found our fortune in Tejas." " I want to see the Pacific." " Then what?" "I don't know." "I got a bird in the hand in Tejas." "You're after the will-o'-the-wisp out West." "With adventurers and criminals." "I say we stick together." "Yeah, well, why should I stick with you?" "There's a reason why our father gave you the grunt work and me the precise measurements of wheel making." "Because you never had a head, except for dreaming'." "And here you go again." "Are you coming or not?" "I thought of our mother, vexed by her perfidious sons, always consoling herself with the notion that we had each other," "But we didn't allow her even that much comfort," "I leave from the steamboat within the hour if you change your mind." "Nathan went south, and I went west," "I put my best foot forward and bought a new, old suit of clothes for the occasion of meeting the great Jedediah Smith," "It was not easy to find Mr Smith because he endeavoured to stay upwind of me," "And then suddenly he stood in front of me," "Well, I just want to see what no white man has ever seen before." "If a horse throws a shoe, I'm a first-rate farrier." "Been at it since I could pick up a hammer." " Can you shoot?" " I'm a hunter." "It's my rifle." "Exactly what kind of game do you hunt?" "Rabbits and deer, sir." "You ever kill a man?" "No, sir." "I admire your spirit, boy." "But only the best of the best will be chosen." "So you go on home." "Nobody here will think the worst of you." "Maybe next time around." "With all due respect, sir, you ever kill a man?" "My friend," "Mr Smith cannot count the savages that fell to his hand." "Well, you know what?" "It's pretty easy to kill a savage out to scalp you." "But you ever hunt down an innocent rabbit, done you no harm?" "Cut it down in cold blood and eat it?" "Nobody in Wheelerton would have believed it," "I was riding with a legend," "Hearty as a buck, a crack shot, a walking encyclopaedia of Indians and their strange habits," "Mr Smith was like no man I ever knew," "And I would never be the same," "The buffalo jumpers, Running Fox and Dog Star, had their eyes on two sisters, but had to prove themselves to a more dangerous opponent than stampeding buffalo," "The small, skinned rabbit did not impress the girls'protective father," "These are good horses." "Go inside." "Two brothers married two sisters and walked the path of old tradition," "Loved by the Buffalo studied the power of plants, of roots and herbs," "He learned how to cure the body and the spirit using songs and ceremonies," "It may be the weather." "Or her lack of faith." "But the holy man did not know all the powers the boy was given," "Loved by the Buffalo discovered he had the power to take another's pain upon himself," "He knew the power was not his own, but that of Wakan Tanka," "May our gratitude please you, Soaring Eagle." "Watch this." "See?" "Washtegla," "Now watch this." "See?" "Enouk neo," "Pot." "The gun is what we need." "Ten beaver skins for the pot." "Forty for the gun." "I give 31 skins for both of them." "Thirty one beaver skins will do." "And I'll give you more if I can marry your daughter." "Lebeck is a good man." "An alliance with the traders is good for the Lakota." "Rifles are what we want." "Thunder Heart Woman would carry the medicine wheel that Growling Bear gave to her brother," "In it she would keep her family and her memories, and that gave her comfort," "Days passed into months, until I lost track of time altogether," "Riding with Mr Smith, I saw the grandeur and majesty of the West as few white men had ever seen it," "COLORADO" "Mr Fletcher, is that path passable?" "Path ain't even jack-assable." "Everywhere I looked I saw treasures of immeasurable beauty, and I longed for my brothers to share them," " Back!" " Get..." "Mr..." "Shoot him!" "Praise the Lord for providing our supper tonight." " Amen." " Praise the Lord." "Get out of there, boys." " Fetch my bag, Mr Wheeler." " Yes, sir." " What do you need from it, sir?" " I got it." " Here we go." " All right." "Put my scalp..." "Mr Wheeler?" "Yes, sir." "Thread the needle." "Sew it back on, son." " Go ahead." " I ain't never done nothing" " like that before." " Neither have I, son." " Perhaps Mr Fletcher could..." " I gave you an order, boy." "Thread that needle and sew my scalp back on." "Yes, sir." "Isn't this gonna hurt, sir?" "I believe it will, son." "But I think it'll hurt the person being sewed more than the sewer." " Mr Fletcher?" " Yeah." "Fetch my Bible, please." " Hold still, sir." " Thank you, kindly." "Sorry, sir." "Oh, goodness!" "Sorry it hurts you so much, son." "MONTANA TERRITORY" "That's right, darling." "Stretch them nice, you get a good price." "Loved by the Buffalo began to walk the path of a holy man," "The way was long and dangerous, but for one who communes with Wakan Tanka, many things are possible," "In the medicine wheel," "Loved by the Buffalo learned the mysterious realities of life," "He saw the sun and moon and seasons come and go in a circle," "He saw that all true power moved in a circle," "How did you know to stand there?" "SIERRA NEVADAS" "When we descended from the high Sierras, we came across a friendly tribe," "They called themselves Mohave," ""the people who live along the river,"" "and they called us "beaver-eaters,"" "Mr Smith purchased horses to replace those we consumed," "One blanket." "Two knives." "A gift." " Eskesuka," " Thank you." " Maricopa." " Maricopa." "Maricopa." "Maricopa." " Maricopa!" " It's just dandy!" " Dandy!" " Dandy!" "Maricopa!" " Very dandy!" " Very dandy!" "Dandy!" "You are a most unusual young man." "I'm afraid not, sir." "Well, there they are down there." "What're you doing up here?" "Seems like there was this tiny Jedediah Smith standing on my shoulder telling me to come up here with you." " I want to be like you, sir." " Well, much obliged, son." "You do me great honour." "But you see, sir," "I'm just a..." "ape of Jedediah Smith." "I want to be like you, I really want to be like you, but there's a part of me I feel inside..." "I wanna be back down there." "What does that make me?" "It makes you a human being." "Just like the rest of us." "Are you tempted too, sir?" "Come over here." "Sit down, boy." "Come over here." "Jacob." "We're as human as the least of them down there." "But we're also more than that." ""As a man thinketh, so he is." What do you think you are?" "The Lord fashioned us a little above the beast, a little below the angels." "But he gave us the choice." "And it's great, son." "Some of these men, they come West, they lose their souls." "West is a place on the map, not a way to live." "Don't forget that." "A man has to know his own mind." "You might begin... your own journal." "Crow!" "Baby!" "Lakota killed my brother!" "CALIFORNIA" "He said that we are his prisoners." "Well, tell him that maybe it escaped his notice that he's outnumbered three to one." "He said he would arrest us if there was a thousand of us." "SAN GABRIEL MISSION, CALIFORNIA" "Dismount!" "They're taking you to the governor." "Look after the men." "The captain took Mr Smith away," ""to make the governor's acquaintance, " he said," "Under ordinary circumstances, we'd have welcomed the hospitality of the San Gabriel padres," "Disarm them." "But there was no mistaking the fact that we were prisoners," "They say they bought the horses from the Indians." "I believe it." "But that is the flea on the dog." "The danger is that, for the first time, Americans have come by land." "If we free them, they will show other Americans how to go to California." "If we kill them, they say nothing." "May God save us." "Our time among the Mohave was to cost us both dearly," "The soldados wanted to set an example," "It didn't matter if the men they brought in as horse thieves were innocent or guilty, Indians were Indians," "It was a powerful trial to watch the sun set day after day over the horizon I had sacrificed home and family to reach," "Whether any of us would live to see the wide ocean that had been the object of our expedition now depended on Mr Smith," " Gentlemen!" " Mr Smith!" " I've got news for you." " Where have you been?" "The governor has given us the most generous, but strict instructions." "We must depart as we came and never return on pain of death." "We were forced to return east," "I looked back and made myself the solemn promise that one day I would see California again," "Loved by the Buffalo knew that a vision from Wakan Tanka would direct the course of his life," "White Buffalo Woman brought us the sacred ceremonies so that we could ask for help in our troubles and give thanks for the gifts from Wakan Tanka," "She taught us the Sun Dance," "SIERRA NEVADAS" "Once we drank maricopa with the Mohave and shared their women," "But after we had left them, a party of beaver-eaters had attacked the village and left it in flames," "Now we were forced to run for our lives," "Move, Jacob." "Come on!" "There!" "Get in!" "Hurry up!" "You OK?" "You all right?" "Be still." "Fire." "Fire!" "Bully for you, young man." "That should hold them off for a while." " Mr Fletcher." " Yeah." "The smoke is drifting." "What's that mean?" "It means there's a way out of here." "I got a pang telling me, time to hang up the fiddle." "Hey, listen, you two just follow the smoke." "And I'll..." "I'll keep our friends amused." "OK?" "Jacob!" "Bring me my gun." "Thank you." "Listen, Jacob I want you to have that." "No use any Mohave gettin' it that won't appreciate it." "Learn to use it, son." "Things can get pretty personal out West." "Thank you, Mr Fletcher." "Jacob!" "Light it!" " Jim." " Yeah." "You're a man of unfailing rectitude." "Remember me..." "to all the boys at the rendezvous." "Get going." "Get going!" " Mr Smith, I can't do this." " Of course you can." "It vents." "Now I'm stuck." "I can't do this!" "I don't want to die like this!" " Mama!" " Jacob!" "The dancer stares into the sun, sunup to sundown, moving with the sun, dancing, tugging at his tether, pulling, twisting, trying to tear the skewer through his skin," "And when he sets himself free, he is reborn to the world," "He lays on a bed of sage and recites his vision to the holy man," "If we'd never found this cave, it'd be all over." "But in here, like this, we will die by inches, and nobody will ever hear from us again, or know what happened." "The Lord revealed the cave as he sent a fish to save Jonah when Jonah was drowning." "I don't need a sermon when I'm so afeared!" ""The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."" "Take hold of my boot and move with me." "The fish swallowed up Jonah." "And Jonah did not know it was God who sent the fish to save him." "And Jonah cried out to the Lord from the belly of the beast," ""Lord, I don't want to die like this!"" "Now let us pray Jonah's prayer." ""I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and He heard me." "Out of the belly of hell cried I and Thou heardest my voice."" "Now, repeat after me, Jacob." " I will sacrifice unto Thee..." " I will sacrifice unto Thee with a song of thanksgiving." "...with thanksgiving." " Salvation is of the Lord." " Salvation is of the Lord." "Loved by the Buffalo had seen how a vision could kill its seeker," "Now he, too, had a terrible revelation," "A wooden hoop and a stone hoop." "Our medicine wheel." "The wooden wheel meets the stone wheel." "And the wood breaks the stone." "The vision is false." "Wood does not break stone." "A trickster spirit has possessed Loved by the Buffalo." "The sickness of the spotted face came to the Lakota," "Some believed it came from the white man," "Some were not as certain," "My father is also near death with the pox." "Bring Loved by the Buffalo." "Be brave little brother." "I'm going to get help." "When Loved by the Buffalo fell ill, Soaring Eagle told the people," "Don't go." ", it was Loved by the Buffalo that brought the pox," "Help me." "Our brother is dying." "We ask you to take the pox from us." "Move!" "He told them to send the boy away, and only then would the sickness leave," "But deep inside his dark thoughts, he hoped the sickness would take the boy," "Have no fear." "How are you here, Growling Bear?" "I am among the stars now." "I come to say be strong." "You were born to live a life to help your people." "Behold the future." "Growling Bear made a song to fight the sickness," "He gave it to Loved by the Buffalo to cure his brother Running Fox and any who believed," "UTAH 1829" "Mr Smith and I had stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale," "We'd said our goodbyes and gone our separate ways," "I decided to attend the rendezvous that Mr Fletcher had spoken of with such fondness," "Rob any chicken coops lately?" " Ben Franklin." " Jacob Wheeler!" " Ain't this some pumpkins." " Look at you." "Look at you!" "Where the Sam Hill you been?" "I've been all over." "Come here!" "I remember, I remember..." "I'll never forget that." "I've been treed by grizzly bears and tracked by Blackfeet but never was so scared as when I heard that farmer tell you about a reward for a runaway slave, no, sir." "I sat in that coop waitin' for you to give me up." "Sure 'nough... you never did." "I thought about that every day since." "I want to give you a hundred beaver pelts as a token of my thanks." "Join us over here for a drink!" "Whiskey's just fine." "Here!" "We've got a young Lakota girl." "Her name is Thunder Heart Woman." "She cooks and she knows the fur trade." "And she speaks good English." "She's pleasant and agreeable." "Well, sometimes." "Biddin' starts at a hundred dollars." "One hundred!" "What've we got here?" "Look here!" "Looks like love at first sight to me!" "Well, I see my old friend Johnny Fox survived another year in the Sierra Nevada." "All right, boys!" "Anyone else in the bidding?" "Two hundred!" "Who's the greenhorn?" " Three hundred." " Four!" "Don't do it!" "Ben?" "You better talk to your friend." "What is you thinkin'?" "Johnny Fox can whip your weights in wild cats." "You trying to buy a sister, peach fuzz?" "Do you even know what to do with her?" "I'm gonna set her free and send her back to her people." "Sets her free?" "Why?" "You of all people know why." "If I thought different you'd be back on that plantation." "You backing' down?" "Not for flapjacks or French ladies." "Then it's rifles at 20 paces." "Look what you done got yourself into now." "Come on, little coward." "Come on!" "You keep on the move." "Even when reloading'." "Make yourself small." "All right, lad." "You will stand back-to-back, with unloaded rifles." "And after ten paces, well anything goes." "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!" " Come on, Jacob!" " Now, Jacob!" "Come on, Jacob." "Now, Jacob!" "Now!" "You want more!" "Get your ear!" "Kill him!" "Come on!" " My whiskey!" " Come on, Jacob!" "Time to go home, little boy." "Time to go back to Mama." "Johnny, quit messin' around!" "Thunder Heart Woman!" "Get ready to feel some of Johnny Fox's lightning." "Sold, boys!" "We must take out metal." "Who are you?" "I'm Jacob Wheeler, ma'am." "Well, now..." "By rights, this stuff is yours." "Is there enough there to cover what I owe you?" "Oh, yeah!" "And then some." "What's so funny?" "A true Southern gentleman seein' a lady to her daddy's front door." "Even if it is a thousand miles across Cheyenne, Crow and Blackfoot country." "A great man once told me that the West is just a place on the map, not a way to live." "Benjamin." "You take care." "Ma'am." "What's wrong?" "I have... baby somewhere on earth." "Crow took her." "I pray she is not yet on Ghost Path." "Where spirits go." "Thirty beaver skins." "Running Fox, what is that?" "It was only thirty beaver skins." "Can you eat it?" "This is the white man's junk." "This is no good." "This is the hoop of wood I saw in my vision." "So it's all true?" "How do I know that you are not the trickster leading me into madness?" "Give me a sign that you are true." "Need for a sign is for the weak of faith." "You tell me that I was born to walk a holy path." "But how will I do that when Soaring Eagle aims to kill me?" "Perhaps you must leave the village." "I don't want to leave." "Take this burden from me." "Give it to someone else." "I want to stay." "You must leave your family and seek your vision." "I don't understand." "Jacob." "Jacob!" "Loved by the Buffalo knew he had been given the sign he asked for," "He no longer questioned his sanity, and understood that Wakan Tanka was guiding him," "It's Heyoka." "Heyoka makes us see Wakan Tanka." "Makes us laugh." "Arriving in Thunder Heart Woman's village was like stepping into a dream," "I had looked to find my destiny in California," "But it was in this place, among these people, that my life was to take a course I had never imagined," "I could not understand their words, but I could see the love for a long-lost daughter and sister, and feel her relief in their embrace," "She told them about her captivity, the fight with Johnny Fox, how I had risked my life to free her," "I thought I understood her to say the spirits had brought us together, and I figured, well, she must have been right about that," "My father offers his possessions." "Well, tell him I just want to marry you." "Sometimes, two people go to wilderness for two weeks." "And they return, as husband and wife." "We kinda already did that." "This is making of relatives." "Take small bite." "This meat, I place in mouth." "From this day, my home, your home." "And you, his son." "At first I didn't understand the pain in my heart for Thunder Heart Woman," "Then it hit me," "Her family was making me a relative while I know full well my folks would never do the same for her," "They'd call her a savage," ", soulless heathen," "Why do I feel so at home here among these people?" "Daquessen," "Grab the wheel." "It's heavy." "Help me unwrap it." "Take the rope off." "This wheel will make my life easier." "Easier to dirty our camps with more white man things." "You will always want more and more." "Enough!" "Take the rope off." "Like that..." "Then you go around, just like that." "We can save the rope." "When I saw Loved by the Buffalo," "I could not escape the strange sensation that I knew him and he knew me," "Jacob is a relative." "He saw my scar," "And I saw his and I imagined the force of the beast that thrust its head in his chest," "In the wheel, Loved by the Buffalo saw the threat, the danger coming from the people of the wooden wheel, but he could not say why," "And he began to understand what Growling Bear meant:" "The webs made by spiders to catch flies," "Something would entangle the Lakota in a time yet to come," "You trick the iron to subdue the wood." "Your magic wrongs Wakan Tanka." "Does your God give you the wheel of wood and iron?" "No, no, just the intelligence to make it." "He will show you a wheel made by Wakan Tanka." "Great Spirit gives one gift at birth." "We are born, somewhere, on the medicine wheel." "We are born with one of the great powers." "Wisdom, strength, big heart, braveness." "Loved by the Buffalo left me wondering what I was born with and what I had yet to acquire on the wheel," "I would spend most of my life looking for the answer," "There is big medicine in the tricking of the iron." "The white man would steal the power of Wakan Tanka." "Yes." "If the white man has the power of Wakan Tanka your vision will come to pass, our ways destroyed." "Can your vision be changed?" "You must never stop trying." "That is not what I asked." "The time had come to move the camp," "The grandparents of Thunder Heart Woman chose to remain behind, to make their final journey together," "Why?" "Why can't she come with us?" "She will not leave her husband." "We must respect their wishes." "For the first time I stood in awe of everything that God made," "I couldn't look at a tree anymore and see so many board feet of timber," "Couldn't look at a beaver lodge and see so many pelts," "Now, I saw little miracles," "We had the wheel that takes you from here to there," "But they have a wheel that takes you to the stars," "We had a good life." "The circle is now complete." "Soaring Eagle knew he had lost his place," "For the first time in his life, he knew the true meaning of fear," "And Loved by the Buffalo left his family, so that he might live for all the people," "This was the price of his gift, to pursue his journey to change the terrible vision of Growling Bear,"