Honoring the Divine Masculine ~The Doctor and the Medicine Man~
True brotherhood between two unalike gentlemen
Ba-Ti-Ga-Sa-Pi had to leave school when he was fifteen because the government wouldn’t let Indians go past the eighth grade. He got a job on the railroad and was a good worker, but his heart longed for more schooling, and he was sad that he couldn’t go further in school like Alan did.
When he was working on the railroad, he kept thinking of the tales of the elders about the days when young men proved their courage as warriors. He and his cousin had talked it over and figured out a way to be warriors. They couldn’t go on raids like their ancestors had done—they’d end up in jail. But they could enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces and go to war the way white men did. So when Ba-Ti-Ga-Sa-Pi was seventeen, he joined the Army, and they trained him in the white man’s warrior ways.
Ba-Ti-Ga-Sa-Pi learned to shoot guns and throw grenades, dig trenches, and drive Army vehicles. But the most dangerous thing he learned to do was to jump out of airplanes and sail through the air like an eagle until the parachute opened and he floated to the ground. It was a little bit like the swing jump competitions he and Allen had as kids, only longer and higher. So Ba-Ti-Ga-Sa-Pi wasn’t ever afraid of the big jumps he did from high in the sky. But when he landed, he had to quickly move to the brush because real enemies would try to kill him.
Ba-Ti-Ga-Sa-Pi’s knowledge, which his elders bestowed upon him, made him a great warrior—always brave and cautious. The Army leaders knew that the Indian soldiers were the best at knowing the woods and hearing the noises that meant hidden enemies, so they sent Ba-Ti-Ga-Sa-Pi and the other Indian soldiers out on the night watches, the most dangerous time for soldiers.
Ba-Ti-Ga-Sa-Pi had another name a white minister gave him, and the white men in the Army called him that. Reggie was the name they called him, and he liked that just fine. But most of the time, the Army leaders just called him "soldier," and that was fine too. He used his father’s and grandfather’s name of Black Plume as a last name because white men expected a person to have a last name. But Indians had only used first names, something given to them from their elders.
The teachers at the boarding school had taught Reggie most of the things that the Army taught soldiers in the beginning of their duty. Luckily, most of the things that were hard for the other soldiers were easy for Reggie. The Army leaders liked him, but they didn’t tell him that because they thought he might slack off and not try as hard. But he could tell they liked him because he did everything well and was very respectful, plus they chose him to run special errands for them.
Soldiers have to run a lot, usually carrying backpacks and rifles. The Army leaders noticed that Reggie never seemed to get tired and was always ahead of the other soldiers. So one day, the leaders told Reggie to run in a race against the fastest soldiers they had at the Army base. Reggie loved to run just like he did when he was a boy.
He didn’t pay any attention to the other runners in the race because, in his mind, he was running across the plains and prairies back home. But pretty soon, he spotted a lot of young men ahead of him and realized he had pulled out ahead of the other runners and had run so fast he was a whole lap ahead. The Army leaders’ eyes were wide as saucers, and they could hardly say anything—they were so surprised. They had never seen any soldier run so fast. So they made Reggie their racer and sent him to races all over Canada. Reggie won many medals and awards and brought them back to the Army leaders.
But when he was across the world in a country called Korea, he could not run in the races anymore. He had to be very quiet and hide in trenches and behind trees. The war that was going on was not make-believe, and the bullets were real. He jumped from airplanes a lot, with a parachute, to get to battles where the Army jeeps and tanks could not go. Only the bravest and best soldiers were able to do that job. Sometimes, when he was standing alone in the forest in the middle of the night doing his soldier duties, he would think of the conversations he and Alan had about earth life and life afterwards.
Reggie’s people went to their happy hunting grounds in their spirit bodies when they were finished here; they called it The Big Sand Hills. Alan’s people went to a place in the clouds and walked through a golden gate, then played harps and sang in angel choirs all the time, and they called it Heaven. Reggie wondered if Alan’s people would sometimes leave their clouds and visit the Big Sand Hills to hunt and ride ponies with his spirit ancestors so they wouldn’t get bored. Maybe some of his spirit people would go with Alan’s spirit people to the clouds to join in the songs, and maybe teach them to drum and chant the Indian way.
Alan and Reggie had talked a lot about the differences in the ways of worship of their people. Reggie’s family prayed each morning, facing the sun, at meals, and again at sunset. They also had many ceremonies of worship throughout the year. The best was in the summer when the Saskatoon berries were ripe; they went to the Belly Buttes for the Sun Dance. There, they had many wonderful celebrations and ceremonies, and everyone knew that their spirit families from the Big Sand Hills joined them to celebrate.
Alan’s family went to a building called a church to worship on Sundays and do ceremonies; they prayed at meals and other times too. Some of the people in Alan’s church told him that Indians probably couldn’t go to the clouds with their spirit families, but Alan was sure that spirit people could go anywhere and do anything they wished.
