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"I'm telling you, Vice-Chief Howling Dog, we got real trouble. People know
about that business Little Weasel set up, the one he calls, 'EndRun'."
"So? I been meeting with Little Weasel and his bunch for some time now."
"So?! They know he says he made trades that he didn't make. We've had
every woman and young-un in the village busy painting pots for months. He's
supposed to trade 'em off for things we need to get folks through the winter."
"He's tradin' off the women and kids? That'll sure make it quieter around
here."
"No! The painted pots. It's only a matter of time an' somebody's gonna
figure out we've been gettin' a piece of the fry bread and they'll find our
stash of blankets and tobacco. What're we gonna do? Huh? What're we gonna
do?!"
"Hey, Falling Acorn, you're the Chief of this outfit. Use your head."
"Oh, yeah. Daddy told me I might have to do that. What would he do?
Hey! Remember when Daddy had our boys go over and whump on Chief Mean Rodent's
bunch? There ain't nothing like a good scrap to get people's minds off things
they shouldn't be thinkin' about. You know, it kind of sets 'em to praying an'
such."
"There ya go, Chief. Talk about the Great Spirit a whole bunch. Tell
everybody He's on our side. Better yet, tell 'em that your're doin' the Great
Spirit's work, an' shake your finger a lot at ol' Mean Rodent. Hang all our
problems on him. Tell 'em if we don't do something, his gang's gonna come
swarming in here and eat all our old people."
"Eat our old people? You know, that might not be a bad ..."
"It ain't gonna happen. Just tell people it is."
"Still, since I traded off all the supplies we had to keep the raisin people
..."
"It ain't gonna happen."
"This Chief stuff is hard work. I need a vacation."
"You just got back from vacation."
"I know, but this is really hard work."
"By the way, Chief, the medicine man is pissed."
"Oh?"
"He says some of the tribe is going to that village up north for their herbs
because they're cheaper up there."
"What? We'll have to stop that. We don't get a cut from the northern
medicine man. I got it! Tell everybody that the herbs from up north ain't no
good. People in the north village are keelin' over right and left because of
bad medicine."
"Another thing, Your Chiefness, there's a lot of talk that Brave Hair is
gonna make a serious run for your job."
"That's not good. He was a big warrior at that battle of Muddy Creek.
He's got all kinds of feathers sticking out of his head. And he's smart too.
I've seen him count without even lookin' at his fingers."
"We can handle this, Chief. What if we give some of the boys who was in
the battle with Brave Hair a few of those blankets you've got squirreled away?
They'd swear he wudn't even there and didn't really earn them feathers."
"That ain't bad, Howling Dog. Hey, remember when we had Brave Hair get rid
of them busted canoes?"
"Yeah, that was after we moved into the forest and there wudn't no lakes or
rivers in the neighborhood."
"Right, but what if we tell the tribe that Brave Hair didn't want our braves
to have any canoes?"
"Good idea, oh honorable Chiefness, and if Brave Hair says he really wants
the guys to have canoes, we'll tell everybody that he can't make up his mind
about anything ... he's a flippum-floppum sort that can't be trusted. By the
way, Chief, where were you in that Muddy Creek fracas?"
"I wanted to be there. I really did, but my teepee was starting to leak
an' I had to stay home to patch it up."
"Oh yeah, that's right, I was busy and couldn't go neither. Hated missin'
it. Don't know why I start laughin' everytime I talk about that. But never
mind about that, there's another thing, Chief, some of the hunters are grumbling
about that bunch you sent out to cut down all the trees in the hunting grounds."
"Stupid tree-huggers! That reminds me, have we got those signs made up yet
for the big lumber sale?"
"Got 'em back from the sign maker this morning an' they're just how you
wanted, 'Tent flaps open Saturday at six a.m.'."
Okay, good, but let's get busy on this Mean Rodent thing. Start tellin'
people that we have proof he's buildin' an arrow that can go three times farther
... No! Make it four times farther than ours, an' it has a sharper point."
"That's perfect, Chief. Nothin' like scarin' the braves out of their
loincloths to get 'em behind you."
John Crusey
jcrusey@woh.rr.com
