From Dream Horses

Abstract

PROLOGUE: A chorus of Ponca women wail their Mourning Song. (Jason Labell enters. He is nude, clutching only a blanket. It is wintertime.) JASON Standing Bear, Standing Bear, Where are you? I still don't know If I can draw a bow And make my tongue say Everything my heart wants to say. Standing Bear, Standing Bear, Where are you? I'm White Man's Coyote The Dog of Dogs Who crawls in his belly Over the half-dead hills And up the green valleys Like night fog, Wailing in the night. Standing Bear, Standing Bear, Where are you? Help me stop the hate And end this old debate [End Page 671] Deep down in my soul Help me to name The names and embrace tomorrow Help me find a place Beyond the shame And the sorrow. So, I may travel Beyond blood on the grass And the first snow, Toward a future in the past. Standing Bear, Standing Bear, Where are you? The cold wind blows Against my skin As if it knows I can see all that I have lost. I gaze down and see my son, I gaze down and see Saxon When he was only a boy. When he was only a boy. SCENE 1 (The sound of horses riding away.) (A light comes up on DELORES and SAXON (eight or nine years old) walking in a circle.) SAXON The White man's agent And his men Moved us from our land. DELORES But, Saxon, Where did they take us? SAXON Mama, They drove us away— [End Page 672] They drove us From our land. They drove the Ponca from the Niobrara Into Oklahoma. DELORES They marched the Ponca Into a waterless land, A barren land Where nothing grows. And in no time Prairie grass grew into snow. And the night sun gazed down As they rode each snowy hill. SAXON And we ate ears of corn Drying in the winter fields. DELORES And sad faces and bowed heads Made their footsteps grow shorter. And they made the day birds And the night stars their guides. But the People remembered The old ways, The old ways of our land. And only the dreams of their loved ones, The living and the dead, Could bring them out of Oklahoma, Could let them make their journey home. SAXON And the snow-trees began To move faster than the Ponca. Standing Bear enters; the Ponca dancers freeze. STANDING BEAR When the soles of our moccasins wore out We walked barefoot in the snow. We were nearly dead [End Page 673] When we reached Nebraska. Our journey had taken us fifty days We rested ten day to grow strong. SAXON And the White man's agent Received a telegram. DELORES (One-by-one, the Ponca dancers exit the stage.) And the telegram said: The Ponca chiefs have run away— STOP— Do not give them any shelter— STOP— Do not give them any help— STOP. SAXON And the White man's agent said: "What can I do? What can I do?" STANDING BEAR When we walked out of the office We left footprints, Footprints of blood on the floor. (SAXON grabs DELORES' hand, and they stop.) SAXON It was here, Mama. Right here, Mama. DELORES There's nothing here, Saxon. SAXON It was right here. (Points into the air; STANDING BEAR drops a feather on SAXON's head.) [End Page 674] Mama, I told you I saw a feather Falling from the sky. A voice calls me Like a wind blowing From far away. DELORES Did you tell anyone else? SAXON No. DELORES Don't tell anyone, Not even your father. No one will understand. SAXON Can I tell my friends? DELORES No. Not even them, Besides, Your friends might laugh. (DELORES and STANDING BEAR exit.) (SONNY, LAURA and JIMMY enter.) SONNY Someone has to play An Indian. JIMMY I said cowboy First. SONNY I said cowboy [End Page 675] Second. SAXON I said cowboy Third. LAURA I'll be an Indian. JIMMY You...