People make mistakes that affect their entire family, for good or bad. Sacred Horse made the decision to stay with his family even though he already made the decision, within himself, that he wanted to leave. Sacred Horse wanted to leave because he knew he was sick and did not want his family to be affected. One choice could change everything, even if it is hard. Sacred Horse became sick because the "Long Knives" brought a disease called small pox to the Sioux Indians. The "Long Knives" are white settlers and they brought an illness with them and it spread easily to the native people. Sacred Horse was the first one that got sick and they started to notice him becoming weaker and weaker. The camp circle, mainly his mother, starts to get …show more content…
They stay at the river bank till about dusk and think they should just stay the night. They both fall asleep shortly after, in the morning the weather had gotten bitter and cold. Waterlily only makes it a few more days, but by then her sister-in-law was extremely ill as well. A few days later Waterlily falls asleep and does not wake up. Her sister-in-law was very upset about Waterlily’s death, but cannot do anything about it. She was also very sick but tries to collect rocks for Waterlily, but she gets very sleepy and weak and decides to give up. Waterlily's sister-in-law dies the next day after the weather got very cold and she could not keep going. Waterlily's family worries about Waterlily, but do not know where she was because they were expecting her to come home after hearing about her camps tragedy. The choice that Sacred Horse made impacted his entire tribe. His family died because he made the choice to stay. He may have not been able to prevent the attack but, Waterlily and his mother and sister might have survived. Because Sacred Horse did not know that he was spreading small pox, his family suffered because of it. That one decision he made impacted everyone he was closest to, and inadvertently changed their lives