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Originally Posted by issybird
The visionary section at the end was perhaps a little too accurate for my tastes, but my major issue with it was that Fools Crow was passive, just a seer of visions. His earlier quests involved him taking action, forging a path. With this one, he was just a witness. I thought it was rushed and perhaps just a means to wrap up the story and not as organic as his other quests.
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I wonder if the lack of action is partially answered by this quote after Fools Crow surveys the destruction left by the massacre.
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Anger welled up within him, an anger that was directed at the futility of attempting to make the seizers pay. He had always thought that the Pikunis could fight these hairy-faces. He had prepared himself for this fight, he was ready to die a good death to defend this country. Now he knew that his father had been right all along—the Pikunis were no match for the seizers and their weapons. That the camps were laid low with the white-scabs disease did not even matter. The disease, this massacre—Sun Chief favored the Napikwans. The Pikunis would never possess the power to make them cry.
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As Fools Crow matures in the book his attitudes transition from warrior to healer. We watch him question and come to terms with his elders as they debate peace or war with the seizers. Perhaps his action is in how he reacts to these events and helps to lead his people through the difficult changes to their life that are coming in the years ahead. His final thought of that chapter is that "We must think of our children". We know from earlier that he feels a weight of responsibility and duty to the group in contrast to Fast Horse's freedom. As the book ends Mik-Api wonders if Fools Crow next season will smoke the tobacco offering to "Thunder Chief, whose long rumbling voice foretold the beginning of life and abundance on the ground of many gifts".