Chapter 13

“And besides that, you have the body of a white man. You are stocky and your muscles are heavy and full. You are not slender and sinewy as the men of the people. Your body is beginning to be covered with hair. Come.”

The bear got up and walked back to the water’s edge. Soaring Hawk followed.

“Look into the water. What do you see?”

He looked at his reflection in the calm, clear water. What he saw was a handsome face, but not the face of a man of the people. He saw a dark-haired white man. His eyes were dark like those of his father, but his features were like those of his mother, only masculine.

“Look at your hair,” the bear suggested.

Looking once more at his image in the water, he saw his hair was not straight. It was wavy. And when the sun shone on it, he could see his dark hair was not really black, but dark brown, with hints of red. He frowned.

“Do these things trouble you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to be different from my people.”