American Indian Stories

The narrator of this short story is a young man visiting his Sioux parents and grandmother in their wigwam as they pass a pipe around. The grandmother notes that the narrator is “no longer a little boy” (63). She asks when he will find a bride, but he dismisses the question. His mother urges him to be active and become a good hunter. His father encourages him to become a great warrior. The narrator declines to smoke the pipe and leaves.

Nine years pass and the narrator does not become a warrior, hunter, or husband. Instead, he goes to mission school and adopts a Christian lifestyle following the “soft heart of Christ” (64). He returns to his village to preach Christianity. The narrator sees his now elderly and sick father and mother but does “not feel at home” (65). He feels it is useless to try converting his parents. The narrator later preaches to a group of Sioux who criticize him for rejecting his people and failing to help his sick father.

The narrator’s father becomes very ill and has no food to eat. The narrator prays for his father, but his father continues to reject Christianity. His mother warns the narrator that his father will starve to death if he does not bring him food to eat.