Theodora
by Daniel
G.
Snethen
It'd been several years
since I had her in class.
Nine babies later,
six by C-section,
she was pursuing
her Master’s degree in science
from Oglala Lakota College.
I taught her two sisters
and her brother.
Her Unci (grandmother),
was once my administrator.
whom I was elated to see
two weeks ago,
at Little Wound High School's
Graduation ceremony.
Last time I'd seen Unci Peggy
at Taopi Cikala Owayawa,
was when Gaka Russell's ashes
were transported by young AIM
warriors in a satchel upon horseback.
Leonard prayed over them—
later they were spread
in the seven directions—
from Grandmother Earth to Russell's
cosmic ancestors beyond the Milky Way.
Wanbli, an eagle, soared overhead,
as the wailing prayers
of the Wakan Wiyans
rose up over Paha Sapa through
the Turnip Hole into the darkling sky.
I remember when my student's mother
described to me, how as a little girl,
she crawled in terror, along the floor
of her trailer while bullets, ripping through
aluminum walls whizzed above her head.
The Seventies were her Armageddon.
The last thing my former student confided
in me, sounded absolutely incredulous—
nearly made me gasp. Her grandfather was
among the last of the Mohicans:
this I already knew. But her husband,
her husband—was Ira Hayes, of course he
was.
Daniel G. Snethen is an educator, naturalist,
moviemaker, poet, and short story writer from South Dakota. He teaches on the
Pine Ridge Reservation at Little Wound High School in the heart of Indian
Country.
