This short essay film is based on Crow/Apsaalooke tribal cosmology in which wind characterizes one of the four cardinal points and when called upon represents for the tribe a powerful blessing in endurance and return. In this film dakaake (Apsaalooke for bird) signifies both wind and child. A non-narrative film, Four Keeps: Dakaake characterizes in an indefinite way the special place children hold in the tribe. The film equates the sacred characteristics of wind with those of children and alludes to the many years children were lost first to intertribal slavery and later to US government intervention into tribal life.
Helen Pease Wolf first transcribed the traditional Crow story accompanying this film, “The Story of Moon and His Bride”. Her great-granddaughter, Ramona Real Bird, reads and discusses the story in the film. The girl, or ‘bird’, in Four Keeps: Dakáake is Ramona’s granddaughter, Walks-to-School.