Hoof bundles

Editor’s Note: This is continued from last week’s Part 1...

I found myself at the center tree now, in Nolan Yellow Kidney’s Sun Dance lodge. I was there wondering why they’d asked me, the newcomer white guy, to help tie up the prayer cloths and leave the tobacco offerings at the base of the tree. With all the people watching I was nervous as I carefully wrapped the many-colored cloths around the aspen trunk. Then, while trying not to cover the photo of a woman’s face that someone had put up, a voice behind me quietly said, “It’s okay, you can cover her up now.” I turned around to find a man si...