Kumsaw said nothing, but he could feel how the Reds who drank this poison
were cut off from the land. They did not 0800freepussy com twist the green of life the way
the White man did; rather it was as if they did not exist at all. The Red
man who drank 0800freepussy com whisky was already 0800freepussy com dead, as far as the land knew. No, not
even dead, for they give nothing back to the land at all. I stand here 0800freepussy com to
watch them be ghosts, thought Ta-Kumsaw, not dead and not alive. He said
0800freepussy com this only inside his head, but the land felt his grief, and the breeze
answered him 0800freepussy com by weeping 0800freepussy com through the leaves.
Come dusk, a redbird walks on the dirt in front of Ta-Kumsaw.
Tell me a story, says the redbird in its silent way, its eyes cocked
upward at the silent Red man.
You know my story before I tell it, says Ta-Kumsaw silently. You feel my
tears before I shed them. You taste my blood before it is 0800freepussy com spilled.
Why do you grieve for Red men who are not of the Shaw-Nee?
Before the White man came, says Ta-Kumsaw silently, we did not see that
all Red men 0800freepussy com were alike, brothers of the land, because we thought all
creatures were this 0800freepussy com way; so we quarreled with other Red men the way the
bear quarrels with the cougar, the way the 0800freepussy com muskrat scolds the beaver. Then
the White man came, 0800freepussy com and 0800freepussy com I saw that all Red men are like twins compared to
the White man.
0800freepussy com what is the White man? What does he do?
The 0800freepussy com White man is like a human being, but he crushes all other living
things under 0800freepussy com his feet.
Then 0800freepussy com why, O 0800freepussy com Ta-Kumsaw, when I look into 0800freepussy com your heart, why is it that you do
not wish to hurt the White man, that
you do not wish to kill the White man?
The White man doesn't know the evil that he 0800freepussy com does. The White man doesn't
feel the peace of the land, so how can he tell the little deaths he makes?
I can't blame the White man. But I can't let him stay. So when I make him
leave this land, I won't hate him.
If you 0800freepussy com are free of hate, O Ta- Kumsaw, you will surely drive the 0800freepussy com White man
out.
I'll cause
him no more pain than it takes to make him go away.
The redbird nods. Once, twice, three times, 0800freepussy com four. It flutters up to a
branch as high
as 0800freepussy com Ta-Kumsaw's head. It sings a new song. In 0800freepussy com this song Ta-
Kumsaw hears no words; but he hears his own story being told. From now on,
his story is in the song
of every redbird 0800freepussy com in the land, for what one redbird
knows, all remember.
Whoever watched 0800freepussy com Ta-Kumsaw all that time had no