Scene 3.09 - Posse On The Scene
EST: INT. Tee-pee - Indian Village - Afternoon.
(SUMMER is conducting a jewelry-making class for the other young women of the tribe.)
SUMMER RAIN
Then you loop the wire back through the bead, and there! A perfect, priceless, princess necklace!
(The girls are successful with their own necklaces and don them immediately, flattering each other. As long as they have black wigs, these American-Indian princesses may be any race. Their makeup is garish and dramatic, like the early talkies in the R-K-O days. The deputies, SYNDEE SNOW and SANDEE SNOW are in the back, watching the group. COMMONWEALTH is along for the ride, modestly dressed, wearing a bonnet with her hair in long braided pigtails and is giving gals like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Becky Thatcher a run for their money.)
MISTY SUMMERS
Summer, could this pattern be fashioned for a man?
SUMMER RAIN
Certainly, Misty! But that’s all the time we have today for jewelry making. It’s time for today’s secret treasure.
ALL STUDENTS
(Picture a kindergarten class.) Secret treasure! Secret treasure!
SUMMER RAIN
Okay. Now it may be time for today’s history lesson, but what good is a lesson without a secret treasure? Now where can it be? (The class points.) Behind here? (They respond, she nods to the back of the room as she goes behind a hide partition marked "Lost And Found" and reveals a very large music box, practically a cabinet, circa 1799. It doesn’t fit the decor at all, and is clearly a European antique, origin unknown. It is quite a large piece of furniture with an elaborate, inlay map of the Atlantic Ocean on its face.) Hmmm... From Isabella’s lost galleon to Coronado’s forgotten gold, there’s treasures to be found that can never be sold, for if this secret ever crosses the merchant’s cold hand, a curse upon you and a curse on your land, better to hide it, break it, or burn it, than to-
ALL NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENTS
Let the secret out so that whitey can learn it.
(She pushes the button, and classical music plays throughout. She sees the wooden inlay of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria and some other boat on the box, and mindlessly-caresses the fourth boat.)
SUMMER RAIN
Don’t worry about our special guests. Pasty-faced as they may be, they know that we mean no offense to present company. Being white among the sisters ain’t the same as being white, is it? They’ve come back to give us a very special presentation, but first, can anyone tell me why the year of the white man, 1492- (Hands go up.) Can anyone tell me why that year is important in our history? Autumn?
AUTUMN BREEZE
In the year of the white man, 1492, Italian cartographer Christopher Columbus, unaware of the previous emigration of our nomadic ancestors from China, who came across the continental land-bridge, and Columbus, also ignorant of the previous settlements across the French-Canadian border by his European neighbors, the Norsemen and the Vikings, landed on this continent from across the Atlantic Ocean in hopes to ensure a trade route for his sponsor, Queen Isabella from Spain to the Eastern side of the continent of Asia, hoping for quick, naval passage across what-he-wagered-was an Atlantic-Pacific Ocean route. Instead, he landed upon our native shores, clueless of his whereabouts, or of the sheer vastness of our home continent, or the diversity of its native people. Although Christopher Columbus’ mostly-successful mapping of the Atlantic Ocean may be relevant to the white man, for it dispelled the European notion that the Earth was flat -- among our people, he is more-widely known today as the father of all bigots, for he erroneously reported to his sponsor that he had indeed, found a naval passage to the country of India, causing his successors and countless other Western-Europeans to forever mis-label the native people of this continent as Indians.
SUMMER RAIN
Perfect. Can anyone piggy-back on that response and tell me why it relates to current events?
(All the students have a hand go up.)
SPRING BLOSSOM
Pick me!
SUMMER RAIN
Okay Spring.
SPRING BLOSSOM
The current legal case of our tribe being tried in the Kansas Supreme Court, The Caught-cha-lyin’-ta-me tribe versus the State of Kansas, 1869, cites the original land agreement of the Columbus Expedition, and the subsequent Coronado Expedition where our ancestral tribesmen were forcably conscripted to serve as scouts.
SUMMER RAIN
Excellent! But how does that apply in this case? Holly. I see you’ve done your homework.
HOLLY MEADOWS
(Has a visual aid. Lays several hides across the box. Uses a pointer.) The use of Caught-cha-lyin’-ta-me braves to scout the caves of the Paleface Mine was part of the land treaty of 1831, when Redbeard McFadden briefly-won property rights of the Wichita and Delano (dee-layn'-oh) area in a game of chance against tribal leader Chief Oxymoron. However, by using our braves to explore the mine, an ancient burial ground was violated and the Creator was angered. Scouts, comprised of our drunken, shirt-tail relatives from the Caught-cha-cheatin’-on-me tribe, coupled with members of our own tribe, and supplemented by runaway slaves and a few, incarcerated white men, were all forced to explore the forbidden cave, In-a-gadda-da-vi-da, deep inside Many-Moon Hill.
(HOLLY MEADOWS turns the page of the big book.)
HOLLY MEADOWS (Cont'd)
When those scouts had violated the ancient wards and entered the cave, the Creator afflicted them with a fatal illness. When the same also happened to the white men who had also ventured into the cave too far, more white men were sent to investigate and eventually, the entrance to the cave was sealed with large slabs of stone, cut from the lead (lehd) quarry in the Paleface Madman's Mine. In exchange for the half of the stock in a fire-water distillery and universal health care for the people of our tribe, our scouts who were afflicted with the strange illness were volunteered to undergo experimental treatment at the Washington Medical Center in the District Of Columbia, so named for the previously-mentioned, bigoted Italian who white men claim (Illustrates with finger quotes, then goes back to charts.) "discovered" America. When the white doctors couldn’t explain our tribemen’s loss of hair and depreciated bone marrow coupled with elevated levels of tooth decay and calcium loss, the white government gave us an additional settlement near the In-a-gadda-da-vi-da Cave, known to the white men as Luna Hill. To date, the In-a-gadda-da-vi-da cave remains sealed, and Caught-cha-lyin’-to-me Law forbids anyone to enter the cave without prior-approval from the tribal chief.
(HOLLY MEADOWS turns another page of the big book.)
HOLLY MEADOWS (Cont'd)
To date, white man has not explained the scouts’ medical abnormalities or their untimely deaths and no one has ventured into the cave ever since. Our current lawsuit concerning our property rights of the Black Prairie, the only remaining land originally-owned by our tribe still in tribal possession, contends that by forcing us to live on land over the In-a-gadda-da-vi-da Cave, which is, technically, land that we already own through a prior settlement, nothing is gained by our tribe in the transaction and should be voided, unless the contract is amended. We contend that concession of Black Prairie property rights to the state of Kansas must be directly and fairly compensated if any settlement is to be reached. Our tribe has already suffered from many ailments and unnatural events due to the Black Prarie’s inherently toxic and unnurturing state, and I ask you, (Flips the final page, revealing archetectual mock-up of a flashy, 1860s casino.) should being able to build a casino on our own land be too much to ask?
(Applause.)
SUMMER RAIN
Very good, Holly. While we’re commenting on our settlement offer: Why do you think our tribal elders are asking for captial funds for a casino instead of trying to win-back land for our people?
AUTUMN BREEZE
I know!
SUMMER RAIN
Sure. Autumn. You go, girl.
AUTUMN BREEZE
Tribal elders have learned from past negotiations that land deals are complicitly-sided-against the people of our tribe and this country’s Constitutional laws were written for the white man and their interests alone. By building a casino, tourists from neighboring lands can participate in morally-questionable behavior on Caught-cha-lyin’-ta-me land, while disvesting any guilt for past transgressions of whitey against our people by making us poor Injuns filthy-rich on their dime.
MISTY SUMMERS
Plus, the white man can pick up a few cartons of smokes and a few bottles of fire-water without having to pay those outrageous taxes that the white man fought the British so hard to get away from. It’s a win-win one-hundred-percent American solution that could even bring tourism to the area. In fact, at the last tribal council forum, our tribal visioneering committee reported that the projected economic impact ratio is twelve to one. Which means that for every dollar spent at our casino, ten dollars will be spent in downtown Wichita and two in downtown Delano. This shows that our solution is not only profitable, but is also healthy for the community.
SUMMER RAIN
(On the tee-pee’s bison board, there are little cut-outs of birds, turtles, coyotes, fish --all have a corresponding name and a varying amounts of foil stars upon them.) Here’s a star for Spring, Autumn, Misty and two stars for Holly, who brought that wonderful visual aid to class today. I’m impressed with all of you. I wish all students could be as good as you. Now before I dismiss the class for recess, Syndee and Sandee Snow from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office are going to give a special presentation on how we can all prevent crime in our neighborhood by learning how to fend-off illicit attacks on our person with some simple, yet effective, self-defense techniques. With them, is our special guest Commonwealth Law, who will portray the role of a woman jogging in a park, alone, at night.
(POCACHICALOT bursts in.)
POCACHICALOT
Summer!
SUMMER RAIN
Poca! What is wrong?
POCACHICALOT
Uh, nothing. Uh, the men and I were, just-
(TEX RANGER pops his head in.)
COMMONWEALTH
Hi Tex!
TEX RANGER
(Sees music box, hears music. Actually knows what piece the music box is playing.) Uh, we’ll just wait outside.
SUMMER RAIN
Now what’s goin’ on, Poca? And don’t give me that look-
POCACHICALOT
The men and I, well-
SUMMER RAIN
Spit it out.
POCACHICALOT
(In a white man’s vernacular:) Well, we were thinkin’-’bout headin’-up to the caves over by the Paleface Mine-
SUMMER RAIN
Oh, going on another little spelunking expedition, are we? It’s a good thing I cooked extra bison-bierocks this morning. Now there’s five for you, and if the girls in class don’t mind getting by with just two, there’s at least three for each of your friends. It should be quite the picnic.
POCACHICALOT
(A la Gary Coleman:) Whatchoo you talkin’-’bout, Summer?
SUMMER RAIN
Why, we’re going with you, of course. Come on, class. Field trip!
(They all stand.)
POCACHICALOT
No, Summer! You can’t go, and you certainly can’t take these young girls with you!
SUMMER RAIN
Why on Earth not?
POCACHICALOT
(Stares at her:) There’s a horrible, flesh-eating monster in there! It’s no place for a woman to be!
SYNDEE SNOW
I knew it! That rascal lied to me! There IS a monster out there!
SANDEE SNOW
That tears it!
(They both storm-out of the enormous tee-pee.)
SUMMER RAIN
(Rolls her eyes.) Smokey-on-anabolix? Poca, what twisted tale are you spinning to the white man, Poca?
POCACHICALOT
Summer, you of all people should know the relationship between the beast and the white man and what needs to be done. Sheriff Marshall Law has a plan. As chief, I must protect our tribe; it's not safe.
SUMMER RAIN
If you thought it was safe-enough last month to take me along on your moonlight exploration, where you kept wanting to explore me more than the caves, then it's safe-enough now. Misty, you help Autumn carry the lunch baskets. Spring, you help Holly carry the art supplies and the quiet-time mats. And get the yarn and the rounded scissors, Spring. We’re gonna make mobiles during craft-time.
POCACHICALOT
I don’t think this is a good idea.
SUMMER RAIN
Oh, we’ll stay out of your way. The girls could use a walk out in the fresh air. (Takes his arm, feels his big bicep, leans head into his chest. Almost joking:) Besides, what fun is fighting a big ol’ hairy "monster" if you don’t have your girl nearby to cheer you on?
POCACHICALOT
(Back to broken Injun:) Very true. Summer Rain much good medicine to Pocachicalot.
SUMMER RAIN
Very good. Commonwealth, are you coming along with us?
COMMONWEALTH
I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
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