Winter of the Holy Iron

Winter of the Holy Iron by Marshall III, Joseph. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780890135174.

"The war leader of the Wolf Tail Lakota stood... Grandfathers, he began, thank you for allowing me to speak. He paused to gather his thoughts. Four winters ago, I had to kill a white man. I approached him in friendship, and he shot his weapon at me. I did not let him shoot at me again. There was no way to know whether he was a good man or a bad man. Or a man at all, in the way we know men to be. But I do know that he took me to be a bad man, because he did not wait for even one heartbeat after he saw me before he took up his holy iron and shot it. Since that moment when death nearly took me, I have often wondered why he tried to kill me. Did he shoot at me because of what was in his heart? Or did he shoot at me because of his weapon? Did he shoot at me because he knew he could kill easily? Did he shoot at me because he felt his weapon gave him a right to kill? These questions are always with me. Sometimes they haunt my sleep. Still, I do not know the answers to them. Until I do, the holy iron will remain hidden."