The Grass Dancer

The year is 1976. Seventy-six-year-old Herod Small War is having trouble at home. His once demure wife Alberta is now displaying altered behavior, which Herod views as culturally inappropriate and hypersexualized. Her forward behavior in the bedroom makes Herod so uncomfortable that he sleeps in the pantry attached to the house.

One morning, Archie arrives to seek Herod’s help in interpreting a dream. Herod is a Yuwipi, a spiritual healer who is able to lead a ceremony that will decipher Archie’s dream. During the ritual, Herod sees himself, Archie, Frank, and Harley, all of whom are young and appear as traditional Dakota men in the summer of 1877 (the Dakota are one of the tribes in the Sioux confederacy). A band of white men appear and chase the Sioux warriors until they seem trapped in a valley. The group faces certain doom until the earth splits to reveal a medicine (or magic) hole. Herod and his companions travel through this hole under the earth and successfully evade their pursuers. As the ceremony comes to an end, the final message from the spirits is, “You will find the medicine hole” (87).

Herod, Archie, Frank, and Harley set out on horseback to search for