The Role of the Spirit of Big Crow with Little Feet
It was the morning of November 11, 1864, when a detachment of U.S. Cavalry swarmed into a peaceful settlement of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians and murdered 160 innocent men, women, children, the elderly, and the infirm. Puye Prophecy is a fictional account set 161 years later, involving the spirits of some of those slaughtered and our present-day protagonist, Sandy Tillman, who was introduced to the Massacre at Sand Creek in a vivid dream orchestrated by the spirit of an Arapaho medicine man, Big Crow with Little Feet.
Big Crow was scheduled to officiate the marriage of Eagle Shadow, the future tribal chief, and Dew on Flowers, his bride-to-be, within days. The ceremony never took place, and the spirits of those murdered in the raid were released individually into the spirit realm and destined to wander until they were reunited. As the tribe’s medicine man, Big Crow with Little Feet was tasked with fulfilling the prophecy and bringing their destiny to fruition: to be reunited and married, despite evil spirits equally intent on preventing the prophecy’s fulfillment.
As spirits, neither Eagle Shadow nor Dew on Flowers could reconnect of their own volition; someone needed to carry one spirit to the other to reunite them. A suitable human spirit carrier had to be found to bridge their spirits, and Big Crow searched the earth for decades to find an individual of suitably pure character to become the Duwit chonah mowna jawneek, the carrier of spirits.
Big Crow found Sandy Tillman, a Sr. Project Manager in Lewisville, Texas, who carried ancient Indian DNA from several generations ago that she knew nothing about, handed down from her mother’s side of the family. Finding her had taken ages. Even after finding her, he needed to confirm her purity, confirm her ability to pull together a puzzle she knew nothing about, and her attentiveness enough to recognize clues that would spark relentless curiosity. Putting her to the test was the only option, so he orchestrated vivid dreams to plant clues and see whether she would respond and investigate things that were completely unknown.
Six Arapaho Indians were not at Sand Creek during the massacre; among them were Shadow Eagle and Dew on Flowers, as they were hunting rabbits at the Puye Ruins for the wedding feast. A roving patrol of U.S. Cavalry ran across the men hunting and killed them, beheading them. As the patrol continued searching, they came to the camp where the women of their hunting party, including Dew of Flowers, waited for their men’s return. Big Crow planted Sandy in a vivid dream in the middle of the event, allowing her to hear parts of the women’s conversation with no real context. She witnessed the women summarily executed after the heads of their men were dumped onto the ground at their feet. Sandy’s terrifying dream ended abruptly with a lightning strike outside her condo, coincident with the pistols fired to murder the three women.
Big Crow was with Sandy when she awakened, but he chose to remain invisible to her; however, the tendril of smoke that always accompanied his arrival from the ether left an unanswered question: smoke with no fire? Fragments of the conversation among the women Sandy overheard were enough to stoke her curiosity, and she learned about the Massacre at Sand Creek and the location Puye, meaning “a place where rabbits gather.” As she kept reading her Google search results, she became overwhelmed and cried… and Big Crow rejoiced. After 161 years of searching, he had finally found his Duwit chonah mowna jawneek.
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Puye Prophecy– bit.ly/44euZzV
Puye Review by Jill Rey – https://bit.ly/4fPqa49
Goodreads Reviews – https://bit.ly/4rqIdTF
