Lanae was a new name. “Axel Rouillard?”
“At first. Then Axel didn’t want any part of it.”
“Why not?
“Moser and Little Bear decided we’d train to do the Seven Sacred Rites. Axel was a total dickhead and said we needed a Lakota holy man to teach us. When Moser and Little Bear found someone, Axel said a bunch of nasty shit about them being stupid puppets because it was being done wrong.”
“Who was the leader helping with the rituals?”
She shook her head.
I almost snapped, “Tell me.” Instead, I switched tactics. “If I paid you, would it convince you to help me?”
“It ain’t about money.”
“Then what is it about? Honor? Levi told me how much he wanted to be in this group, and the next thing I know, he’s dead. Please, Sue Anne, I need some answers.”
She gnawed on her straw, avoiding my gaze as she debated. Finally, she sighed. “I’ll tell you this much. It started out one leader, then another guy started coming around. The leader told us we had to pass a bunch of tests to prove our worthiness before we could do the actual rituals.”
“What kind of tests?”
“Mental. Spiritual. Physical. Endurance.”
“Endurance for what?”
“For pain.”
It was pointless to berate her or judge her. I’d blindly followed military orders my whole life, even to the point of excruciating pain. “And did these tests hurt?”
“The first couple weren’t so bad. Then we started the harder ones, like the Warrior’s Challenge.” She squirmed. “The leaders passed around fire water to help us with the pain so I was sorta drunk when it was my turn.”
“What do you remember?”
Her eyes lost focus. “Facing a pole in the center of a sacred circle with my hands tied above my head. Then my back was whipped with a willow branch while the other warrior candidates watched.”
I must’ve made a noise; her answering look was defiant.
“Everyone participated. It was a spiritual cleansing. My Indian blood mixed with my tears on sacred ground as I cried a lament to the Great Spirit. Then the leader cut me from the pole and gave me the willow branch as a symbol of my bravery. Afterward we sat in a circle, chanting, drumming, and finishing the ritual by smoking the peace pipe.”
My stomach roiled. Bet there was wacky tobaccy in that peace pipe. Bet they passed the bottle around again.
“And before you ask, I used the whip on my friends. The whipping may sound cruel, but we thought it was a celebrated part of our heritage. Toughening us up to honor our warrior ancestors.”
“How else were they toughening you up?”
“By cutting us.”
Holy shit.
Sue Anne fell silent. When she finally spoke, I strained to hear her muted voice. “We believed the cutting prepared us for the piercing rituals of the Sun Dance.”
A pickup load of young kids drove by. Sue Anne ducked her head from view. “Look. I said enough. I gotta go.”
“No. Please stay. Please finish. I’m not judging you. I’m just trying to understand.”
Angrily, she said, “I don’t know how any of this will help you. Levi didn’t even know what we were doing. Moser and Little Eagle were using him, making him do things, then laughing behind his back, knowing they’d never let him in. After the sick shit that happened with the last so-called ritual, I don’t know why he or anyone would want to join such a fucked-up group anyway. I realized they was even using me. I was so stupid-” She made a move to leave.
My hand circled her wrist before she could run. “What happened?”
Sue Anne twisted out of my grip. “Of the Seven Sacred Rites, the Ishna Ta Awi Cha Lowan is supposed to be about purifying a girl after she gets her first period. It’s meant to be a time where her mother and sisters and aunts prepare her for womanhood. But these advisers, and the guys, they fucking twisted it…”
Dread expanded in my chest. “Into what?”
“Into a gang rape. They called it a ‘mating ritual.’ During the spring equinox they tied Lanae up and took turns raping her. I wasn’t there, but Lanae came to me and told me afterward.” She swallowed. “That’s when I knew Axel was right and the stuff these ‘leaders’ were making us do was bullshit. There ain’t nothing like that in our Lakota traditions.”
“But you stuck it out up until that point?”
“Yeah. We were so… crazy for a group to call our own, to belong to something that was ours, that we did anything they told us to. Stupid, huh? Lanae went to live with her sister in North Dakota. Most of them guys think she’s just spending the summer there, but I know the truth. She’s never coming back here.”
“Couldn’t you tell an adult or a tribal elder what happened?”
“Yeah, right.”
“Someone has to know about it. Especially since these leaders are adults. Not only is it morally wrong, it is against the law.”
Sue Anne laughed. “Everyone looks the other way. Or they’re part of the ceremony stuff. Or they’re making up their own ceremonies to rip off stupid white tourists for money. Or they like screwing young girls. Plenty of that shit around here.”
Briefly, I thought of Rollie and his young paramour, Verline. I pressed her for more answers. “Were you the only girl after Lanae left?”
“Yes. That’s when I knew I wanted out because I’d be next. I knew that’s the only reason they ever invited me was to rape me.” She shook her head violently. “I stopped going to the meetings and started hanging out with Molly. But I didn’t tell her all of it. I just wanted to be normal. I just wanted out.”
“Who else wanted out? Albert?”
No response.
“Could a member of the group have killed Albert because he tried to get out? And Levi was helping him?”
She fixed her gaze on the mangled straw in her cup.
“Mercy?” A male voice called out behind me.
I turned around.
Theo was behind the wheel of an old white Honda Accord in the drive-through lane. He poked his head out the window. “I thought that was you. What’re you doing here?”
“Having lunch. Why are you here?” Why wasn’t he taking care of Hope, like she’d told me? Damn him. Was she sitting in the trailer alone?
“Just finished a staff meeting and needed a bite to eat.” He focused his dumb-ass smile on Sue Anne. “I haven’t seen you in a while. You coming to class tonight?”
“Umm. No. Sorry. I’m working a split shift.”
He was teaching class tonight? Then who was staying with my sister?
“You know this is a graded class, Sue Anne. So if you want the credit to count toward graduation, you have to pass-”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I know, all right?”
“Good.”
The pickup ahead of him inched up. “Catch you both later.” His engine made a clicking rattle as he shot forward and yelled his order into the speaker.
When I looked back, Sue Anne had made it halfway across the parking lot. I raced to catch up with her. “You need a ride so we can finish what we were talking about?”
“No. Forget it. Forget everything. I said too much.”
“Sue Anne-”
“Go away. Levi is dead. I’m sorry. But I didn’t have nothing to do with it. I-I just… just leave me alone.” She shouldered her backpack and walked along, head down.
As a last-ditch effort I yelled, “At least think about what I said. Tell someone what happened. Someone will believe you.”
She didn’t respond.
I felt pushy and mean as I watched her disappear into the distance like a heat mirage.
On a whim I decided to stop at the grocery store for a cup of wojopi-a starchy pudding made from roots, nuts, and berries. Something sweet might counteract the bitterness left by my conversation with Sue Anne.
A flash of sunlight on metal drew my attention to the Tribal Police Department across the street. Weird. An Eagle River County patrol car was parked out front next to a beige Taurus. Before I theorized it couldn’t possibly be Sheriff Dawson’s vehicle, he strode out the door.