A Little Teton Sioux Prince

The loss of a child and how one family learns to grieve and accept the loss and move on.

Day Five:    After wrestling with about one hundred Leprechaun members of the Lep Forces Brigades in my bedroom at home, and with a handful of them in both Cheyenne, Wyoming and in Ivernia, Ireland, I was ready to move forward on my trip to Oregon’s west coast.  I had only stopped into the motel for a good and long night’s sleep.  I had been exhausted, and I needed eight hours of sound sleep.  When I woke up, I was ready to leave this area of the country and head on towards Oregon. 

My goal for today was to drive West into Ogden, Utah, which was 372 miles away from Laramie, Wyoming, and with good conditions and no work zones, it might be drivable in about six hours.  Right in between them was the Teton Mountain Range.  The Teton’s are part of the Great Rocky Mountains that run basically from North to South.  The Teton’s run along the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and are mostly in the state of Wyoming, although the western edge of the Tetons are in Idaho.  The Teton’s are located South of Yellowstone National Park.  The Teton’s are populated with several peaks above ten thousand feet, but the Grand Tetons reach their peak at 13,775 feet and that makes it the tallest and the highest peak in the Tetons.  The Grand Teton’s National Park was established February 26, 1929 so that all Americans would be able to marvel at their grandeur from that date forward. 

Well, here’s a FYI for you, what is the difference between the tallest and the highest peak in a mountain range?  The Highest peak is simply the one that sticks up higher into the sky than any other nearby peak.  The Tallest Peak is defined from its natural base to its peak.  Therefore, how many feet does a mountain rise from its natural base to its peak.  The change in elevation could make it the Tallest Peak even though its peak may not rise up into the sky the most.  Consider the attached drawing.  Mountain A has its peak at 24,000 feet, and Mountain B has its peak at 23,500 feet.  Therefore the Highest is Mountain A because its peak is 500’ further up into the sky.  Now, let’s consider the Base of each mountain.  Mountain A is determined to be at 1500 feet above the surrounding terrain.   Mountain B is determined to be at 500 feet above the surrounding terrain.   Therefore, Mountain A is 22,500 (24,000 �" 1500) feet tall.  Mountain B is 23,000 (23,500 �" 500) feet Tall.  Thus, Mountain B is the tallest mountain because it rises 23,000 feet from its base, while Mountain A rises a mere 22,500 feet.  

Sometimes you just have to know that the use of words can result in a change in what the sentence means, or just one word can change what a paragraph means.  So, we have to be careful about using the word ‘tallest’ or the word ‘highest’ when we are talking about a mountain’s height.  One word or just the placement of a comma can change the meaning of a sentence.  So, when you write down what is being said, you have to be extremely careful as to where those words go, and whether a sentence needs to have its punctuation reviewed.  It is important in this world, especially in the world of the twenty-first century, that words be used properly, and that punctuation be use appropriately.  Consider the following:  a New York Stock Exchange broker tells a client that he can get you 100 shares of the Wild Widget Company for $100 per share.  He tells his client, that the stock is undervalued by at least $50 per share, and he says you should buy it.  The client gets the brokers message and sends a telegram back to the broker which arrives at the broker’s desk as:  “No Price Too High.”  The broker immediately placed an order for 100 shares at $100.00, and charged his client’s account for $10,000 ($100 x 100 shares).  Unfortunately, the client pitched a fit and threatened to sue his broker’s company because he told his broker: “No, Price Too High.”  As it turned out, the client’s account was credited for $10,000 and the brokerage ate the stock, placing it in their own portfolio.  The client was happy when the transaction was reversed.  Three days later, the stock not only rose up in value to $150, as the broker had projected to his client, but it went to $209 per share.  The broker watched it for days and when the research department said it was going to go down in value, the broker sold the stock at $200 and doubled his company’s money.  The company president went from mad to glad in less than a week.  The client, when he found out what happened to the value of the widget stock, went from glad to mad.

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As I traveled I-84 to the west from Laramie, Wyoming, I began seeing signs indicating that there was a Lakota Sioux reservation just up the road.  It was about 17 miles away, but I thought it would be a wonderful learning experience, so when the exit came up, I got off the freeway and headed toward the Sioux Indian reservation.  Once I got to the reservation, I found myself on information overload.  There was a lot to learn about the Lakato (pronounced:  “La K Ota”), and the Sioux nation.  Although the word ‘Sioux’ is not a Lakota word, it is an Ojibwah (Indian) word that tribe gave to them which means ‘little snake.’  It is common amongst the Lakota and Dakota to refer to themselves as Sioux.  The word ‘Lakota’ means ‘prairie dwellers,’ and that word is synonymous with the word ‘teton’ or in the Lakota language ‘thithunwan.’

As for the Sioux Nation (Oceti Sakowin meaning Seven Council Fires), it was broken down as follow:  LaKota (Titunwan - 1 tribe), Nakota (Yankton and Yanktonai �" 2 tribes), and Dakota (Mdewokanton, Wahpeton, Wohpekute, and Sisseton �" 4 tribes).  Seven tribes or seven different councils).  It was also known that the LaKota Tribe (Titunwan) was divided into seven bands:  Mniconjou, Hunkpapa, Siangu, Ogalala, Itazipco, Sihasapa and O’henumpa bands).    

The Sioux Nation had many well-known Chiefs:  Sitting Bull (Thathanka Iyotake), Touch the Clouds, Crazy Horse (Thasunke Witko), Red Cloud (Mahpiya Luta), Black Elk (Hahaka Sapu), Spotted Tail (Sinte Gleska). 

I tell you all this my little Sioux Princesses, so that you will not be ignorant of the ways and customs of the Sioux Nation.  It is important to know because every individual in the Sioux nation are still people and to fail to learn about them means that we trivialize their existence and their peoples and their ways.  Thus, by learning about them and knowing where they lived and what they did elevates their nation and their people and their ways.  If everyone was the same, the world would be so much more boring, but there are so many nations and each nation has different peoples and different languages and different customs.  And, if we all treat each other with respect and dignity, instead of with contempt and arrogance, then we can all relate:  speak to each other and comprehend the majesty and pride of each different way in which humanity has developed.  For if everyone was the same and knew the same, we would never learn anything new, and we would be bored with everything. 

 

Now I want you, little ones, to repeat these words in this sequence over and over and over again:    

Red Cloud, Black Elk, Sit-ting Bull, Yank-ton, Cra-zy Horse,

O-ga-la-la, Sie-has-a-pa, Se-Can-Gu,

O-Cet-Ti, Say-Ko-Win, The Sev-en Coun-sel Fires,

La-Ko-ta, Na-ko-ta, Da-ko-ta and Te-ton Sioux.

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Upon arriving at my destination, I found a very large building in the middle of the reservation compound that was The Headquarters for the entire Sioux Nation.  That building was seventy-seven feet high and was sitting on a square base that was about thirty feet tall.   The top seventy-seven feet was a very large tepee or wigwam.  At the base, this tepee was about one hundred and forty feet in diameter, and the top floor was 16.5 feet in diameter.  The Base was a rectangle that was 172 feet square, so each floor of the three floors in the base contained 29,584 square feet of floor space.  In the ground floor was different shops and boutiques, three sandwich shops and a visitor’s center.  The second floor, contained a conference room, and multi-media center and auditorium.  There were videos shown every thirty minutes all day long.  The third floor contained a Research Library of the Sioux Nation.  There were over two hundred thousand volumes in the library, and other reference material about the Sioux Nation. 

On top of the base sat the Tepee.  The floors were not evenly divided, but in the lower seven floors in the Tepee there were additional rooms equally dedicated to the different tribes of the Sioux Nation: the Seven Counsel Fires.   It was a most impressive building, and many people came there daily to do research on the Sioux Nation, and its leaders.  At the very top, on the eighth floor was a single room, and it was only accessible by a narrow stairway.  This room was never intended to be for public access, no, it had a different purpose.  This room was at best a circle with a diameter of sixteen and one-half feet, and had only 176.4 square feet.  This room was meant to be used only by Tribal Leaders, and in the Sioux Nation there were three leaders from each Tribe with credentials that would allow them to gain access.  It could be accessed by one person at a time.

This room had a very special construction.  At the top, it had a movable cap, a top that weighed more than a ton, but it could be moved into the fully retracted position with the push of a single button.  Just like any tepee on any reservation, the tepee did not rise to a single point.  It had a central vent opening that was twelve inches in diameter.  That opening was closed up by a plug that could be released from the inside.  Once the plug was removed the remainder of the roof was comprised of twelve flanges.  When those flanges were together, they formed an airtight top to the building.  When the ‘open’ button was pressed, each flange would pivot outward slightly around its length, and then each flange would begin to rotate out until each was pointing out away from the building.  When deployed, the number one flange, referred to as the ‘Zero Flange’ would rotate out until it pointed to True North (or zero degrees North).  The number three flange would point to Due East (or 90 degrees).  The number six flange would point to True South (or 180 degrees), and number nine flange would point to Due West (or 270 degrees).  With the number zero, three, six and nine flanges pointing to the four Cardinal Compass Points.  In summary, the ‘Zero’ flange pointed to zero degrees north, and each successive flange pointed to compass headings that were thirty degrees apart all around the compass rose.  Whenever, a Tribal Chief wanted access, it would be scheduled for a time after total sundown when only star light could be perceived.  This was possible because the location of the reservation and the Tepee itself were so isolated that only naturally produced lights from the sky could be seen.  In this way, the Sioux nation’s leaders could have access to their ancestors who had gone before them to their ultimate happy hunting grounds.

As I searched through the Sioux Nation records, a librarian came by and quietly asked me if I was searching for anything in particular.  I told her that my visit to the center was only because I had seen the signs about this facility out on the freeway, and decided on the spur of the moment to come here to see this wonderful facility.  She began to tell me about the research area, and then she said something that I was not expecting her to say.  She said that if I was not looking for anything specific that I might find something of interest in the section called ‘Sioux Legends and Ghost Stories.’  When she said that it made me wonder if there were any stories about children.  She told me there were several and then she showed me where to look for them.   We walked down the main aisle and turned to the left into a section which indicated it was about Sioux Nation Legends and Stories.  A sign above the first section said, “Children.”  She pulled one book off the shelf and said, this is a story about a very young Sioux Prince.  His father was the Chief of the band of Lakota Titunwan Sihasapa.  A Band of the Lakota Sioux that lived at the time near the Grand Tetons.  I asked her if I would like it, and she told me it would break my heart.

The Librarian said to me that I should take the book over to the reading area, find a comfortable chair, and read as much of the story as I had time for.  She then said to me that I would get totally lost in the story, and she would return later to check on me.  She was right because before I had read the first chapter of that book, I was totally involved in the legend and I could not stop reading.  I started reading at 11:15 am and six hours later I was still reading.  At 5:30, the librarian came back by and commented that I was still reading.  I told her that I didn’t know what to do, I could not just walk away from the book now.  It would haunt me forever if I didn’t find out what happened to Little Black Bear, and his family.  She then ask me if I would like for her to tell me how the story ended.  I said to her that I really didn’t want her say.  She said, well let me tell you this much.  The story you are reading about took place one hundred years ago today.  My grandmother was Chante Cocola, and the Itankan Mato Iyotake was my great grandfather, and I am named after the Princess.  If you want to stay in the area for tonight there is a motel just south of here, I will check out the book and you can finish reading it tonight and tomorrow if necessary.  But, the book has to stay in my custody as it cannot be replaced.

And, as it turned out, I spent much of the evening in her home just a few miles further into the Grand Teton National Park.  She did not tell me everything, but I would find out later on that night what the librarian was still keeping secret.  After arriving at her home, we went in and I immediately found a comfortable chair and picked up my reading from where I left off.  The story was fascinating.  And, while my hostess was terrific, I sat in her personal library and read until I finished reading the book at 4:45 am the next morning.  I had then gone to sleep sitting in that chair.  And, in my sleep it was as if the walls just opened up and I could see the Prince, the Princess, and the Itankan Mato Iyotake as they rode their pintos in the Lakota Tanke forest.  And, in my dream, I saw Little Black Bear for just a few seconds as he was thrown off his pinto and I saw him land on his back just feet from the eenah mato sapa (mother black bear).  She was very angry that he was there and threatening her cubs.  Then, as the little Prince tried to move backward away from her growling, menacing claws, he saw the Prince slide backward into the river.  The Prince had been swept down the raging river and had been lost to the rapidly moving water and the undertow. 

The Prince was a lover of black bear and understood her protective instincts.  He would never have blamed her for what had become his fate.  She was only protecting her young.  He was only disappointed that he could not assuage the great loss his father felt.  But he knew because of what happened to him was an accident that the Wanagi Tanka (the Great Spirit) would make his new life meaningful.  Little Black Bear grew up in his new world and would be called Tanka Tacaku Mato Sapa.  He would be for all time the Spirit of the Great Black Bear and he would protect them from any who would try to destroy the living Black Bear. 

It would take many years for Little Black Bear to grow up in his spirit world so he could assume his new role, but the problem was that since he had left his previous life as a child he would have a tie to that life and would not be able to move on until he had achieved twenty one years from the beginning of his life on Earth.  He did not know that his sister and his parents missed him and when he tried to visit them there was always a problem communicating with them.  He would see their despair and their tears, and he decided to come less often.  Every time he would go to visit them, something else took place he did not understand.  He was allowed to visit them twice each week for eleven years, and each time he came he would see something happen that he knew he had to fix.  He never knew how he appeared unto them he’d left behind, he only knew that his appearance stopped evil behavior and made others happy.  He loved doing that for good people.  As his new life unfolded before him he would make five hundred and fifty-five visits to his family over eleven years.  He never got to sit down with them and talk, and he was never able to dip his sister’s hair in the mustard or drip water on them while they slept.  But he knew he was happy to see them and happy to help them.  That was all he knew.  And, on the day of his twenty-first birthday, his life changed again and he never was able to go see his parents or his sister again.  As their lives passed beyond his reach, he found he was able to see their descendants.   And, so he checked in on them until they too passed beyond his reach. 

And just at that moment, Itankan Black Bear, descended through the mist and came to his sister’s grand daughter’s home in the Lakota Tanka.  And, arriving in her home, he was immediately aware of a new presence, which was a man in the Library.  He thought he knew exactly what to do, and so he changed and with his eyes on fire, descended on the stranger and began to scream at him like a banshee.  It worked to perfection, the man stood up, turned to run but fell on his face.  He continued his menacing of the stranger until Chante Cocola ran into the room and began to assist the man on the floor.  She did not look up at him, but told him he should not ever come back to her house if he was going to behave so badly.  At that, his eyes turned back and his appearance resolved back to his normal state.  She spoke for his benefit and told him that he had been gone one hundred years and he had not learned to protect anyone who was in her home.  She told him that it was time for him to join the Great Spirit above the mountains and await her there.  Then she added, Black Bear, I will see you no more until then.  And that was the last time Little Black Bear had been seen by his living descendants.  Others would know him if they tried to hurt the black bear population of Lakota Tanka.  He did not know of the presence of his sister or of the presence of his parents.  They had moved beyond his reach, and he felt loneliness for the first time, and he knew then what his sister and his parents must have felt when he had left them one hundred years before.  The Great Spirit would never tell him what his parents and his sister had done.

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But, for Itankan Mato Iyotake (Chief Sitting Bear) his trip to the center was just about to start, and though he knew he had to go forward with his life, there was a big part of him that told him that there was no more joy.  He felt that his life was sad and his heart was heavy all the time.  Tonight he would try one last time to find his little boy that had gone on before him.        

Exactly Three Years ago, on a Saturday in the Tetons, Itankan Mato Iyotake was with his family including his young wife Mahpyua Skah (White Cloud), ten year old son that they called, Mato Sapa Cincala (Little Black Cub) and their daughter Chante Cocola (Soft Heart) were riding their pinto ponies in the Grand Teton Mountains.  It was a beautiful day for a ride in the majestic mountains they called Lakota Tanka (Grand Tetons).  They had spent the day observing deer, fox, rabbit, wild horses and bear.  They had easily maintained a safe distance from all the animals because they only wished to watch them go about their daily habits. 

Just as the sun reached its highest point in the sky, they had come to a deep river whose waters moved rapidly down toward the southeastern corner of Lakota Tanka.  It was quite noisy and the spray of moisture that came up from the rocks just below them was refreshing both for each of them, but also for their pinto ponies.  They had only been there a few minutes at the river’s edge, when they were confronted by mato sapa who had been feeding with her own cincala (cubs).  She was apparently quite taken aback by our presence, and did not hesitate to try to scare us away.  All four of our thasunke (horses) reared up and each of us were thrown off.  I yelled for my wife and my children to run to me as we were a bit scattered after the horses (thasunke) had reacted in fear and thrown us off.  My wife and daughter got up quickly and came to me but we could not find our little cincala (son or cub). 

White Cloud and Soft Heart came running to me screaming.  After they were behind me, I told them to run to the higher rocks up above, and I would find Little Black Bear.  I could not find him.  I looked up and down the river’s edge, but he was nowhere to be found.  I found my pinto and quickly mounted him.  And raced downriver to find Little Black Bear.  But, I could not find him.  He was gone.  I could not find anything that gave me any indication that he had been attacked by the bear.  But, I knew he had learned the way of the wilderness, as I had taught him myself.  I found the three other pintos together about a half mile down the river from where we had encountered the mother bear and her cubs.  Gathering their reigns, I returned with them to my wife and daughter still waiting for me at the high rocky outcropping off to the west of the river.

I told them I had not found any sign of Little Black Bear, but we needed to ride to the southeast along the river to where it was calmer.  For more than two hours we rode down the river’s edge calling for Little Black Bear, but we did not find him.  For the rest of the day, we searched up and down the river, but he was nowhere to be found.  We went back to where the mother bear and her cubs had caused our horses to throw us off, then I said I would swim down the river to see if I could find Little Black Bear.  I dove in the water there several times but could not find him.  Then I began to swim down river, looking along the banks and under the water.  I swam for hours until I reached the calmer water.  There was no sign anywhere.  Little Black Bear had simply vanished.  I told White Cloud and Chante Cocola that we needed to get back to the lodge and they would stay and I would get other braves to help me find Little Black Bear.  We arrived back at the lodge within an hour, and within two and a half hours, I was heading back to the river with fifteen braves.  We were only able to search for a couple hours before it got dark.  By the time it was dark, we had a camp set up and readied for the night.  The next morning we broke camp and began to search for Little Black Bear.  We search upriver and downriver and there was no sign.  I sent six braves upriver to search both sides of the river.  They searched more than a mile upstream and checked the northern approach to the river all up and down the river, but there was no sign of Little Black Bear.

We spent another night in the Lakota Tanka looking for my son.  It was toward the end of the afternoon that Itankan Thasunke Galeska with several braves arrived.  The Chief wished to know if we had located the boy.  Finding our answer to be negative, he told us to return to camp that the Tacaku Tanka, the Great Spirit (of our people) would take care of Little Black Bear from this point on, and we should return to the reservation saying that the camp was now suffering from the lack of our presence.  He was saying to us, that our absence was causing a lot of problems for the people.  And we should go back to our families.  Being that Chief Spotted Horse was our Tribal Chief, we were obligated to return home.  And, that was fine for the braves who had followed me up here to search for Little Black Bear.  But I had a duty to my child, and so when they all turned to go back to the reservation, I turned to the northeast on my horse, and started back to the river’s edge. 

I was soon tracked down and stopped by his party.  After a few minutes, Tha-Soo-en-cay Ga-les-kai (Chief Spotted Horse) came up beside me, and said, “Ma-to I-yo-ta-ke, (Sitting Bear) I know you must grieve for your son, but he is lost to the Great Spirit above the high mountains.  And, you must now go home and take care of Mah-py-u-a Skah (White Cloud) and Chan-te Co-co-la (Soft Heart).  You have a wife and a daughter that now need you to be with them.  Go to them Ma-to I-yo-ta-ke.  They need you now more than ever, and only you can help them grieve, as you need too. 

 

Before this tragic event took place, everything seemed to be going along as usual, we had a routine that we had established around the house.  There were no disagreements ever reported, because there weren’t any.  Little Bear had learned to be a prankster, and continually pulled little tricks on the rest of us.  His favorite trick was to replace tea with coffee, or to replace tea with milk or orange juice.  He loved to drip ice cold water in our hair as we were sleeping.  He loved to dip his sister’s long hair into mustard at the tips.  She could not go to school until it had been hid, or cut off with scissors.  That little trick always got him slapped or pinched very hard until he begged forgiveness, and in some cases made him forfeit his savings to her.

There were times that she believed that she could see his mischievous face looking down on her.  And, she often felt he was in her room watching her brush her hair, or do her homework.  Then, about one year after he was lost, she woke up from an afternoon nap and as she sat up on the side of her bed, she turned to look at the television.  One of her favorite programs was on, but the face she saw was Little Bears, not the program’s many teenage stars she liked so well. She knew them all and never thought any of them favored her brother.  Yet there was his face.  She immediately called for her mother, who was just down the hall, she had goosebumps all up and down her arms.  By the time her mother came into the room, Little Bear’s image was gone.  She had then explained what had just happened to her mother.  Her mother had then sat down on the side of the bed, and then told her daughter the strangest things.

“Soft Heart,” her mom said, “Your father and I have been experiencing something just as serious, but we just dismissed it.  We thought it was just our imaginations.  But to hear that you have been seeing Little Bear too makes it all seem more real.  Listen, anytime you see Little Bear let me know.  Just make sure we know about it.  We have to make room for him in our lives again.     

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And, so it was that I had returned to my home.  But, as the days wore on, and the weeks, and the months and now the years have passed, I have wondered where Little Black Bear had gone.  We had all suffered through those three years, but my spirit had now departed my soul, in the hopes that it would be reunited with my son’s spirit.  So, as I approached the Sioux Nation headquarters building, my mind wandered and I began to talk to my Little Cub.    

                           A Little Bear Cub Lament

“Where did you go so quickly that day, did you not call out to me and say,

I am here my father I am over here, then son I would’ve come to you my dear,

So we would not be so in love alone, without you daily our hearts do moan,

But soon I shall with you re-unite, from atop the temple’s dark sky light,

Into the realm of love’s delight, I will leap out to you and pierce the night,

With the power of love so bright, we will together renew our life in delight,

We won’t have to cry a bitter love song, or play a dirge for our lives so long,

But in happiness we’ll be together, and hunt the bison again forever.

 

In the passenger seat I left my glasses, and exited the vehicle and began to walk toward that seventy-seven foot tall giant tepee that sat on top of a thirty foot tall pedestal building.  It had already enshrined the memory of my lost son who was 10, and I had begun to loathe those in charge who had placed that horrible news about my son.  In just a few seconds, I would enter the Nation of Sioux Great Museum and Visitor Center, then take the elevator to the base of the mechanism.  I would insert my key into the lock, and give it a clockwise turn.  Thereby unlocking the heavy steel plated door.  It would take some effort to open it, and even more effort to close it behind me.  It was only then that I could push open the inner door and start the climb to the center of the observation deck above me.  The stairway was barely wide enough for me to pass, but I was finally able to mount the twelve steps to the level above me.  Upon arriving on that level, I would have to lower the grate that would cover the stairway.  The grate would lock down so that no one would fall through the opening while otherwise busy on the observation deck. 

It was not too difficult to remove the twelve inch plug that sealed the opening in the center of the ceiling only seven and one-half feet above the floor.  Once it was open, the large red button on the side wall beneath Flange Zero could then be pushed, and momentarily held, and the twelve flanges would start their movements and begin to rotate outward to their horizontal positions.  Less than two minutes later, the cap to the giant tepee was completely open to the sky above.   

I thought as I awaited the flanges to move into place that I would speak of my great love for my lost son, and then I would enquire of my son if he would come forward into my vision so that I could see him one last time.  Little Black Bear did not appear to me in person, but unto my mind came an image of him as he was three short years ago.  I was frozen with anticipation of his presence, and so I began to beg my son to show himself to me just one last time.  And, after a few minutes, when Little Black Bear was unsure of coming forward to his father, Itanken Mato Iyotake began to climb up the inside wall of the observatory so that he could be better seen by his son and encourage him to reveal himself.  Just as his father reached down to stabilize himself so he could stand up, Little Black Bear appeared to his father.  And, his father fell backward onto the observation deck.  But, looking up to his departed son, he said, “Where have you gone Mato Sapa Cincala?  Why did you leave us so quickly?  I miss you my son.”

“My father,” the Prince said, “I have been with Tanka Tacaku in that place beyond the mountains.  He has been my spirit father and calls me ‘Mato Sa-apa’ and I protect the Black Bear in the Lakota Tanka.  Father, I am good and there is no need to despair.  In the near future, my father, but not today, you will join me in the spirit world.  You and mother and Soft Heart too.  In due time, and only when it is time, my family will also join me in the ‘happy hunting grounds’ and we will always know each other’s presence.  In love, we were together, and in love Tacaku separated us, and in love he will join us back together.  It is all as it should be, my father.  I know you are in destress right now, but I have been allowed to visit one extra time by Tacaku, to come to you so that you will not try to come to me at a time that is not your time.  It would be devastating for you to do what it is you have planned to do.  For now, my father it is your time to be with Ee-nah and Soft Heart.  It is not time for you to seek me.  But know, that I will still be here when it is time for you.  Now, father I must go, but when it is allowed I will come to my family, and that way you will know that I am okay.  I must go now father, Tanka Tacaku requires me to come to him.  Remember Father, it is not your time, do not break the chain of life, it will bring ill to our family, and to our Nation.  Be proud my father, honor my request and stay with Ee-nah for as long as you have her.  Do not leave her alone, my father.  I will come back and see you again when Tacaku allows me to.  Tell Ee-nah and my sister how much I miss them.  Goodbye my father.  So Long for now!”

And with that Little Black Bear was gone, and slowly he climbed down from the edge of the tepee’s upper edge.  Once again, but with sadness abated, he pushed the closure button, and the twelve steel flanges began to rotate back into place.  Two minutes later, the ceiling was again closed, and with it, his sadness and his guilt were both gone.  He quickly exited the observation tower and descended back through both steel doors and then he quickly descended the stairway until he reached the ground floor.  As he exited the Sioux Nation Museum and Library, he knew his life was renewed, and returned to the Lodge of the Itankan Mato Iyotake.  His life became a daily joy to be a father, a husband and a Chief of his band of Sioux.  He would be glad knowing that Little Black Bear was also happy.

Well, that is all for today:  Ella, Emma, Anna, and Avva.

The Moral of the Story:  When you walk through the storm of life, don’t be afraid.  Remember those who love us and those who befriend us.  Don’t be weary, don’t give up, never give in to fear.  The easy way out is not the right way.  Fate is not accomplished if the life is removed from the vessel.  The Moral of the Story is this:  Clouds may darken our path, but the light always comes from the end of the tunnel.  A dark day can only last twenty-four hours.  First, be true to Your Life, then be true to All LIFE.