JUNE 24, 1876
T
HE WARRIOR FELL BACK against the rocks. His face bore a slash across his brow which bled freely. His chest and arms were covered in scratches, some shallow and only oozing blood, a couple deeper with blood flowing. At only fourteen summers, his face glowed with satisfaction. He paid no heed to his injuries. A smile turned up the corners of his mouth as he looked to the object in his hands. It was the pinion feather from the she-eagle. Perhaps now he would no longer be known as Broken Wing. His eyes scanned the dry prairie. To the west stretched the plains and the dust raised by the buffalo herds. His eyes followed up the riverbed of the Tšėške’kȯsáeo’hé’e, The Little Bighorn River. There was a dust cloud there too, a big one. Shading his eyes, he saw men on horses there and the sun glint off weapons aligned in two columns crossing over the ridge from the Rosebud. He looked down. The sixty-foot drop daunted him. Climbing up here to the eagle aerie three days
ago was a lot simpler than going down would be. He had been up here for three days with only water, and he felt weak. There was nothing to be done for it but to start. He tied the eagle feather into his long black hair and began his descent. “Useless thing.” He cursed his wasted right leg as he descended the cliff, but the strength of his arms and left leg got him down with only a sharp scrape to the chest when he dislodged a foothold and hung by his fingertips. He looked again to the north and could no longer see the column of men, only the dust cloud that accompanied their progress. At the bottom, he picked up his walking stick and worked down the coulee to where his pony was hobbled. The crutch was polished and smooth where it lodged under his arm, scarred where it met the ground. He swung along smoothly upon it with years of practice. His pony snuffled his hand and shook her buckskin hide to drive off the flies. He buried his face in her neck. “Oh, my sweet girl.” She blew air through her nose onto his stroking hand. Broken Wing took some dried bison from his
