BIG HORSE WOMAN

“Certain trees, certain animals, certain birds, 
certain clouds, are yours to keep-
those you are born by. 
The Willow, the horse, the ears up dog, 
are my kind.
I keep the ermine at my waist, 
morning rain at my fingertips. 

Willow talks to me soothing. 
There is no sadder tree, no better trunk, to cry on. 
Her roots, deep in sandy water, she drinks up tears, 
and they flow through her. 
So it always was with me, 
Thíxe-ní kʰe wíⁿ.
Water Willow. 

I thought myself one of them, 
being so named Willow from birth. 
And I was the Willow for my people. 
If I had not been born there, then, 
under that tree, those stars – 
only spirit knows – 
I would never have been able to bend to the times that were coming…. 

So I was - born under a twin black willow tree 
on the west bank of the Níⁿshude. 
The sky was full of shooting stars, 
showering in every direction, so they say. 

Yes, I saw them-
the changing stars that saw my way to earth. 
I would say that birth is very much like seeing stars… 
It was for me. 

I landed among the people 
at the Beginning of Cold Weather, 
on a cold, snow covered night. 

Thíxe-ní kʰe wíⁿ.
They named me. 
Water Willow 
I was called. 

You would have thought they’d name me for the stars… 
But the stars are magic. Sacred.
Xúbe. 

They…the stars … our ancestors, our babies, our unborn. 
No. Grandmother gave me the name of the Tree. 
The Tree, gave me its ears and voice.” 

Shóⁿge Tónga Wa’u
Big Horse Woman, 1852 
(Thíxe-ní kʰe wíⁿ
Water Willow,
being her child name)