Bird Who Goes To War

        It is mid-morning on an early spring day in 1795.  Far up the Republican River, in what will one day be north central Kansas, a racket of snarling, yipping dogs and yelling children has caused the Pawnee warrior, Loo-ra-we-re-coo (Bird Who Goes to War*), to step outside of his earth and timber lodge to see what the commotion is about.  As he gazes towards the river's edge, it is obvious that he is a man in command of his time and his place.
        In his greased and roached hair, Bird Who Goes to War wears a peregrine falcon, found several seasons ago along a nearby stream.  The falcon had been carefully skinned, stuffed with dry grass and tied to a stiffening stick.  Ball and cone silver earrings acquired from French traders hang from the Pawnee's slit ears.  The silver earwheel was hammered and cut by a silversmith in St. Louis and traded west.  Bird Who Goes to War is holding a ball-headed war club that he won in battle against the Osage tribe to the east.  This style of war club was carved in one piece from an oak sapling and adorned with a metal trade spike.  Around his neck is an eagle claw and he wears a smoke-cured buffalo robe.  The Pawnees, located in the prairie region between the Eastern woodlands and the Great Plains, were hunting buffalo long before they acquired the horse.  This particular robe was first tanned and then smoked over a green willow fire for two days.  The smoke not only gave the robe it's pleasing yellow color, but made it waterproof.
        At the river's edge, the cause of the commotion has become clear.  Two French traders are paddling up the ice-choked river.  Bird Who Goes to War watches the traders as they pull their dugout ashore, climb the muddy bank and start towards the village.
                                     
                                                    
* I borrowed the Pawnee name, Loo-ra-we-re-coo (Bird Who Goes to War), from the 1830 writings of the artist, George Catlin