Native American Short Stories

The Dakubetede Tribe (Part 1)

"Becauseit does not work quite that way," the teen-aged girl rolled hereyes. "Why can you not get that through your thick head?"

Shepicked at the fish-filled basket, eye-balling a couple salmon shethought about cooking herself. With some of the dried berries and afew pine nuts, it would satisfy her belly and provide a sound night'srest; with her parents gone for a few more days, Hausisse had beeneating to please herself.

"Yis'anamnasyas'amati tca-patitakya," she grinned.

"Youknow, you do not even say it right. You cannot tell me to go away,threaten to hit me – and say it all wrong. Even if you practicesaying it all night in your sleep, you will never get it right."

Itwas a familiar conversation.

WhileHausisse constantly attempted to control her words, the deformationof her bottom lip generally twisted half of what she said; thanks toher best friend, however, she had not spent one single day in shamebecause of it.

Sure,Miakoda joked about it, but the privilege had been self-reserved byher alone – nobody else was even allowed to mention her friend'sappearance around them. Or they faced the wrath of the best friend,and everyone knew how that generally ended.

"Butstill, you need to let my words sink deep into that mind of yours,"she only half-way joked. "Boys like him can become trouble for girls like us, and he may not even allow us to go along," she frowned. "Cousin or not, it willnever happen."

Miakodashrugged both shoulders. "We shall see. He enjoys the easy way, andI plan to offer our womanly services if he consents to taking us."

Hausissechoked back her next thoughts, raising an eyebrow at the way her friend'ssuggestive words sounded to her ears.

"Please," she caught Hausisse's sudden hesitation. "What I mean is, we will cook and carry things so the men can feel free to hunt longer each day."

Hausisseshook her head.

"Iwould rather just hit you," she teased. "Are you sure aboutthis?"

Thefollowing morning, both girls poked their arms through the handles ofa few baskets, making the most of their ability to carry what theycould and thus impress Chogan. And perhaps his older friends, eventhough it mattered nothing to at least one of the girls whether his friends looked twice at them.

Concerning the boys, however, Chogan only made the girls' petition known tohis friends once; any time pretty young girls requested to accompanythem on a trip with no parental supervision, thinking thesituation over did not even find a place in their minds.

Tobe fair, this had only presented itself twice in the boys lives ...and the other time, one of the girl's mother found out neitherChogan's uncle or father would be going, and she put a stop to theentire trip.

Hausisseglanced back toward her home, but Miakoda touched her arm and shookher head.

Of course, her mother would eventually find out what hadoccurred in her absence, but Miakoda persuaded her to believe by thetime this actually happened and nothing bad had resulted from it, theincident would not become an issue at all; in fact, her friendsmiled, "Your mother will see how mature you are and give you morerope in the future."

Hausissecouldn't help but agree once she heard logic being presented in that particularway.

Afterall - what could happen?

Asthe village disappeared behind them and their banter became louderand more obnoxious, the group of friends began shoving each other toand fro, causing them to stumble and bump into one another.

Laughing,Miakoda caught the not-so-subtle glances from one of Chogan's friendsand hoped Hausisse had not already begun to feel uncomfortable; Miakoda chose to enjoy herself and worrylater as she slipped a finger through the looped clamshell beads dangling from herneck and swished them back and forth, returning the look ofadmiration from Nosh she'd received only moments earlier.

Unlike his cousin, Choganfelt no compelling reason to seek companionship, himself; itwas never a necessity for him to do so, due to his inherited goodlooks and stunning personality. Every girl he met instantly knew theboy had been born to father all her children and entertain her forthe remainder of her days, and Chogan enjoyed every moment of it. Thegirls found him – he did not go searching for them.

Thatattitude suited his friends and they always enjoyed his company.Especially when girls were involved.

"Ineed food," Chogan announced before the sun even began to set."Where are the women?"

Miakodagrunted.

"Doyou think we consented to accompany you just to wait on you hand andfoot?"

Hespun around and squinted in her direction, pointing one slenderfinger toward her. The lop-sided grin on his face let his cousin knowhe was only playing as he warned her not to test him.

"Consentedto accompany? Seriously? It was more like begging me to drag you twobehind, if you remember correctly!"

Theoldest boy tossed his hair from his eyes and laughed, his eyesscraping over Miakoda.

Stompingup to her cousin's face, she surprised both him and all his friendsby wrapping both arms around his neck, hugging him to herself untilhe pretended to be out of breath.

"You'rethe best cousin around. Thanks for dragging us out of the village. Come on, Hausisse," she hiked a thumb in the other direction. "Gather up some dried grasses - we have a meal toget busy with."

Preparedto feed the group only a couple of days, the girls opened decoratedskin bags and lifted lids from baskets to retrieve supplies ofsun-parched salmon pieces, flat bread and various berries; after ashort discussion, they reasoned it would not be necessary to tote ahuge supply of foodstuffs. Two days would pass quickly and their mainconcern did not include feeding the boys, anyway.

"Youthink we can go first thing in the morning? After they've gone forthe day, I mean?" She clapped both hands over her mouth andsquealed. "I'm so excited!"

Herfriend understood. Acquiring more shells had been all the girls hadspoken about for what seemed like forever.

"Wewill be the only ones with such a collection! I could not sleep lastnight from thinking about it; I keep dreaming about everything wewill do with them."

Miakodaproceeded to list several projects by extending a new finger andcounting the items off as she verbalized what the new collectionwould provide for her.

"Moccasins,a necklace for Tala's wedding gift, my mother's deerskin tunic andoh! I want to dye some with Grandmother – she knows how to get thatone color," she waved a hand off to her side as she handed Hausissesome food for their meal.

"Theboys will leave early. We should have plenty of time to get to theriver and be back here before they return," she asserted as sheaccepted the fish pieces. "Let us feed them and get the day overwith. I think you should sit next to me and Nosh," she suggested.

Hausisserolled her eyes.

"Boysare not as useful as you believe them to be," she reminded herfriend. "Where I shouldsit is in between the two of you," she grinned.