The Way to Rainy Mountain

Story XII. The ancestral voice tells the story of a couple who send their child outside with a ball of meat to eat. He comes in and asks for more three times, and then returns with an enemy. The enemy says the family is surrounded, but offers to spare them if they feed all his men. Not believing him, the father sneaks out and leads their horses away while his wife cooks. At his signal, she sets fire to the fat she’s been cooking and throws it on the enemies, enabling the family to get away. The historical voice shares an incident in which a ceremonial tipi painted with battle scenes was accidentally lost to fire in the winter of 1872-1873. The personal reflection is of a walk at sunset in the Rainy Mountain Cemetery.

Story XIII. The ancestral voice tells the story of an arrowmaker who catches sight of an enemy outside the tipi. Speaking calmly to his wife, he straightens an arrow with his teeth and then draws it to the bow, as if to check the straightness, all while asking the stranger to say his name if he understands the Kiowa language. Hearing no reply, he shoots the enemy.