09 Lakota School

Chapter 09 Lakota School Jack felt Teddy licking his cheek. He opened his eyes. Gray light came through the smoke hole. The fire was out. The tepee was empty. Jack jumped up. He grabbed his bag and hurried outside with Teddy. In the cool light before dawn, everyone was taking down their tepees. They were loading them onto wooden platforms strapped to two poles. The poles were pulled by horses.

Grandmother and Black Hawk piled tools and clothes onto their platform. Annie stuffed buffalo meat into a rawhide bag. “ What’s happening?” Jack asked. “ It is time to follow the buffalo, ” said Grandmother. “ We will camp somewhere else for a few weeks. ” Jack pulled out his notebook. He still had many questions. But he tried to choose just a few. “ Can you camp anywhere?” he asked. “ Even when you don’t own the land?” Black Hawk laughed. “ People cannot own land, ” he said. “ The land belongs to the Great Spirit. ” Jack wrote in his notebook:

Iand owned by Great Spirit, not people “ What about school?” said Jack. “ Don’t you have to go to school?” “ What is school?” Black Hawk said. “ It’s a place where kids go to learn things, ” Jack explained. Black Hawk laughed again. “ There is not only one place to learn, ” he said. “ In camp we learn to make clothes, tools, and tepees. On the plains we learn to ride and hunt. We look at the sky and learn courage from the eagle. ” Jack wrote: Lakota school is everywhere Grandmother turned to Jack and Annie.

“ Will you walk with us toward the sunset?” she asked. Jack shook his head. “ We have to go the other way, ” he said, “ toward the sunrise. ” “ Thank you for the eagle’s feather, ” said Annie. “ Let your thoughts rise as high as that feather, ” said Grandmother. “ It is good medicine. ” “ What does that mean?” Jack asked. “ Good medicine?” “ Good medicine connects you to the world of the spirits, ” she said. Jack nodded. But he still didn’t really understand. “ Good-bye, Buffalo Girl and Rides-Like-Wind, ” said Grandmother. “ We wish you a safe journey. ”

Jack and Annie waved. Then they started walking back the way they’d come. Teddy ran ahead of them. At the top of the rise, they looked back.

Grandmother, Black Hawk, and the rest of the tribe were watching. Jack and Annie both held up two fingers for “ friend. ” Then they took off down the slope.