Tiopa Ki Lakota Read Online Free PDF

shaman. She watched in pain as Hca slipped her dress over her head and moved away from her bedding to rummage around in the herbal stores their mother kept.
    "Here," Hca murmured as she returned. She handed her little sister a root. "Chew on this while I make a tea for you. It will help with the pain." The older girl kindly caressed Cinksi's head and smiled. "It will be fine. Trust me. You are becoming a woman now." She then moved to the remains of the fire and stirred up flames to heat some water.
    Chewing on the root, Cinksi watched, frowning. I am becoming a woman? This is the bleeding time? Many questions filled her mind regarding this new insight and she resolved to ask her sister and mother about them as soon as possible. Another wave of pain hit her and she gasped and rocked.
    Hca returned a few minutes later with an herbal tea to help with the pain. She insisted that Cinksi drink it all before it cooled to get the healing benefits from the herbs. Hca then gave whispered instructions on what to wear, helping the younger girl put on the necessary items to contain the bleeding. Afterwards, she held her sister's head in her lap, caressing her hair and crooning a soft song that their mother used to sing to them when they were babes.
    The pain backed away and the younger girl relaxed, a weariness stealing over her. She drifted off to sleep with a lullaby in her ear.
     
    Cinksi carefully placed the sacred bundle in the branches of a tree near the summer camp. She murmured a prayer to the spirits, asking for a vision of her adulthood before she climbed back down and settled at the base of it.
    It had been a week since she first began bleeding. The camp had made it to the summer place a day later and she had spent quite a bit of time with her sister and mother. Apparently, Wanbli Zi had been informed of the new state of affairs with his youngest daughter and had stayed away.
    For a while, Cinksi was worried that she would have to give up her path and become a woman, but that had not come to pass. She was taught by the women of her camp the ways of the bleeding - how to protect against the painful spirits that invaded her belly when it happened, what to do with the soiled clothing used to capture the fluid that flowed from her. Hca had eased her mind by telling her that the pain only lasted a day or so with herself, dissipating to a dull discomfort rather than the aching cramps.
    And now, Cinksi was doing as many young women did with their first bleeding. Attempting a vision.
    I do not see how a vision can come to me , she mused with a frown.
    Cinksi was on a small hillock that had a stand of trees on it. Beneath her was the summer camp, laid out in all its splendor. The pole in the center of the clearing was where the Sun Dance would be held in two days and the entire camp was buzzing with excited preparations. From here on the southern edge the girl could see her own camp's settlement.
    According to tradition, a girl's first bleeding was put into the limbs of a tree and the girl was to sit at the base for the day. A vision was supposed to come to her if she should be worthy of it. But how can I be worthy of it? The hoksila
    have to sit for days to receive visions from the spirits. How can the spirits deem me worthy if I am not willing to sacrifice more to achieve a vision?
    The doubts swirled around in her head as she sat and watched the camp's activities.
     
    " Wicahcala
    ?"
    The shaman, Inyan Ceye, looked up from his work. He was sewing a small pouch made of fox fur. Before him stood the youngest daughter of Wanbli Zi. " Hau
    , Cinksi. Please, sit with me." He set aside his task and smiled warmly at the girl.
    Gingerly, Cinksi sat to the left of the shaman and in the honored place. She frowned to herself as she considered what to say.
    Inyan Ceye kept his counsel, knowing the girl needed to come to terms with whatever she wanted. He had seen her on the hill a few days earlier and had surmised why she was there. But she