04 Good Manners

Chapter 04 Good Manners Black Hawk led Jack and Annie toward the tepees. Everyone kept watching them. Jack couldn’t tell what anyone was thinking. No one looked angry. But no one looked happy, either. Jack wondered how to appear brave. He glanced at Annie. She walked tall and straight. Her chin was up. Her face was calm. Jack straightened his shoulders. He lifted his chin, and he felt braver.

Black Hawk stopped and slid off his pony. The pony headed for the grazing pasture. Then Black Hawk led them to a tepee. It was covered with buffalo designs. “ Grandmother is inside, ” Black Hawk said to Jack and Annie. Inside, the tepee looked like a small round room. A fire burned in the center. Smoke rose through a hole at the top. An old woman sat on animal skins. She was sewing beads onto a moccasin. She looked up at Jack and Annie. “ Grandmother, ” said Black Hawk. “ This is Jack and Annie from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. ” Jack and Annie both held up two fingers for “ friend. ” Grandmother raised two fingers also.

Then Jack took off his coonskin cap. He gave it to Grandmother. She put the cap on her head, then laughed. Jack and Annie laughed, too. Grandmother’s laughter and kind face reminded Jack of his own grandmother. “ You wish to learn our ways, ” she said. Jack and Annie nodded. Jack could tell she was wise. Grandmother stood and left the tepee. They followed her. Outside, everyone was busy again. They all seemed to know that Jack and Annie weren’t enemies. Jack looked around the camp. Men and boys carved bows. Women and girls pounded meat and sewed clothes. One girl was adding claws to a buckskin shirt.

“ The bear claws will give her the strength of the bear, ” said Grandmother. “ She will sew on hawk feathers, elk teeth, and porcupine quills, too. All will give her the power of the animals. ” Jack pulled out his notebook and wrote: sew bear claws to shirt “ I have strong animal power when I go on a buffalo hunt, ” Black Hawk said proudly. “ What do you mean? ” asked Jack. “ I will show you, ” said Black Hawk. “ Wait. ” Black Hawk went back inside the tepee. Annie turned to Grandmother. “ Why does he hunt the buffalo? ” she asked.

“ The buffalo gives our people many gifts, ” said the old woman. “ Food from his body. Tepees from his skin, tools from his bones. ” Jack started making a list. “ Cups from his horns, ” Grandmother went on. “ Ropes from his hair. Even winter sleds from his ribs. ” Jack finished his list. buffalo skin-tepee bones-tools horns-cups hair-ropes ribs-sleds