A long time ago, in the land we now call North America, there was an enchanted village where Enchanted People lived. The villagers were called the Enchanted People because they each had a special gift. The leader of the Enchanted People, Chief Moon Bear, could jump over cliffs and rivers, which made exploring easy for him. His wife, Night Flower, was blessed with swift, skilled hands, and she could bead moccasins, leggings, and sashes in the time it would take others to thread a single needle.

Many of the village boys could swim underwater for long periods of time, and this made them agile fishermen. Some of the girls and women could outrun the horses, and even in winter, when it was too cold for the men to swim for fish, the villagers never went hungry because these women could chase after wild game. The Enchanted People were powerful because all of them were blessed with an enchanted power - all except for one - and her name was Wawatay.

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Excerpted from Wind among Grasses by Jennifer Pool
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