Three Fawn Moon

From the very beginning of man’s time man has been an enemy unto man. Greed sat upon nations as they fought other nations over boundaries unseen from worlds above. The victor would kill the losers or turn them into slaves. Women would often become camp whores.
This tradition of wars came to the Americas. The killing never stopped. Women taken to be sex slaves, children taken to be reared in the traditions of the tribe continued. Soon, the white man came to this land and with extreme violence overcame the natives deceiving them with promises, stripping them of their lands and families. The new comers spilled their blood, infecting them with smallpox, killing their bison their horses, burning their tents suffering them to reservations where their traditions, their culture, their languages were forgotten. The goal of the government was to eliminate the native tribes. No different than in the past, but by using different techniques, this elimination would be slow.
In this story we fine two characters trying to get through life the best they can. Because of certain bullies this was almost made impossible. We have, Bill, an eight year old boy, who suffered a traumatic brain injury at the hands of his brother. The problems with this injury didn't show up until he was ten and seemingly happens overnight. He is shunned by his classmates; teachers begin verbally bullying him because he has become different than what he was. His classmates follow the lead of their teachers and began to mock him. People he needs to trust have abandoned him.
Cricket, Three Fawn Moon, comes into his class and is well received for one day. The prejudice against her becomes overwhelming. Bill stands up for her and the two form an alliance that would have to stand the test of time if both are to survive. Her trials mount and become unrelenting. Teachers and class mates show her a great deal of disrespect and in turn she begins to fight back.
Cricket is invited to go on an outing with her class. She accepts, but the day starts badly when her class, as well as one teacher shows up late. Cricket feels that something is very wrong, but it is a beautiful day until she smells snow and when she alerts her teachers they ignore her until it is too late. It is because of her native skills that they were able to survive. When Phil, the local reporter writes his piece it becomes a dishonest portrayal from the true story because Phil is prejudice and he refuses to acknowledge any of Cricket’s heroics and only because she is an Indian.
Megan, Cricket’s mom, comes face to face with her past. Phil had traced Megan back to the Lakota reservation and shared information of Megan’s whereabouts to Broken Antler who had a vendetta against her and seeks his revenge. Coupled with his coming to town, and Cricket becoming pregnant, Megan forces her daughter to leave town thus breaking this unbreakable union between Bill and Cricket. Her mom is forced to leave town because of her past that has caught up with her and now Cricket has to suffer for it in having to leave her true love behind. Bill comes face to face with Phil, the reporter, who chased Cricket from his arms. Cricket ends up in Texas with her mom only to meet up with Broken Antler who had raped her mom and now wanted the same from her.
In Texas, Cricket had some health issues and visits a government doctor and he places her in the hospital where he aborts her baby and then sterilizes her. When Bill was involved with the rewriting of this part he wondered why he wrote this diabolical act then he proceeded to research this lead. He found that during the 1970’s, under the Nixon administration, the Nixon administration incorporated the Eugenics program that was practiced here in America back in the 1920’s. This was a program of Eugenics was brought on by corporate greed. The corporations wanted the mineral rights of various Indian tribal lands. The government’s position on solving the problems with the Indians was to eliminate the Indians. When done, roughly 42% of all child bearing age Indian women had been sterilized, or butchered. Over ten thousand male Indians were also sterilized.
Later Cricket is raped by Shadow Hawk an evil Comanche Chief. Bill wondered about this and why did he write this account. In his research he found that Native American women suffer rape at an 80% higher rate than any other group of women.
Bill and Cricket’s future lies in ruins with this discrimination, prejudice and bullying. Bill seeks his own path stumbling along the way having Cricket constantly on his mind. Cricket is at the mercy of her mom and her mom’s past and when her mom dies, Cricket is left alone to fight off Broken Antler and Shadow Hawk and their evil intent to satisfy their own lusts.
Bill’s intent with this book was to eliminate the statistics and bring these insidious acts of deception, prejudice, discrimination, sexism, and bullying perpetrated on the Indians and places them on the shoulders of this one little Indian girl. In doing so he places a face on what happens to someone when all this evil falls upon them. Make no mistake; Bill suffers from these same acts of unkindness, but Bill handles them differently. In writing this story Bill brings us to the beginning of hate. To understand that very hate that swells in the bosoms of men that will one day lead to many atrocities.
No one, no one has the right to steal anyone of their right to life and the pursuit of happiness. Yet it happens, and it happens in small places in small ways and grows o something we have trouble understanding or imagining. All we have to do is look back to the beginning and we will know but what usually happens is we will invent our own history until we are not a part of it. Now we can sit back and listen as we watch a person’s hope being stripped away because many people think they have the power to do control someone else’s life. When they are done a fragile heart is left alone and broken. Dreams, wants needs, and desires are left beside that road of hope.
It has been said that when this happens it takes a thousand atta boy, or girl, to rebuild that heart that heart that was stolen. But sometimes the fickle of fate or a loving God, who is watching over us, carries us to a new level and we become what He would like us to be. Cricket is close to her Mother spirit and calls on her often. She dances, meditates, and seeks visions to guide her. Sometimes Cricket doesn’t listen and becomes lost.
She comes back home to the Adirondacks to be with Bill only to leave again more confused than ever. Bill has become one with another love and now Cricket’s life is in shambles. Having been rejected by her own tribe in California she heads to the only place where she is accepted—to a place of her loneness. She heads back to Oregon where she decides her fate.
Bullies and critics steal fragile hearts. Deception leads stolen hearts down bad streets and often those hardened and broken hearts find it hard to return. This is a place where Cricket finds herself. Lost in a world of confusion on how this all happened to her. Her questions abound as she tries to understand whether this was all of her mother’s doing and how much of it was of her own bad decisions. Cricket comes of age as she matures and is able to answer these questions. From there She understands there is no place else for her to go. She makes her decision.