Dances with Wolves

Her family killed by Pawnee and she rescued and adopted by Comanche, the young Christine adopts them wholeheartedly and transforms into the Comanche woman Stands With A Fist. Her name derives from the day when, beleaguered by a bullying woman, she punches her and knocks her out. Her resentment toward Dunbar—or toward any white person who might take her away from her adopted people—transforms into love as she gets to know him. Their love affair is a source both of consternation and admiration among the elders; her feisty determination to be with Dunbar/Dances With Wolves lives up to her name. 

The Comanche band’s medicine man and an accomplished warrior, Kicking Bird displays wisdom, diplomatic skills, and complex intelligence as he navigates the many needs and problems of his village. His task to learn more about the white soldier intrigues and tests him, and he becomes mentor and father figure to Dunbar. Kicking Bird’s relations with others are marked by friendly compassion and helpfulness, and his good character makes him the moral center of the story. 

The youngest elder and “an impulsive but seasoned fighter” (61), Wind In His Hair at first wants to kill the intruder Dunbar, but they impress each other with their courage and good humor and become close friends. Wind In His Hair is the book’s archetypal warrior—brave to a fault, proud, always ready to defend his people, and brimming with insouciant mischief. 

Chief of the Comanche band, the elderly Ten Bears is a wise and steady leader. He and Kicking Bird work smoothly together to manage the affairs of the village. He is puzzled by Dunbar but shares Kicking Bear’s interest in cultivating the white soldier. Ten Bears struggles with the knowledge that the white settlers will soon overrun the buffalo hunting grounds; he fears his hard-earned wisdom and his people’s resources might not be enough to stop the coming invasion. 

An older warrior, Stone Calf teaches Dances With Wolves the fine points of weaponry, especially bows and arrows. The two become close, and, with Wind In His Hair, they form a trio of warrior friends. 

Cisco, a buckskin (tan) horse, is Dunbar’s all-time favorite steed. He discovers the pony during his last battle in the Civil War. Cisco can outrun other horses, including Comanche ponies, and he is loyal to a fault, escaping captors and always returning to Dunbar. Cisco and Dunbar have an uncanny sense of each other and work together as one on the prairie. 

A wolf who befriends Dunbar, Two Socks—named for the white fur on his forepaws—symbolizes the frontier that Dunbar yearns for and its friendly invitation to him. Two Socks becomes a casual resident of Fort Sedgewick and follows Dunbar during his rides on the prairie. It’s while playing with Two Socks that Dunbar gets his Comanche name, Dances With Wolves. The wolf’s death at the hands of Army soldiers underlies for Dances With Wolves the cruelty of his fellow white people. 

The Comanche are buffalo hunters who travel north in the spring from New Mexico and Texas to their summer hunting grounds in Colorado and Kansas. The Comanche band of Chief Ten Bears has about 170 members, works smoothly as a unit, and thrives when the buffalo hunt is bountiful. Already threatened by enemy tribes, the Comanche face a new danger as white settlers begin to pour into their country from the East. 

The principal enemy of the Comanche, the Pawnee make much of their living off the takings from raids against other tribes. They are considered especially cruel and bloodthirsty. A Pawnee war party kills Stands With A Fist’s white family when she is a young girl, and though she is taken in by the Comanche and finds happiness there, she still yearns for revenge against them.