50 pages • 1-hour read
Wind from an Enemy Sky
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Chapters 21-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary
The chapter begins with Henry Jim’s funeral service, officiated by Welles. Henry Jim’s body is carried from his tepee in a pine casket to his final resting place in the mountains, where he is to be buried beside his wife. The group also takes Henry Jim’s horse with them and, following tradition, shoots it in the head. Rafferty, Doc Edwards, and Welles watch the burial procession.
When Welles laments not meeting Pell, Rafferty says that he’s going to return the medicine bundle, causing the missionary to leave. When Edwards questions Rafferty on the legitimacy of this, the latter says that Pell is at least going to try. The chapter then shifts to Rafferty’s office, where members of the tribe come to Rafferty for the first time in three years due to him not intervening regarding the horse. Men like Henry Two-Bits approach Rafferty for help planting wheat, showing the community’s shifting attitudes. Additionally, Bull begins to trust The Boy to communicate with the government on behalf of the Little Elk people.
Chapter 22 Summary
The separated members of Bull’s group return to their camp after the death of Henry Jim. There, the women reunite with Marie Louise, who stayed behind. She scolds the other women for leaving her alone in camp and tells them about Grant’s visit and his discovery of the gun. Veronica reflects on Bull’s anger when Henry Jim first left to build his farm and on their changing relationship. Him taking Catherine as his second wife was Veronica’s idea, as he could confide in the younger woman and express his worries about the people. Bull is troubled by the changes in the camp as others begin to follow Henry Jim’s path. He also acknowledges Pell’s attempts to help but worries that he could harm them instead. Catherine suggests consulting with Two Sleeps for guidance, with which Bull agrees.
Chapter 23 Summary
Pell returns to New York and is confronted with the heavy accumulation of documents and information related to various projects and issues, including the issue of the medicine bundle. He starts to dig through the reports and is shocked by the history of events he discovers, including the unfair treatment of Indigenous Americans regarding land and water rights in the Little Elk Reservation. He meets with an associate, Judge Carruthers, and the two argue over the exploitation of Indigenous American lands. Pell discovers that he was involved in the policies that led to the issues about the water. This leads him to feel exposed and embarrassed by the reality of the situation. He reads over a letter from Rafferty calling for the return of the medicine bundle and stating that Pell should be the one to do it in person.
Chapter 24 Summary
Two Sleeps returns to camp after a period spent reflecting in the mountains. He sits by Veronica’s fire, smoking his pipe. Although the camp waits for him to speak about his journey, he remains silent, reliving his experience in his mind. He recalls leaving camp in the afternoon and wrapping himself in layers to endure the cold as he traveled through deep snow and fierce winds. He found refuge under a spruce tree, where he wrapped himself in a buffalo robe and began to dream.
Chapter 25 Summary
The winter season isolates the camp, encouraging storytelling and reflection, with people gathering to laugh and share memories. However, this winter is marked by the death of Henry Jim and the return of Two Sleeps from the mountain in a weakened state, which worries the camp. Bull is particularly concerned by Two Sleeps’s lack of answers. He also reflects on the fact that this is Antoine’s first winter home since he was taken to the residential school. Before he was taken away, Bull had mostly ignored his grandson. His eldest daughter and Antoine’s mother, Celeste, was devastated and accused Bull of having the authorities take her son. She became violent and inconsolable until her death. In the present, Two Sleeps regains his strength, and the camp relaxes. Bull tells Antoine the story of Thunderbird, who impregnated a girl. She gave birth to Feather Boy, a manifestation of Thunderbird, who brought them tobacco. He also gave the Little Elk people the bundle before leaving.
Chapter 26 Summary
Another letter from Rafferty regarding the increased insistence from the Little Elk tribe regarding the medicine bundle prompts Pell to search his museum for it. He discovers it in a storage room, along with other discarded items, and finds that it has been ravaged by pests and effectively destroyed. His guilt over the loss of the bundle, combined with his growing empathy for Indigenous Americans, causes him to look for a way to compensate for their loss. His secretary suggests giving them the Virgin of the Andes, a rare gold figurine from his collection, as a possible substitute gift for the Little Elk tribe. He reflects on the years of effort it took him to obtain the statue and wonders if the tribe would even want it. Ultimately, he decides that it is his only option and takes it with him.
Chapters 21-26 Analysis
This section explores the hope that the reconciliation between all parties on and around the Little Elk Reservation will succeed and that The Impact of Trauma on Indigenous Community and Identity might be overcome. While it opens on the somber notes of Henry Jim’s funeral, this also is a moment showing acts of cooperation. While Rafferty and Doc Edwards don’t follow the procession carrying his body up the mountain, they are present to watch. Rafferty’s fabrication of an “ancient tradition” regarding the burial practices, corroborated by Edwards to Welles, shows their attempts to protect the community’s customs from external scrutiny. This act, combined with Rafferty allowing the ritual killing of Henry Jim’s horse at his gravesite, furthers the possibility that Rafferty may be accepted by the tribe. One of the men, Iron Child, references this when he approaches Rafferty: “You didn’t get mad at anybody when we took his horse up there and left it on the grave. Old Henry was afraid of that. He thought it might make you mad […] White people get mad at us for doing that, but you didn’t say no” (177). After this point, other members of the Little Elk community begin to approach Rafferty for various reasons, such as to help procure agricultural equipment to plant wheat. This is a success for him, as he’d been trying for several years for this exact thing.
Bull’s acceptance of The Boy mirrors this hope for connection. Despite The Boy being an outsider, as he both worked for the government and had no familial ties to Bull, Bull still tells him, “I want you to be the man who talks between us. Anybody else would mix everything up. You are now like my son” (180). However, given that The Boy will ultimately kill Bull at the end of the book, this is also a moment of tragic irony that will ultimately imply that any hope for connection or reconciliation is in vain.
This section also examines the background of the Feather Boy bundle, and the text further elucidates its symbolic significance. Feather Boy is an embodiment of Thunderbird, a powerful figure in the spiritual practices of many Indigenous American groups. While he can transform the lives of the earth’s people, their actions lead him to withhold certain gifts, such as food crops. This serves as a commentary on the consequences of human greed and shortsightedness. The people could have had everything if they had acted otherwise. When he ascends again, he leaves behind a field of tobacco and the bundle containing his essence. He entrusts them with the responsibility of safeguarding it and says that as long as they have it, the people will be safe.
This statement is directly juxtaposed with Pell’s discovery that the bundle is destroyed. Despite his later insistence that the museum was not at fault for what happened, he finds it “tossed into a lumber room […] along with broken furniture, battered steel cabinets, abandoned exhibits, including stuffed birds and animals too mangy to be refurbished” (209). These details speak to The Clash Between Indigenous Cultures and Western Ideologies: The bundle was not significant to the museum and was therefore discarded. The bundle’s decay serves as a symbolic representation of how colonial powers have historically treated Indigenous cultures—namely, with neglect, misunderstanding, and, ultimately, destruction.
Furthermore, the symbolic significance of the Virgin of the Andes as an offering to the Little Elk tribe encapsulates Pell’s misguided attempt at restitution. While his intentions are ostensibly noble, his proposal to gift the figurine as a form of reconciliation overlooks the cultural significance and value of the lost bundle to the community. In addition, while he recognizes the importance of autonomy and self-determination for the Indigenous people, he fails to apply this understanding in practice. Instead of empowering the tribe, Pell’s proposed gift embodies an attitude of paternalistic benevolence, whereby the colonizer decides what is best for the colonized. This also highlights the inherent limitations of attempting to rectify historical injustices through material compensation alone.
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