Here I lay, in grass fields at night not too far away from home. I have come out here many times before when I was angry or confused. I come out here to think. I laid here in the grass as the cool night breeze blew over my face while I looked up at the stars. One thing my father had told me about the stars is that they were our ancestors. They shined bright in the night to let us know that they would protect us and watch over us. He said that if you see a falling star it was warning, a warning that something bad was about to happen, a sign of violence or death. But for some reason, the night he told me that we were out here in this same field and we saw no shooting star. That was also the night he was murdered by white man. That happened about 9 summers ago when I was ten. I come here many times after to look at the stars and ask my ancestors why they did not warn me of the white men who would murder my father. They have never told me though so I come here nearly every night, and wait and listen for a sign, or an answer. But I seem to leave every night back to the same reservation the white man has put me on; the one I have lived on most of my life, and yet have no answer. I go home to my wife and young one that is my child but not yet born. One day we my wife and child will leave this place, back into the world the white man has trapped us from.
The night breeze became swifter and made me close my eyes. As I opened them again something was not the same as it was when I closed them. All the stars appeared the same, but one. A star in the southern sky shinned brighter than it ever had before. It glowed very almost as bright as the full moon. It got brighter and brighter and then suddenly, it disappeared. I stared blankly at the spot waiting for something to happen. The night breeze stopped and it became silent. Suddenly the star reappeared as bright as the moon and then within seconds it shot across the night sky. The star fell and fell all the way across the sky and then it faded to black and disappeared forever.
My stomach began to churn and knew something wasn't right now.
“Boom!!!” suddenly my ears heard the sound of a distant gunshot in the direction of my home. I got up as fast as I could and began to sprint towards home. Up a hill I ran, and ran, and ran. My legs began to burn but that did not matter. I had to get home and see what had happened. As I neared the top of the hill the grass became taller and thicker, making it harder to run through. I began to breathe harder and my ears caught sound of more gunshots getting louder and louder as I got closer. My heart was beating faster and my lungs began to burn as well. I reached the top of the hill and my eyes caught sight of horror.
Black smoke rose into the sky and the clouds glowed orange. Many ti pis’ were burned to the ground or were on fire. I could hear the sound of women and children screaming and crying. Gunshots continued and the blood curdling cries of terror grew closer and louder. I was almost there. I had to get to my wife and child.
As I emerged from the grass fields I saw the men of my own tribe, my own family were being shot and slaughtered, as they protected everyone else. A man on a horse held a sword high above his head. He wore a white cotton mask upon his face. As his eyes looked at me he began to ride towards me. I stayed in place and saw a tomahawk stuck in a dead white man’s chest beside me. I ripped it from his chest and was ready to use it on the bastard who killed my people. He got closer and closer and suddenly my brother Fire Sky came out from a ti pi nearby. I yelled to him “Brother! Behind you!” he turned to see what I was talking about but it wasn't soon enough. As his head turned the white man’s horse rammed into him knocking him to the ground. The horse’s hooves trampled his body; one hove stepping on his neck killing him. The horse tripped over him and fell to the ground. The Whitman got up off the ground and began to point a gun at me. Quickly I strongly gripped the tomahawk and then threw it as hard as I could. My eyes fallowed the ax as it flew through the air and then the blade ripped into the white man’s face between his eyes dropping him to the ground. My breathing began to calm and I furiously stared at his body with anger.
Suddenly I heard a women scream. But this time it wasn't just any woman screaming it was my wife. I sprinted and ripped the ax out of the man’s head as I ran to my home to defend her. Jumping over many dead gory bodies my heart began to tremble. What kind of monsters would do this?
As I ran to my home my eyes could not sustain themselves from looking at the grim scene all around me. Torn, slashed and decapitated bodies of men and women lay all around me as I ran. As I neared my home I could hear the trembling of my own feet as they could not keep up with me. Horses and white men past by all around fading in and out from behind ti pis as I heard the dreaded screams of more women and children. I became dizzy and stopped. The world was spinning and all went silent. My eyes could barley stay open from what I was looking at. A man had all of his limbs including his head torn from his body and the torn carcass laid there next to the body of a very young boy who had been shot twice in the back. My heart had been torn and I felt anger like no other. Who could do this? What monsters were these? These were not men but devils… my heart and tongue thirsted for revenge.
Then all sounds faded back as I heard the scream of my wife. I ran around the corner and entered our ti pi. A white man stood in my house with a knife walking slowly towards my wife. I lifted my ax and repeatedly swung it into his back cutting and slicing through his flesh vigorously. After the tenth strike I ripped it out and dropped it as he fell to the ground. “No one hurts my family!” I said gazing at his body with blind madness. I looked at my wife with sorrow and sadness that she just had to see that. I Walked over and hugged her, Rubbing her stomach to comfort our child.
“We have to leave now!” I said. She nodded and I grabbed her arm leading her out. As we got out I told her to run into the fields and I would meet her out there.
I needed to find a horse so we could escape. She began to run and looked behind me as a man on a horse galloped behind me holding a tomahawk in the air ready to kill me with it. I began to run, and as a maneuver I stopped letting him run right past me. But as the horse rode in front of me I heard a loud and close gunshot and then a bullet shot through the horses front leg and into mine dropping me to the ground in crucial pain with the horse falling on top of me. The horse crushed nearly every bone in my body as I felt them all break. The pain was so intense the most I could do lay was there in silent shock. The man that was on the horse got up and looked at me and then looked at my wife as she ran away from here. I could see it in his eyes now what that man was going to do. He gripped his tomahawk and began to chase after her. All the anger and sadness in me became nearly unbearable, and I let out a gut tearing cry of crushed heart. I could do nothing, I couldn't move anything or say anything or do anything, and all I could do was watch. He tackled her to the ground and began savagely and brutally chopping her with the ax. He struck her over and over and over again. Blood sprayed on the ground and she cried out to me as the evil man killed my wife and unborn child. My heart felt numb as if there was so much pain I could no longer bear to watch it. I would rather just close my eyes and die. He continued to raise the ax and swing it into her back. I looked up by my head and saw a pistol. One of my arms was caught under the horse and the other I couldn't feel anymore. With all the strength left inside of me I lifted my arm out from underneath the horse and reached for the gun. My fingers wrapped around the handle and I aimed at the back of that devil’s head. With a deep breath I pulled the trigger; with all my anger and all my sorrow I shot the bullet straight into his head.
I laid there now helpless. Tears dripped from my eyes. How could anybody do this? How could someone kill an unborn child and its mother? And how could they savagely murder all these people. My eyes gazed into the stars now and I thought again, why? Why did I lose my father? And now this. How could all this, suffering and horror be happening.. Maybe that falling star was my father, warning me because he wasn't warned. I could no longer handle this… This nightmare, this terror. Every bone in my body was broken, I could feel myself choking on my own blood. I took and pointed the gun to my head. I couldn't go on, not like this, not broken, with my whole family and everyone I know and love dead. I would now join my unborn child and its mother and my father and all my other ancestors in the stars. I will now watch with them, over my people; for them I will bleed in the stars if they ever are in danger. I aimed the gun to my head slowly, then put my finger on the trigger and pulled it.