Red Feather Filly by Terri Farley

know how to give each tribe its proper home.
    â€œThe chiefs believed that when the first searcher reached Dawnland, Moon would give them a sign, a star shower that could be seen far and wide. The sign would tell all people to stop. In the place where they saw the star shower, they would know they were home.
    â€œWhen the people set off, each tribe was determined to reach Dawnland first, but as Sun rose and set, and Moon rose and set, they realized it would take many days and they prepared to move slowly, but surely, toward their goal.
    â€œNow, White Woman—in some tribes she’s called White Shell Woman or Buffalo Calf Woman—was less patient than the rest. As she was crossing the playa, she stopped. Bending with Sun hot on her back, she scooped up three fingers full of moon-white alkali mud and molded it into a horse. It didn’t matter that it was the world’s first horse. She knew what to do. She vaulted instantly onto Horse’s back and galloped toward Dawnland.
    â€œWhen she reached it, far ahead of the others, stars showered down. Because all people were watching the sky, they saw a thousand silver flashes in the black sky. Each tribe saw the star shower. Each tribestopped where it was meant to stop and made camp in its new home.
    â€œOf course, White Woman paid for her impatience by having to live where it was hottest by day and coldest by night, but she remained friends with Horse and all her descendants forever after.”
    â€œI love that story,” Sam said, clapping. “Is it Shoshone?”
    â€œMy daughter-in-law would tell you no.”
    â€œBeing a history teacher and all,” Jake said, “Mom has tried to research the roots of Grandfather’s stories and they’re kind of…elusive.”
    â€œIf I borrow from many tribes’ stories and blend them,” Mac said, indifferently, “does it make them less true?”
    Jake narrowed his eyes against the glare gathering on the lake’s surface, and let Sam think about it.
    Newspaper reporters got different angles on a story from different sources they interviewed, Sam thought. So did the police, when they talked with different witnesses to an event. And Gram said different books of the Bible told the same stories over again from the perspectives of different writers.
    â€œI think it works,” Sam said, finally.
    â€œAnd you wouldn’t be swayed by the part where a woman discovers the horse,” Jake said, reasonably.
    â€œOf course not,” Sam said, though the story had her wondering more than ever why Mac had brought her along. Could he think she had a special connectionwith horses? When she got up her courage to ask, though, his eyes were closed. He leaned against the back of the sheltered area, dozing.
    Jake noticed at the same time. He stood quietly and motioned her to follow. They walked some distance past the fishermen and around the lake before either of them spoke.
    â€œIs he all right?” Sam asked first.
    Jake looked at her, amazed. “Mac? Of course he’s all right. Do you mean like crazy or—”
    â€œNo,” Sam said. She tried to put enough meaning into the word so that she wouldn’t have to say exactly what she was thinking. “You know, yesterday, when he was asking if you, like, challenged yourself enough?”
    â€œOh, I get it. You mean that ‘passing over’ stuff?” Jake laughed. “Don’t take that seriously. Mom told me he was saying that stuff on the day she met him and he was like forty. Not even that old. I think he just does it”—Jake paused and squinted toward the lake—“to remind us that nothing lasts forever and you know, someone could die before they get everything done.”
    Like mom , Sam thought, but she put the notion away for later.
    â€œSo why did he bring me, do you think? And what was the point of that story?” Sam asked.
    â€œI’ll tell you what I think,