Fools Crow

Fools Crow is the name of the main character in the 1986 book by James Welch that our book club discussed today.   He was born on the reservation where His father was a Blackfoot Native American and this is a story of one of the Blackfoot tribes (Pikuni) in the 1870s when the white man was starting to take over their land in Montana.   It’s a wonderful story of an innocent people who intimately knew the land and what it could offer and how to take care of it and trusted the white man to do what they promised.  He saw the future ending badly, with many dying of the white scab disease (smallpox) , the blackthorns (buffalo) being hunted out and the whiteman’s greed for land, —this is a heart wrenching tale of his people’s bygone way of life.   I loved reading it, seeing that territory in my mind’s eye and trying to figure out the words in their language.  (“Ice shield" was their word for the window that they saw in the white man’s dwellings. )     The drawings were dear…this is showing the transition from tepee to white man’s square houses.   The view is what we enjoyed from our hostess’s home, along with wonderful food.   It was sunnier than this looks...Thank you, S!