Old indian: the white man called them buffalo.
We call them tatanka, the majestic ones.
Their story is the story of our people.
Tatanka lived in the underworld
Until he saw our people in a vision.
He saw that we were needy.
And for the love of us, tatanka came up out of the earth
And became flesh so that we could eat,
Make our clothes and our dwellings from his hide.
[Speaking lakota language]
He called us the buffalo nation.
Soaring eagle, a medicine man,
Could not accept the terrible vision of growling bear,
The buffalo would disappear,
And the lakota would live in square houses.
Man: I suppose the best place to begin our family's story
Is with grandsire abraham.
Many was the time as a boy I listened to his tale
Of how a cannon subtracted a leg at the battle of yorktown.
I'd have wagered both mine to see what he saw.
My misfortune was to be born in a drab age
And to have lived in the stifle of a barn
Where a man was only as good as the things he crafted.
Wheelwrights we were, going back to the time when they invented the damn thing.
Wheelers made wheels,
But in my day, we'd seen the wheels made the wheelers.
All the long day, I lived in my books,
And by night, I dreamed of a better life
Beyond the mississippi.
Morning, enoch. Hi, papa. How are you?
Good. Good.
Nathan. Mornin'. - Nathan.
Now, that is a thing of beauty.
Man: anybody see jacob?
Jacob? Jacob?
At your age, I was repairing cannon wheels at valley forge.
At least you got to see a bit of the world, sir.
That was the war. We had no choice.
Thank god you live in a time of peace. Yes, sir.
Apply yourself to the anvil, and you're set for life.
It takes 10 years to make a journeyman wheelwright.
Another 10 for master. You'll never lack for work.
They need wheels in time of peace,
They need wheels in time of--
Don't you sass me, young man! Yes, sir.
You boys knock off for lunch now.
Except jacob. You already had yours.
[Laughter]
Plow horse needs shoeing out there.
Good morning. Who do I see about replacing a rifle cock?
That'd be me, sir.
If I may, sir, how'd you come by that scar?
Difference of opinion with a cheyenne warrior.
Savage thought my scalp
Might look better hanging from his belt,
But I favored where god put it.
But then I fancied his locks on my belt.
May I?
Sure.
My goodness. What in the sam hill is that?
Ho. Sacred.
Grizzly...
on its hind legs,
About where that first rafter starts.
Goodness gracious. Must be hell out there.
It's more like the garden of eden, son.
Come across some tribes'll give you the girls.
You got mountains covered with snow in summer
And forests that go on forever,
Rivers that you can't hardly see across.
Sometimes you wait half a day
For a buffalo herd to run past.
Big shaggy beasts. 3 times a horse.
Horizon to horizon.
And the pacific, unsullied by human hands,
As it was on the eighth day of the world.
See if that'll work for ya.
Thank you.
Did you finish shoein' that plow horse like I told ya?
Fine young man you got here.
If he doesn't get knocked into a cocked hat first.
And you let the fire burn down, too.
We could've turned out another wheel before the end of the day,
But not now.
Think you can put a sharper edge on this for me?
Yes, sir.
Is that...human blood?
Arkansas toothpick ain't for cuttin' your steak.
So where are you headed, sir?
St. Louis to meet up with mr. Jedediah smith.
The jedediah smith?
God made only one of him for all of us to look up to.
Who's that?
Mr. Smith opened up the deep west for trappers.
Lookin' for a few good mountain men to explore the beaver populations
Around the great salt lake.
How much can a man make off a beaver?
They keep buyin' beaver hats in london and paris,
Upwards to 4,000 or 5,000 a year.
It's time for you to get back to work now,
All of ya.
5,000.
Oh, now, margaret, that is a fine-Looking goose.
Do you believe that beaver story?
Jacob: sunday dinner was another form of labor with my father and nick...
my mother margaret... say grace first.
My brothers ezra, nathan, and jethro.
Abraham: for what we are about to receive...
grandfather abraham presided over the ritual with grandmother hannah.
The wheelers pounded iron 6 days a week,
But on the seventh, we pounded each other.
President adams is saying to europe,
"Keep out. It's all ours."
It needs another jefferson to take it all.
But isn't the west just one vast desert?
That's a common untruth, mama.
West is all kinds of terrain.
It's a veritable garden of eden.
Yes. Jacob's just returned from the west wing of the house.
[Laughter]
Jacob, in fact, has yet to discover the western side of the barn.
[All laugh]
Jacob: as with all rituals, nothing ever much changed.
Until that sunday, when I looked around the table
And said my silent good-Bye to each and every wheeler.
Old indian: heyoka, the clown,
Tried to lift their spirits
After growling bear's dark vision.
For the boy, white feather, there were only questions.
He sought answers among his family.
White feather was determined to discover the meaning
Of growling bear's vision
And if the future it predicted could be changed.
White feather did not have words to match
What he knew to be true.
But he knew that a vision was a dangerous thing.
He knew a vision could kill a man.
Jacob! Jacob!
You hold up!
Hyah.
Jacob! Jacob! Jacob! Jacob!
Hyah.
Jacob. Jacob.
Jacob, wait. Hyah!
Hyah! Jacob! Jacob!
Hyah, hyah, hyah!
Wait.
What do you figure?
Just run out and not tell nobody, hope your fool scheme works out?
I don't expect mr. Smith and mr. Fletcher are gonna tarry long in st. Louis.
And ma and pa-- What do we tell them?
Tell 'em I love 'em. I ain't got time to lose.
I made my last wheeling wheel.
Why would a frontiersman accommodate you?
Ask and you shall receive.
Mr. Eternal optimist.
Nathan, I thought you had more enterprise in ya.
Jethro, you always been a blade of grass bends with the wind.
[Whinnies]
Wait up. No.
You'll be the first wheelers to give up the trade.
You'll stay behind and pound on dead iron till you become dead as iron.
Ah...
come on, jethro. Now or never.
Aw, come on.
Hyah! Hyah!
Yahoo!
[Drums beating]
[Woman signing in lakota language]
Old indian: white feather could not accept
Growling bear's vision that the buffalo would not return.
A ceremony was performed.
The people danced to give gratitude to tatanka
And pray that he would live again and again
In the great circle of life.
[Men and women singing in lakota language]
[Shouting and whooping]
To lead the buffalo to the jump
Was to taunt death.
White feather knew that his brothers,
Dostar and running fox,
Were chosen for their ability and courage.
He was proud of them,
But afraid also.
Old indian: tatanka spared the boy,
So on the day the boy's mother was put to rest
White feather was renamed loved by the buffalo,
And all agreed that he had been called to walk the road
Of the medicine man.
Old indian: and so loved by the buffalo
Took no food or drink in 4 days.
He cleansed his body and mind to open his spirit
For a vision to enter.
Hey.
Let's stash the horses over there.
Wait till dark.
Oh! Mmm!
What the--Hey!
Hey, get your black hands off of me!
Let go of him!
When you let go of me, when you let go of me!
You're dead as mutton if you don't.
And so is your friend.
All right, I'm gonna let go. Let go.
Who's in there?
You answer me, by god!
Just a couple of hungry boys out for some eggs, sir.
How many are you?
Just two of us in here stealing eggs, sir.
Regret to say the wolf in our stomachs
Overcame our god-Fearing souls.
Well, you only had to knock on my door
To discover christian charity.
Had your fill of eggs to boot.
We only took enough to keep the wolf at bay, sir.
Well, go on. Take a few.
I had my hopes up.
What with a big reward for a runaway slave.
You don't say. How much is that reward?
100 silver dollars.
Sir, with your permission, we'll be on our way.
What about the--
Nathan, let the good christian man go back to his warm bed.
Thank you. Thank you heartily, sir.
God bless, boys.
What objection do you have to 100 silver dollars
When the only thing that stands between
Us and ruination is $7.00?
Man kept his word, nathan. I intend to keep mine.
What man? He's a runaway. That money's mine.
Not with my rifle! Unh!
Poor as job's turkey, you won't even bend down
To pick up $100 just laying on the ground.
Man's gotta draw a line somewhere, nathan.
He did the honorable thing.
You're a damn dreamer.
Let go, nathan. No!
Who made you captain of this enterprise, huh?
[Gunshot]
You won't be alive when I catch you, boy!
There goes our 100 silver dollars.
[Escaped slave laughing]
Damn you, jacob.
Stop running!
Ha ha ha! Not soon, farmer boy! See you!
Jaco we'd been in st. Louis
Long enough to see the sights and then some,
But it took us more than a fortnight longer
To find what we'd come for.
Mr. Fletcher.
Jacob wheeler. You remember my brother nathan?
Yeah, I remember.
You said you needed men, sir.
Heh heh heh! Oh.
Yeah, I said I needed men.
Mountain men.
Well, we'll pull our weight, sir.
Do you suppose you could introduce us to mr. Smith?
We've surely come a long way.
St. Louis is raining mountain men,
Jacob, my boy, nathan.
Seasoned men.
Men more indian than white. Heh!
Men who can speak apache,
Cheyenne, mexican.
Nathan, hold on.
I'm sorry, jacob, maybe next time.
[Steam whistle blows]
Where the hell you been?
[Money jingling]
St. Louis loves the brothers wheeler.
I couldn't lose a hand.
10 times I tried to quit, 10 times they made me stay.
I have won this.
This is an escritura. That's spanish for deed."
I won that at poker, too.
It's a mere 100 acres in tejas.
You, 25. Me, 75.
What do you say about that, brother jacob?
Tejas ain't even in the united states, nathan.
So what?
Well, they don't speak english and their catholics.
We have 100 acres, son, who cares?
I've made up my mind. I'm going with jedediah smith.
You see that furry creature?
That's the kind of man jedediah smith wants.
But who cares beans? We found our fortune in tejas.
I want to see the pacific ocean.
And then what? I don't know.
I've got a bird in the hand in tejas.
You're after the will o' the wisp out west
With adventurers and criminals.
Well, I say we stick together.
Yeah, well, why should I stick with you?
There's a reason why our father gave you the grunt work
And me the precise measurements of wheelmaking.
It's 'cause you never had a head except for dreaming,
And here you go again.
Are you coming or not?
Jacob: I thought of our mother
Vexed by her perfidious sons,
Always consoling herself with the notion that we had each other,
But we didn't allow her even that much comfort.
I'll be leaving from the steamboat within the hour
If you change your mind.
Nathan went south, and I went west.
I put my best foot forward
And bought a new old suit of clothes
For the occasion of meeting the great jedediah smith.
It was not easy mr. Smith
Because he endeavored to stay upwind of me.
And then suddenly he stood in front of me.
Jacob: well, sir, I just want to see
What no white man has ever seen before.
And if a horse throws a shoe, I'm a first rate ferrier.
Been at it since I could pick up a hammer.
Can you shoot?
Why, sir, I'm a hunter. This is my rifle.
Exactly what kind of game do you hunt?
Rabbits and deer, sir.
You ever kill a man?
No, sir.
I admire your spirit, boy,
But only the best of the best will be chosen.
So you go on home. Nobody here'll think the worst of you.
Maybe next time around.
With all due respect, sir, you ever kill man?
My friend, mr. Smith cannot count
The savages that fell to his hands.
Well, you know what? It's pretty easy
To kill a savage out to scalp you.
But you ever hunt down an innocent rabbit, done you no harm,
Cut it down in cold blood and eat it?
[All chuckling]
Jacob: nobody in wheelerton would've believed
That I was riding with a legend.
Hearty as buck, a crack shot,
A walking encyclopedia of indians and their strange habits.
Mr. Smith was like no man I ever knew,
And I would never be the same.
Old indian: the buffalo jumpers, running fox and dog star,
Had their eyes on two sisters,
But had to prove themselves to a more dangerous opponent
Than stampeding buffalo.
A small skinned rabbit
Did not impress the girls' protective father.
[Speaking lakota]
[Giggling]
Old indian: two brothers married two sisters
And walked the path of old tradition.
[Infant crying]
[Chanting]
Loved by the buffalo studied the power of plants,
Of roots, and herbs.
He learned how to cure the body and the spirit
Using songs and ceremonies.
[Moaning] [drum playing]
[Coughing]
[Groaning]
[Drum stops]
Old indian: but the holy man did not know all the powers
The boy was given.
[Groans]
[Gagging]
Loved by the buffalo discovered he had the power
To take another's pain upon himself.
He knew the power was not his own,
But that of wakan tanka.
Watch this.
See?
[Speaking lakota]
Now watch this.
See? [Speaking lakota]
Pot.
Old indian: thunder heart woman would carry the medicine wheel
That growling bear gave to her brother.
In it she would keep her family
And her memories,
And that gave her comfort.
[Whooping]
Jacob: days passed into months
Until I lost track of time altogether.
Riding with mr. Smith,
I saw the grandeur and majesty of the west
As few white men had ever seen it.
Mr. Fletcher, is that path passable?
Fletcher: that path ain't even jackassable.
[Men laughing]
Jacob: everywhere I looked
I saw treasures of immeasurable beauty,
And I longed for my brothers to share them.
[Growling]
Get back.
Give me some room.
Shoot him!
Aah!
[Bear growling weakly]
Praise the lord for providing our supper tonight.
Amen. Amen.
Praise the lord.
Put me down there, boys.
Fetch my bag, mr. Wheeler.
Aah!
Jacob: what do you need from it, sir?
Here we go.
Put my scalp, mr. Wheeler.
Yes, sir.
Thread the needle...
sew it back on, son.
Go ahead.
Sir, I ain't never done nothing like that before.
Neither have I, son.
Uh, perhaps mr. Fletcher could--
I gave you an order, boy.
Thread that needle and sew my scalp back on.
Yes, sir.
Isn't this gonna hurt, sir?
I believe it will, son.
But I think it'll hurt the person being sewed
More than the sewer.
[Men chuckling]
Mr. Fletcher?
Yeah?
Fetch my bible, please.
Hold still, sir.
Thank you kindly.
[Whispering]
Unh! Oh, goodness.
I'm sorry it hurts you so much, son.
That's right, darling.
Stretch 'em nice, you get a good price.
Old indian: loved by the buffalo
Began to walk the path of a holy man.
The way was long and dangerous,
But for one who communes with wakan tanka,
Many things are possible.
[Grunting]
In the medicine wheel, loved by the buffalo
Learned the mysterious realities of life.
He saw the sun and moon and seasons come and go
In a circle.
He saw that all true power moved in a circle.
Jacob: when we descended from the high sierras,
We came across a friendly tribe.
They called themselves mohave:
The people who live along the river.
And they called us beaver-Eaters.
Mr. Smith purchased horses
To replace those we consumed.
One blanket, 2 knives.
A gift.
[Speaking mohave]
Thank you.
Maricopa.
Mohave man: maricopa.
Ohh!
Maricopa... is just dandy.
Dandy.
Dandy. Maricopa.
[Men laughing]
Ha ha ha ha ha!
[Giggling]
Fletcher: women!
[Indistinct chatter]
Very dandy.
Dandy.
Man: maricopa.
Want some maricopa?
Ohh, you are a most unusual young man.
Afraid not, sir.
Well, there they are down there.
What are you doing up here?
Seems like there was this tiny jedediah smith
Standing on my shoulder,
Telling me to come up here with you.
I want to be like you, sir.
Much obliged, son.
You do me great honor.
Ah, but you see, sir,
I'm just an ape of jedediah smith.
I want to be like you.
I really want to be like you,
But there's a part of me that I feel inside--
I want to be back down there with them.
What does that make me?
Makes you a human being.
Just like the rest of us.
Are you tempted, too, sir?
Come over here. Sit down, boy.
Come over here.
Jacob...
we're as human as the least of 'em down there,
But we're also more than that.
"As a man thinketh, so he is. "
What do you think you are?
The lord fashioned us
A little above the beast,
A little below the angels,
But he gave us the choice.
And it's great, son.
Some of these men, they come west,
They lose their souls.
West is a place on the map,
Not a way to live.
Don't forget that.
A man has to know his own mind.
You might begin your own journal.
Lebeck, whispering: crow.
[Owl hooting]
[Cocks gun]
[Door creaking]
[Arrow thwaps]
Unh!
[Arrow thwaps, baby crying]
[Thunder heart woman screaming]
[Baby screaming]
Baby! Baby!
[Thunder heart woman screaming]
[Men chuckling]
Buenas dias.
[Speaking spanish]
He says that we are his prisoners.
Tell him that maybe it escaped his notice
That he's outnumbered 3 to 1.
[Speaking spanish]
He said he would arrest us if there was 1,000 of us.
[Speaking spanish]
Dismount!
They're gonna take you to the governor.
All right, fletcher, you look after the men.
Jacob: the captain took mr. Smith away...
"to make the governor's acquaintance," he said.
Under ordinary circumstances,
We might've welcomed the hospitality of the san gabriel padres,
But there was no mistaking the fact that we were prisoners.
Jacob: our time among the mohave was to cost us both dearly.
The soldados wanted to set an example.
It didn't matter to them if the men they brought in as horse thieves
Were innocent or guilty.
Indians were indians.
It was a powerful trial to watch the sun set day after day
Over the horizon I had sacrificed home and family to reach.
Whether any of us would live to see the wide ocean
That had been the object of our expedition
Now depended on mr. Smith.
Gentlemen.
Mr. Smith.
Gentlemen, gather around. I got some news for you.
Where you been?
The governor has given us
Most generous but strict instructions.
We must depart as we came
And never return on pain of death.
Jacob: we were forced to return east.
I looked back and made myself a solemn promise
That one day I would see california again.
Old indian: loved by the buffalo knew
That a vision from wakan tanka
Would direct the course of his life.
[Drums, chanting continue]
[Men whooping]
Old indian: white buffalo woman brought us the sacred ceremonies
So that we could ask for help in our troubles
And give thanks for the gifts from wakan tanka.
She taught us the sun dance.
[Chanting intensifies]
[Blowing whistle]
[Tweet]
Jacob: once we drank maricopa with the mohave
And shared their women.
But after we had left them, a party of beaver-Eaters
Had attacked their village and left it in flames.
Now we were forced to run for our lives.
Aah!
[Gunfire continues]
Move. Move, jake, come on.
[Mohave whooping]
There. Get in.
Hurry up.
You ok?
Hey, you all right?
Fletcher: stay low.
Smith: fire!
Bully for you, young man.
That should hold 'em off for a while.
Mr. Fletcher.
Yeah.
The smoke is drifting.
What does that mean?
It means there's a way out of here.
[Coughing]
I got a pang tellin' me
It's time to hang up the fiddle.
Listen, you two just follow the smoke,
And I'll--I'll keep our friends amused.
Ok? Jacob, bring me my gun.
Thank you.
[Coughing]
Whoa.
Listen, jacob,
I want you to have that.
No use a mohave getting it.
They won't appreciate it.
Learn to use it, son.
Things can get pretty personal...
[strained] out west.
Thank you, mr. Fletcher.
Jacob, light!
Jim.
Yeah.
You're a man of unfailing rectitude.
Remember me...
to all the boys at the rendezvous.
Now get gone.
Get gone.
[Whooping]
Aah!
[Gunshot]
[Drums continue]
[Screeches]
[Tweet]
[Bird screeches]
[Chanting continues]
[Tweet]
Jacob: mr. Smith, I can't do this.
Of course you can.
It vents.
[Chanting, drums continue]
[Blows whistle]
Jacob: now I'm stuck. Now I'm stuck.
I can't do this! I don't wanna die like this!
Oh, god! No!
Smith: jacob!
Old indian: the dancer stares into the sun,
Sun-Up to sundown,
Moving with the sun, dancing,
Tugging at his tether,
Pulling, twisting,
Trying to tear the skewer through his skin.
And when he sets himself free,
He is reborn to the world.
He lays on a bed of sage
And recites his vision to the holy man.
Jacob: if we never found this cave, it would be over.
Unh!
But in here like this, we'll die by inches
And nobody will ever hear from us again
Or know what happened.
The lord revealed the cave
As he sent a fish to save jonah.
Jonah was drowning.
I don't need a sermon when I'm so afeard!
"The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom."
And take hold my boot, move with me!
The fish swallowed up jonah.
Jonah did not know it was god
Who sent the fish to save him.
[Blows whistle]
And jonah cried out to the lord
From the belly of the beast,
"Lord, I do not want to die like this!"
Now let us pray jonah's prayer.
"I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the lord,
"And he heard me.
Out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice."
Now repeat after me, jacob.
"But I will sacrifice unto thee..."
Jacob: "I will sacrifice unto thee..."
"With a song of thanksgiving..."
Thanksgiving!
"Salvation is of the lord."
Unh! "Salvation is of the lord."
[Jacob laughing]
[Chanting continues]
[Both sighing]
Old indian: loved by the buffalo had seen
How a vision could kill its seeker.
Now he, too, had a terrible revelation.
The sickness of the spotted face came to the lakota.
Some believed it came from the white man.
Some were not as certain.
When loved by the buffalo fell ill,
Soaring eagle told the people
It was loved by the buffalo that brought the pox to them.
He told them to send the boy away,
And only then would the sickness leave.
But deep inside his dark thoughts,
He hoped the sickness would take the boy.
Old indian: growling bear made a song to fight the sickness.
He gave it to loved by the buffalo
To cure his brother running fox and any who believed.
Mr. Smith and I
Had stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale.
We'd said our good-Byes and gone our separate ways.
So I decided to attend the rendezvous
That mr. Fletcher had spoken of with such fondness.
Rob any chicken coops lately?
Ben franklin.
Jacob wheeler! Ain't this some pumpkins!
Look at ya!
Look at you! Where in the sam hill you been?
I been all over. Ha ha! Come here!
Ha ha ha!
I remember. I remember.
I never forget that.
I been treed by grizzly bears and tracked by blackfeet,
But I never was so scared
As when I heard that farmer tell you about a reward
For a runaway slave. No, sir! Ha ha!
I sat in that coop waitin' for you to give me up.
Mm. Sho' enough...
you never did.
I thought about that every day since.
I wanted to give you a hundred beaver pelts
As a token of my thanks.
Man: come on, join us over here for a drink!
Whiskey's just fine.
Mountain man: yeah!
We've got a young lakota girl.
Her name...
is thunder heart woman.
She cooks and...
she knows the fur trade.
[Laughter]
And...she speaks good english!
[Murmuring]
She's pleasant and agreeable.
[Laughter]
Well, sometimes!
[Laughter]
Bidding starts at $100.
100!
Johnny fox: what we got here?
Look here!
[Slurp]
Looks like love at first sight to me!
Mountain man: I see my old friend johnny fox
Survived another year in the sierra nevada!
All right, boys. Anyone else in the biddin' here?
200.
Johnny: who's the greenhorn?
300.
4.
What you doing?
Ben, you better talk to your friend.
What was you thinkin'?
Johnny fox can whips your weight in wildcats.
You tryin' to buy a sister, peach fuzz?
You even know what to do with her?
[Laughter]
I'm gonna set her free and send her back to her people.
Men: whoa!
Sets her free? Why?
You of all people know why.
I thought different, you'd be back on that plantation.
You backin' down?
Not for flapjacks or french ladies.
Then it's rifles at 20 paces.
Hah!
[Excited chatter]
There you go!
Look what you done got yourself into now.
Come on, little coward. Come on.
Now, you keep on the move,
Even when reloading.
Make yourself small.
Get on it, lad.
You still stand back-To-Back with unloaded rifles.
And after 10 paces,
Well...anything goes.
[Thunder heart woman chants]
Mountain man: 1...
2...
3, 4...
5, 6...
7, 8,
9, 10!
[Men shouting]
[Thunder heart woman chants]
Now, jacob!
Run!
Come on, jacob.
Now, jacob, now!
Aah!
[Cheering]
You want more? Got your ear!
Get up!
Shoot him, jacob!
To hell with him!
Come on!
Move, jacob!
Time to go home, little boy.
Time to go back to mama!
[Laughter, shouting]
Hey, hey!
Thunder heart woman!
Get ready to feel some of johnny fox's lightning.
[Laughter]
Ha ha ha.
Come on, johnny!
[Shouting and jeering subsides]
[Johnny exhales] ohh...
mountain man: ha ha ha ha ha!
Sold, boys!
[Cheering]
We must... take out metal.
Who are you?
I'm jacob wheeler, ma'am.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Well, now...
by rights...
his stuff is yours.
Is there enough there to cover what I owe ya?
Oh, yeah. And then some.
[Ben chuckles]
What's so funny?
Oh, a... true southern gentlemen
Seeing a lady to her daddy's front door.
Even if it is a thousand miles across cheyenne,
Crow, and blackfoot country.
A great man once told me
That the west is just a place on the map,
Not a way to live.
Benjamin.
You take care. Ma'am.
[Sniffs]
[Sobs]
What's wrong?
I have...
a baby
Somewhere on earth.
Crow took her.
I pray she is not yet on ghost path.
Where spirits go.
Jacob.
[Grunts]
[Louder] jacob.
[Laughs]
[Shivering]
[Both laugh]
[Murmuring in lakota]
Old indian: loved by the buffalo
Knew he had been given the sign he'd asked for.
He no longer questioned his sanity
And understood that wakan tanka was guiding him.
Whoo! Ha ha ha ha!
[Giggling] it's heyoka.
Heyoka makes us see wakan tanka, makes us laugh.
Jacob: arriving in thunder heart woman's village
Was like stepping into a dream.
[Speaking lakota]
Jacob: I had looked to find my destiny in california.
But it was in this place among these people
That my life was to take a course
I'd never imagined.
[Speaking lakota]
I could not understand their words,
But I could see the love
For a long-Lost daughter and sister
And feel her relief in their embrace.
Jacob.
She told them about her captivity,
The fight with johnny fox,
How I'd risked my life to free her.
I thought I understood her to say the spirits had brought us together.
And I figured, well,
She must have been right about that.
[Speaking lakota]
My father offers his possessions.
Well, tell him I just want to marry you.
Sometimes... 2 people go to wilderness
For 2 weeks, and they return
As husband and wife.
We kinda already did that. Ha.
Woo-Ha, woo-Ha, woo-Ha!
[Old man speaks lakota]
This is making of relatives.
Take small bite.
[Speaking lakota]
This meat I place in mouth.
From this day, my home your home,
And you his son.
At first, I didn't understand
The pain in my heart for thunder heart woman.
Then it hit me.
Her family was making me a relative
While I know full well my folks would never do the same for her.
They'd call her a savage,
A soulless heathen.
Why do I feel so at home here among these people?
[Speaks lakota]
[Coughs]
[Says lakota word]
[Laughter, chatter]
Grab the wheel.
It's heavy.
Help me unwrap it.
[Speaks lakota]
Take the rope off...
then you go around,
Just like that...
[thunder heart woman laughs]
You can save the rope.
When I saw loved by the buffalo,
I could not escape the strange sensation that I knew him
And he knew me.
He saw my scar,
And I saw his, and I imagined the force of the beast
That thrust its head in his chest.
Old indian: in the wheel, loved by the buffalo saw the threat,
The danger coming from the people of the wooden wheel,
But he could not say why.
He began to understand what growling bear meant,
The webs made by spiders to catch flies.
Something would entangle the lakota
In a time yet to come.
[Loved by buffalo speaks lakota]
You trick the iron to subdue the wood.
Your magic wrongs wakan tanka.
Wakan tanka. [Speaking lakota]
Does your god give you the wheel
Of wood and iron?
No, no. Just the intelligence to make it.
He will show you a wheel made by wakan tanka.
Great spirit gives one gift at birth.
[Speaks lakota]
We are born somewhere
On the medicine wheel.
We are born with one of the great powers.
[Lakota word]
Wisdom...
[lakota word]
Strength...
[lakota word]
Big heart...
[lakota word]
Braveness.
Jacob: loved by the buffalo
Left me wondering what I was born with...
and what I had yet to acquire on the wheel.
I would spend most of my life
Looking for the answer.
Old indian: the time had come to move the camp.
The grandparents of thunder heart woman
Chose to remain behind
To make their final journey together.
Why? Why can't she come with us?
She will not leave her husband.
[Speaks lakota]
We must respect their wishes.
[Whooping]
[Chanting]
For the first time,
I stood in awe of everything that god made.
I couldn't look at a tree anymore
And see so many board feet of timber...
couldn't look at a beaver lodge and see so many pelts.
Now I saw little miracles.
We have a wheel that takes you from here to there.
But they have a wheel that takes you to the stars.
Old indian: soaring eagle knew he had lost his place.
For the first time in his life,
He knew the true meaning of fear.
And loved by the buffalo left his family
So that he might live for all the people.
This was the price of his gift--
To pursue his journey
To change the terrible vision of growling bear.