Fools Crow by James Welch: Individual Expression Within Pikuni Culture

James Welch's Fools Crow paints an intricate and intimate picture of the Pikuni culture, as told through the different voices of the many characters. At the center of this picture is Fools Crow, who grows from an uncertain youth into a strong and admired warrior over the course of the novel. But his path to maturity is never certain. While Fools Crow finds a unique place among his people, others around him take different paths and do not successfully define themselves in terms of Pikuni culture. Instead of praising individuals who break away from the culture, Welch shows how each person has a specific place and role, and when that person leaves the community, a hole is left behind. Welch stresses the importance of community in the novel by contrasting the characters who break away from the culture to develop their individuality with Fools Crow, who expresses his individuality by accepting the responsibilities and burdens of his people and contributing his strengths to the good of the community.

Fools Crow finds himself in many situations where he accepts responsibilities placed upon him by his people. Although he makes mistakes, he consciously chooses the ways of his people and is obedient to what is asked of him. As he does so, his status among his band grows. A trend in American literature is to praise those who go against the grain, or march to the beat of a different drummer, or color outside the lines. This suggests that traditional and accepted ways of thinking and acting do not allow for full expression and a one must find another, better way of operating. According to this notion, then, an individual must break away from the norm to separate himself. Welch denies this suggestion by creating in Fools Crow a character who distinguishes himself by accepting his responsibilities and filling his unique role in the culture. Each member has a place and the many different voices provide different shades to the picture. When each member finds his unique place, another dimension is realized and thus each person is distinguished as an individual within the framework of a people or culture or society. Fools Crow is not an individual because he is different from his people, but because he adds to his society in a way no one else can.

Fools Crow, who is first known as White Man's Dog, is not always sure of his place among the Pikunis. The book opens with him considering himself unlucky because "his animals were puny, not a blackhorn runner among them" (3). He has thoughts that would disgrace his people when he lusts after Kills-close-to-the-lake, but he realizes that "she was his father's wife, his own near-mother!" (5). Yellow Kidney, an older warrior in the group, reluctantly lets him come on a Crow raid, but not without much concern because of his unlucky reputation. But, he decides to put White Man's Dog in charge of taking the horse herds, and "For the first time, White Man's Dog felt the responsibility of his charge" (29). He takes his job seriously, instructing the others that they "must act wisely as our fathers. We must be as brave and strong as our long-ago people" (29). Later, without hesitation, he runs down and kills the Crow youth who could have revealed the theft. White Man's Dog shows that he is serious when given charge of something and he looks to the ways of his people for wisdom. But White Man's Dog does not reveal his recurring dream of the girl with the white face. His story would have benefited Yellow Kidney during the raid because he encounters the situation that White Man's Dog envisioned, but White Man's Dog holds back. He makes an error in judgment, but he also learns that he has knowledge that can benefit his people.

Even in little things, White Man's Dog obeys the rules of his people. When he sees Heavy Shield Woman bathing, it occurs to him that "She was his mother-in-law now and according to custom he must not look at her face again, so he walked through the brush downstream until he came to a pool close to the bank" (123). This respect for custom comes to him without pause, which shows that he is willing to operate within the boundaries of his society.

A direct contrast to the character of Fools Crow is Fast Horse. In a manner opposite to Fools Crow, who gains honor by putting his people before himself and fulfilling societal obligations, Fast Horse desperately wants to prove himself and to be great among his people. Welch begins the novel with White Man's Dog and Fast Horse both as young men who have yet to prove themselves. Both eagerly anticipate the days when they will be rich among their people and possess horses, wives and a many-shots gun. But from the beginning of the novel, the two travel in different directions. Fast Horse breaks from his culture to go his own way and become an individual, while Fools Crow stays within the culture. During the first Crow raid, when White Man's Dog first begins to distinguish himself, Fast Horse endangers the entire mission with his boasting as he rides into the camp speaking, "'If I had time I would ride among you and cut off your puny woman head, you cowardly Crows'" (73). His noise awakens the camp and results in the capture of Yellow Kidney and the sawing off of his fingers, causing him to become a "pitiful man" (237). This incident reveals Fast Horse's prideful, self-centered attitude. He wants to become great among his people and bring attention to himself. By boasting, Fast Horse draws attention to himself, but he weakens the group.

Yellow Kidney returns to camp and reveals Fast Horse's arrogant boasting, but Fast Horse quits the Lone Eaters camp before he faces the consequence of this action, which would have been banishment. His resulting exit from the Lone Eaters weakens the community. When White Man's Dog learns of his best friend's banishment, "a part of himself would go with Fast Horse, never to return" (86). The painful deed also hurts the relationship between Rides-at-the-door, White Man's Dog's father, and Boss Ribs, Fast Horse's father, because "even if Boss Ribs understood the necessity of his son's banishment, he would not forgive Rides-at-the-door for bringing the message. Fathers and sons would all suffer" (86). Fast Horse's absence tears away at the community because he has ties to the other members. Only he can fill this role and the community needs him to fill this role.

Besides just relating to the other Pikunis, Fast Horse also has a role in the community as the next keeper of the Beaver Medicine Bundle. By the time Yellow Kidney returns to camp to reveal the misdeed, Fast Horse has already pulled away from his people. The Beaver Medicine Bundle, which he is to inherit from his father, is losing meaning for him. He decides "That would not be the way of his power. His power would be more tangible and more immediate" (71). Instead of accepting his responsibility as the possessor of the bundle and respecting the rules of his culture that give him this responsibility, Fast Horse wants to go a different direction that will bring honor himself, not the Pikunis. As for the Pikunis, he thinks, "They were pitiful, afraid of everything" (71).

He returns later to the Lone Eaters camp for medical help and Boss Ribs offers to teach him about the bundle. But Fast Horse does not want this responsibility because "he no longer believed in the Beaver Medicine or in anything Pikuni" (186). Boss Ribs responds that Fast Horse has become someone who looks down on his people. "'You no longer follow their ways,'" he says (187). "'We help each other, we depend on each other, we fight and die beside each other. There is no room for the man who despises his fellows'" (187). Boss Ribs still hopes Fast Horse can be healed of this desire to leave his people and he asks him to learn the songs and stories and proper ways of acting them out. But Fast Horse "had been to the whiskey forts and he had lain with a girl with yellow hair, with skin white as snow" (186). He has moved away from his culture. Fools Crow remarks to Fast Horse, "'You are different too. You no longer dress like the Pikunis'" (182).

Fools Crow later goes in search of Fast Horse to try and convince him to return to the Lone Eaters, but when he finds Fast Horse, "he saw that they were truly not friends anymore. They had chosen different lives, . . . the break was as final as death" (235). Fools Crow accuses him of betraying his people, but Fast Horse blames Cold Maker instead of accepting responsibility for his mistakes: "'He promised to make me a powerful one, but he didn't keep his word'" (236). Fast Horse's thoughts are to his own glory in becoming "a powerful many-faces man, perhaps the most powerful one of all -- Fast Horse, who makes Cold Maker do his bidding" (236). He does not desire first the good of his people. But he never achieves this success among his people because he is banished, and instead brings a bad name to the Pikunis by killing and raiding the Napikwans. Welch creates in Fast Horse a character who wants to be an individual among his people, but in trying to assert his own individuality, through boasting and desiring his own honor, he forgets his responsibility to his people and ends up dishonoring them and himself.

But Fast Horse does not completely forget his people. After he attacks a whiskey wagon with Owl Child's gang, Fast Horse thinks, "If the seizers came upon these white men and their wagons, they would attack the nearest Pikunis. We have done a bad thing this time" (295). He realizes that his actions have larger reverberations to his people; his individual deeds affect the group. When he finds Yellow Kidney's body in the war lodge, he finally admits that he is to blame for Yellow Kidney's fall, proven when "he watched the hands that he had caused to become this way that long-ago night in the Crow camp" (311). Fast Horse returns Yellow Kidney's body to the Lone Eaters. As he rides with the body, he remembers how "He had dreamed of war honors and strong medicine, an exalted place among the Pikunis" (330). But he observes that "Now he was a solitary figure in the isolation of a vast land" (330). Fast Horse "knew that it was he, and he alone, who created the disaster that led to Yellow Kidney's fall. And it was he who brought Yellow Kidney's body back to his people" (330). Fast Horse's future is to live alone because he cannot return to his people. Instead of being a powerful warrior, he is a lonely wanderer.

Another character closely linked to Fools Crow who also does not succeed in defining himself among his people is Fools Crow's little brother, Running Fisher. Running Fisher thinks he is the lucky one because of his early successes and popularity, but as he watches White Man's Dog mature after the Crow raid, "Running Fisher had come to envy him. . . . he couldn't help feeling that his brother's successes somehow diminished him" (90). Running Fisher wants to gain honor, but he jealously watches his older brother with the desire to surpass him, instead of concentrating on realizing his own place and working to be successful at that.

Later, Running Fisher moves out of his family's lodge into his own. Then he takes Kills-close-to-the-lake into his lodge for himself, a direct violation of the customs of his society and a disgrace to his father. White Man's Dog at one time has the same desires, but he does not consummate them because he knows it would be very wrong. When Rides-at-the-door confronts Running Fisher, Running Fisher reveals his desire to have people say of him, "'There goes Running Fisher, he is a wealthy man and a great warrior. His medicine is the most powerful of the Pikunis'" (344). Like Fast Horse, Running Fisher only wants to glorify himself and thinks not of his people. Welch condemns this attitude of self-centeredness by leaving these characters as outcasts from the Lone Eaters. It is significant that the ultimate punishment for the Pikunis is banishment. The culture does not celebrate someone who goes his own way and leaves his people. Rather, it is a disgrace to be alone. Only by staying within the culture can an individual be successful. When Rides-at-the-door recognizes in Running Fisher a sincere shame at his actions, he gives him a chance to eventually return to the Lone Eaters and begin anew.

Fools Crow at times envies the freedom Fast Horse gains when his societal responsibilities are lifted. He tastes this freedom momentarily when he leaves camp to find Fast Horse and convince him to return home, at the request of Boss Ribs. "Suddenly, unexpectedly, (he) felt excited. He was enjoying himself. He had not been without another person for some time. . . He felt the freedom of being alone, of relying only upon himself. He had never felt so free" (211). Fools Crow realizes that Fast Horse has this same luxury. He thinks to himself, "It was this freedom from responsibility, from accountability to the group, that was so alluring. As long as one thought of himself as part of the group, he would be responsible to and for that group. If one cut ties, he had the freedom to roam, to think only of himself and not worry about the consequences of his actions" (211). But he knows that for each person who does this, "so it was for the Pikunis to suffer" (211). Fools Crow can take momentarily delight in the temptation to shed responsibility, but he knows that will not be his way. With this conclusion, "he felt again the weight of responsibility" (211). He made a promise to Boss Ribs and he will keep that promise.

This passage, which describes Fools Crow's thoughts about freedom and his refusal to take his responsibilities lightly, directly follows a passage where Fast Horse and Owl Child's gang violently kill a Napikwan. Fast Horse is at the height of his recklessness and experiencing "what the Lone Eaters did not know about, . . . this ease with which one could make his enemies pay" (210). The passage that directly follows is the passage where Kills-close-to-the-lake and Running Fisher meet together in his lodge. This is significant because Welsh is clearly contrasting these characters to juxtapose their actions. Fast Horse and Running Fisher are weakening the Lone Eaters, while Fools Crow is not. Fast Horse and Running Fisher are indulging themselves and their individual lusts, while Fools Crow is thinking of a cause larger than himself. While Fast Horse and Running Fisher are operating outside their culture's boundaries in their expressions, Fools Crow is establishing his individual identity by staying within these boundaries.

Yellow Kidney struggles with his place among the Lone Eaters when he returns from his capture. He and his wife grow distant and "his sons were like grandchildren" (230). He leaves the camp hoping that his wife will be happy that he is gone. But when he has been gone a few days and he is building a fire, he remembers the story of Seco-mo-muckon, the young man chosen to carry the fire from place to place. Seco-mo-muckon packs the fire carefully, but when he runs ahead to prepare a hot blaze at the next camp, he becomes distracted and falls asleep and the fire goes out. Seco-mo-muckon has a job to do for his people, but he lets them down, and then makes an excuse about it. Even though he is only a young man, the people depend on him for a specific need and they are weaker when he fails them. Yellow Kidney falls asleep and "he dreamed about Seco-mo-muckon and the people who trusted him" (241). He then decides that he does not need to go away and die, and that he wants to grow old with his wife and see his sons grow up. And he discovers a name, yellow calf, for his grandson. But Yellow Kidney never makes it back to the Lone Eaters when a Napikwan kills him. His absence leaves a tangible hole. Heavy Shield Woman "knew she would never see Yellow Kidney again and that thought almost gave her relief, but then she would think of the happiness they had shared . . . and she would be consumed by a restless, quiet fury" (260). His leaving causes her to second guess her role as Sacred Vow Woman at the Sun Dance Ceremonies and she wonders if she did something wrong. Red Paint and Fools Crow never learn his name for their child, which is especially painful because they were going to let him name the child. He had things to give his people and a place among them that would have been fulfilling.

By the end of the novel, Fools Crow is burdened with the knowledge of the future of his people, but he is also a well respected leader and his position as a successful individual is certain. Thus, Fools Crow expresses his individuality by putting the needs of the Pikunis first and successfully fulfilling his responsibilities toward them. For example, when One Spot is bitten by the rabid wolf, Fools Crow heals him with no thought to how it would make him look to others that he was a medicine man, but out of genuine worry and love for One Spot.

When the council meets to discuss what to do about the Napikwans' increasing encroachment into Pikuni territory and their increasing hostility, they find no solution to their paradox, and "As Fools Crow lay in the shadowy lodge, listening to his wife's sleeping breath, he felt the impotence that had fallen over his people like snow in the night" (314). In the night, he remembers his own triumph over Bull Shield of the Crows and thinks, "I was powerful then, . . . my luck was good" (314). But Fools Crow does not revel in his uniqueness among the people. As a signal of his sense of responsibility to the Pikunis, another thought immediately follows: "But what good is your own power when the people are suffering, when their minds are scattering like the four winds?" (314). And Nitsokan, dream helper, visits him that night when he finally sleeps.

Nitsokan tells Fools Crow that he must go on a spirit journey, although Fools Crow does not know where or why. But he accepts this command, telling Red Paint, "if my journey is successful, perhaps it will help the Lone Eaters find a direction" (316). He tells Red Paint to pray to the Above Ones for him, and for the Pikunis. He is told he must travel as a beggar, without food or water, and he knows "there would be times when he would wonder if it was worth the effort, times when he would be tempted to turn back to the warmth of his lodge and his wife" (317). But he perseveres because he hopes that his journey will help his people, even though he does not know for certain the purpose of his ride. He meets Feather Woman and sees on the yellow skin visions of the future of the Pikunis that fill him with terror. He watches the Pikunis, but "They were a pitiful people, and Fools Crow did not recognize them" (357). Feather Woman gives him the responsibility to prepare his people for the times to come and ensure that the stories are handed down. Even the story of Feather Woman teaches a lesson of accepting responsibility. Feather Woman wishes to return to her people instead of maintain the bond between the spirit and human worlds, her role to play for the people. Because she does not fulfill her unique place, she is separated from those she loves, Star Boy and Morning Star, and she must live for eternity alone.

Welch ends the novel with a scene of contentment for Fools Crow and the Lone Eaters. Fools Crow has a healthy child, a beautiful wife and a place among a people. A procession forms and everyone falls into place as it winds through camp. Each person does his or her own dance and is dressed with his or her own special accessories, but they dance as a group. The procession gives everyone room to dance as he or she does best and the group is strengthened when this happens. The narration is told from different perspectives and the variety of voices do not sound the same. This variation adds texture and richness to the tale, while allowing the reader to hear the individual voices express and distinguish themselves. Fools Crow distinguishes himself among his people as an individual, but he does so by following the rules of the culture and contributing to the culture in an individual way. Other characters break away from the culture and reject the rules in an attempt to gain personal honor, but they find themselves cut off from their people and without the honor they so desired.