Wakini: A Short Story

No one can remember any more exactly how it came about that the black bear Wakini overpowered the strong gray grizzly Wakinu. The black bears say that Wakini was just feeding on the contents of an ant hill when Wakinu came up to him and quite rudely stuck his paw in as well.A great fight ensued, with gray and black hairs flying on every side. Wakini was, of course, in the right, for no animal may ever touch another's prey.Wakinu thus received a just punishment; but that was by no means all -- like a defeated warrior, he had to leave his tribe forever.Wakinu wailed and lamented, but the Indian laws are inexorable. And so he had to go, wading through familiar streams, taking a last look at the familiar pines, and saying farewell to the valley …show more content…
His gray coat had turned completely white with the snow, ice, and bitter wind.But Wakinu took no notice of anything and walked on and on, until he reached a strange land in which a deep, frosty night reigned supreme. Somewhere in the distance the gale could still be heard, yet here there was no but that made by his own footfalls on the frozen snow.Above him glowed the night sky, while not far away, on the very fringe of the Snow Country and the heavens, a broad white trail could be seen ascending the sky.Wakinu ran, hardly touching the ground, mesmerized by that gleaming trail. Another leap, and he found himself in the air, shaking snow from his coat; light as a feather, he soared up and up.The animals who were awake that night saw, for the first time, a wide white trail in the sky, and on it -- a gray bear."Wakinu has found the Bridge of the Dead Souls and is on his way to the Eternal Hunting-grounds," said the wise black bear Wakini.And the grizzly really did go to the Eternal Hunting-grounds. The only thing he left behind was the snow he had shaken from his coat. And that white snow is there in the sky to this day. Just look and