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The Dahcotah warrior, however brave he may be, believes that when he dreams of Haokah, calamity is impending and can only be avoided by some sort of sacrifice to this god. The incident on which this story is founded, occurred while I resided among the Sioux. I allude to the desertion of Wenona by her lover. It serves to show the blind and ignorant devotion of the Dahcotah to his religion.
And when the breath of summer warms to life the prairie flowers when the long grass shall wave under the scaffold where repose the mortal remains of the chief's sister how often will the Dahcotah maidens draw near to contrast the meanness, the treachery, the falsehood of Red Cloud, with the constancy, devotion, and firmness of Wenona!
They might have noticed, however, that Wenona's face was pale, and her eyes red with weeping. She was idle too, while the others plaited busily, and there was a subdued look of sadness about her countenance, contrasting strangely with the merry faces of the others. "Why did you not tell Shah-co-pee what we were laughing at, Wenona?" said Wanska. "Your secret is known now.
Some have averred they heard her voice as she called to the spirits of the rock, and ever will the traveller, as he passes the bluff, admire the wondrous beauty of the picture, and remember the story of the lover's leap. There is a tradition among the Dahcotahs which fixes a date to the incident, as well as to the death of the rival lovers of Wenona.
Stay tell them you have made me your wife, and then will I wait for you at the door of my teepee." The warrior could not stay from the chase, but he promised her that he would soon return to their village, and then she should be his wife. Wenona wept when he left her; shadows had fallen upon her heart, and yet she hoped on.
But to the story and I wish I could throw into it the feeling, and energy of the old medicine woman who related it. About one hundred and fifty years ago, the band of Dahcotahs to which Wenona belonged, lived near Fort Snelling. Their village was on the site now occupied by Good Road's band. The whole band made preparations to go below Lake Pepin, after porcupines.
She had been some months at the village of Markeda, and she went to meet her lover with a heavy heart. Her mother had noticed that her looks were sad and heavy, and Wenona knew that it would not be long ere she should be a happy wife, or a mark for the bitter scorn of her companions.
I am going far away, and the man who has broken his faith to the maiden who trusted him, will never be a good husband." "If I were Wenona, and you married the Deer-killer," said the Bright Star to Wanska, "you should not live long after it. She is a coward or she would not let you laugh at her as you did.
Death is the refuge of the friendless and the wronged. But as night came on the relatives of Wenona wondered that she did not return. They sought her, and they found her lifeless body; the knife was deep in her heart. She knew she was innocent, but what did that avail her? She was accused by a warrior, and who would believe her if she denied the charge?
The fever of the following summer spared neither age nor youth, and Red Cloud was its first victim. As the dying Harpstenah saw his body carried out to be placed upon the scaffold "He is dead," she cried, "and Wenona was innocent! He hated her because she slighted him; I hated her because she was happy.