Northern Montana 1876

Two Crows

Prologue

Life is a very strange mystery

Late June, 1876, and 2021:

A billion stars fill the Montana sky. Forty tipis hug the wooded side of a shallow rock-strewed river. Wolf Eyes, a Blackfeet medicine man, with long braided white hair, dressed in leather with his bare chest decorated with dangling beads and bones, sits in trance in front of the red ember glow of his tipi fire.

At fifty-nine he is healthy and active but considered an old man in 1876. He awakens from an impossible dream. It was of a man who looked like the image of himself he’d seen in a small mirror a French man wanted to trade for tobacco. The man in his dream was dressed all in white. He had no horns, feathers or beads dangling down his chest; only a tiny black raven on a string. He knew this man wasn’t him, exactly, but the resemblance was startling. This man also sat in front of a fire, in a tipi, which looked like his. In the Blackfeet tongue he tells Wolf Eyes that he is from a future time and will appear soon to talk about Two Crows, that he must save the warrior’s life, and together they will save the world. 

Grandfather throws scrub oak branches into his fire, and looks up through the tipi flap, into the starry Montana sky. I do not understand this dream. Who is this man who looks like me? What do those words mean, he will appear soon? Two Crows? Save the world? he thinks, then speaks out loud to the fire, “I have not seen him in over five years, since he came to marry White Feather, and then returned to the white soldiers. Save him? Is he dying? What is this all about?” 

He adds sage, sweet grass and devil’s weed to the flames, chants a prayer and then asks for his brother hawk to offer guidance.

Suddenly, a hawk flies into the tipi, perches on a fire log. The hawk shakes his lovely brown feathers, as if he had just landed after a long flight. Grandfather knows he can materialize anywhere, at any time. 

Yes, it is timely for you to call, Wolf Eyes. Hawks nods.

So you know I had a vision where I met my future self, Grandfather begins, also without speaking. He said I must save Two Crows. Is it true that he will be arriving soon?

Yes, your grandson is on his way, as we speak.

Grandfather can hardly believe these words. On his way? What is this all about?

It’s about a story that’s begun. The hawk carefully answers. A story which will change the lives of many people.

What story? Tell me.

Suddenly the hawk morphs into a black jaguar, an animal Grandfather has never seen or heard of. The jaguar growls as he slowly walks around the fire, behind Wolf Eyes, and then walks into the fire, where he goes up in smoke. The old man is stunned as the hawk returns to its perch. What was that about?

There is a land many moons walk south of here called Mexico, and a territory there called Yucatan, the hawk answers. This is where that mighty animal called the jaguar lives. You will meet him again one day, as will Two Crows. In recent times, I’ve have been near to guide your son. As you know, Two Crows has been a warrior scout for the white soldiers. Since you last saw him, having told him about the High Pony, he has become a seer, a man haunted with many dreams.

Dreams of returning here?

To his wife, yes. Dreams of many things. Because of them Two Crows was shot in his back. I have been guiding his horse here. He is weak, but his will to live is strong. He keeps holding on, riding on, and will arrive alive.

When will he be here? Grandfather asks this spirit messenger.

Prepare for his arrival tonight. Have healing herbs ready. Have his wife watch over him day and night. In two days he will survive with your medicine and the love of his woman.

Wolf Eyes had treated warriors who had been shot with rifles. Most died. He reflects on what the hawk had said and then softly speaks.

I saw the High Pony in his eyes the day he was born. I never wanted him to leave our band. This is why I told him his life was to ride the High Pony. What was his vision that caused him to finally leave the white man?

In his dreamtime, he flew into the lodge of the great chiefs. He listened as they spoke about the upcoming battle in a valley the white man calls Little Big Horn. He foresaw the deaths of hundreds of white soldiers, and the native scouts he would be riding with. He saw his death and that of the long-haired white Chief Custer. He tried to warn him, that he would be riding to his death. These words only angered the proud man. Two Crows did not want to die, so he left that evening. The white chief considered him a traitor, and ordered he be shot dead. The white soldiers tried but it was not Two Crows time to die.

A frog, hopping in front of Wolf Eyes stops and looks up at him. Life is a very strange mystery, the frog thinks to him. Pay attention.

Frog is right, Hawk says. Many strange things will happen in the times to come. The white man will not honor and protect this land for seven generations as we have been taught to do. There will be many wrongs that need to be made right. Your other self will soon be here to teach you how to live in the future, to help wake people up, to heal the earth. 

I don’t understand these words. He considers this for a moment and then offers, In these future times, will I be there in the dream world or the real world? Will Two Crows and I be alive there as we are here?

Hawk nods and answers, Pay attention to the wisdom of your reality, wherever that may be. Soon you will realize that everyone here is in both your present time and your future time. You will have most important work to do in other realms, other times.

With that said, hawk spreads his wings and says, before flying away. “And so, your new reality is arriving.”

Grandfather senses someone approaching. Several minutes later a man sits across the fire. Wolf Eyes has never seen such a man, dressed in a clean white suit, with white boots and a white cowboy hat. He looks hauntingly familiar. “Who are you?”

“My name is Clarence Two Moons,” the man speaks in Grandfather’s tongue which tells him he is also Blackfeet. “We have already met in your dreams. We are of one Spirit, one man, in two bodies. I come from many moons, eighteen hundred moons to be exact, in the future.” That number makes no sense to Grandfather Wolf Eyes. Eighteen hundred moons? Twelve moons in one year . . . 

Clarence says, “First you must help Two Crows. Once you save him, then we can begin.” Grandfather can not understand the words spoken by this man who claims to be of one Spirit. “In the next two years,” Clarence continues, “I will teach you and Two Crows, and White Feather, how to do what I am now doing. I will teach you how to be in two places at the same time.”

With this said, Clarence Two Moons disappears.