Soul Stance River - 15

We briefly meet the Mandan Chief Big White in the village center where the animals are sacraficed, couples wed, and disputes are dealt with, he is a massive, and portly man and is wearing a headdress that spreads to the floor with black tipped eagle feathers, gold encrusted eagle heads atop each shoulder and a staff lined with the vertebrae of the great bear silver encoated, he, like many of these people are very light skinned with hair more thin and flaxen than any other natives we have ever seen with eye color of many hues, including blue, it is clear that the Mandans are the Welsh speaking Indians of lore, and possibly the legendary "Lost Tribe of Israel" , Big White, in front of his people tells us that we are welcome, have been expected, and will share spirit tomorrow in formal council, then, with a grin as if his first born son was just delivered he waves us off, In our guest lodge tonight we are introduced to agents of various trading companies one of whom is Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper and arms dealer claiming to be independent and interested in the mission, he has done business with the Mandans for many years, and he has two teenage wives, Indian girls captured in raids and bought by him, one of the two has an aura of durable beauty her eyes radiate an auburn rich heat that entrances me, my intuition of destiny is attaching to her, visions of affection on harsh trails purpose of vital voice in the negotiation of history, this princess of perseverance is named, Sacagawea and she is five months pregnant, Sacagawea can speak Shoshone and Nez Perce, and she be a most beautiful, breathing symbol of Providence's wishes, we need the tribes to the west to be sympathetic to our enterprise Sacagawea, with her innate elegance is a presence that can silence effrontery and encourage camaraderie, Days follow with festivities that put finesse into everyone's persuasion and pagentry in the passion of political pulse, hours evaporate like ignorance from a blooming brain as we discuss the latticework of tribal politics, chiefs of the Mandans, Hidatsas and Arikara speak of history before horse power and musket murder when men rode the land with leather feet and fought skin to skin, a time when wealth came from the woman's womb and dominance was the provenance of strategic location, I asked Chief Black Cat why the Mandan and Hidatsas live as seperate tribes despite being neighbors that have shared an eon, he says its because... They like to hunt mountains, we prefer to hunt trees... I still do not know what in the hell that means, the consensus, is that the Sioux are the scourge of demonic bloodlust, through cooperation, our nations can subdue the Sioux savagery by coraling them into an inferno of isolation, their knees will know the rock of pain, J.A.B.