Fools Crow Essay, Research Paper

In the novel, Fools Crow, supernatural powers played a large role. Throughout the story, all the characters were affected by a supernatural element. These elements affected some characters more than others. The main character, Fools Crow, believed in supernatural powers and in his heritage more than any other member of his tribe did. His life was changed several times due to his belief in supernatural powers.

In Fools Crow?s first horse raid, then called White Man?s Dog, he thought that his medicine was weak and that he would not do well on the trip. He believed that he might not get many horses and that people would not respect him. On the way to the horse raid one of Fools Crow?s friends, Fast Horse, had a bad dream sent from the Cold Maker. It said that, if he did not remove a boulder from his drinking spring, he would cause great harm on himself and his raiding group. The Pikunis thought that dreams were a very powerful form of supernatural powers. The raiding tribe went to look for the spring with the boulder blocking the water flow, but they could not find it. Despite this, the group continued searching because they were too far to turn back.

During the raid, Fast Horse caused an important warrior to become severely injured. Fast Horse thought this was because they did not help the Cold Maker. After the raid, Fast Horse had promised many things to the Cold Maker in sacrifice, but never followed up on any of his promises. He soon left camp because he felt responsible for his friend?s misfortune. He also left his beliefs of supernatural powers behind.

Fools Crow had done well on the raid despite what happened to his friend. He gained much power in the tribe due to his success. He also became great friends with the local many-faces man, Mik-api. Fools Crow?s medicine was becoming stronger and more people acknowledged him. The more medicine, or supernatural power, a person had, the more clout they had in the village.

When people became sick in the tribe, they relied on ceremonies to cure them. Medicine was not just given to them; a huge ceremony had to be preformed perfectly. If it was not done correctly, the sickness, or as they called it a ?bad spirit?, would remain inside the being.

Later in the novel, Fools Crow had a dream that told the fate of his tribe. In this dream, he went to a valley that had mountains on all four sides. He met So-at-sa-ki, or as the rest of the tribe knew her Feather Woman. She told him what happened to her and to be alert for danger to his tribe. So-at-sa-ki was always painting on this yellow shin, but nothing ever appeared on it. Fools Crow picked it up and starred at it and many visions appeared. He learned the horrible fate of his people with the surrounding tribes. Later when he woke up he told only one person. He would have told more people, but he was scared of their reaction. Soon many of these things began to occur.

The Pikunis? life was surrounded by the idea of the supernatural. These beliefs affected their everyday life through many ways including dreams or even a healing ceremony. These supernatural powers made the novel seem realistic to the actual ways of the Native Americans.