already been
seated, she might have collapsed. Relief made her heart swell up in her
chest, feeling as if it might burst.

The people around her murmured in surprise, pleasure and curiosity.

The shaman stretched out his hand. "Sun Woman, stand before the people."

Nothing happened for a long moment. Then Owl Carver beckoned
insistently. There was another silence. Then Black Hawk's hand emerged
from under his buffalo mantle, and he crooked his finger.

A tall woman wrapped in a buffalo robe rose from among the seated
people. People sighed happily and called out a welcome to her.

Sun Woman turned to face the crowd. To Redbird she seemed calm and
unruffled, even though she had hesitated about standing up.

"This woman brought her son to me and asked me to train him as a
shaman," Owl Carver declared. "I did not want to, because he is not a
pure Sauk. She said to me, only try him for a little time and see what
he can be. I tried him for a little time and I saw something in him. I
saw sleeping powers!"

The people murmured in wonder. Water Flows Fast and the woman with her
whispered to each other, darting curious glances at Redbird, who
carefully kept her face as impassive as Sun Woman's.

"I tested him and saw that his dreams could foretell the future, that he
could send his spirit walking while his body lay still, that he could
talk to the spirits in trees and birds. I saw that he had the power to
be a shaman and more ..."

Owl Carver paused and stared at them fiercely.

"And so I sent him up to the sacred cave, knowing that he might meet
spirits so powerful that to encounter them destroys the souls of men.

"And Gray Cloud went into the sacred cave, and he met the great spirits,
and he journeyed with them," Owl Carver cried. People gasped.

"He has met the White Bear. He has spoken with the Turtle, father of the
Great River. He has brought back a message for Black Hawk," said Owl
Carver. "The Turtle told Gray Cloud that Black Hawk might tell others as
he saw fit." The rumble of voices rose at this, and then quieted as Owl
Carver raised his medicine stick.

"After the Turtle created our Mother the Earth, he mated with her, and
all tribes were born in her womb," Owl Carver said. "They lived there in
a warm darkness, but they had to go forth and find their way out of our
Mother. Then there came to our ancestors an elder spirit, the White
Bear, who led them out the womb of our Mother.

"When they were in the