The Virtue of Bravery

In the virtue story of bravery from The Lakota Way, A young boy is tasked with defending a group of hunter's camp while they are away hunting for more food. The expert hunters stress that the meat they already acquired must be guarded with his life because the families back home rely on this food. When the hunters first leave the camp is all around quiet, the young hunters keeps his eyes and ears open even though everything seems settled. After a few minutes the young hunter started to feel a disturbance in the once quiet camp. A group of birds started to gather around the meat that was drying. Suddenly the young hunter heard a shuffle in the bush not far from his position. His mind was racing trying to think of the animal it could possibly be. He decided it would be best for him to climb a near by tree and wait until he hears the noise again. After waiting in the tree for awhile he heard the same noise and quickly got his bow and arrow ready. While looking at the location of the noise he saw a tall black figure appear behind a bush. He realized it was a black bear he took aim and released a single arrow strait at the location of the dangerous black bear. He couldn't see if he had hit his target. So he decided to wait in the tree just to be safe. After awhile of waiting he began to worry about the other hunters, he hoped the black bear wouldn't run into them. He decided to take a look at the bush were the black bear was. When he approached the bush and looked behind it he saw a trail of blood and quickly realized he had hit his mark. Soon after this moment the other group of hunters return with a full size elk. They told him that he did good and "he will grow up to be a fine hunter one day."

The virtue that I was reading about was bravery. The virtue bravery is very important within the Lakota culture. All the greatest warriors are looked up to because they have a large amount of bravery and don't show fear when they are looking strait into the eyes of danger. Within the Lakota culture it's a one step towards man hood when a young boy shows bravery when doing a task. Just like in the defender story the young hunter's uncle tells him he will grow up to be a great hunter because he showed all the signs of being brave and strong.

The virtue of bravery in American culture isn't nearly as important to us as it is the Lakota people. But never the less still a great trait to have. Lot of the time when someone is brave it goes unnoticed in American culture. But many successful people within the American culture have a great deal of bravery, which helped them become successful in life.