There it was, out in the open where Tihi wanted it. Now she must be extra careful. “You are young yet to think of that.”
“I have seen almost nineteen summers.”
“Evelyn has seen only sixteen.”
“So?” Dega said. “You took Father as your husband when you were that age. And Evelyn tells me that among her people many take husbands and wives when they are as young as she and I are.”
“Among her people,” Tihi repeated. He had unwittingly given her the opening she wanted.
“Why do you say it like that?”
“She is white and you are not.”
“So?” Dega said again. “Nate King is married to Winona, a Shoshone. Shakespeare McNair is married to Blue Water Woman, a Flathead. Zach King is half and half, and he has a white wife. What difference does it make that Evelyn looks white and I do not?”
Tihi chose her next words with great care. She didn’t want him angry with her. He must think she shared his fondness for Evelyn, even if she didn’t. “When two hearts are in love, only their love matters.”
“That is how I feel, too.”
“But there is more than just your hearts involved, my son. She is white. You are Nansusequa.” Tihi paused. “Need I mention that our family is all that is left of our people? That the rest of our people were wiped out by whites who sought our land for themselves?”
“I was there, Mother,” Dega said bitterly. “It was the most terrible day of my life. I do not understand why Manitoa deserted us.”
To the Nansusequa, Manitoa was the source of all that was. Their other name for it meant That Which Was In All Things. They revered the Manitoa above all else. Because of that reverence, for untold generations they had striven to live in harmony with all that was around them, and by doing so, be close to That Which Was In All Things. For untold generations they were a peaceful people devoted to one another and their customs. Then, in one brief burst of brutal violence, all that they were and all that they believed had been nearly wiped out by greedy whites.
Only their family escaped. The five of them were the last of their kind, the very last of the Nansusequas.
“Did Manitoa desert us or did we desert Manitoa?” Tihi responded. She’d had a hard time reconciling the tragedy herself. She could still hear the screams and see warriors and women she had known all her life having their brains blown out or their bodies skewered on sharp blades. “But it is not That Which Is In All Things that I have come to talk about.”
“Then what?”
“Our responsibility to those we lost.”
Dega scratched his handsome head in puzzlement. “I am confused,” he confessed.
“As the last of our kind, we owe it to those who fell to live as Nansusequa should.”
“We do that,” Dega said.
“We wear Nansusequa clothes and live in a Nansusequa lodge,” Tihi said. “But what about in here?” She touched her head. “Or in here?” She touched her bosom over her heart.
“We are Nansusequa through and through, as the whites would say,” Dega declared.
“Are we?” Tihi paused for effect, then said, “A Nansusequa does not give his heart to an outsider. Nansusequas only marry Nansusequas.” There. She had said it.
Dega stared at her for the longest while, his face impossible to read. Finally he said, “I cannot believe what I am hearing.”
“Why not?”
“You are saying that you do not want me to feel for Evelyn as I do. You are saying that you do not want the two of us to be together.”
“She is an outsider.”
“The Kings are our friends,” Dega said. “They helped us when no one else would. They gave us a place to live.”
“Nate and Winona do not hate our kind, I will grant them that,” Tihi conceded. “But as friendly as they have been, they are not Nansusequa. As generous as they have been, they are not Nansusequa.”
“It makes no difference to me.”
“It should,” Tihi said. “If you love your people, if you mourn for them every day as I do, then you should want to honor their memory by not giving up their ways.”
“You have thought this all this time?”
Yes, Tihi had, but her husband insisted she not interfere, and until now she had abided by his wishes. “I did not have cause to think about it until you took up with her.”
“I care for Evelyn greatly, Mother.”
To soften the sting, Tihi smiled and ran her hand over his long black hair and caressed his cheek. “I know that, son. It is why I have been reluctant to bring it up. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt your feelings.”
“I care for her greatly,” Dega reiterated.
“Enough to take her for your wife. When will that be?”
“I…” Dega hesitated. “I have not thought that far ahead.”
Tihi felt a twinge of anger. Not at him, at Evelyn King. For he was plainly lying to protect Evelyn, and she could count the number of times that he had lied to her on one hand and have fingers left. “Let us talk that far ahead, if you do not mind.”
“I always do as you say,” Dega said, but he did not sound happy about it.
Tihi’s anger climbed, but she kept her self-control. “Let us say that Evelyn and you continue to see each other. Let us say there comes a time when you think that you love her and she thinks that she loves you.”
“It will not be because we
“Of course. My mistake. And when that time comes, you will naturally want her to be yours and she will naturally want you to be hers. So let us say that you become husband and wife. What then?”
Dega appeared puzzled. “We would live as Father and you do.”
“Will you come live with us?”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Tihi said. “It is Nansuseqea custom for a man to bring his new wife to live in the lodge of his father and mother. If you take Evelyn King for your wife, will she come live in our lodge?”
“I do not know if she would like that.”
“Have you asked her?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It has not come up.”
“All right. Let us put that aside for the moment.” Tihi went on smiling to show her forbearance. “One day you will have children. How will you raise them?”
“As Father and you raised me.”
“As Nansusequas? Or as white? Evelyn’s mother is Shoshone, but Evelyn prefers white ways to Shoshone ways.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Dega said.
“You should. How your children will be brought up is important. Will you raise them as whites so they never know their Nansusequa heritage? Or will you raise them as your father and I raised you and your sisters, as true People of the Forest?”
Dega put his elbows on his knees and his chin his hands. “There is more to marrying her than I imagined.”
“I am happy you see that. It is why I brought it up.” Tihi shammed interest in a bald eagle soaring above distant peaks. “We are the last of our kind, my son. Once we are gone, the Nansusequa are gone. Unless…” She rubbed his shoulder. “Unless you and your sisters raise your children in the Nansusequa way, and their children after them.”
“Speak plainly, Mother. Are you against me marrying Evelyn?”
