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It is 1943 in another Montana reservation and bar. Here we meet drunken 17-year-old Renna, who later gives birth in the alley behind the bar. She is unaware that a soul is trying to enter this body. Across town Granbear finds his granddaughter missing and goes to look for her. Three generations head for home and Auntie Lizzie, his daughter welcomes them. As she bathes the baby she is shocked to see how weak he is and notices rat bites on his body. Granbear names the child Meeko, the special born one. He nails up his umbilical cord linking him and Meeko together forever as he gives his grandson to the Sioux nation. Meeko thrives under Granbear and Auntie Lizzie's care. Renna begins to visit her son as he becomes old enough to start school, but she never stays for long. He is six when Granbear gives Renna an ultimatum that she is not to visit if she has been drinking. As Meeko starts his white education, his grandfather compares it to the ways and beliefs of their people, hoping to prepare Meeko to live in both the white and red cultures. Granbear also speaks of his nation's past to Meeko, and the courage of the Dog Soldier. He also teaches him about Inyan, the Stone People, and the history the American Indian. He drills Meeko about the United States Government and their role in trying to subdue their people, and the prejudice of the white race against the Indian. Granbear always brings these lessons back to the teachings of Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery uniting all living things. Granbear teaches Meeko about the old ways, starting with a circle from which everything is birthed. He reminds us that we are related and connected to all things in the universe, which is the home of Wakan Tanka. Granbear also teaches the meaning of all the colors, red being the Red race in the West Door of the Medicine Wheel, the small green circle in the middle that links us to Mother Earth, and the blue color to Ate, Father Sky, who gives motion to all life. The stars tell us where we came from, in the truth of all the above powers. At this time Granbear shares his knowledge of his carved bear head pipe with Meeko, and through the pipe to the Sundance as his forefathers had done before him. The time with Granbear is interrupted by Renna who makes many threats towards Granbear and follows up these threats by meeting Meeko at school and kidnapping him. We are in for a stormy ride with Renna and Meeko, traveling the highways as Renna pimps, drugs and drinks her way around the country with the aid of the trucking crowd. Harsh weather comes as Renna and Meeko risk death on the highway. Finding an abandoned railroad shack, Meeko helps Renna make a home for them. Renna finds work as a dishwasher and manages to stay sober. However these times are not to continue as she takes their savings and starts drinking again, landing in jail. After her release she returns to the bar as ten-year old Meeko becomes a hard-core street urchin. |
© 2000 The Red Pathway Learning Center & Foundation, Inc.
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Wind Wolf Woman |