Dances with Wolves

Ten Bears likes Dunbar and assigns to Kicking Bird the job of maintaining contact with him and teaching him more Comanche words. Ten Bears also worries that the buffalo haven’t yet appeared, and that the band’s food supplies will soon be exhausted. They must hold a sacred dance within the week, and Kicking Bird will oversee preparations.

Suddenly swamped with responsibilities—including his two wives, four children, newly adopted Stands With A Fist, visits to the sick, and preparing of new medicines—Kicking Bird forms a plan. He calls Stands With A Fist to his lodge and asks her to be his interpreter with the white soldier. Stands With A Fist fears that the white soldiers will take her away from her village. Kicking Bird reminds her that 100 soldiers are something to fear, not one. He instructs her to go some distance from the camp and remember the old words she used to speak.

Stands With A Fist does as she is asked and walks along a path beyond the river. She hates the white soldier, she hates Kicking Bird for making her do this thing, and she hates the Great Spirit for visiting one more cruelty upon her.