CHAPTER ONE

Morning Star’s breasts hung heavy with milk. Just six suns ago she’d given birth to twins and her body was now producing enough milk for both babies. In the night, the spirit of death came and took one of the babies to the land of the ancestors leaving only one child to drain her breasts of their heaviness.

Even though she mourned the passing of her daughter, she knew there was still work to be done. Now, with her husband, Running Deer, at her side and her son strapped to her back, she walked toward the river looking for the edible plants to be harvested and dried to be used during the coming winter.

Off to one side, she heard the cries of a child. “Did you hear that?”

“I did, but it is nothing we should concern ourselves with. There is a white settler’s cabin close by and it is possible they have a child. It is only calling for its mother.”

The wails of the child became louder and Morning Star couldn’t help but stray from her husband’s side to investigate.

The cabin of the white settlers was constructed of logs and looked very strange to Morning Star. The cries of the infant from inside the cabin grew louder and more demanding. Knowing she shouldn’t go any further, Morning Star continued to walk toward the cabin to investigate.

Inside she saw a very young woman lying on a raised bed, her breaths sounding shallow. The babe had been placed beside her and screamed her protests because of an empty belly, at least that was what Morning Star thought.

The white woman opened her eyes, but showed no fear. To Morning Star’s surprise, the woman spoke to her in her own tongue.

“My name is Martha and this is my baby. I am dying.”

“How is it you speak my language?”

“My husband, Robert, was trained and sent to this area to minister to the tribes. He taught me. Unfortunately, he was killed in an accident several moons ago. He is buried behind the cabin. Now I will be joining him. Will you take my daughter? Her name is Kathryn.”

The words Martha spoke seemed to have drained all of her strength. She closed her eyes and almost immediately her breathing stopped.

As though to protest the loss of her mother the baby cried even louder than before.

“What are you doing in here woman?”

Morning Star turned at the sound of her husband’s voice.

“The woman, Martha, spoke to me in our language. She said her husband was killed and is buried in the back of the cabin. Now she has joined him in death. She begged me to take her child. I think it is best if we bury her beside her husband. When the task is done, burn this cabin.”

“How could she speak in our language?”

“She said she was trained to speak our language because her husband was to minister to our people. I do not understand the meaning of this, but I cannot leave this child to die when I have more than enough milk for two babies.”

Running Deer shook his head. “You make sense, but what will the others say about us taking a white child into our midst?”

“I do not care. Don’t you think the Great Spirit has sent her to us to replace the daughter the spirit of death took from me in the night? She needs me as much as I need her.”

“Of course, you are right. I will bury the woman beside her husband. Once I have finished, I will burn the cabin. If we are going to take this child, what will we call her?”

Morning Star picked up the crying child, giving her comfort. Once the crying stopped, the child looked at her in wonder. “Her mother called her Katheryn. Of course, that is not a name of our people. Just look at her eyes. They are the color of the sky. I will call her Sky Eyes.”

With the baby properly named, Morning Star bared her breast and allowed the child to take her engorged nipple into her mouth. While she nursed the baby, Running Deer prepared the woman for burial. He took several of the items from the cabin to put into the grave with her. After wrapping Martha in one of the blankets, he handed another to Morning Star.

She smiled her thanks. Until she could return to her home and retrieve the cradleboard she had thought would go unused, she could carry the baby in the blanket.

Morning Star sat in the sun and nursed her son while Sky Eyes slept. From behind the cabin, she could hear her husband preparing the grave for the woman and her belongings. She knew he would bury her with the same traditions he had used to bury their daughter earlier in the day. What started as a day of sorrow for Morning Star had turned into one of joy. She would raise the white woman’s child as though it was her own. When Sky Eyes was old enough, she would tell her of her white mother who entrusted her daughter to a strange woman in order to spare her life. When she told her of all of this, she would also give her back her white name of Kathryn.

Her eyes were becoming heavy when Running Deer returned to the front of the cabin. “I see both children are contently sleeping. It is almost time for us to return to the village. Have you thought of how you will explain this child when people ask where she has come from?”

“I will tell them the truth. The Great Spirit saw my anguish over losing my daughter to the spirit of death. While the spirit of death waited to claim this child’s mother, he sent me to rescue the child and raise it as my own.”

“I pray what you are doing is the right thing. I too mourn the loss of our daughter but I am not certain how our people will react to this white child. She is innocent, but I have heard terrible stories of what the whites have done to the tribes to the east of us.”

Although Running Deer told her he intended to burn down the cabin, he left it intact when it was time to return to the village.

“Are you not going to burn the cabin?”

“I will do it later. For now, we must return to our home. The sun is going down and I do not want to put you or the children in danger. There are animals in the forest who could hurt you badly. It is best if we return to the village. Besides, this child was present when her mother died. We do not know how much a child remembers, but her day has been hard. It is not proper for her to be present when I burn the house that was meant to be her home.”

Morning Star agreed with her husband. She did not want this new daughter to harbor dark memories of, not only the death of her natural mother, but also, the loss of the home her parents worked so hard to build to shelter her from birth to when she became a woman.

~ * ~

Once they returned to their lodge, the woman everyone called Old Grandmother greeted them. “I knew it. I knew the Great Spirit would look kindly upon you this day. When I heard you mourning the loss of your girl child, I prayed to the Great Spirit to give you comfort. Not long after my prayer I had a vision of you finding a cabin of a white settler in the forest. I saw you go into the cabin and rescue this child from the horrors of the death of her mother. Seeing you return to this village as a complete family I know the vision from the Great Spirit was right and true.”

“I, too, believe the Great Spirit sent me to the cabin to rescue this child as a replacement for my own daughter. Had I not heard her cries of hunger, I would have never gone into the cabin. With her final breath, her mother begged me to take her child and raise her as my own. She also told me the child’s name is Kathryn but I have named her Sky Eyes. I will hold her white name in my heart and when the time is right, I will tell her of her origins and the woman who loved her enough to entrust her care to a stranger.”