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White Man’s Dog/Fools Crow
A young Pikuni warrior of the Lone Eaters’ band and the antagonist of Fools Crow. He is the son of Boss Ribs and a member of Owl Child’s gang of outcasts. Fast Horse serves as a foil to Fools Crow, and in addition to their obvious physical differences (Fast Horse is taller and more muscular), Fast Horse is reckless and greedy where Fools Crow is retrained and kind. Fast Horse’s father possesses the powerful Beaver Medicine bundle, and because of this, Yellow Kidney invites Fast Horse on the horse raid of the Crows. Fast Horse behaves badly during raid—he ignores a foreboding dream, scorns Cold Maker, and boasts loudly in the center of the Crows’ camp, alerting them to their presence and leading to Yellow Kidney subsequent capture. Yellow Kidney and the other Lone Eaters blame Fast Horse for Yellow Kidney’s hardships, and he banishes himself from their camp. Fast Horse turns his back on the Pikuni people and refuses to learn the magic of the Beaver Medicine Bundle, instead choosing to run with Owl Child and his gang. Fast Horse robs and kills Napikwans, including a rancher who shoots him, and is partially responsible for the troubled relationship between the Pikunis and the United States government. While it is Owl Child’s murder of Malcolm Clark that leads to the massacre of Heavy Runner’s camp, Fast Horse is complicit in Owl Child’s actions and guilty by association. When Fast Horse comes upon the dead body of Yellow Kidney in the abandoned war lodge late in the novel, he anonymously returns the warrior to his people and thus finally takes responsibility for the role he played in Yellow Kidney’s downfall. By the end of the novel, Fast Horse regrets his decision to leave his tribe but is still unable to return to it; Fast Horse had placed his own desires for wealth and revenge above the collective needs of his people, and that has serious consequences. Haunted by his shame and failure, Fast Horse escapes north across the Canadian border and never sees his people again.
Fast Horse Quotes in Fools Crow
The Fools Crow quotes below are all either spoken by Fast Horse or refer to Fast Horse. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
Quotes
But all that had changed now because Fast Horse had changed. He had become an outsider within his own band. He no longer sought the company of others, and they avoided him. The girls who had once looked so admiringly on him now averted their eyes when he passed. The young men considered him a source of bad medicine, and the older ones did not invite him for a smoke. Even his own father had begun to look upon him with doubt and regret. As for Fast Horse, the more he stared at the Beaver Medicine, the more it lost meaning for him. That would not be the way of his power. His power would be tangible and immediate.
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Chapter 18
Quotes
The thought came into [Fools Crow’s] mind without warning, the sudden understanding of what Fast Horse found so attractive in running with Owl Child. It was this freedom from responsibility, from accountability to the group, that was so alluring. As long as one thought himself as part of the group, he would be responsible to and for that group. If one cut ties, he had the freedom to roam, to think only of himself and not worry about the consequences of his actions. So it was for Owl Child and Fast Horse to roam. And so it was for the Pikunis to suffer.
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Get the entire Fools Crow LitChart as a printable PDF.
Fast Horse Quotes in Fools Crow
The Fools Crow quotes below are all either spoken by Fast Horse or refer to Fast Horse. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8
Quotes
But all that had changed now because Fast Horse had changed. He had become an outsider within his own band. He no longer sought the company of others, and they avoided him. The girls who had once looked so admiringly on him now averted their eyes when he passed. The young men considered him a source of bad medicine, and the older ones did not invite him for a smoke. Even his own father had begun to look upon him with doubt and regret. As for Fast Horse, the more he stared at the Beaver Medicine, the more it lost meaning for him. That would not be the way of his power. His power would be tangible and immediate.
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Chapter 18
Quotes
The thought came into [Fools Crow’s] mind without warning, the sudden understanding of what Fast Horse found so attractive in running with Owl Child. It was this freedom from responsibility, from accountability to the group, that was so alluring. As long as one thought himself as part of the group, he would be responsible to and for that group. If one cut ties, he had the freedom to roam, to think only of himself and not worry about the consequences of his actions. So it was for Owl Child and Fast Horse to roam. And so it was for the Pikunis to suffer.
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