Chapter One Summary and Analysis

Frank Linderman, the narrator, kindles a fire in a stove at Crow Agency when an elderly woman, Pretty-shield, came to see him with her interpreter, Goes-together, the wife of Deer-nose the Indian Police Judge. Frank is pleased to have the opportunity for an interview, as Indian woman are notoriously shy. He asks (by means of Goes-together) Pretty-Shield about herself, about her experiences as a little girl.

Frank wants a wise old Indian woman's story and Pretty-Shield will oblige, but her storytelling is circuitous, so Frank must ask her questions directly. He first asks her how a man treats his married sister-in-law among the Crows. Pretty-Shield informs him that they were banned by law from speaking to one another. Further, a man who married a woman had the authority to claim her unmarried sisters as wives, so long as relatives...