Word spread fast through the Rendezvous area. Zach and Running Wolf had just reached the camp of Stinky Johnson when Jim Bridger rode in and ask Zach to round up his Utes and Shoshone friends that Robert Campbell was under attack by Blackfeet.
Zach’s heart fell, he remembered the Blackfoot attack on Charging Bulls village last year and everything that had led too. He had hoped this year would be peaceful, without the fighting and killing of the year before.
Running Wolf headed for the Ute camp while Zach went to the Shoshone. Within minutes, they were all assembled at the little trading cabin. Calhoun and Beckwourth led the way back north. It was light now and they were riding at a good fast lope.
It was still too dark to see into the shadows but Benny’s eyes caught just the slightest movement north of them. As he raised his rifle and nudged Grub, they heard the heavily accented voice of Lame Deer, “I come, don’t shoot.”
Benny breathed in a deep sigh of relief as Lame Deer staying low come down the creek to them. He said only one word, “Soon.”
Grub told Benny to watch behind them just as they heard a shot fired to the south. In the next instant they were being charged by over two hundred screaming, painted Blackfeet. The first volley of shots was devastating to the rushing warriors, fifteen of them hit the ground. Some were dead immediately while others were moaning and trying to crawl away. That volley broke the Blackfeet’s charge; their warriors were seeking cover from the deadly lead balls of the trapper’s rifles. There was the acrid smell of burnt gun powder hanging in the air as everyone hurried to reload.
Campbell was shouting instructions to the men not to all shoot at the same time. Only half fire at one time so the others could cover while the first was reloading. A musket ball fired from the Blackfeet ricocheted off someone’s rifle barrel down the line and they heard him curse. Then arrows started to fly in among the men. They heard someone gasp, then a muffled cry and silence. A moment later a deep voice saying, “Them dirty bastards got Lewis, I think he’s done fer.”
Benny yelled, a little louder than he meant to, “They’s crossin’ the creek to get behind us.” He fired and just a second later they heard a splash as the painted Blackfoot fell dead into the creek. After that all was quiet, no movement could be seen. Benny asked, “What they doin’ now?”
It was Lame Deer that replied, “They build courage, many warriors fall.”
To Benny the silence was deafening, if he had to fight these painted devils he wanted to do it and get it over with, the waiting was much worse than the fighting. When he told that to Grub and Ely, Ely replied, “The waitin’ sure ‘nough is hard on the nerves, but it ain’t near as deadly as the fightin’ is.”
Lame Deer said, “I go, look what do.” And he started up the creek crawling. He wasn’t gone more than a few minutes when they heard a fight just up the creek. Lame Deer had crawled past the dead warrior Benny had shot and then was jumped by another that was going to cross and try to get behind them.
Lame Deer saw the shadow as the Blackfoot jumped from the willows and he rolled to meet the attack. He got his feet up and kicked pushing the warrior on over him and into the creek. He lost hold of his rifle as he had made that move so he pulled his knife and jumped to his feet just as the Blackfoot did the same. They were facing each other, two hated enemies, and Lame Deer thought of what Grub and Ely had told him of the Flathead village and the hatred and need for revenge became overpowering. Just then, the Blackfoot lunged forward but he was standing in the creek and his feet slipped out from under him on the slippery bottom and he fell, Lame Deer seized the opportunity and jumped forward driving his knife deep through the back of the Blackfoot warrior’s neck.
Zach and Running Wolf were right behind Calhoun, Jimbo, as always, was running along-side of Zach as they set a ground eating pace back north along the shore line of Sweet Lake. There were about sixty trappers along with nearly three hundred Indians from four different tribes riding to meet the hated Blackfeet.
They covered the thirty miles in just over two hours and they were less than a half mile from the site of the battle when the Blackfeet attacked again. This time they had split their force and attacked from several different angles and there were just too many of them. The trappers were being overran just as the first of the trappers and Indians from Rendezvous rode in. Spotted Elk led the Shoshone and Utes to the north while the Bannocks and Nez Pierce went around the south side. Zach had Ol’ Red jump the creek and charged right into the face of the enemy just a few feet from where Grub, Ely and Benny where holed up. Grub laughed right out loud and told Benny, “Ya wanted to meet Grizzly Killer and his great medicine dog, well there he is on that big red mule.”
Zach, Running Wolf and several others followed the retreating warriors for more than a mile making sure they were leaving. He brought Ol’ Red to a stop and watched as the Blackfeet continued to retreat. Just before he turned back, one of the Blackfeet rode to the top of a small raise just in front of him. He was carrying a coup stick with many scalps tied to it and as the warrior raised the coup stick above his head he turned and pointed it right at Zach, but what stunned him, the Blackfoot was riding a spotted horse.
The Blackfeet all fled back to the north east. The battle was over, Lewis Boldue was the only casualty. Three others were wounded but only slightly, everyone knew that with the show of force the trappers and friendly Indians had made the Blackfeet would not be back.
Lame Deer walked back up the creek and scalped the two dead Blackfeet and brought the scalps back. He handed the scalp of the one Benny had shot to the youngster with a big smile and said, “You warrior now, tie to gun, show your medicine.”
Benny looked at the bloody scalp with disgust but Grub told him he should be honored to have Lame Deer do that for him.
Zach and Running Wolf rode back in and saw Ely and Grub immediately. Jimbo ran right up to Grub and he reached out and rubbed the big dog’s ears. When Benny reached out however, his hand was met with a growl. He pulled it back and looked into Jimbo’s eyes. The big dog’s tail started to wag and a moment later he stepped forward and licked Benny hand. Zach and Running Wolf both had jumped down and there was hugs and back slaps all around.
Ely introduced Lame Deer and then Benny to Grizzly Killer and Running Wolf. Lame Deer stared up with his expressionless face at Grizzly Killer and said, “I hear of you.”
Grizzly Killer smiled back at him and said, “Don’t believe everthin’ you hear.”
Then held out his hand to him. Lame Deer shook his hand then said, “I see Strong Bow hear of you also.” Zach looked at him with a puzzled look and Lame Deer continued, “Strong Bow Blackfoot War chief, on the spotted horse, him point coup stick at you like he know you.”
Zach turned and stared back toward the northeast where the Blackfeet had disappeared and wondered about what he had just heard.
They were loaded and heading south in less than an hour. They draped Lewis’s body over his saddle to bury him at Rendezvous. As Zach rode south with the rest of them he couldn’t get the sight of the warrior on the spotted horse from his mind. He remembered the dream of his Pa telling him to beware of the man riding a spotted horse. The dream had been so real that in his memory it wasn’t a dream but had really happened. He thought of his fight last year with the Beaumont bothers and how Cal Beaumont had been riding a spotted horse. He believed at that time the dream of his Pa had been fulfilled, now he wasn’t sure. Would he have to beware of a spotted horse his whole life? This question ran through his mind all the way back to Rendezvous.
It was late afternoon when they rode into the main camping area and there was a mighty big celebration planned for the evening.
The trading started the next day, although supplies were not plentiful Zach figured they got enough to get them through the next year. That night he enjoyed the first cup of coffee he’d had in days. He watched Sun Flower and Shining Star as they made biscuits and Raven Wing putting the plants and roots they had gathered during the da
y into the pot for stew, he held his baby girl and looked into her bright blue eyes. He was happy, he was living the life he knew he was meant to live.
The sight of that Blackfoot war chief pointing his coup stick at him was still in his mind. That didn’t really bother him, except that he was riding a spotted horse.
Note from the Author
This book is a work of fiction and although I have strived to keep the historical events accurate, very few details have been written about the Rendezvous of 1828. Many of the accounts I have read vary in the details and I have filled in with a fictional story of the battle with the Blackfeet and of the Rendezvous. It was indeed held on the south end of Bear Lake (then called Sweet Lake) near Laketown, Utah, this was the same site that the Rendezvous was held in 1827.
In 1879 more than 50 years later Phillip Covington wrote a manuscript for the Greeley Colorado Sun. He was hired by William Sublette in the fall of 1827 to help take the supply train to the Rocky’s. He tells of being paid $250.00 for twelve to fourteen months’ work. It is in his writing we learn of the small trading cabin that was erected to do the trading from and many other details of that year. Jackson and Sublette along with 45 men and 80 mules, Covington being one of them, left about October 1, 1827 for the mountains. They suffered from the brutal cold that winter crossing the plains. By the time they reached the mountains so many of the mules and horses had died from hunger and the cold all of the men were on foot. He tells of the men eating the beaver they trapped as that was their only meat and of the ground being too frozen to cache their goods so the men were forced to carry it all. Supplies were short for trading as many were lost or used up before the Rendezvous started that year.
There are varying stories of the attack by the Blackfeet of Robert Campbell’s party just before they reached Rendezvous. In James Beckwourth’s autobiography, The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth written in 1856, he states it was he and a Spaniard that rode to Rendezvous for help, but in Campbell’s writing Campbell and Calhoun is who rode for help. In all of the accounts many trappers and friendly Indians did ride to the aid of Campbell’s party and helped defeat the Blackfeet. All of the accounts agree Lewis Boldue was the only man killed in that battle, but the spelling of Boldue is different in each account. In Covington’s writing it is Bolduc, in Ashley’s it is Boldue and Bolduke.
In my books I have strived to stay as close to actual history as possible while bringing to life a compelling story of what it might have been like to be one of the first to see and live in the dangerous and rugged, but yet beautiful shining mountains of the west.
Grizzly Killer: The Medicine Wheel
( Grizzly Killer Book III )
by
Lane R Warenski
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Lane R Warenski
About the Author
Lane R Warenski lives in a log home in Duchesne County, Utah, where he has an unrestricted view of the highest peaks in the mighty Uinta Mountains. He was raised being proud of his pioneer heritage and with a deep love and respect of the outdoors. Ever since childhood, following his father, Warenski has hunted, fished, and camped the mountains of the West. Whether it was the daily journals of William Ashley and Jedediah Smith or the fictional stories written by the great storytellers like Louis L’Amour and Terry C. Johnston, throughout his life, Warenski loves reading the history of the first explorers that came west, most of whom never dreamed they were opening this wild and rugged land to the pioneers and settlers that followed.
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