American Indian Stories

The narrator is sitting with her grandmother in their tepee, looking up at the stars. The grandmother explains that in Dakota culture, the stars are believed to represent warriors of the past. The narrator points to one and explains that it represents her grandfather. The grandmother then begins a story about the grandfather.

The story takes place many years ago. The grandfather had a very close friend but, in a fit of anger and jealousy, kills the friend. He returns to his home, where he realizes that he will have to face punishment for his crime. The chieftain insists that the father of the dead man can “choose the mode of torture or taking of life” (74). He decides to lasso a wild pony and make the grandfather ride it a distance through their village. He decrees that if the man makes it the entire way without being thrown off the wild pony, he will be forgiven for his crime. If the pony throws him, however, the man will be put to death.

While the village watches, the man completes the trial without falling from the pony. The mother and father of the murdered man accept the narrator’s grandfather as their son despite his crime.