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Napikwans: A Brief Analysis Of Fools Crow

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Fools Crow is a story of dreams, honor, loss and changes. It is a coming of age story that takes place amid hardships beyond anything the Pikunis (part of the Blackfeet tribe) have faced in the past due to the encroachment of the Napikwans (white man). Eighteen-year-old White Man's Dog, who later earns the name Fools Crow when he gains war honors, is a Pikunis brave who struggles with his place in society. Without wealth, no woman finds him attractive as a husband. He has prayed to the "Above Ones" for stronger medicine, but decides that it is up to him to find his power. If he can get a "many-shots-gun" it can increase his wealth. He daydreams of the pleasure of many wives but has never touched a woman. Because of this, his friends make fun …show more content…

Through dreams, Fools Crow sees that fighting the Napikwans is a necessary evil. For in his dream with the white landscape void of animal life, the white represents the Napikwans taking over their lands and no animal life represents the white man's senseless killing of their food sources. When Raven appears in a dream, he tells Fools Crow that he must kill the big Napikwan who kills animals needlessly. Fools Crow objects, but Raven convinces him that it is for the good of his people. He agrees and uses his wife to bait the large white man. The plan succeeds but Fools Crow gets shot. When they return to camp, the men of the Lone Eaters camp listen to Fools Crow's story and agree that the killing was necessary, but no more killing of the white man should go on for it will bring great trouble to their people. However, Owls Child and his followers go on killing the Napikwans who then blame all the …show more content…

In the forty years that he has been in possession of the Thunder Pipe bundle, he has become a highly respected heavy-singer-for-the-sick, credited with having the power to heal ‘anything from a broken leg to a broken Spirit’ (p387). Now, though, having been without her for forty years, he dreams only of a reunion with his wife. In the Thunder Moon ceremony, the people form a procession through the camp, dancing and praying for ‘long summer grass, bushes thick with berries and all of the things that grow in the ground-of-many-gifts’ (p388). They pray that ‘after the sad winter they had lived through, there would be hope and joy this spring’

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The goal of the seizers was to kill the rogue Owl Child, though they attacked a tribe that did not hold Owl Child, and were friends with the Napikwan. Welch’s description of the massacre was detailed and foul, with burnt bodies of animals, infants, and people. The survivors of the massacre told of their points of view in the attack, all of them losing loved ones to the flames. Fools Crow, the main character of the book, says in his thoughts, “the Pikunis were no match for the seizers and their weapons” (383). The massacre shows the Napikwan’s power over the Pikuni.

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