THE HUNKA BROTHER
By
-Daniel-
©
Though we be apart,
we are but a heartbeat away.
I have come to share a Truth
upon this blessed day.
Long ago, before the white man began his westward journey,
was a time of tribal warfare between the Lakota and Ree people...
a time of senseless violence and of vengeful retaliation...
and it came to pass that a Ree war party fell upon an unsuspecting
camp of the Lakota, killing many people, including the wife and child
of a Lakota Holy Man.
Fiercely did the Lakota men fight to protect their families
and finally were they able to drive off their enemy,
capturing the man who had killed the Holy Man's family...
...and in their anger did they bind this man, both hand and foot
delivering him unto the Holy Man to kill.
The Holy Man sat, unhearing and unseeing of the frenzied tribe's rage,
as he cradled his beloved family within his own quiet grief.
For three days did the Lakota await the avenging act of this grieving one...
...and at the third dawn, with all eyes watching, did the Holy Man
come forth from his lifeless lodge to fulfill the emptiness of his need.
With knife in hand, did he approach the captive, lying in the dirt.
Into the eyes of the man who had robbed him of his family did he look
and then he cut the ties that bound him, both hand and foot.
In silence, did the Holy Man help this stranger to his feet and then he spoke
to the astonishment of the tribe...
"Alone am I...
No family do I have,
but killing this man will not bring my loved ones back to me."
Then raising his voice unto the dawn did he speak...
"Now hear me oh Lakota,
now hear me oh Ree...
There are two relations,
one born of blood,
the other born of Spirit.
My blood relatives are all gone,
so now do I choose this man to
take their place.
This is the making of relatives...
...the sacred Hunkakaga Ceremony.
We are all related.
We are all one.
He is now my Hunka Brother
and you will treat him as you would my family."
...And the Lakota people followed the Holy Man unto the tribe of the Ree,
each choosing another as their Hunka Relative...
...and all became related,
all became one...
and the sins of the past
were remembered no more.