Chapters 24 through 26 Summary and Analysis

Chapters twenty-four through twenty-six describe their visit to Wounded Knee and Nerburn's Nissan returns.

Chapter 24 Paha Sapa describes their ride together in silence, thousands of miles apart in thought departing the badlands. The moonlight gave the landscaped night a silvery glow. Hills, scattered with abandoned cars, rose on the left side of the road to meet ridges that became the Black Hills off in the distance. These mountains were a presence of spiritual forces called Paha Sapa that was the Lakota center of the universe. They huddled here in blankets to escape and pray to their god who failed them as the army killed them. Black Hills was the spiritual center the Lakota gave up everything for, that the white men stole from them when they found gold. Nerburn was filled with shame and contrition at the realization white...