The Origins of a Lakota Winyan Superhero
1891, South Dakota
Gunshots, left and right. A mother with a child on her back runs as fast as she can to get away from the cavalry. Her steps hold every ounce of strength she can conjure up. The screams of her people fall behind her. She runs 20 miles before stopping, and still the ringing screams penetrate her mind. Her baby is now asleep. She pulls the cradle board from her back and lays the baby down. She stops by a riverine to rest, the footfalls of the cavalry still audible. She hears their horses neigh as they ride over the rolling grass plains. They are coming.
Nearby, she spots a chokecherry bush. She grabs her baby and hides her in the bush. The cavalry are getting closer. She takes one last look at her daughter.
"My sweet daughter," she says, "I love you. But I must go. Live. You will live to tell this story."
The cavalry are now only moments away. The mother takes off and leads the men in the other direction. Her eyes begin to glow, turning into blue lasers. Her hair flies above her like a trailing fire, illuminated by the blue lasers. She decides to stop running as they stop to reload their guns. She holds her palms to the sky. A bright blue beam of light, the color of her eyes, shoots down from the sky. The energy charges her veins, her glowing eyes and palms. The men point their guns at her. "We never run," she says, turning around to face them. It is her against the nine cavalry men. Her against nine guns. Her eyes glow even brighter, her palms bursting with light, her black hair now blinding. The energy from the stars vessel inside of her. She is ready.
She brings her palms down, and then redirects the laser beam at the men, obliterating all of them. They vanish. All nine of them gone, their horses riderless.
But she knew the consequences, the price of wielding energy so powerful. The woman falls to the ground and vanishes.
2010, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
"The woman, my child, was your great great grandmother."
"What happened to the baby, Ina?"
"The baby was adopted by another Lakota couple who made it out and heard the baby."
"Did she ever meet her real relatives?"
"Sure she did. But remember everyone is our relative. That is why we will never be alone in this world. So nurture your relations. That’s what Lakota women do."
"Ohan, Ina..." She continued, "Ina, I want to be strong like my great great grandmother. Imagine the type of courage she had to have to do all of that. And one day, I will be an Environmental inventor and then get our sacred Black Hills back."
"Study hard. You can do whatever you set your mind to."
"Like you, Ina."
Ina laughed, "I suppose. Now go to sleep my girl. You have school tomorrow."
To be continued...