Friday, November 30, 2012

A Drowsy Summer Day in Montana: 1876

Part of an historically mammoth gathering of American Indian plains tribes, an extended family of  Dakota Sioux tends to the day's chores along the Greasy Grass River in Montana.
Ladies stoke the fire, fuss over a little one and bring in wild roots from the plains.
Although a handful of tribal elders are awake, most of the encampment's fighting men were up late the night before, dancing and carrying on as young men will do, and are still asleep in their tipis. But the mid-day tedium is abruptly shattered by an ominous flurry of movement south of camp. Blue Turtle, a Sioux teenager, is the first to identify the threat. "Blue coats!" she cries.