Antelope Woman

The dog, whom Klaus calls Wiindigoo Dog, is standing on his chest, insulting him. The Wiindigoo is a folkloric spirit who represents insatiable, destructive hunger. The dog, who berates Klaus for being drunk again, tells him a story about three dogs waiting at a vet’s office. The first dog, who belongs to a Hochunk family, ate a pot of stew that the family had made but not shared with him. Then he ate the trash that contained the bones of the meat that went into the stew. At that point he had a terrible stomach and had gone to the bathroom all over the house. He was sure that they were going to have him put down. The next dog, a Dakota dog, tells a similar story. He’d been left alone in a truck with a man’s food and had not been able to stop himself from consuming all of it. The third dog, who is Ojibwe, had gone after his owner when she was vacuuming in the nude. He claims that he’d bewitched her with “love medicine.” Unlike the other two dogs, he is not to be put down. He is getting a shampoo and a nail trim. Klaus tells the dog that the story is disturbed and asks him to bring Sweetheart Calico back. The dog refuses.

Richard Whiteheart Beads is taken to a hospital. He is treated for what he thinks might be a concussion and then discharged. He ends up in a shelter and decides to turn himself into the police. He explains that he had illegally dumped toxic carpet. The officer tells him that he will find the warrant. Richard waits.

Rozin and Frank have moved in together. She is going back to school to get a law degree. Frank spends much of his time baking. Frank’s birthday is approaching, and she wants to do something special. She cannot quite make up her mind and considers various options. Finally, she decides to greet him at the door after work, wearing nothing but three artfully placed bows, carrying a cupcake with a single sparkler pushed into it like a candle. Frank, who does not much care for his birthday, decides to celebrate it by throwing Rozin a surprise party. He invites everyone over and Rozin answers the door, nearly naked. He expects her to cry, but she bursts into laughter.

Grandmas Giizis and Noodin sneak into the kitchen to eat leftover birthday cake the following morning. Cally and Deanna appear, asking their grandmothers to tell them the names that her mother was too afraid to give them. They tell the girls about the woman killed by Scranton Roy. She had given her granddaughter her own name and watched as the girl was ferried out of her village in the cradleboard, on the back of a dog. The girls’ names are taken from these ancestors: Other Side of the Earth, her daughter Blue Prairie Woman (who had journeyed from the village in search of her daughter) and her granddaughter, her namesake. They also tell the girls of a set of important blue beads. Blue is the color of time itself, and the beads have been passed down through the generations. They are of deep importance to their family. The girls ask to see them but are told that they must find the beads’ current owner, Sweetheart Calico, who is the great-granddaughter of Blue Prairie Woman.

Klaus wakes in the park from an alcohol-induced slumber. He is run over by a lawnmower, but the machine only gives him a flesh wound. He vows to help Sweetheart Calico leave the city and to stop drinking. He finds her and ties her to his wrist again with the piece of sweetheart-patterned calico. The two begin walking. They come upon a seemingly dead dog, who springs to life and is revealed as Almost Soup. They walk further. Although it pains him to do it, he unties her and tells her that she is free to go. For the first time, she speaks. Her voice is pained and raspy. She begins walking and, as Klaus watches, fades into the distance.