Whispering Spirits by Rita Karnopp Read Free Book Online Page B

Nah’ah would take the bundle outside on nice days and hang
it from a wooden tripod to the back of the tipi. She used a forked
stick beside the altar to make incense. Summer liked the smell of
sweetgrass and often received braids of it from Nah’ah on
her birthday. She secretly loved them.
    “You seem at peace, Niipo . Does my
tipi please you?”
    Summer glanced over at Nah’ah and
smiled. “It brings back many memories of when I was young and
treasured everything Blackfeet.” Summer moved her fingertips across
the taunt tipi wall.
    “As a child I loved living with my
grandmother in her tipi. One of our ancestral traditions is that
the tipi and its household contents belong to the woman. If she no
longer keeps her husband, he is left with nothing. Most times he
would just go move back with relatives or friends. If a couple has
a tipi design it belongs to the husband and wife together, but the
cover that it’s painted on still belongs to her.” Thunder rumbled
in the distance.
    “So they even had divorce in those days,
huh?” Summer couldn’t help chuckling. “Not all that much had really
changed.” She moved to the center fire and dropped to her
knees.
    “I know most napi’kwans think the
Blackfeet woman was a slave, but they are wrong. A husband does not
have property rights in his wife. He cannot just trade her away. He
has all personal rights and can beat her, or for just cause even
kill her, but he cannot sell her to another man.”
    “Well, that’s reassuring, isn’t it?”
    Nah’ah sat near the altar. “Did you
know our tipis always face east? Each morning we pray and sing our
sacred songs to help  Natosi  rise.”
    “Like the sun really needs our help to rise.
Did they really believe the sun wouldn’t rise if they didn’t sing
sacred songs?” Summer got to her feet and dragged her bags to her
mattress and sat.
    “Don’t be sarcastic, dear. I put a hot coal
on my altar and sprinkled sweetgrass on it to burn. The smoke
purifies us and lets  Ihtsi-pai-tapi-yopa  hear my
prayers.”
    “Grandmother, I realize you feel a need to
tell me all this, but I don’t have a driving need to pray to the
essence of all life. I truly believe, if you must know, in Jesus
Christ. We can’t have it both ways.”
    “Believing in a higher being is a good thing, Niipo . May I share the etiquette of the tipi with you?”
    Summer felt ashamed for having scoffed at Nah’ah . “I’d love to hear about that.”
    Nah-ah smiled. “In the old days
entering a tipi had proper rules. A woman entered and turned to the
left while men entered and turned to the right.”
    “Fascinating,” Summer leaned back on her
bedding.
    “Proper custom required a person moving about
in the tipi to never pass between another person and the fire. Even
worse yet is if a person were to pass between the sacred altar and
the fire.”
    “And if you did, what would happen to you?”
Summer yawned and closed her eyes.
    “People would consider you to have bad
manners. Being respectful of customs was most important in those
days.”
    “Kinda like eating with your mouth full of
food is rude and bad manners?”
    “You are not in a very good mood, are you Niipo ? Tell me what is wrong?”
    “Nothing’s wrong…unless Jordan’s murder
counts. Unless killing a man by hitting him over the head with a
frying pan counts. How about being accused of something illegal…but
you have no idea what they’re talking about? Yes, you might say I’m
a bit on edge and not exactly in a good mood.”
    “My, you are…unsettled. I had a dream last
night. It was about you.”
    “You know I don’t put much value in
dreams.”
    “Our people believe dreams are actual
experiences of our shadows or souls while our bodies sleep. Sun is
the supreme god of earth and sky, and enables us to look ahead and
tell what is going to happen. I saw you talking to a man in black.
He held a flat, small, black suitcase and wanted you to tell him
why it was empty. You kept