evered oak branch at the base of the tree he had cut it
from, and with thanks to Grandfather Oak, turned away.

Baffled and apprehensive, he followed Sun Woman through the forest to
the edge of the island, where he saw her small elm-bark canoe pulled up
beside his.

Silently they paddled their canoes side by side upstream along the
narrow stretch of black-green water that separated the island from the
riverbank. The Rock River was in its spring flood. Paddling against the
powerful current strained White Bear's muscles. He glanced over at his
mother and saw with envy how easily she wielded her paddle. She seemed
to know how to do everything well. But an expression of sorrow was
frozen on her face.

They left the island behind, and soon White Bear saw the hundred lodges
of Saukenuk through the weeping willows, hackberries, maples and oaks
that grew along the riverbank.

They grounded their canoes on tree roots growing on the edge of the
river. Sun Woman beckoned, turned her back on him abruptly and started
walking through the woods by the riverbank. White Bear followed.

They passed two newly made graves in the shelter of the trees, mounds of
earth, each marked with a willow wand with a strip of deerskin attached
to it. Coming out of the woods, they walked, amidst the band's grazing
horses, through the blue-grass meadow surrounding the village. Beyond
the meadows, as far up and down the river as White Bear could see,
stretched stockade-fenced fields where the first shoots of corn, beans,
squash and sweet potatoes dotted the freshly turned black earth like
pale green stars in a night sky.

White Bear followed Sun Woman into the concentric rings of long lodges
with peaked roofs, built of wooden poles and walled with bark sheets,
laid out in the sacred circular pattern. Here the Sauk lived all summer,
three or four families to a lodge. But today the outskirts of Saukenuk
seemed empty. White Bear was surprised to see no one at the riverbank or
about the lodges.

Sun Woman walked past the lodges with back straight, legs stiff, her
arms rigid at her sides, her head high. Never once did she look back at
him.

Reaching the heart of Saukenuk, he saw that all the people were gathered
in the central clearing around Owl Carver's medicine lodge. As Sun Woman
approached the crowd, a child spied her and tugged its mother's skirt.
The mother looked first at Sun Woman, then at White Bear, then whispered
to another woman standing