Legacy of Their People

Sonja Pretty Flower couldn’t understand how her husband, Billy Bad Feather, could be so mistaken. His fights in town only led to one more night in jail. This was 1972, surely, he could see he wasn’t going to be able to do what their warriors at the time their Lakota nation had been at its strongest could not. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull thought together they could drive the white man from their land. With all their warriors they fought and lost. Both were killed after surrendering in peace. How did Billy now think he would win their land and way of life back, Sonja questioned. For Billy, however, he would fight the descendants of those who had committed those wrongs against his people. He believed he would be remiss if he didn’t, as he came from a long line of warriors. Their sacred Black Hills had been illegally taken against their treaty rights, and their way of life was destroyed. This was the legacy of their people, which Billy couldn’t accept, even though their medicine man, Old Smoke, called for peace with the white man. Billy wouldn’t listen; the old men always spoke for peace. He was young and strong and had Jumping Bear to fight with him. Chico would join. It was on their people’s sacred ground that the three got drunk, however, Billy and Chico fought one another. Their desecration of this sacred place would have long-reaching consequences. Deputy Black Hand of the Agency Police died while driving his patrol car drunk and too fast. He hit a patch of ice and spun into Eagle Creek where he drowned. In the despondency that had overcome him after his knife fight with Billy, Chico had come to believe Billy murdered Deputy Black Hand and made it look like an accident. Charlie Eagle Streak was Billy’s accomplice; Chico told the federal investigators. Billy and Charlie had committed many robberies together, but they hadn’t killed Deputy Black Hand. It didn’t matter, however, these two were renegades and the federal investigators had Chico’s testimony. Deputy Black Hand’s murder was a conspiracy involving Billy Bad Feather, Charlie Eagle Streak, and Jumping Bear. Their medicine man, Old Smoke, was the mastermind. An insurrection would soon break out on the Whispering Rock Reservation, and Manifest Destiny would be turned upside down.