By
Spencer G. Lone Tree
Young
adult fiction
Trade
Paperback 2004
376
pages
The Birth of a Shaman
Reviewed
by Ramona Kiyoshk
White
Fang, Treasure Island, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Legend of
Sleepy Hollow, move over. Make room on the shelves for the new kid on
the block.
Night
Sun and the Seven Directions is the first in a series of fast-moving
adventure stories about a Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) youth who comes of age
during the final days of the American frontier. The story, woven
around historical events, chronicles those uncertain times through
the eyes of a fictional Native American family. It is a compelling
mixture of mysticism, mythology and indigenous spirituality. It moves
along at a breath-taking pace and the players become so real they
almost fly out of the pages.
Pioneers
in covered wagons moved cross the prairies, like a plague of locusts,
consuming the forests, animals and societies that thrived in “the
New World” side by side for millennia. Soon railways would expedite
the waves of settlers. Many Indian tribes would be decimated by
disease and starvation, or murdered by the U.S. Army. Others were
moved from their traditional homes by the U.S. government, with
promises of protection, only to be forced to move again to make room
for a fresh onslaught of homesteaders.
The
Winnebago hunting grounds covered most of Illinois and Wisconsin. The
men, who were hunters and trappers, sold furs to the merchants at the
trading posts. They returned from their trading expeditions with
household items, blankets, hunting knives, fishing lines, steel traps
and gifts for their women and children.
Night
Sun was born into a very traditional family of healers and leaders.
At his birth, it was declared by the spirits that guarded the tribe,
that the first-born Night Sun would become a shaman. His great
grandfather, Mahkani-gah, a powerful medicine man, would be his
teacher and mentor. His grandfather, Chief Fire Cloud, a tribal
elder, would help in Night Sun’s education in ethics and
spirituality, training that all the children received. His father,
War Eagle, would teach him the skills and ways of the hunter and
warrior.
On a
typical day, the families rose with the sun to begin their duties.
The elders offered a prayer of thanksgiving. Night Sun, who adopted
an orphaned wolf, would take his pet for a morning run with his
buddies or one of his brothers. At age twelve, when he began his
shaman training, Night Sun added the thanksgiving prayers to his
morning ritual.
In an
interview in the La Crosse Tribune, Wis., columnist Geri Parlin
quoted author Spencer G. Lone Tree: "I learned the ethics of my
people from sitting around the fireplace with my grandfather. I'm
probably one of the last generations to experience that. I'm trying
to pass on the culture.” In a society that did not have a written
language and relied on the oral traditions of professional
storytellers, the old ways were dying with the old people. Lone Tree,
sixty-something, began writing this series of books to help keep the
knowledge alive.
When
it became evident that the tribe would have to adapt to co-exist with
the whites, some of the older boys, including Night Sun, were sent to
a government boarding school to learn to read and write. Parents were
forbidden to visit, as it would interfere with their education,
officials at the school insisted. A sadistic army dropout was in
charge at the school, causing the students to huddle in terror.
Pawnee scouts were hired to track down runaways who would be starved
and beaten when they returned to the school.
The
children struggled with the unreasonable rules and the sadistic
beatings for the slightest infractions. One evening, during a
snowstorm, the young half-breed who was in charge of administering
the whippings cornered Night Sun in the deserted barnyard and
threatened to kill him. The boy fought back and accidentally knocked
the older youth unconscious. Desperate, Night Sun recruited the other
boys from his village. They stole horses from the school’s stable
and fled despite the blizzard, commencing a heart-stopping chase
across the plains.
This
pursuit in freezing weather would test the acumen and fortitude of
both the prey and their trackers.
Night
Sun and the Seven Directions is well written and depicts the Native
American Indian’s point of view of a turbulent era. Author Lone
Tree also drew the engaging, detailed illustrations.
This
book (and others in the series) is definitely a must for the reading
lists of American history courses. It is also recommended to anyone
who is up for a wild ride across the plains when sparkling rivers
meandered around herds of buffalo grazing on never-ending prairies.
