this Ioway country, where there will be no pale eyes farmers
to bother us. Their Great Father will show his gratitude to those who do
not fight them. He will give us money and food and help us find good
land. We will live!

"For those who follow Black Hawk, I grieve. They will not live."

He Who Moves Alertly's closing words rang. He crossed his hands over his
chest and sat down amidst a silence touched by the crackling of the
fire.

White Bear heard in his mind the rumbling voice: _The many who follow
Black Hawk across the Great River will be few when they cross back._ He
trembled inwardly.

The clouds overhead had broken up, and the rays of the sun, about to
set, fell upon many faces full of anger and contempt. But White Bear
also saw lips pursed in thought, eyes lowered.

White Bear could find little wrong with what He Who Moves Alertly said,
but he did not like the way it pointed. To admit that the long knives
could do whatever they wanted to the Sauk, to hope like little children
that if they obeyed the Great Father in Washington City he would be kind
to the Sauk and give gifts of food, clothing and shelter--was that not
merely a slower kind of death?

He Who Moves Alertly did not seem to see that if the Sauk let the whites
push them westward, there would be no end to it. Eventually the pale
eyes would take all the land there was.

_To drive a people from their home is to make them prey to hunger,
disease, enemy tribes. It is to destroy them, even if not a single shot
is fired._

_If we must die, would it not be better to avenge ourselves on the pale
eyes for their cruelty to us? Is it not better to die with pride than to
just give up our good hunting and farming lands and go meekly into the
desert?_

He felt Redbird press against him. He had a sudden, strong feeling that
they should follow He Who Moves Alertly farther into the Ioway country.
That way they would surely live. How could he, White Bear, demand or
permit that his wife and son endure the sufferings and the danger those
who followed Black Hawk would face?

But at the thought of deserting the British Band he felt an unbearable
anguish. One winter long ago he had found a trap that had been sprung.
In the trap was the rear paw and part of the leg of a raccoon, ending in
a bloody mass. The animal had chewed its own leg off to escape. He had
seen a trail of blood leading into the woods. The raccoon had limped off
to die, but to die free.

What