leo's been out here too long, man. i'm taking him to ceremonial burial.
it ain't geronimo.
i think maybe you guys got off the wrong exit, yeah? this is the bear creek indian reservation.
i'm a full blood oglala sioux, born and raised on this reservation.
we got the wire ya was comin'. you're the indian official, yeah?
leo's gotta get to burial, brother. he's gotta make the journey.
tell him, ray.
-- an indian reservation is within the jurisdiction of the federal bureau of intimidation. i know that.
i said when can leo be taken to ceremony?
that's a nice suit.
you ain't gonna cut his hands off and send 'em to washinton, are ya? they done that to one of our girls once. leo did quillwork, he's gonna need his hands.
respect the dead, hoss. because when --
-- violation of the major crimes act on an indian reservation is within the jurisdiction of the federal bureau of instigation. i know that.
his mother needs a piece of his hair. it's for the keeping of the souls ceremony. has to be kept for four days.
ray little weasel. fbi. i like the way ya sneaked up on me. must be indian.
watch out!
you're steppin' on sign.
-- leo wasn't killed here. he was dumped here. out of a vehicle. bald tread. muffler held on with baling wire.
the man you want.  stepped outta the car, dragged leo out, laid him down. then walked over here and made a circle in the earth with a stick. i can't find the stick. he stuck an eagle plume in the circle, got back in his car, dustin' his own prints with a pine bough for about six feet, but he missed a print, right here, see. he got in his car and went hell- bent-for-holy-sunday outta here. he ditched that pine bough three miles across the flat, in the little bear river, it floated down to thundershield gap. the car hit paved road, and was outta here.
the killin' was done where leo's mother lives. but he was driven here into these badlands.
big sonuvabuck. based on the depth of that print, pressure releases.  i'd say he goes two-ten, two-fifteen --
-- well, maybe two-seventeen.
no. not just a track. you gotta listen to the trees, man. to the leaves. to this sand, you fbi's kicked all up. you gotta listen to the earth.
no, this is the home of the oglala sioux and i want the dog-fucker who killed leo. whether you get him or i get him, i just want him. shit's been goin' on too long.
you got no know-how. about indian way. or about jack shit for that matter.
go back to the m.e., take a look inside leo's exit wounds and tell me how chicken feed got in there. trust me, there ain't chickens in the badlands. his mother's place is --
i'm talkin' his spiritual mother. maisy blue legs.
to us indians, our spiritual relatives are as close as family. i've got seven mothers on this reservation. sisters. brothers. you ain't one of them.
easy. easy.  i'm goin'.
hey, little weasel.
you weigh one sixty-three, yeah? not a beer drinker. you're one of these tofu and pilaf characters. pack your gun, under your coat -- left shoulder. but you got backup; a little .32, .38 maybe, in a ankle holster that gives you a right foot drag, shoes are too tight at the toe but, man, they look cool. and that's what counts.
you're an easy man to track, ray. ya walk like a penguin with a hard-on.
they're sayin' that nobody's gonna talk to you cuz they don't give away one of their own. but they did say there's somebody way across the little walking river who wants to talk to you.
he sent me to find ya. he says he's got information.
grandpa samuel reaches. heavy duty medicine.
good question. hardly sees anybody anymore. hasn't left this place in twenty years. did you bring some tobacco?
when you go see an elder, you always bring some tobacco as a gift.
he wants to know if you ever watch the cookie monster. he says the cookie monster is not to be trusted -- a trickster.
he says there's something wrong with big bird -- he's crazy, he says you stopped the inipi ceremony last night?
but he is not unhappy with you because he knows you.
he says he saw you in a vision some time ago.
i guess he had this vision some time ago, in the moon of the popping trees -- uh, back in the winter. he says you come from wasi'cu city in the east but that your people.  way back.  are of the minniconjou sioux. but you yourself don't know that.
he says he knew you'd be coming to bear creek. he was told. it is the will of tunkasilia -- the grandfather that you come here. he says let's smoke the caanunpa the sacred pipe, symbol of truth. so that there will be no lies between us.
sacred herbs. tobacco. don't worry, we don't smoke no mexican agriculture in the pipe. that's a white man's myth. this is a sacrament.
you don't smoke with him, it means you're hiding something.
he says wakan. sacred. five hundred year old turtleshell rattle, passed down from the grandfathers. heavy duty.
he says, it is good. the spirits are here. the spirits want to know what you're doing here?
he said he doesn't know.
uh.  grandpa likes to trade; no one stops by here without gettin' stuck in the old indian barter. he, uh.  he likes your shades.
why should i tell you.
the old man saw an owl. over there in the dry wash. last week.
he saw an owl.
the owl is a messenger. when one shows itself to a sioux.  it means someone's gonna die. the owl told him about leo.
he also said "listen to the water."
go back to your dna finger-printin'.
don't be mad. that was just an old traditional gesture that means hello, how are you.
jimmy didn't do it, ray. i checked it out. you can stop taggin' my sister.
so did this one. wambli is a rare and sacred creature. when someone finds a dead one, the feathers get around the res. we share everything. a lot of power in the eagle feathers. but you think that's bullshit too, don't --
was-te. 'cept for one thing. jimmy looks twice was nowhere near there. ya see, when jimmy was twelve years old, his mother and father was killed in a car wreck right down there near elk mountain.
the connection is, it did a head number on him. he's petrified of cars. won't drive. i've known him all my life, and he's never gotten behind the wheel of a vehicle. he rides passenger and he rides horses, and that's it. the man that shot leo down was behind the wheel of a moving car.
you want solid? that one, single, print he left in the badlands -- the one the fbi missed and then stepped all over -- it belongs to a man who walks heels first. like a white man. jimmy has a serious ind'n walk -- ball of the foot first. the man who murdered leo walked like a wasi'cu.
when leo was dumped out there in the badlands, he was dropped on his back. our man made an effort to turn him over, onto his face. it's an old ind'n belief that if a dead man is turned face down, his spirit won't leave. and in the killer's case, it won't come back and jump all over his shit. that's an ind'n thing a white man wouldn't know.
and that's the way it is. write it down.
you laugh all you want, breed. sunset tonight, i get my man.
damned if i know.
but the old one. he did a yuwipi ceremony last night.
go catch jimmy, ray. really. he's gettin' away. go ahead, go get him. i'm late.
grandpa traded with me. goodbye.
he says, back behind red deer table, where the elk-people-used-to-live.  there are strange creatures from another world who eat stones.  and who will kill anyone who crosses into this place.
he says, in the yuwipi ceremony last night, he saw you.  going back into the land beyond red deer table. i was with you. but that was all the spirits let him see so he doesn't know if you were killed or not. but he thinks you probably were.
go to the land where the elk-people- used-to-live and you will find the answers you came here looking for. but you must go as two. that is the vision. i have spoken. and this is so.
he wants to trade. he likes your watch.
a what?
he says, you need to go on indian time. he says your watch is ruining your life anyway.
red deer table, ray.
heavy, heavy duty. taku wakan. wanagi spirits. it's one of those few places we'd never go to as kids. still don't. some of the old people say crazy horse is buried back there. we have to go ray. together. like his vision.
ray --
what'd you expect to hear?
what you call myths, we call our history.
what's real to you? wall street? capital hill? now they are myths.
you ain't no indian. you're a sal mineo indian.
only when he's really pissed off.
don't accuse nothin' of not bein' real, little weasel. cuz the only thing around here that ain't real is you.
likewise.
agent little weasel, federal bura of your imagination.
you're right about the old man. his power's long dried up. he's supposed to be a medicine man but he won't go see the people. he says we changed, and we don't listen. well, he don't go out and talk no more. i haven't had a drink in three years but i just turned my sobriety chip into that man behind the bar, and this hoss is gettin' watered.
cuz i'm a skin?
not no more.
you tell me. you tell me who went to the b.i.a. -- bureau of indian annihilation and said i was messin' with your case, man. i don't give a goddamn about your case.
still after jimmy?
yeah. jimmy's prints are there. but they cross over benjamin black star's prints. and he wasn't there until six o'clock the mornin' after to get eggs from the chickens. so jimmy wasn't there til the next day. follow?
look, man.  you better bust jimmy and get out before somebody shoots up more than your car next time.
i can't, hoss. i don't talk to fbi's.
you think you was sent here cuz you're a good cop?
you ever think that maybe you was sent here cuz the fbi's need one good reason to take out the entire warrior movement. and what better reason than one of their men, gettin' blown away on the res. a low-rent, expendable public servant sent in to take a bullet for his country.
sorry, we don't speak united states.
yeah he's in'dn. miniconjou sioux.
well, it's just that the cavalry used to always threaten the lakota. the cavalry ain't around anymore. the lakota still are.
five-hundred year old turtleshell rattle.
where's maggie? where'd ya take her.
you got jimmy. let her go.
why? so you can get rid of me, too?
maybe the old man's visions are still strong.
oh yeah. dreams. sometimes durin' sickness. vision quest. sweat lodge. ya never know when.
where was this?
you were running with the old ones. at the knee. heavy duty.
sonuvabuck! what's with you, man? who are you?
nothin'. forget it.
you had a vision. you had yourself a vision. a man waits a long time for a vision. might go his whole lifetime and never get one. and along comes some instant indian with a mastercard and brand-new shoes, has himself a vision.
i'm a full-blood oglala.
maybe it was just a dream. ya know, just one of them, what do ya call 'em, fitful dreams?
bullshit. you had a vision. you got sign from the old ones.
stop.
ain't prayer flags, that's for sure.
uranium. test holes. somebody came in from the nebraska side, and did some shotgun testin'. they're gettin' ready to suck this baby dry.
what?
we're standin' on broken treaty ground, ray. this ain't supposed to be here. it'll poison the water.
so they took care of leo.
they're drainin' our water table. that's our life, man.
yeah. it's time to beat the drum. you better wait here. he don't trust the white man.
alright. shit's comin' down. he's callin' council fire. all the old chiefs and the warriors, too. i gotta be at grandpa's place in two hours. we need to get the tribe together. we need to block this thing.
i thought it was a rare case of a brother getting a break in the courts. we did an honorin' song for him and everything.
ray. ray, don't let go now, man. ray.
ray.
ray!
lies on his back in the badlands, eyes open, fixed unmoving on the sky. ray comes out of the flame-waves, running with his .45 held high. he throws himself to his knees beside the injured indian.
ain't no council fire, brother. clear moon.
hoka hey. it's a good day to die.
grandpa.
he hasn't left this place in twenty years. they got him.
they got us sealed. what are we gonna do?
that's it. the stronghold. get us in there, we got a chance.
lifts himself, stands, taking in the sight.
the people are already talkin' about their vote for a new tribal prez. they wanna vote for jimmy.
you bought her some time, kola. ain't never gonna be over.  but you bought her some time.
indian time.
where ya gonna go, ray?
you didn't have another vision.
yeah, right here.
if you ever need a place to come back to and listen to the trees a little.  we'll be here.
ain't no word in sioux for goodbye.
we will be here.