Buffalo Before Breakfast

her face all over.
    â€œWhere did you go?” Annie asked him. “Did you see the beautiful lady, too?”
    â€œThat lady does not live on this earth,” Black Hawk said softly.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” said Annie.
    â€œYou saw the spirit of White Buffalo Woman,” he said.
    â€œWhat do you mean,
spirit?
” said Jack. “You mean like a ghost?”
    Black Hawk turned his pony around.

    â€œLet us go back,” he said. “We must tell Grandmother.”
    Annie put Teddy in Jack’s bag. Then she climbed on her pony, and they took off.
    Behind them, the buffalo grazed peacefully on the plains.

The sun was going down as the three ponies galloped for home. The deep blue sky was streaked with golden red light.
    Back at the Lakota camp, the circle of tepees glowed in the setting sun. People were gathered around a large fire.
    Black Hawk led Jack and Annie to the camp. They got off their ponies and went over to the fire.
    Grandmother rose to greet them.
    â€œYou have been gone a long time,” she said.
    Black Hawk looked her bravely in the eye.
    â€œGrandmother, I tried to hunt the buffalo alone,” he said. “One charged at me, but Jack saved my life. Then Annie and White Buffalo Woman stopped all the other buffalo from a stampede.”
    â€œLet this be a lesson to you,” Grandmother said sternly. “Your pride led you to show off. Showing off made you behave foolishly. Your foolishness frightened a buffalo. He frightened others. One thing always leads to another. Everything is related.”
    â€œI am sorry,” said Black Hawk. He hung his head. “I have learned.”
    Jack felt sorry for Black Hawk.
    â€œI make mistakes sometimes, too,” he said softly.
    â€œMe too,” said Annie.
    Grandmother looked at Jack and Annie.
    â€œBuffalo Girl and Rides-Like-Wind showed great courage today,” she said.
    Jack smiled. He loved his new Lakota name:
Rides-Like-Wind
.
    â€œWe welcome you to our family,” said Grandmother.
    The evening shadows spread over the camp. Someone began beating a drum. It sounded like a heartbeat.
    â€œCome, sit with us in our circle,” said Grandmother.
    They sat with her near the warm fire. A cool breeze blew sparks into the gray twilight.
    An old man held a long pipe up to the sky. He pointed it to the east, the south, the west, and the north.
    Then he passed the pipe to the next man in the circle. The man put the pipe to his lips and blew smoke into the golden firelight. Then he passed it on.

    â€œThe smoke from the sacred pipe joins all things to the Great Spirit,” Grandmother said to Jack and Annie.
    â€œThe Great Spirit?” asked Annie.
    â€œThe Great Spirit is the source of all things in the sacred circle of life,” said Grandmother. “It is the source of all spirits.”
    â€œWhat spirits?” asked Jack.
    â€œThere are many,” said Grandmother. “Wind spirits, tree spirits, bird spirits. Sometimes they can be seen. Sometimes not.”
    â€œWhat about the White Buffalo Woman?” said Jack. “Who is she?”
    â€œShe is a messenger of the Great Spirit,” said Grandmother. “He sent her when the people were starving. She brought the sacred pipe so that our prayers could rise to the Great Spirit. He answers by sending us the buffalo.”
    â€œWhy do you think White Buffalo Woman came to me?” asked Annie.
    â€œSometimes courage can summon help from the beyond,” Grandmother said.
    She pulled a brown-and-white feather from a small buckskin bag.
    She put the feather on the ground in front of Jack and Annie.
    â€œThis is a gift for you,” she said. “An eagle’s feather for your courage.”

    Arf! Arf!
Teddy wagged his tail.
    Jack and Annie smiled at each other. The eagle’s feather was their “gift from the prairie blue.”
    Their mission was complete.
    The chanting and drumbeats grew louder and louder. Then they stopped.
    The old man held the pipe up to the sky.
    â€œAll things are related,” he said.
    The pipe-smoking ceremony was over.
    The sky was dark and filled with stars.
    One by one, people rose from the circle and went to their tepees.
    Jack put the eagle’s feather in his bag and yawned.
    â€œWe better go home now,” he said.
    â€œYou must rest first,” said Grandmother. “You can leave in the dawn.”
    â€œGood plan,” said Annie. She was yawning,