The Heirs of Columbus

Bone Courts

BONE COURTS The crows debased the dawn with their wicked celebrations in the tender birch. The sun bounced over the panic holes on the spring meadow, and a warm wind rushed the season in the loose willows, the wild cherries; the otter pawed the rim of tenuous ice near the headwaters of the great river, and the heirs were at the wild borders of the New World. Miigis counted the crows to nine in the birch. Admire, the trusted mongrel with the blue tongue, barked once and then moaned at the crows; she hated their harsh manner and heartless thrust at carrion on the cold black roads to the reservation. She licked and healed an insensible wounded crow last summer, but even so, she has never been at ease with those cruel creatures who announce the demons and bad weather. FeUpa Flowers was awakened by their rave notice that very morning on the meadow. Animosh, the healed crow, beat his beak on the hood of an abandoned automobile; minutes later two stout women in black cutaway coats were on the road. Animosh circled the birch and cawed at the pale women down to the trailer house. Then and there, with taut tongues, the trickster poacher and the heirs were subpoenaed to appear at a hearing in federal court to answer questions about the shamanic repatriation of medicine pouches and human remains. 63 Doric Miched was shamed because he had compromised the discreet manners ofthe museum and the privities ofhis associates, but that was not the real reason he insisted on criminal charges. He had been spumed by the crossblood poacher from the headwaters and was determined to have his day in court; moreover, he was involved in international conspiracies on reservations and would use the courtto influence triballeaders who wereconcerned about the heirs and rumors of resurrections. The federal judge, however, denied a criminal indictment and ordered a hearing to consider the issues of ownership and legal standing, jurisdiction, and circumstantial evidence. There was no material evidence to establish a crime, no evidence that the pouches and bones ever existed, and there were no documents to constitute the partial remains of Christopher Columbus. The advertisements and museum notices were conceptual remains, to be sure, but the evidence was indirect, no more than curatorial rumors. The crows moved from the birch to their silent watch on the black roads as the sun warmed the trailer. The cedar waxwings landed later in the morning, crested, elusive on their return, and minced on the remains ofthe seasons in the wild fruit trees. Closer to the earth the wind raised the leaves that covered the blue mire overwinterandlaidbare the wildmemories ofhidden maidenhair. The federal hearing opened on the ides of spring to reconsider the remains of the great explorer and the ecstasies of shamans in the same courtroom; the evidence would be stories in the blood and the most original shadow realities ever presented at federal court in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Stone Columbus and the heirs were celebrated by thousands of radio listeners who heard their stories on late night talk shows. Admiral Luckie White announced the hearing the night before, and she was there that morning with two microphones in hand; she insisted that her voice be separated from those she interviewed . "Carp Radio live at the federal courts to hear the heirs, the shamans, and the curators put up their dukes over the rights of 64 tribal stories and the remains ofthe great explorer." said the radio admiral. "Felipa Flowers, in a gorgeous chocolate brown sweater, comes late with Miigis, the luminous child in blue, and Stone, our gene man, who wears his scarlet tunic from those glorious years on the Santa Maria Casino. Admire, the whistling family healer. is at their side, a comic tribal scene that should warm the cold legal hearts inside, as it warms our hearts on radio." Beatrice Lord marched into the courtroom; she smiled in more than three directions, cleared her throat, and then reviewed the standing ofthe parties and the issues raised by DoctorMiched and the Brotherhood of American Explorers. The common rules of evidence were set aside, she announced; the unusual judicial hearing would depend more on imagination than on material representations. She pointed out that this approach would favor tribal consciousness, but warned that the "manners ofthis hearing would never prevail at a criminal trial." On the other hand, she would...