Antelope Woman

When Cally and Deanna were born, the nurse initially threw away their umbilical cords. Noodin had sternly told the woman that she needed to retrieve them from the hazardous waste bin because they had to be sewn into turtle-shaped buckskin pouches. They would be the girls’ first toys. The nurse didn’t know which cord was which, and although it was terrible luck to play with someone else’s cord, Noodin has no choice but to make the decision herself about which cord to give each girl. Eventually, the girls lose their turtles, and Noodin is relieved that she will not have to think about this mix-up again. Rozin, however, is upset. Losing these first toys is, like having the wrong toy, bad luck. She is sure that this loss will come to haunt her and the girls, and slowly she begins to notice signs that the spirits are trying to take her daughters from her. Because the girls were never given Ojibwe names, she decides to ask Noodin and Giizis to find names for them, hoping to anchor the girls into their family and community. The names that they choose are taken from the original story of Scranton Roy and Blue Prairie Woman, and Rozin will not allow the girls to adopt them. She wants to leave this piece of their history behind and not burden Cally and Deanna with it.

Cecile drives up to the reservation for the girls’ naming ceremony but is told that there will not be one. Irritated, she heads back down to Minneapolis, unaware that the girls have snuck inside of her car. They get out at Cecile’s and wander into Frank’s bakery. Frank calls Rozin to tell her that the girls are safe and allows them each to eat several pastries. The girls stay in Minneapolis, and one day, Sweetheart Calico shows up at Frank’s bakery. She secretly lives in Rozin’s house while Frank has been repairing it (Rozin is still up north with Giizis and Noodin), although she sneaks out before anyone else comes in. The girls are afraid that she will take them on another adventure through the city, and they try to avoid her. Rozin arrives in Minneapolis to get her daughters but is unsure whether to remain in the city or return to her mothers’ house. Cecile reminds her of the story of Scranton Roy and Blue Prairie Woman and asks her if she has ever considered the impact of history on their people. She argues that they have been separated from their culture, a culture that developed over the course of thousands of years. To people in their generation, their oral history has become just myths and stories. They do not listen to the advice of their grandmothers. They bring up Sweetheart Calico. They talk about antelope in myth and legend and point out how many miles she can cover in a single day, all while wearing stilettos. They decide that her presence in the city has great meaning and significance. Meanwhile, Frank works in his bakery to bake a blitzkuchen, and Rozin realizes that this is how he must work through the grief that, according to sociologists, all Indigenous men and women are born with.

Klaus and Richard are drinking mouthwash together by the art museum. They beg for spare change and cigarettes from passersby and then go off in search of water and alcohol. At a liquor store, the clerk will sell them wine but refuses to give them a glass of water. They head down to the Mississippi river, where Klaus takes deep drinks from the river even though Richard urges him not to. He thinks of Sweetheart Calico. He misses her still.

Rozin is sorting through her mail. There is a letter from Jimmy Badger addressed to Klaus, which she opens because Klaus and Richard are still living on the streets of Minneapolis somewhere. He urges Klaus to return Sweetheart Calico to her children and her community. He notes that in her absence, the town and its people are falling apart. Rozin realizes that Cecile had been right: Sweetheart Calico belongs at home with her people, and her presence in the city is throwing the entire world off balance. Life in Sweetheart Calico’s home community is in shambles, but Sweetheart Calico has thrown off her life and the lives of her children also: She’d taken them, setting into motion a chain of events that had resulted in Rozin’s leaving Frank behind and becoming confused about what her next steps should be.

At the bakery, Frank gives a piece of the blitzkuchen he made to Noodin. She tells him that he’s missing the secret ingredient: fear. The man who made it originally had put his fear into the cake. Richard and Klaus show up at the bakery. Richard enters, but then runs out just as quickly. Klaus stays to ask for a glass of water and then passes out. Sweetheart Calico appears and, with a knowing look, hands him a plastic cup of water. She seems to sense the difficulties that he’s endured as a result of his mistakes and takes mercy on him.