tribe member that's a professor of
anthropology out in Chicago. He was there. And a couple of guys that do
electronic research, and doctors and farmers and all sorts of guys. All
Mohawks. They got together in tribal council."
He stopped and flushed under his dark skin. "I wouldn't tell you, only
you guys are in on it."
Still he hesitated. Joe found a curious picture forming in his mind.
He'd known the Chief a long time, and he knew that part of the tribe
lived in Brooklyn, and individual members were widely scattered. But
still there was a certain remote village which to all the tribesmen was
home. Everybody went back there from time to time, to rest from the
strangeness of being Indians in a world of pale-skinned folk.
Joe could almost imagine the council. There'd be old, old men who could
nearly remember the days of the tribe's former glory, who'd heard
stories of forest warfare and zestful hunts, and scalpings and heroic
deeds from their grandfathers. But there were also doctors and lawyers
and technical men in that council which met to talk about the Chief.
"It's addressed to me," said the Chief with sudden clumsiness, "in the
World-by-itself Canoe. That's the Platform here. And it says--I'll have
to translate, because it's in Mohawk." He took a deep breath. "It says,
'We your tribesmen have heard of your journeyings off the Earth where
men have never traveled before. This has given us great pride, that one
of our tribe and kin had ventured so valiantly.'" The Chief grinned
abashedly. He went on. "'In full assembly, the elders of the tribe have
held counsel on a way to express their pride in you, and in the friends
you have made who accompanied you. It was proposed that you be given a
new name to be borne by your sons after you. It was proposed that the
tribe accept from each of its members a gift to be given you in the name
of the tribe. But these were not considered great enough. Therefore the
tribe, in full council, has decreed that your name shall be named at
every tribal council of the Mohawks from this day to the end of time, as
one the young braves would do well to copy in all ways. And the names of
your friends Joe Kenmore, Mike Scandia, and Thomas Haney shall also be
named as friends whose like all young braves should strive to seek out
and to be.'"
The Chief sweated a little, but he looked enormously proud. Joe went
over to him and shook hands warmly. The Chief almost broke his fingers.
It was, o
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