Makawee once had a chance to return home. After forty long years of living in a foreign time, Makawee’s color graced the sky. Lila’s rules were not meant to be broken and that meant she could have no residents. All guests would have to return home, with no exceptions. But, the thought of Makawee returning to a time that would have been foreign to her after forty years broke her heart. Lila knew that the Sioux ways Makawee had left would not be the same ways she returned to; things for her people had already changed so drastically. How could she send an old woman to a world she should be familiar with but would be more foreign to her than the place she lived now? With great shame and a heavy heart, Lila never told Makawee that her color returned to the sky. She let that day pass like any other day and prayed she made the right decision.

Lila never knew for certain, but always suspected that Makawee understood this. And, as Lila suspected, Makawee knew. She too had seen the familiar color in the sky. It was a color she would never forget, it was a color that changed her young life forever. At barely fifteen she has swept away into the future of her land and would live out her prime in a new time. Makawee never told Lila that she saw her colored sky come and pass; she had no desire to return. Makawee understood more than anyone that Lila had not been quiet about the colored sky for no reason. She felt Lila’s sadness and knew that she would not be returning to the way things were, but to an unfriendly world.

Barely fourteen, Makawee had been married off to a very capable hunter. She lived in a time before reservations, during prosperous hunts and natural migrations. She was born of a great medicine man and had the gift of acute intuition. Even as a pre-teen, young Sioux would ask her advice, and she would give it proudly. Ingrained in her were the ways of her culture. She never felt discontent to live the life of a woman in her era; she accepted her lot with dignity.

Her fateful day seemed like any other. She was out with other women from her tribe to collect herbs for healing. The last she saw of her era was a white fox in the woods. She stopped all movement when the fox appeared before her. She thought it a spirit beast and stood quietly to hear its call. Then the sky turned a color she had never seen before, and the winds turned violent, sucking her into a tear in space. The fox had disappeared and she was unable to escape the winds’ pull.

On the other side of the rift, Makawee saw a young woman dressed in white standing before her. Frightened she placed her face to the ground. Makawee thought the fox was a god and had taken a human form. The woman spoke gently to her in her tongue. “Don’t be afraid, I am here to guide you.” Makawee looked to the lady, Amelie, standing before her and thought her strangely beautiful.

It took a while for Makawee to adjust to her new way of life. There were so many people of different races living under the same roof. Makawee was not ungrateful for the care she was given. She could only relate to the concept of this being her spirit journey. In the beginning, she meditated every day in hopes of seeing the white fox that had started her journey, but it never appeared before her. She became restless and doubtful. Amelie had explained the situation to her, but she didn’t think it true. Now she was losing hope that her journey was a spiritual one and fear took hold of her.

Time passed and Makawee grew older. She longed for her people. She would see others come and return to their era, and she desired every day for her time to come next. Makawee had no idea how to live in her current place. She was a spirit that needed the great outdoors, yet she was confined to four walls. Still young at heart, she desired to run through nature as she had as a child. She was not only literally caged, but she felt her identity was caged as well. She urged to chant, sing and dance freely, but she was not comfortable in this foreign space.

One night, when all were asleep, Makawee managed to sneak out. She ran as fast and far as she could through the everlasting prairies. She ran and ran and ran, but still arrived nowhere. She ran all night long until she came to a single, great tree. With a leap, she was climbing the tree until she reached the very top. The sun was rising and illuminated everything. Makawee’s heart fell when she saw there was nothing but prairie all around her; she could not even see the place she had run from.

With lament in her heart, Makawee let out a howl. She could no longer keep her feelings subdued. After crying out to the heavens, she made that tree her bed and fell to sleep. Makawee stayed at the tree for three days. She spent her time living as she pleased. She was able to find her food and drank the dew from the morning leaves. She spent most of her time sitting or dancing around her fire, willing the spirits to hear her plea to return home.

On the third night, she packed what few things she had made and followed the stars to the place she had run from. She walked slowly as if walking to her death. Makawee trudged through the night and she still was not back. She found a suitable place to lie down and rest and woke again during the evening. She lifted her head, saw where she needed to walk towards, and continued her journey. It wasn’t until midnight when she saw the walls of her confinement. Makawee sat and meditated right outside the walls for another seven days.

Amelie had faith that Makawee would return and put a ringing bell outside for her to sound upon her arrival, but it happened that Makawee’s chants seeped into the structure and gave her whereabouts away. Makawee was not disturbed but was checked up on now and then. After days of intense chanting, Makawee opened her eyes to see a small white fox carved from wood. She picked it up and examined it to find it exquisitely crafted. It had small symbols of her people carefully painted onto its body and the eyes were made from beautiful blue crystals that sparkled as the light reflected off of them. They reminded her of the waters she used to swim in; crystal clear blue, refreshing, and shimmered in the sun. The little wooden fox somehow spoke to her heart and she knew deep within that she would never return to her people. She closed her eyes again, holding the fox to her heart, and mourned.

The second time Makawee walked through the doors, she was settled in her soul and mind to make this her new home. As she grew older, she became extremely close to Amelie and regarded her and her husband as highly as she regarded her family. She looked after Amelie’s children as though they were her own and taught them the ways of the Sioux. Amelie encouraged Makawee to take Gideon and Lila into the prairies to learn how to survive off the vast lands. She taught them to respect nature, listen to its calls, and trust their instincts. They were the most promising students, but eventually, Lila’s interests wandered into other areas of learning. Gideon, however, wished for nothing more than to live as Makawee’s people had lived. In time, he would be filled with such anger about the history of her people, that he would leave on a journey of his own and abandon Lila to follow in their parents’ footsteps.