Bearer of the Pipe

THE SPANISH BIT SAGA #24

By Don Coldsmith

Paperback edition, Bantam, March 1996

From his auspicious birth, Wolf Pup has demonstrated an instinct for the ways of the wild. Yet it is in the lodge of his grandfather Singing Wolf that he seeks his true calling: medicine man and future bearer of the story skins, the pipe, and the sacred Spanish bit. But before he can claim his destiny Wolf Pup must undertake a perilous vision quest. He must learn to see through the eyes of the deer, soar with the red-tailed hawk, sit coiled with the snake in the grass. Then a whirlwind of terror, an instant of destruction, will leave his village in ruins and chase the life-giving herds of buffalo across the horizon and beyond the People’s reach. Suddenly Wolf Pup discovers the burden of being Pipe Bearer may require the most profound and painful sacrifice of all.

As this is a generational saga it comes as no surprise that Don Coldsmith has to return to similar themes in some of the entries to this superb series. Here it’s the vision quests and the calling of a medicine man. Coldsmith tells this kind of tale so well, confusing both his characters and readers with the true meaning of these vision quests and only revealing the truth when he is good and ready.

Wolf Pup has a distraction though, a girl he hoped to marry someday is courting another, so jealously is an emotion to cope with, something that Pup struggles with. These feelings beautifully written and make Wolf Pup so very human.

Don Coldsmith also describes events in such a way that you’ll feel you are sharing the dangers, excitement and wonders with his characters. The whirlwind build up and destructive force being one of the highlights.

As I said the story may revisit certain themes we’ve read about in this series before, but Coldsmith combines them with new elements that makes the tale seem fresh and new making this a worthy entry into what has to be one of the best, if not the best, series written about the native Americans.