Wind from an Enemy Sky

Content Warning: This section addresses themes of racism, cultural erasure, and violence against Indigenous people.

Bull, the chief of the Little Elk tribe, takes his grandson, Antoine, to the mountains to see the dam that has been built in their sacred lands. Bull is initially dismissive of his relatives’ concerns about the dam, believing that the water cannot be stopped. However, as they approach the dam, Bull is angered by the sight of the damming of their sacred water and the resulting changes to the landscape. He tries to shoot at the dam in frustration but is powerless against it. Antoine is struck by his grandfather’s anger and strength but also by his vulnerability in the face of the monumental change brought by the white man’s construction.

Bull lives in a camp with his extended family, including his wives, his children, and other households of his generation. The camp has remained in the same spot since before the Little Elk Reservation was created; it is a collection of tepees and a cabin near a stream emerging from the pine forest and is near a meadow where horses graze.