Toe Jams

Toe Jams

It was Saturday night at the pow wow grounds, the day had been hot and
the night was just a little bit cooler. It was near the arbor, the
shade covering around the pow wow dance arena. It was crowded, people
form all over, Indians dressed in their buckskins feathers, children
running around, some folks sitting in their folding chairs.


She was standing there, her braided hair perfectly split and she wore
a white buckskin with cut glass beads in the style of the Southern
Cheyenne traditional dancers. She held a fan a eagle feathers, she was
tall and maybe 18 or so. In the glow of the night lights she looked
gold colored, a soft haze covered her. There were three of them women
traditional dancers standing there waiting to hear the call for the
young women’s traditional dance.


A drum group, the Prairie Island Pontiacs were taking a break. The
group came from the Windy City, that place on the eastern plains, of
tall towers and cold winds. One of them wore shades, wearing a shirt
that said Chicago Cubs, he was carrying his drumstick, long it was,
all puffy and round at the top. He was swinging it around his finger
as he was talking to his friend. He swung it and it hit this girl from
behind and she turned around.


“Oh,” he said, “I’m sorry”


She pulled at her buckskin looking to see if it had any marks from the
stick. She looked at it and then at him in an instant. She always had
in her mind the kind of Indian guy she would like to meet. She had
thought on him from time to time. He would be tall with braids, maybe
with broad shoulders and a square jaw with high cheekbones and a
certain kind of look around the eyes, sort of hard but not really that
way. He would have an easy smile and be narrow at the hips, swift legs
and all of sudden he the one she had seen in her dreams was standing
there. He looked at her and his said, “I’m sorry I
didn’t see you”


Her friends said, “you should look at where you are going,
Bro!” He turned away and then she said, “It’s o.k.,
nothing is messed up,” He turned to walk away and then she
thought, what am I going to say to him. What is his name? He stepped
away and she grabbed his drumstick and held onto it and pulled him
back. It was still on his finger and she caught him off guard and it
pulled him back. It stopped him dead in his tracks. He stood perfectly
still and then turned around.


She laughed at him and said, “Now we are even!”


He laughed a small laugh and liked her smile, but his friend said,
“We have to go!” His friends continued to walk away to the
stew stands, to eat some frybread, drink some cold pop and maybe grab
a burger or two.


The world stopped for them and the look in their eyes said it all, It
was Saturday night, July 5th at the Fort Duchesne Powow and after this
night nothing would ever be the same for them again. She heard them
call out over the speaker, “Young Womens Traditional Dancers we
need you now in the arena!” She heard it and looked at him and
said, “What’s your name?”


.His friends called out to him, “Hurry Up!” He looked at
her and was going to say something when they called out to him,
“Come on Toe Jams!”


The speaker called out, “Young Women hurry up!” She turned
away, he didn’t say a thing and she laughed to hear his name.
She looked at him and said, “Toe Jams?” He smiled and
said, “Yeah, that’s what they call me.” She turned
to go the arena and the girls all were laughing and she left him
standing there. Turning she waved at him and said softy, “Toe
Jams.”


He left to go eat and watched her make her way to the arena and saw
her dance, slow and in the way of the Southern Plains Indians, nice
and slow elegant in the way she moved.
She was a good one out there and after she finished she made her way
to the edge of the dance circle to let the judges see her number and
he stood waiting to see her under the arbor.


rustywire@yahoo.com