Summary

Wi Ile Anpo is a girl born to Lakota warrior Wanbli Zi. But the tribal shaman has a vision that Anpo is wicakte – a two-souled person embodying both male and female spirits. She will become a great warrior and a great asset to her people.

Years later, during a vision quest, Anpo finds that her life will be intertwined with the lives of a sacred white buffalo and pale-skinned woman with yellow hair, yet both will be wounded by her actions.

Kathleen McGlashan Stevens has been captured by renegade Indians, and thrust into a terrifying and foreign culture where she must learn to survive.

The sacred white buffalo brings Anpo together with Kathleen. As their relationship develops, Anpo wonders: Can she change her destiny, or is she destined to wound the woman she loves?

Excerpt

Wolves howled nearby, but none approached Cinksi. The spirit of the igmu residing in the boulder kept her from harm.

She found it hard to focus on her desire for a vision, especially at first, when her every thought was on food and warmth. When she was not asleep, she concentrated on a vision, searching the area around her for a sign from the spirits. None was forthcoming.

The girl felt dizzy from lack of food and water. If she did not receive a vision soon, she would have to make the choice of dying here or giving up. It wasn’t unusual for someone to return to camp after a vision quest without finding what he or she sought. Cinksi could not believe that wakan tanka would set her on the path of a wicakte, yet not speak to her.

Cinksi faced the east. As the sun rose before her, it occurred.

The Sun flared into a brilliant white light. She had to squint to peer at it, one hand raised to shade her eyes. As the light faded, she saw a cloud of dust rising and felt the ground beneath her shake as a thousand buffalo stampeded. They ran toward her position, led by the most sacred animal of all, the white buffalo.

Watching in dazed awe, Cinksi saw a warrior woman swoop in from the south, screaming her cry as she attacked the white buffalo with a spear. The warrior’s hit was solid, and the white buffalo stumbled, mortally wounded.

The remainder of the herd simply disappeared, as did the warrior woman. The white buffalo staggered closer to Cinksi, blood pouring from its side, its nostrils flaring wide as it panted for breath. It fell just outside the cleared area, looking so real that she thought she could almost touch it. Even the hair about her shoulders lifted from the wind of its fall, dust sour upon her tongue. The Sun flared again, and she lost the image, covering her eyes with her arm. When the light faded, she looked again to find the white buffalo gone.

In its place knelt a strange woman with pale skin. Her hair was long, longer than Cinksi’s and a yellow the color of the Sun itself. Her eyes were the blue of a deep lake, still and clear. She wore the buckskin dress all of Cinksi’s women wore, and moccasins, her hair flowing freely in the breeze.

This strange apparition rose from where the white buffalo had fallen, blood pouring from her side where the buffalo had been wounded. She walked gently closer to the girl staring at her in wonder, her movement making no sound. Then she put a hand to her wound, bloodying her fingers. Reaching forward, she brushed the blood onto Cinksi’s face, two thunderbolts beneath the dark eyes. As the Sun flared again, the girl saw brilliant blue staring at her intently and heard the words whispered into her ear.

“Mahasanni.”

The light returned to normal. Cinksi looked frantically around for the woman or the white buffalo and found nothing. With shaky fingers, she touched her face. Again, there was nothing.

Trembling, the girl gathered her pouch and robe. She must return to camp to ask the shaman to help her interpret her vision.

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