Fools Crow by James Welch

¶ … Fools Crow by James Welch [...] White Man's Dog/Fools Crow's transformation or rite of passage. The rite of passage is an important event in the lives of the young male Blackfeet, and Fools Crow is no exception.

White Man's Dog's first rite of passage occurs during the first raid on the Crow's, when Yellow Kidney puts him in charge of a group of young men who will steal horses. Before the raid, White Man's Dog is a lonely bachelor, but after the raid, he is more respected by his people because he has successfully brought back horses, and he has killed a Crow, even though it was a youth. More importantly, he establishes he is a leader, and a visionary who somehow knows that Yellow Kidney will return to the tribe. He is a seasoned warrior now, and his status changes from boy to man, but he still has to mature further, as the other rites of passage in the book indicate.

White Man's Dog also apprentices to Mik-Api, the tribe medicine man, and this is another rite of passage toward manhood for him. In fact, it is with Mik-Api that he begins to realize he has begun the journey to manhood. He thinks, "No one had called him dog-lover since the raid on the Crows" (Welch 51). Mik-Api sends him to free the trapped wolverine, and it is during this journey that the wolverine visions come to him, and he converses with the Raven. He helps him through the painful Sun ceremony too, the ceremony that scars him forever and gives him another wolverine vision

When he marries Red Paint, it is another rite of passage because he leaves his father's lodge and makes his own home. This is a rite of passage in many cultures, and it is no different with his people. Now, it is possible for him to be a father, and that is a further rite of passage, and another journey toward being a man. Each step in the journey helps White Man's Dog learn about himself and his people, and makes him stronger and surer of himself. That is the real reason for the ceremonies and the rite of passage rituals that were so important to the Native American's lives. These rites could weed out the weak from the strong, and eventually pointed to the best and wisest leaders among the people.

The second raid against the Crow is another step on White Man's Dog's path toward manhood. He is chosen to "count the first honor" (Welch 139) of the battle, and this shows his stature has risen in the band. He is wounded, but he kills and scalps the leader of the Crows, and his father acknowledges he is a brave. However, he finds he does not enjoy the killing, and this makes him an even greater man, because he understands the evil of fighting amongst each other, when the Natives should all be banding together to ward of the white man's advances. After the second raid, he is renamed "Fools Crow" because the tribe believes he tricked the entire Crow village, and that helped in their victory. This is the final rite of passage, and he is truly a great man and a great leader after this. The final rite of passage is when the whites kill another band of his people. He realizes the whites and the Natives will never live together in peace, and he has matured beyond his years with this realization. Ultimately, he becomes the leader of the tribe, and he thinks to himself "he knew they would survive, for they were the chosen ones" (Welch 390). Fools Crow is a wise leader, and he learned much of his wisdom through his many rites of passage.