Dances with Wolves

Dunbar notes in his journal his interaction with the Comanche: “The man I encountered was a magnificent-looking fellow” (56). He prepares the fort the best he can against possible future attacks from locals. He buries most of his provisions, some in the old caves where the cavalrymen used to live, some around the fort or out on the prairie, setting up markers that hint only to him their true locations. He wears his uniform at all times, flies US flags above the buildings, and limits his daily rides to short surveys within eyesight of the fort.

Kicking Bird at first mentions his encounter with “The Man Who Shines Like Snow” to no one (58). It takes him days to decide that what he saw wasn’t a hallucination. Chief Ten Bears notices the subtle change in Kicking Bird and, over tobacco pipes, gently teases out the story.

Ten Bears retires to his lodge and thinks hard about the strange naked man seen by Kicking Bird. Ten Bears calls a council of elders, who spend several hours that evening considering options. Wind In His Hair, the capable, if impulsive, youngest elder, wants to shoot arrows into the mystery man to see if he is a god or a human. Others caution that this might draw more white men into the region. Horn Bull suggests sending a delegation, but Wind In His Hair retorts that Comanche warriors do not parlay politely with one lone stranger. They reach no decision and retire for the night.

Horn Bull’s teenage son overhears his father talking about the stranger and the beautiful horse at the fort. He convinces two friends to ride with him in the dark to steal the horse. They grab Cisco, and Horn Bull’s son rides him away. Dunbar hears a commotion outside and finds, to his fury, that Cisco has been taken. A couple of miles out, Cisco throws Horn Bull’s son and gallops back to the fort. Dunbar welcomes him back with relief. Horn Bull’s son’s arm is broken, and the boys must confess their escapade. The elders question them closely; Cisco’s defiant escape bothers them. They call another council. 

One of the Comanche, the woman Stands With A Fist, dreads that the white men will someday come and take her away from her band. She knows, from the old days, that the fort’s naked man isn’t a god, but he’s white, and this terrifies her. She also worries about her husband, who is good to her: A month ago, he took a war party to fight the Utes. Taken as a girl by the Comanche, and now 26, Stands With A Fist is happy among her tribe and wants nothing to interfere with that. She hardly remembers her old name, Christine. She is a white woman. 

Once again, the council remains undecided about the naked white man. Wind In His Hair, as a respected warrior, “could do as he pleased” (71), and he gathers four other men who join him on a ride to the fort to steal the white man’s horse.

Dunbar, who has been sleeping in the afternoon and standing guard at night, bathes in the river near sunset when the Comanche arrive. Again naked, he grabs his revolver, but the Comanche are already riding off with Cisco. Wind In His Hair hangs back, curious about the white man and the threat he might represent to the Comanche.

He charges Dunbar, who, transfixed, remains standing in place. Wind In His Hair pulls up short, unsettled by Dunbar’s motionless presence. Wind In His Hair calls out his own name and declares that he is not afraid. Dunbar says nothing. Satisfied, Wind In His Hair turns his pony and gallops away. Alone again and suddenly exhausted, Dunbar squats down. Finally he stumbles back to his hut and falls asleep.

Two miles out, Cisco again makes his escape, throwing the rider who holds his lead line. Two more men are thrown trying to catch Cisco, and one horse breaks a leg. Wind In His Hair gives up the chase and watches Cisco gallop off toward the fort. The men straggle back to camp empty-handed. 

The war party led by Stands With A Fist’s husband finally returns. Six warriors are dead, four wounded—three will die later—and Stands With A Fist’s husband’s body could not be recovered. Devastated, Stands With A Fist sits with her grief for hours, then tries to kill herself with a knife, but her women friends stop her just in time, deflecting the blade so that it pierces only her arm. For a long time, they take turns holding her as she sobs. Finally, she sleeps.

Cisco’s return wakens Dunbar. He emerges cautiously into the early evening and watches the full moon rise. Its magnificence, and his recent encounter with the Comanche, recharge his mind, and he decides no longer to wait for events but to take action.

Stands With A Fist awakens the next morning to the watching eyes of her women friends. She feels embarrassed at the un-Comanche-like way in which she’d tried to take her life. She realizes that she must take a short journey to mourn properly for her husband. Her friends braid her hair and dress her in finery. She mounts a pony and rides off into the prairie.

Stands With A Fist rides until she finds a small hillock surmounted by an old oak tree. She sits on the side of the hill and sings of her dead husband and his bravery and kindness, including a refrain: “He was a great man, He was great to me” (89). As she sings, she makes cuts in her forearm with a knife. The cuts bleed strongly; she grows faint. She cuts her leg as well, but too deeply, and blood gushes out with every heartbeat. She decides to keep singing, and waits to die.

Dunbar prepares to ride out and meet the Comanche. He combs Cisco and trims the hooves. He prepares a post as a pole for an American flag. He shines up his buckskin coat, cleans his dress uniform, polishes his knee boots, bathes and shaves, dons his uniform, mounts Cisco, and rides toward the hills where he’d seen the campfire smoke.

Dunbar approaches the oak hillock, hoping to take a sighting from there. He hears singing and finds a woman sitting there: “He had never seen a woman who looked so original” (91). She turns and stares at the soldier dressed in shining clothes. She backs away from him. He sees the blood covering her and jumps down to investigate. He catches up with her; she fights him weakly, saying, “Don’t.” It surprises both of them. She loses consciousness.

Dunbar works hard to save her, tearing a strip from his flag and tying it around her leg as a tourniquet. He removes his underwear, tears it in half, and uses part as a compress, and, later, the other part as a dressing. He tears more strips from the flag to hold firm the compress. He places the semi-conscious woman on Cisco, jumps up with her, and they ride toward the Comanche camp. Somehow, during the ride, Stands With A Fist feels safe, and she keeps her eyes closed so as not to disturb this warm feeling. 

Twelve-year-old Smiles A Lot dislikes work but loves horses, so he always volunteers to watch over the ponies. Though only a boy, he knows more about horses and their care than most men. While tending them, he spies a white soldier on a horse trotting toward the village. With the soldier is Stands With A Fist. Too late to alert the village, Smiles A Lot mounts one of the ponies and gallops off, looking for signs of more soldiers.

Dunbar rides toward the Comanche village with Stands With A Fist on his lap. At a rise, he looks down at the village, its dozens of cone-shaped tents arrayed next to a stream, people working and talking. Dunbar feels awe: “This, without his knowing it before, was what he had yearned to see” (99).

A villager cries out, “White soldier,” and warriors pour out of tents and run for their horses. Feeling like an invader, Dunbar dismounts, carries Stands With A Fist forward a few feet, stops, and waits. The entire band of Comanche, men, women, and children, surround him. Wind In His Hair stares intensely at Dunbar, who raises the injured woman toward the warrior. Wind In His Hair walks forward, grabs Stands With A Fist, and hauls her roughly back to the crowd, which quickly encircles him.

Dunbar, alone and ignored, feels a shock of disappointment. His dream of meeting these people dashed, he mounts Cisco and rides away. On the way back to the fort, Dunbar’s tears flow uncontrollably; he sobs, his heart broken. At the fort, Dunbar tosses some hay for Cisco, carves a hunk of bacon, and sets it out for Two Socks—who watches from the bluff across the river—and collapses into bed. 

Ten Bears, impressed by the bravery and generosity of the soldier who brought Stands With A Fist back to them, believes this is a good omen. He also is convinced that the soldier is a high-ranking white man. He must be investigated. He calls a council and says as much, choosing as emissaries Kicking Bird “for his powers of observation” and Wind In His Hair “for his aggressive nature” (107). Stands With A Fist awakens briefly inside Kicking Bird’s tent during a thunderstorm. She feels her leg wound and finds it sewn up.

At the fort, Dunbar sleeps through the storm and awakens to the sweet smell of the freshly washed prairie. Two Socks is lying under the awning but backs away when Dunbar gets up. Cisco whinnies, and Dunbar looks up to see, 100 yards away, eight men on horseback. Two Socks runs off. Two of the men, Wind In His Hair and Kicking Bird, ride slowly toward Dunbar. They halt a dozen feet from the lieutenant.

Slowly, Dunbar bows and salutes them; Kicking Bird returns the favor with a hand motion. Dunbar gestures for them to sit with him; they do so, and he lights a fire in the nearby pit, retrieves coffee beans and the grinder from the storage hut, and begins to grind the beans. This intrigues his guests greatly. He serves them cups of coffee, and they taste it, but it’s much too strong for them. Through gestures and signs, Dunbar figures out what they want, gets up, and brings back a sack of sugar. His guests are pleased.

They teach Dunbar their names, and they appreciate Dunbar’s attempts to memorize them. His name sounds to them like “Loo Ten Nant” (115). Dunbar pantomimes a buffalo, which makes Wind In His Hair laugh. Despite the language barrier, the meeting goes well. Dunbar gives them a sack of coffee beans and one of sugar; the guests give Dunbar a buffalo robe. The Comanche take their leave.

Now that he and the Comanche have had a successful and friendly meeting, Dunbar is ecstatic: “He was no longer alone” (117). 

After two more meetings, Dunbar writes in his journal that the fiercest Comanche is impressive and must be a formidable warrior. Dunbar especially likes the quieter, more inquisitive visitor, who seems to notice everything, even the nearby bird calls. He and Dunbar have taught each other a few words from their respective languages.

At one point, Dunbar makes a show of tossing some meat across the river to Two Socks, who retrieves it; Kicking Bird is impressed and puts his hand on Dunbar’s shoulder in a gesture of respect. Through signs, the visitors invite Dunbar to come to their camp the following day.

Dunbar visits the Comanche, who greet him in their best finery. Dunbar is overwhelmed by the details of the place. Kicking Bird takes him to his tent, which smells pleasantly of smoke and meat. Two women bring them food and, gathering up several children, depart. Later, the men walk to another tent, where a group of elders awaits. Among them is Ten Bears, whose powerful bearing and creased face impress Dunbar. The elders share a pipe of very strong tobacco; Dunbar lights a cigarette and offers it to the chief, who tries it, then tosses it aside with a comment that draws laughter from the elders.

Dunbar is led away and bid goodbye; he’s not sure if the meeting went well, but he looks forward to another one, and hopes that his “negotiations” will bear fruit in preparation for a time when more soldiers arrive at the fort.