50 pages • 1 hour read
D'Arcy McnickleWind from an Enemy Sky
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 27-32Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 27 Summary
The Boy arrives at Bull’s camp with a message from the Little Elk Agency. Pell has returned with a gift for the Little Elk tribe. He is also accompanied by a lawyer, who wishes to speak with Pock Face. Louis, Pock Face’s father, voices his concerns about the outsider’s intentions and the trouble facing his son if he meets with the officials. When Bull relays the message regarding the gift to Two Sleeps, the old man puts a hand over his eyes and cries. He begs the storm to stay with him but also says that his “heart is already dead” (220). This troubles the others, and Louis points out that the white settlers are taking everything from them. Bull insists on waiting before deciding what to do, and Louis tells him that if they try to take Pock Face, he will kill someone.
Chapter 28 Summary
Bull’s camp joins with the horse hunters for the night, and they discuss Rafferty’s request for a meeting and the word of a gift from Pell. Louis, fearing for Pock Face’s safety, is wary of the government’s intentions, while Bull insists on exploring the matter further. Pock Face expresses his willingness to go to the agency. The group also speculates that the gift from Pell might be their stolen medicine bundle. They agree on a plan of action and, as they prepare to go to the agency compound, sing the old song “that Feather Boy sang for the people before he left them” (226).
Chapter 29 Summary
Pell, who is usually impatient, finds himself surprisingly calm when waiting for the Little Elk leaders to arrive for the meeting. While he waits, The Boy takes Rafferty, Doc Edwards, and Pell on a drive around the reservation. Pell sees how the settlers’ actions have damaged the land. This prompts him to reveal to Edwards and Rafferty his discovery of the medicine bundle’s destruction. He also shows them the gift that he plans to give the tribe in its place. However, the other men worry that revealing the loss of the bundle and presenting the statue would only cause more harm for the Little Elk people. Despite their warnings, Pell insists on being honest regarding the situation.
Chapter 30 Summary
Bull leads a group to the Little Elk Agency to meet with Rafferty and Pell. The men share light conversation and soft singing, including a song by Louis that soothes the group. Bull reflects on Henry Jim’s earlier promise of help from Rafferty, which initially seemed improbable but now gives him hope. As they approach the agency, the group pauses to talk and express their gratitude to Henry Jim. Although Louis is still worried about trouble, the group sings the Feather Boy song again as they continue their journey.
Chapter 31 Summary
Two Sleeps steps outside his cabin at dawn after the men leave for the agency. Compelled to act, he sets out into the woods, accompanied by his black-and-white dog. Veronica notices his absence and begins searching for him, eventually tracking his trail. She catches up with him and offers to help, but he is resistant, insisting on continuing his journey on foot. As they walk, she becomes increasingly concerned about his well-being. She eventually convinces him to ride a horse that she brought. They make their way toward Little Elk Agency and observe smoke puffs and gunshots in the distance. Two Sleeps reveals what he learned on the mountain: that the medicine bundle was destroyed. He laments not telling the others, stating that he is responsible for what is coming. Together, he and Veronica proceed toward the agency.
Chapter 32 Summary
Rafferty reflects on how, after years of attempting to build a relationship with the Little Elk tribe, he’d finally succeeded, only for Pell to bring it all down again. After breakfast with Doc Edwards’s wife, he again tells Pell not to reveal what happened to the medicine bundle. Pell says that he can leave, but Rafferty says that Bull is expecting a meeting.
They meet with Bull and his men outside, and The Boy serves as a translator. While Rafferty tries to focus on the lawyer brought for Pock Face, the Little Elk men grow increasingly frustrated and demand to hear from Pell about the medicine bundle. Rafferty tells Pell one last time that he should focus on his feelings regarding the damage caused by the dam and the gift of the statue but not on the bundle. Pell, however, decides to ignore him and reveals the loss of the medicine bundle. He also reveals that he is the one responsible for the dam. This angers the gathered men. Louis pulls out his rifle, and Bull uses it to shoot Pell and then Rafferty. The Boy then tells Bull that he must act, and The Boy shoots him with his revolver. Two Sleeps and Veronica continue toward the agency, singing the death song.
Chapters 27-32 Analysis
The novel’s final chapters lead up to the tragedy that the story was building toward from the beginning—a tragedy rooted in cultural miscommunication and a lack of understanding. When the message of Pell’s return from New York is relayed to Bull and the others, their previous attitudes toward the men at the agency shift again. While they are still hopeful for the return of the Feather Boy bundle, cracks have begun to form. Louis serves as the voice of skepticism within the community, wary of the promises made by the government and reluctant to trust their intentions. However, the men still agree to engage with Rafferty and Pell despite this. On their way to meet them, they sing an old song reminiscent of better times.
At the agency, the gold statue becomes a focal point of Rafferty, Pell, and Edwards’s arguments. Pell views it as a valuable artifact that can assuage his guilt and restore some of the cultural pride that the Little Elk people have lost. Rafferty and Edwards, however, see the statue as an inadequate and potentially harmful gesture, a manifestation of the way that cultural misunderstanding exacerbates The Clash Between Indigenous Cultures and Western Ideologies. An object could not compensate for the loss that the Little Elk people have experienced. Presenting the statue as a replacement for the Feather Boy bundle would therefore only deepen the wounds. Rafferty also points out the flaw in Pell’s association between the statue and the bundle: “Your pretty piece belongs in a museum, since the people who produced it no longer have their lives tied up in it. They are gone. When you tell Bull what happened, he will be gone too” (236). Rafferty suggests, therefore, that the statue is disconnected from a living people and a chain of descent; the bundle, however, is not. The people who understand what it truly means still exist. Therefore, the two objects cannot be treated in the same fashion.
Pell’s failure to understand directly leads to the tragedy at the compound. His decision to disclose the destruction of the medicine bundle, against Rafferty and Edwards’s advice, reflects his commitment to honesty but also his lack of understanding of the emotional and cultural stakes of the situation. Pell reflects, “I feel bound to tell the whole story. Otherwise, you will never know what happened, or you may learn part of the story and then you will think of me as the man who lied to you” (252). His words, meant to convey transparency and accountability, instead ignite a profound sense of betrayal and anger among the Indigenous American men present, including The Boy. McNickle portrays Pell as a tragically ironic figure. His attempt to be honest and forthcoming—qualities that have historically been absent in the way that US agencies and their representatives have dealt with Indigenous peoples—become his downfall. The text thus suggests that the damage done before Pell even entered the story of the Little Elk tribe was too severe to be reversed: The Impact of Trauma on Indigenous Community and Identity is ultimately irreversible.
Bull’s decision to shoot Pell and Rafferty is not a spur-of-the-moment act but the culmination of the intense pressures and injustices faced by his community. It signifies the breaking point for a man who has endured and tried to hold his community together in the face of relentless betrayal at the hands of colonial forces. As such, his actions serve as both a personal and a collective statement. Bull’s words to his grandson—“He is no monster! He is a man like the rest of us! He can die like the rest of us! Now let them walk over our heads! We won’t have to care anymore” (255)—reflect an attempt to reclaim some sense of agency and dignity in a world that continues to marginalize and exploit his people.
After Bull kills them, he is shot by The Boy, representing the culmination of another tragic arc. Throughout the climax and leading to the end, The Boy is acutely aware of the stakes involved. His role as the intermediary places him at the center of the conflict. His final act of shooting Bull is not just a physical act but a symbolic one, representing the crushing weight of his duty and the impossibility of reconciling the two worlds he straddles. Although the act is reluctant and done out of a sense of duty to his position, it still signifies the collapse of the fragile hope he represented.
The book closes on the image of Two Sleeps and Veronica descending the sandhill toward the agency. This image represents the convergence of past and present, tradition and change. Two Sleeps’s acceptance of the fate of his people and his desire to sing the death song with Veronica signify the crumbling of the world that Bull tried so hard to preserve.
