Fools Crow: Difference between revisions

Fools Crow
Author	James Welch
Language	English
Genre	Contemporary American Fiction, Native American
Publisher	Viking
Publication date	1986
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	391 pp (Paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-14-008937-3 (Paperback edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
OCLC	15366761
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 19
LC Class	PS3573.E44 F66 1987

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Fools Crow is a novel written by author James Welch. Set in Montana shortly after the Civil War, this novel tells of Fools Crow, a young Blackfoot Indian on the verge of manhood, and his tribe, known as the Lone Eaters. The invasion of white society threatens to change their traditional way of life, and they must choose to fight or assimilate. The story is a powerful portrait of a fading way of life. The story culminates with the Marias Massacre of 1870 in which the U.S. Cavalry knowingly slaughtered innocent Blackfeet. While many find this book tragic with depressing implications, Welch's development of the hero offers contemporary readers a sense of hope.

Fools Crow received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and American Book Award, and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award.

Plot summary

The novel takes place in 1870 in the lives of the southern Blackfeet people. The main character, White Man's Dog, joins his friend Fast Horse in a night-time raid against the Crows. In the first few chapters, White Man's Dog is portrayed as weak and powerless compared to the others. Because of that, he visits the medicine man, Mik-Api to get rid of the bad spirits, to become more powerful, and to obtain good medicine to further better himself. Yellow Kidney appoints White Man's Dog to lead the other young warriors in stealing a herd of horses. White Man's Dog is at first a little scared that he has not been chosen, but he sings his warrior songs to gain courage. As they drive the horses away from the village, a scout appears. White Man's Dog rushes in and kills the scout before the alarm can be raised. Fast Horse foolishly shouts out and awakens the village and the Crows begin searching for the intruders. As Yellow Kidney attempts to steal the buffalo runners (biggest and fastest horses) he is seen. He does whatever he has to, to stay hidden. Yellow Kidney hides in a lodge where he finds a number of apparently sleeping figures. When he hears his pursuers outside, he hides beneath the robes (sleeping bag) of a young girl. Pressed against her naked and feverish body, he becomes aroused and has strokes her breasts and vagina before having sex with the girl before he realizes that she and her companions are dead of a disease called White Scab. As he tries to escape, Yellow Kidney is shot in the thigh and captured. As punishment for his crime, the Crows cut off his fingers before tying him to a horse and sending him out of the camp into a driving snowstorm.

White Man's dog returns to his tribe where he gains respect for his success in the raid. Feeling responsible for Yellow Kidney’s loss because he did not reveal the full contents of a recurrent prophetic dream, he begins to provide Yellow Kidney's family with food and supplies. After some time, Yellow Kidney returns to the camp and tells the story of Fast Horse's foolishness. Shamed by his actions, Fast Horse leaves the tribe and joins Owl Child and his band of renegades in killing the encroaching Napikwans (white people).

During the time he was missing, Yellow Kidney's wife, Heavy Shield Woman, makes a vow that should Yellow Kidney return, she will be the Medicine Woman at the Sun Dance. This is an unusual request as "...most bands did not like to have a woman declare herself for this role; if she failed, it would bring dishonor on them and disfavor from Sun Chief himself..." (p 44), and upon Yellow Kidney's return, White Man's Dog is sent to obtain consent from the other bands of Pikunis. After his return, he marries Red Paint, the daughter of Heavy Shield Woman and Yellow Kidney.

While at the Sun Dance, White Man's Dog gains his first spirit animal, by releasing Wolverine from a trap. He also partakes in a ceremony in which he cuts his breasts open and implants pegs attached to a medicine pole. He dances around the pole until the ropes snap and he passes out. He does this to purify himself from feeling sexual desire for his father's third wife, Kills Close to the Lake. He has a dream where he finds her along a stream, naked, and they confront each other about their sexual tension. She leaves with him a white stone the size of the finger. He wakes up to find this rock beside him. Towards the end of the ceremony, Kills Close to the Lake tells him she sacrificed her finger to pure herself of the same sexual desires. Red Paint becomes pregnant and they decide to name the child "Sleep Bringer". The name Sleep Bringer derives from a Butterfly which Red Paint saw at the exact moment she was starting to think she was pregnant.

White Man's Dog earns his name, Fools Crow, after he goes back to the Crow tribe and is able to scalp their chief, Bull Shield. Rumors spread that he had used his good medicine to confuse the Crows, hence the name Fools Crow. In his second dream, Fools Crow is ordered by the raven to kill a mountain man who has been hunting animals for fun and leaving their bodies to rot. In the culture of Pikunis, this is seen as a heinous act. Fools Crow uses Red Paint as bait, but then Hunter realizes this. Fools Crow knows this, and rushes in trying to kill him, but the Napikwan puts up a tough fight. In the end, Fools Crow is able to kill the foe, but he is injured by a spear wound. However, the scalp that he gets is of a wolf. Fools Crow is slated to take over Dry Bones and learn the Beaver medicine.

Yellow Kidney decides to leave the tribe, seeing how distant the whole world seems to him after his injury. While out alone, he decides to go back and name Red Paint's offspring, Yellow Calf. He accepts the facts of what has happened to him and realizes that he is able to do things fast without the use of his fingers. However, before he can go back, he is shot by a Napikwan who had vowed to avenge the farmer, whose family was terrorized by Owl Child's gang.

Running Fisher is caught having an affair with his father's third wife, Kills Close to the Lake. Rides-at-the-Door's second wife alerts him of this, and he banishes Running Fisher to another tribe and sends Kills Close to the Lake back to her family. However, he is not strict nor very vengeful.

Red Paint's younger brother contracts rabies after being bitten by a rabid wolf. Fools Crow has to cure him, because Mik-Api is away, healing another tribe. Fools Crow has transferred roles from a warrior to a healer. This shows that he has learned to fill whatever role society needs of him.

Fast Horse comes upon Yellow Kidney's body and decides to bring it back to the tribe. However, he does not return to Owl Child's gang and decides to go north and live alone.

The book ends with Fools Crow visiting the Feather Woman, the wife of Morning Star and mother of Star Boy. Fools Crow watches a "yellow hide" and notices that images are forming within the hide. The yellow hide reveals four different visions to Fools Crow. One is the vision of the destruction of Heavy Runner's camp from the seizers (white soldiers), the second is a vision of Indian children attending a boarding school with their hair cut off, the third is a vision of the spreading of smallpox within his camp and the number of dead bodies stacked on a platform, and the last is a vision of lifeless land all around the region, not one animal can be found in the vision. Feather Woman tells Fools Crow to prepare the Pikunis for what is to come and to pass on the traditions of the Pikunis. She tells him that he would do much good for the Pikunis and that he will pass on the stories. Fools Crow returns to his tribe, and is unable to prevent the disaster he foresaw. Fools Crow meets Native Americans being forced to migrate north and accepts the fact that the Napikwans are swarming over the land. They must change their way of living, including changing their diet to fish. The book concludes with Welch detailing the culture of the Pikunis represented by the animals, showing that although their lifestyles were changed, their culture still lives on.

Theme

This is essentially a novel about choices and decisions that human beings make and how the consequences of those choices play out in a society in which each human being is intimately connected to all parts of the world around him or her.
- Kathy J. Whitson

One of the most important symbols found in this book is dreams. Dreams play an essential role in the Pikunis' tradition, ranging from receiving messages from the gods or spirit animals. Fast Horse was wary of his dream of Cold Maker and did not follow the message that Cold Maker gave him. Because of this, Fast Horse had a steady decline after the raid. Fools Crow on the other hand listened to his dreams and followed what they told him to do. Because of this, he is able to rise up and become the leader of the Pikunis. The dreams are limited however; they do not allow Fools Crow to stop the disaster of smallpox or bring down the Napikwans. The last few scenes present the reader with a sense of hope, which can be seen by the obvious symbol of a red puppy at Baker's Massacre.

A theme found in this book is leadership and what develops it. This book shows four different leaders and which one eventually becomes the one to lead the Pikunis. They include:

Fools Crow
Fast Horse
Owl Child
Running Fisher

Fools Crow will eventually become the main leader for the Blackfeet. Fools Crow develops into a leader early in the book, when he goes to Mik-Api to get rid of the bad spirits. He follows tradition and does what is good for the whole. The rest of the Pikunis make a leader out of him; this can be seen by the way they force the name "Fools Crow" on him. Because his spirit animal is the "skunk bear" or wolverine and not a true bear, this represents that he will become a different leader for the Pikunis. The others, Fast Horse and Owl Child, do not see the consequences of their actions, nor do they act on behalf of whole. Owl Child in fact causes more problems for the Pikunis by inciting violence towards the Napikwans. Running Fisher, the brother of Fools Crow, does not develop his leadership skills throughout the book, even though it was slated that he would become a great leader. During the attack on the Crows, it was Fools Crow who comforts Running Fisher, who is scared.

Fool's Crow is a true quest hero. He goes through the ritualistic initiation: separation, trials, encounter with mythic beings, transformation, and he returns to help his people. Like the journeys of Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed, his quest is spiritual. He experiences dreams and visions; he recites the cosmogonic myth; he suffers pain for his people. His transformation is a true apotheosis: he is elevated to a new level of consciousness and can share his vision with his people.

Sun Dance Ceremony

North American Indian ceremonialism is a cultural phenomenon under which we understand a set mode of shamanistic procedures characteristic of those practically universal observances connected with such events as birth, puberty, individual acquisition of supernatural power, and death, and which is concerned on the psychology of routine. This term generally is associated with a more or less definite content of stereotyped form. Anthropologist Robert H. Lowie in his article titled “Ceremonialism in North America” explains, that:

These performances are not individual, but collective undertakings; and, even where they hardly fall under the category of "religious observances" or "solemn rites," they are uniformly more than mere attempts at social amusement. As Indian dances are often performed for a serious purpose, or at least form elements of complexes of a serious character, the terms "dance" and "ceremony" are sometimes used interchangeably (601).

We see the seriousness of the Blackfeet Sun Dance in Fools Crow. The Medicine Woman, who is the one who really runs the ceremony, is chosen because she has made a vow and has to honor it. Heavy Shield Woman says she will do this if her husband, Yellow Kidney, is returned to her. He comes back, but is not nearly the same as he was before going to raid the Crow camps. Even so, Heavy Shield Woman is still the Medicine Woman the following summer for the Sun Dance Ceremony, and she takes her position very seriously.

Lowie indicates that in the American Plains area the ceremonial activity gained a very high degree of development, though this was shared in very unequal measure by the several tribes. They perform a number of important ceremonies, but besides them “there was a series of tribal seasonal festivals, ostensibly in the nature of thanksgiving celebrations, held annually at such periods as the first flowing of the maple-sap, the planting and the ripening of the corn, etc. These ceremonies … correspond in a way to the spectacular composite performances, in which religious practices are combined with entertainments of various forms” (603).

Throughout Fools Crow we see multiple ceremonies being performed. There is a ceremony to help Fools Crow rid himself of his “bad medicine”; there is a ceremony to help cure people of small pox; there are multiple medicine-man ceremonies. But one of the most important ceremonies and which is well demonstrated in the novel is the Sun Dance ceremony. This great tribal performance is a composite phenomenon in which strictly religious features are blended with games and clownish procedure such as a backward speech. Welch knows the Sun Dance intimately and reflects this knowledge in Fools Crow in such a way, as to make it align with research that others have done on that ceremony. The participants of the Sun Dance ceremony dance, sing, and pray to Sun to give them abundance in summer and health in winter, to give them peace and live in a peace. Lowie adds that “All important bundle ceremonies of the Blackfeet require a sweat-lodge performance; in nearly all rituals the songs are sung by sevens; for almost every bundle some vegetable is burned on a special altar; and every ritual consists essentially of a narrative of its origin, one or more songs, the opening of the bundle, and dancing, praying, and singing over its contents”(618). Another characteristic detail of the Sun Dance is an element of self-torture, such as piercing of the breasts with a bear’s claw, insertion of skewers under the skin, and suspension from a pole. White Man’s Dog (later to be called Fools Crow) performs all of these during his ceremony of initiation as a medicine man. He dances around the pole pulling the lines attached to his breasts until the skewers break. His courage and endurance are highly appreciated among his people, as he proves to be a brave and a strong man.While reading this part i became very excited and the blood rushed from my head in a strong emotion i loved this part

In his novel, Welch mentions that in other lodges Sacred Pipe and Beaver Medicine men perform their ceremonies for those who needed their help. We can find explanation of these ceremonies in Lowie’s article, where the author argues that other ceremonial performances of wide distribution center in the rites are connected with sacred bundles of restricted ownership and the widely known medicine-pipe ceremonials, the sacred-bundle rites of the Blackfeet, may serve as examples. So in Welch’s Fools Crow, when Heavy Shield Woman is going to perform her duties at the Sun Dance, a Medicine Woman Bundle is carried in by the ceremonial master. She is robbed in the sacred elkskin dress, the medicine bonnet of weasel skin, feather plumes, and she grasps a sacred digging stick. It is believed that all those regalia belonged to Feather Woman. The tale of Feather Woman is the myth behind this ceremony. She married Morning Star who was a son of Sun Chief and Night Red Light, and was living happily with them in their sky home until she dug sacred turnip. The turnip made a hole in the sky and through it Feather Woman saw her mother and father and got homesick. She was thrown back to Earth with her son Star Boy, who had scared face. But her come back on Earth made her unhappy, because she missed her husband, and she died of the broken heart. Her son went to the home of Sun Chief not knowing they were his family, saved life of his father Morning Star, and Sun Chief as a gift removed the scar from his face, and later made Star Boy a Mistaken Morning Star. Welch tells this story throughout his novel. He does a stunning portray of all the preparation and reasons behind the Sun Dance and the reasons that are so socially important for Heavy Shield Woman to be a medicine woman. Lowie in his article emphasizes that “not only is the same ritual explained by different myths in different tribes, but, in the attempt to account for the origin of the ritual, there is a tendency to use popular tales that come to hand” (609).

All in all, the Sun Dance ceremony is very important to the Blackfeet. It is seen not only in Welch’s novel, but also in other novels written by indigenous authors. Fools Crow is a novel that shows the intimate side of the ceremony. Welch had to be cautious in writing about the ceremony because he risked being ostracized by his people; it is a sacred ceremony and one that is not to be recorded – it is to be passed down through the generations. Welch takes a risk in this book, but his risk allows readers to have a better understanding of the sacred rites of the Blackfeet people from a historical perspective. It is important to note that up until just recently, this book was banned in the state of Montana, more so in the public school system. There is hope that soon a historical marker will be placed near the site where the Massacre on the Marias took place.

Characters

Pikunis - A clan of the Blackfeet tribe.
Napikwans - Term used to refer to White people.
White Man's Dog/Fools Crow - Main Protagonist. Will eventually lead his tribe.
Rides-at-the-Door - Fools Crow's Father. Becomes chief after Three Bears dies.
Double Strike Woman - Fools Crow's Mother and Rides-at-the-Door's wife.
Striped Face - Second wife of Rides-at-the-Door.
Kills Close to the Lake- Third wife of Rides-at-the-Door. She is only 17 years old and has an affair with Running Fisher.
Running Fisher - Fools Crow's brother.
Fast Horse - Fools Crow's friend. Son of Boss Ribs. Turns away from tradition, but eventually atones by returning Yellow Kidney's body.
Yellow Kidney - Leader of the horse raid. Father of Red Paint and father-in-law of Fools Crow. Captured by the Crow tribes and eventually killed by the Napikwans.
Heavy Shield Woman - Wife of Yellow Kidney.
Red Paint - Daughter of Yellow Kidney. Marries Fools Crow.
Mik-Api - Medicine man of the Blackfoot. Teaches Fools Crow the traditional songs and medicines.
Owl Child - A Pikuni rebel who plans on waging war on Napikwans. Makes situations worse for the Pikunis because his actions enrage the Napikwans.
Mountain Chief - Pikuni chief who aligns with armed struggle rather than compromise. (Not historically accurate. Mountain Chief was the final leader of the Blackfeet tribe, not Rides-at-the-door, who is a fictional character.)
Heavy Runner - Pikuni leader who, in contrast to Mountain Chief, was more co operational with government will. (The tribe under Heavy Runner would ultimately take the fall in the Massacre on the Marias.)

Reception

In addition to gaining several awards, Fools Crow cemented Welch's writing credentials. Wallace Stegner called it "a major contribution to Native American literature." The poet Lowell Jaeger called the novel "rare and wonderful," because it portrayed Native American peoples as complex, in comparison to the stereotypes of Natives as "noble savages" or the bloodthirsty villains who "shot flaming arrows into Conestogas." Dee Brown (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee) said Fools Crow may be "…the closest we will ever come in literature to an understanding of what life was like for a western Indian."