Sioux Fire Talker

Warpath

The next story I will tell you is about the first warpath I went on as a young warrior, it happened in the year 1845, I was 15 years old.

The Pawnee and my people have always had a bad relationship ever since Wakan Tanka created the Universe. The Pawnee live to the south in Nebraska and are a people with no spirit. They turned on their own kind in the 1880's becoming scouts and police for the white men. A party of 30 warriors from my village were going on the warpath against the Pawnee and I asked my father who was named Canowicakte meaning 'kills in the woods' if I could go on this warpath and he agreed that it was time for me to become a man. I will tell you soon of how my father got his name.

I was 15 years old and was quite skilled in the use of a bow and arrow at this time. I took my club, my bow and arrow and my scalping knife on the warpath. A party of 30 of us Sioux warriors led by Enapay headed south on our horses. We traveled and camped for many days until we came across a Pawnee woman and her young daughter washing clothes in a river. By this time we were deep in to modern day Nebraska territory. They never saw us coming as we approached from behind. The woman was singing and one of the warriors, I am not sure who it was, shot an arrow into the young girls back, she fell face first in to the river. The mother was screaming so Enapay jumped off his horse and covered her mouth with his hand. He asked her where the village was and she pointed in the direction of the village, Enapay still had his hand over her mouth. The young Pawnee girl was dead in the river, I could not take my eyes off her, I did not understand why the warrior killed her as she was only a young girl, but I knew better than to question him. Enapay took out his knife and cut the womans throat and she fell in the river next to her daughter. We then made off in the direction of the village not knowing how many Pawnee were there as Enapay had not asked the woman.

The village was not far and when we got there we could see men and women in the village. We dismounted our horses and secured them to some trees and headed in to the village. We gave out war crys and ran in to the village. The first tipi I came to I entered, there was an old man in there sleeping, he awoke and looked up at me puzzled, I thought for a few seconds then I left the tipi telling the others it was empty. The Pawnee knew we were in the village by now and there were skirmishes happening. A Pawnee woman ran toward me with a large knife in her hand, I shot an arrow into her body but she kept on running so I dropped my bow and took out my club, I hit the woman on the top of the head and she fell to the ground, I looked down at her and could see the knife she had was stuck in to her, she must have fallen on it, She looked up at me and I hit her in the face with a heavy blow from my war club and she did not move. I looked around and saw two Pawnee warriors beating a Sioux warrior named Wahkan with war clubs. I ran to them and struck one of them with my club, he fell down and I hit him again then turned to the other Pawnee but he was gone, I looked down at Wahkan who was dead and badly beaten. This angered me and I went in to the nearest tipi full of rage. There was an old Pawnee man and two women, I reached for my scalping knife and sliced away at the three of them, when I came to my senses the three of them were dead and I was covered in blood. I went back outside and reached for my bow, I did not have it as it was on the floor where I had dropped it when the woman attacked me. We were outnumbered by the Pawnee at this time and we retreated out of the village, I did not have time to retrieve my bow so I left it on the floor. We were only in the village for maybe two minutes. Of the 30 warriors that went on the warpath only 14 of us were still alive, we mounted our horses and made off. The Pawnee did not follow us.

We rode for some distance at high speed then stopped at a creek as our horses were tired and thirsty. Enapay was with us but was badly injured with two arrows in him. Enapay lied down by the creek and died. Our greatest warrior was now dead and we were all sad. We did not have time to bury him so we left him there for the animals to feast on. The rest of us headed for home, it took us seven days and nights to get home. When we did we had a council with Chief Matoskah (white bear) and told stories of what had happened. 17 of our bravest warriors had died on this warpath and I vowed I would kill every Pawnee I ever saw again in my life. I was angry at myself because I did not take any scalps from this warpath even though I did kill 5 Pawnee. I was thankful that I was unharmed and my people thought me a good warrior because of this.