CORN FLOWER, A GIRL OF THE GREAT PLAINS
First in a Fiction Series Based on the Four Seasons

Corn Flower – A Girl of the Great Plains
      Based on the novel by James D. Lester, Jr.
      Copyright 2018 – James D. Lester, Jr.
     
      Contact: James Clois Smith Jr., Sunstone Press / (505) 988-4418
     
      LOGLINE: Eleven-year-old Corn Flower is a member of the Kansa tribe living along the Cottonwood River in the 1820's where she tends her family’s herd of goats and finds adventure in the activities and challenges of life on the Great Plains.
     
     
      ACT 1
      July 1821. Eleven-year-old Corn Flower stands at the edge of the Cottonwood River as she watches her family’s herd of goats lap at the gently-flowing stream. With a prod of her walking stick, she leads the animals up the embankment to the hillside overlooking the village of the Kansa tribe. Cornflower stands guard against predators like the coyote and sings to herself the “Song of the Kansa,” a traditional tune shared by all of the tribe.
      Corn Flower is joined by Night Sparrow, her closest friend. From their vantage point, the girls watch as the wives and young women work in the camp and the nearby field of garden crops. Once the afternoon sun reaches its height, the girls lead all of their goats back to the stream of the river for a drink of water. Here, they are met by Corn Flower’s brothers Wanji, Red Cloud, and Two Bears. Along with her father White Plume, the boys have returned from a successful hunt for quail and doves.
     
      Corn Flower and Night Sparrow lead their goats back to the village for milking. When they arrive, they see feathers flying as the boys clean the birds. Suddenly, Two Bears runs to the drinking trough because small feathers have gone up his nose and tickle his nose and his lips.
      The entire group laughs at their brother as he snorts and sneezes.
     
      Later that night at the evening feast, they share the meal with Night Sparrow’s parents and brother as well as the elderly tribal storyteller named Walks at Night. After the meal, Walks at Night shares folk tales with the children, including the story of “How the Bluebird Got His Color,” and “The Meadowlark Who Walks at Night.”
     
     
      ACT 2
      Corn Flower and Night Sparrow travel by horseback with Corn Flower’s father White Plume to the Trading Post. The girls ride together on Old Gray, a slow but steady horse. Once at the Trading Post, the girls meet the garrulous Mr. Timmons and his wife.
     
      Inside of the store, Corn Flower and Night Sparrow delight in a new treat called “cookies” as Mrs. Timmons laughs at their surprised expressions. Mrs. Timmons explains how sugar is added to the treats for sweetness. They are both given cookies to return home with for their brothers as well as new ribbons for their hair.
      Meeting with other tribal leaders from the area, along with Mr. Timmons, the men have a feast of roasted deer and game birds as they listen to news of a proposed fort of the white men on the upper stream of the Cottonwood River. Many leaders are upset and want to fight. White Plume speaks calmly about how they once feared Mr. Timmons, but now know him to be a fair man. They depart in the last afternoon with agreement to wait and see what the future will bring.
     
      It is nightfall before the girls and White Plume reach their village. On the following morning, Corn Flower becomes a storyteller for her family to relate the details of the trip to the Trading Post. She also shares part of her bag of cookies by giving her three brothers one cookie each.
     
      The happiness of the journey to the Trading Post is short-lived as a tornado sweeps toward their village with a great wind in the late afternoon. Knowing that she must get her goats to safety, Corn Flower leads the animals to her family lodge, but she counts only six goats. A little one is missing. Running through the wind and the rain, Corn Flower saves a baby goat and barely escapes the storm.
     
     
      ACT 3
      Corn Flower is stricken with a severe fever after the storm. She is nursed back to health by her mother Kicking Swan. Other women of the tribe bring gifts and food that they believe will help Corn Flower recover from her illness. Two of the older women help to place damp rags on Corn Flower’s head, arms, and legs to help reduce the fever.
     
      Corn Flower's brothers work to rebuild the roof of their lodge with the guidance of the tribal chief Bent Nose. Most of the huts had only minor damage, and a few tepees were easily raised back into place.
     
      Corn Flower’s fever finally breaks and once she feels better, she helps her mother with the family laundry at the river and scares away a coyote from the village by throwing rocks at it. While at the river, Corn Flower and her mother sing the “Song of the Kansa” as they work together.
     
      Sadness comes to all the Kansa as Bent Nose, their elderly leader, dies while casting his fishing nets at the river. After his funeral on the following morning, Corn Flower and Night Sparrow return to the hillside with their goats to allow then to graze on the grass. The girls lay in the field, looking up and viewing the clouds to compare their shapes to animals.
     
     
      ACT 4
      On a day late in July, Corn Flower is at the river with her goats when a stranger rides up on a black horse. Dressed in his blue uniform, the visitor is Lieutenant Willoughby. He is talking to tribal leaders about a new meeting at the trading post. The Lieutenant meets with the men of the village and shares a meal in the lodge.
     
      Before he leaves, Lieutenant Willoughby asks White Plume to bring Corn Flower with him to visit and play with his own daughter who is at the trading post with his wife. Three days later Corn Flower travels with her father and meets Ellie, the golden-haired daughter of the Lieutenant.
     
      Once at the trading post, Corn Flower presents Ellie with a homemade doll. In turn, Ellie gives Corn Flower a store-bought china doll to play with. The girls spend the day playing hide and seek before Corn Flower returns home with a fresh bag of cookies from Mrs. Timmons.
     
      One the following day, Corn Flower again tells stories of her adventure to the trading post with her family and shares cookies with her brothers. She also tells Night Sparrow of Ellie’s yellow / blind hair. Night Sparrow is suspicious about whether she is telling the truth, but soon does not care as the two share cookies from Corn Flower’s full bag.
     
     
      ACT 5
      Late one day, Corn Flower and Night Sparrow collect flowers and take a cookie to the village storyteller Walks at Night. She shares more animal folk tales with the girls, including the elk who tricked the young rabbit and the legend of the raccoon and the crawfish.
     
      The late summer brings horrible heat and a swarm of grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are everywhere – in the lodge, on their sleeping cots, and in their hair. Relief finally comes when a huge thunderstorm sweeps the grasshoppers away. However, the lightening from the storm sparks a grass fire on the plains across the river. Luckily, their village is spared.
     
      After the fire, Corn Flower and the Kansa are visited once again by Lieutenant Willoughby. Along with him in a wagon are his wife and daughter Ellie. They speak of their journey back east to Independence, Kansas. The family is asked to share a meal with the whole tribe before they make the journey.
     
      The story ends with a meeting of the men of the village. Two new leaders are chosen for the Kansa tribe - White Plume, the father of Corn Flower, and Red Branch, the father of Night Sparrow. Both girls dance near the lodge, knowing that more adventures will come to their lives with the turning of the leaves and cooler weather.
     
     
      END