by Leah Matheny
I must have fallen asleep because I was startled when I felt someone nudging me. I opened my eyes to see Honon standing above me. He pulled on the rope, forcing me to stand up, and led me to the campfire where he handed the rope over to Liwanu. That snapped me fully awake. Liwanu started to rise.
I turned to Honon. "No." I croaked and swallowed deeply. "Please don't do this to me. Honon, I beg you. I promise I won't run away again. I…I just got scared."
Liwanu started to pull on the rope.
"Honon!" I cried out. "I was afraid, afraid of wanting you too much, afraid of wanting to stay." I was terrified. He wouldn't look at me. I screamed as Liwanu pulled me into his arms. When he lifted me up, I fainted.
Chapter 6
My whole body hurt. I tried to swallow and grimaced from the pain. I realized it was early morning and I was lying in front of a fire. I smelled food cooking, so I sat up on one elbow and looked around the camp. Liwanu was sitting a few yards away, eating and watch me.
Everything came back in a flash. "Oh, God," I whimpered. I started to sit up and scoot backwards at the same time. I quickly looked down; whew. My clothes were still on. I focused on Liwanu and the look he gave me in return told me he knew what I'd been thinking.
I tried to stand up, but my legs wouldn't hold me and my feet felt funny. Liwanu stood up and walked toward me. I shook my head. No. onon. then I felt his bare fingers; he'd dropped the cloth.He stopped, but held out some meat and one of my water bottles. I looked at him warily and sat still with my hand held out. I noticed that my wrists were wrapped up. He came closer, handed me the food and water, and walked back to the stump he'd been sitting on.
I ate and drank greedily, was soon finished, and looked back at the roasting stick to see if there was any more. Liwanu brought the stick over to me and I ate what was left. When I finished, I sat back. "Thank you." I said with a slight smile, not wanting to be too encouraging.
My feet and wrists hurt so I began peeling the wrap away, but I heard Liwanu say, "Ken."
Okaaay…don't wanna make him mad. I moved the blanket so I could look at my feet; they too were bandaged. I looked at Liwanu. "Did you do this?"
He started talking to me, but I didn't understand. One thing I did notice was that his voice sounded different--soft, deep, and kind of nice. He didn't have the mean growl I'd always heard before.
We sat for a long while and Liwanu pretty much ignored me. Great…I have to go to the bathroom. But I didn't know how to go about it since I couldn't walk. I looked at Liwanu and sighed. "Liwanu, I need some help," I said. "I have to go to the bathroom." He seemed to understand and came over to pick me up. I cringed at first, but when I didn't get any weird vibe from him, I felt kind of safe. Weird.
He carried me and sat me down on a log, out of sight of the campfire. He gently pushed me back to lean against a tree, then turned and walked away. It ended up being a pretty good spot since the log was set away from the tree. When I finished, I called out to him and he came back, picked me up, and set me down on the blanket. After he added more wood to the fire, he sat down on his stump. I sat for a while and then lay back down while Liwanu whittled something. I wondered when we were going to start traveling again. I fell asleep.
I could smell food again and I was hungry, so I must've slept for a long time. Liwanu passed the food and more water to me. "Thank you, again," I smiled more genuinely that time.
After we ate, Liwanu came over to me and pointed to my wrists and hands. He unfolded a piece of leather and inside was some goo. Slowly he moved closer and gently took my hand to remove the wrapping; part of my wrist was raw. He poured water over it, which really stung, and put more goo all around. It had a slightly familiar smell, but I couldn't quite place it. He re-wrapped my wrist before moving to work on the other one. After that, he moved down to my feet and repeated the process there. Once he finished he stood up to go, but I stopped him.
"Do you want me to do the same for your arm?" I pointed at his arm. He nodded briskly and sat down again, so I got up on my knees and reached out. I looked up to see him staring at me with the darkest eyes I'd ever seen. I gave a quick, nervous smile and looked back at his arm. Luckily, once I got to work all nervousness left me.
"Oh, Liwanu, this is horrible. You must be in pain. I wish I had something to help you." The wound was red and puckered, and part of the flesh was black where it had been burned. I dabbed some of the old goo away and poured water over it, wishing we had some soap, but all I could do was apply more goo and bandage his arm up again. I wanted to put Neosporin on him, but I figured their stuff must have healing properties to it.
After awhile I started getting bored; all I could do was sit and think, or sleep. Every time Honon came to my mind I would push him out, but I couldn't do it anymore. I pictured his face, his hands, his back, the look in his eyes when he leaned into kiss me. I found myself missing him. Oh no! I can't feel like that. Who does he think he is? What, I'm just gonna follow him blindly? Like Hell. Where is he? When's he coming back? I sat up. Oh shit. I want him to come get me.
I had to do something to get my mind off Honon. I had an idea. "Liwanu, would you like to play a game? Do you know Tic-Tac-Toe?" I waved him over and drew the game out in the dirt, making an "O" in the center box; I took his finger and made him make an "X" in another spot. We played a couple of games like that, where I'd take hold of his finger.
He finally caught on and we played for a long time. I laughed out loud at the astonished look on his face when I would win a game. I had a good time and didn't think of Honon--much.
After we ate dinner, I stretched out on the blanket and struggled to go to sleep. What am I gonna do? Have to get away. Where's Honon? Stop it! Sleep. I need Karen. I rolled over and cried silently while I thought of home and Honon.
Waking up the next morning was hard; I was exhausted and my eyes were swollen. Liwanu came over to me with the packet of goo and pointed to my wrists, so I sat up and held one out to him. After we took care of each other's wounds he motioned me to get up. I had an easier time standing on my feet and I took a few tentative steps while he began to pick up the camp and put everything on his horse.
"We're leaving? Are we going back to the others?" I knew my voice sounded hopeful, as if I'd said, "Will I see Honon? Will he want me?" My anxiousness made me breathe harder. When Liwanu looked back at me with a tiny bit of a smile, I wondered if he could read my thoughts.
I sat behind him and kept turning my head back to see if the others--if Honon--might be following, or moving my head to look and see if they were ahead of us. I never heard or saw anyone.
After lunch we started climbing a tall, steep mountain that had snow on some of its highest peaks. I could feel the air get cooler the higher we climbed.
Hours later we were riding on a narrow path that twisted and turned up the mountain, when all of a sudden we came to a solid rock wall. Liwanu hopped off his horse and pulled me off. Being so close to the ledge frightened me so I grabbed ahold of him, tight. He set me down, motioned me to stay put, and went to lead his horse to turn around. When they were three quarters into their turn, they disappeared into the rock wall.
Huh? I rose to follow them and was startled to be facing an entrance to a cave; I didn't go any farther because of the darkness inside. Liwanu suddenly appeared in front of me and I jerked back, surprised into letting out a nervous chuckle but hoping he didn't think I was afraid of him again. "Oh, you just startled me," I mumbled.
He led me by the hand into the hillside and I couldn't see anything until he lit a torch. We walked alongside the horse and made many turns, walked down a few tunnels, and finally stopped. Liwanu let go of my hand, walked over to a large rock, and started to roll it.
Light poured in. We passed through the opening, or exit, and he had me stop again while he rolled the rock back into place.
I sat in front of Liwanu as we rode down the mountainside; he held on to my waist to keep me from slipping forward. Then we came out of the tees.
"Incredible! Where are we?"
Below me was a huge meadow full of people, lots of people. There were teepees everywhere, built from logs and set up near trees. There were animal pens off in the distance.
I heard children laughing, and water running in a stream. Whoa. They live here! How? Do people know? The government? Where's Honon? Not gonna find any police here, Dani.
When we got farther toward the bottom, people stopped what they were doing to watch us. The closer we got, the more people stopped to stare, and some kids even ran up to us laughing, wanting to touch me. I leaned back into Liwanu and he lightly squeezed his arm around my waist; he grunted something and the kids ran away squealing.
In the distance, one woman with blonde hair caught my eye and I watched her as she stood up. She looked at us, then quickly turned a walked away.
I felt the horse stop and a hand on my knee; I turned to see Kosumi. He looked me all over, stopping at my bound wrists and feet. He seemed to be checking if I was okay. "Kosumi, is Honon here? Where's Honon?" I pleaded. He just shook his head and walked away.
I looked all around with my heart picking up its pace, nearing panic. What is this place? Little kids were walking around naked. There were campfire pits in front of the teepees and women were cooking, others were weaving. Some had clothing on like mine, and some wore what looked like my top, but longer like a dress. There were older men working on arrows.
We rode a ways through the meadow and stopped in front of a large teepee. Liwanu got off the horse and motioned for me to stay. As I sat waiting, I looked all around to see if I could spot Honon. Children were starting to gather around me but they didn't get too close, not enough to touch.
"Hello," I said, and smiled. Some of them smiled back and ran away. A couple of them said hello back to me and I thought they were pretty good at mimicking.
One of the older ones said, "What is your name?"
My jaw dropped open. "You speak English?" At that moment Liwanu came out, helped me off the horse and brought me inside. It took a second to get used to the darkness, though the streaks of sunlight coming through the gaps in the logs helped. He gently pushed me to sit down in front of an old man and a woman who was probably in her fifties.
They both nodded and said, "Hello." His English was accented, hers was perfect. In fact, she was Caucasian. I sat there wide-eyed, just staring at them, and the woman laughed.
"My name is Sitala. This is my husband, the chief, Wuyi. And your name is Dani?" She smiled kindly at me. I looked back to find Liwanu gone.
"I'm sure you have lots of questions and I'll answer them the best I can. But first, I see you've been injured. Here, let me help you." She got up and sat down next to me, putting her hand on my cheek. "You don't need to worry, no harm will come to you here."
Sitala cleaned my wounds and reapplied the goo. As she bent over me, I noticed a little bit of grey around the temples of her long, dark brown hair. She looked like she could've been tall, taller than me, and her arms were pretty toned for an older woman. I figured it must be from manual labor. No vacuums or washing machines here.
"Let's not re-bandage them yet," she said. "It'll be good to let air get to the wounds. They look like they'll heal just fine. But if you have any problems, we'll have the yenene, medicine man, look at you."
I shook my head in confusion. "Do you all speak English? I heard some kids out front…what about Honon, Kosumi, Liwanu, Muata?" My voice gradually grew higher and higher.
"Yes, yes. Here, drink this tea. It'll help you relax. I'm sure that some of what I have to tell you will be quite startling." She stood up and walked over to a fire pit and poured a cup for me.
"Where's Honon?" I said urgently. "I want to talk to him."
"In good time," she said, patting my knee. "He's not here right now. He left the village early this morning and we don't know when he'll be back."
My heart dropped into my stomach and my anger immediately left me, replaced with anxiousness. "All right," I exhaled loudly. "Sorry for my outbursts. Please, tell me everything. Why'd they bring me here?"
She sat and held one of my hands. "Again, my name is Sitala, it means: Of Good Memory. I learned their language fast. These people are Miwoks, they originated from the Ahwaneechee tribe. The Ahwaneechee are part of the original Miwoks who lived in the San Francisco Bay area over a thousand years ago. As more and more oje'aj, white man, immigrated, many of the Miwoks moved south and others inland. Some referred to themselves as Miwok, others as Ahwaneechee. Miwok is not really a specific tribe, the word means: People. Of course, some of the Miwok stayed and melded their lives together with the whites and they were very well treated in the beginning."
Wuyi interrupted. "The oje'aj continued to spread over California. They began to forcefully make the Miwok like them. They taught the children to live as they did. They brought Christianity to the Miwok. They were kind at first. Later, the People were made to live in camps or killed by the oje'aj."
Wuyi looked like you'd think an old Indian would look. He had long white hair and beaded necklaces hanging over his wrinkled, deeply tanned, sagging chest. He had a scowl on his face, and I wasn't sure if it was because he didn't like me or if that was just how he always looked.
"Yes, Wuyi, you're right." Sitala looked at me and smiled. "A few tribes moved farther into the Yosemite area. The name Yosemite actually derived from an Ahwaneechee name. One group of about fifty set out to find land hidden from any whites and they found this valley, this caldera. They've been living here since the early 1800's. By the third generation, everyone was related to each other. They didn't want cousins to marry…that might not be so bad, but who would their children marry? They knew they had to go back into civilization and start bringing women back, a couple of women for every new generation. Most every person here today has some degree of oje'aj in him."
Someone brought food in for us, which looked like a stew. "Let us pray before we eat," Sitala bowed her head and prayed in the Indian language. While we ate, Sitala continued with her story.
"The women weren't treated well in the beginning. They were work horses and broodmares. Many didn't live very long. Their children were raised by the father and his wife, then as those children grew and began to realize what was happening, they didn't like how their birth mothers were being treated and started to change things. The women were soon treated better and better. But the respect had to be, and must be, earned. Two other white women were here when I came. One was insane and she just wandered around the camp babbling. She killed herself after I'd been here for about a year. The other woman, Tumu, seemed to be happy. She was married. In fact, she was the second full oje'aj to marry here. I'm sad to say she died about ten years ago. Her son is Muata."
"Really? He must take after his father. Does he have any siblings?" I was fascinated.
"Yes, he could be his father's twin. And yes, he has a sister. Each family is allowed two children. Because of the size of our land we don't want the populations to get out of control. If there have been many deaths or if one family can't have children, other families are allowed to have more. Also, if too many boys are born or too many girls, then more babies are allowed, which will hopefully even out the sexes."
"This is fascinating," I said in awe. I barely ate anything, I was listening so intently. "What happens if a family has extra children when they aren't supposed to?"
Sitala laughed. "Don't worry, babies aren't killed, we manage. All children are deeply loved. Let's see, where was I? Yes, one time one of the women they brought was sick. She, the men who brought her, and about fifteen others died. So after that they started a new procedure. When they would capture a woman, both the men and the woman would stay away from our village at least one week. They would also take our form of penicillin every day. There hasn't been any sickness since."
"Your form of penicillin, what's that?"
"Acorn much is set aside until it gets mildew on it. The mildew is scraped off and allowed to dry. It
's then ground into a powder and put into teas, biscuits, soups, whatever is to be eaten. You were given this penicillin."
I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I closed my eyes so I could feel if there was anything funky going on in my body. Nope. "Okay, please, go on."
"There's another woman here, Matila. Her name means: Fast Salmon Swimming Upstream." Sitala laughed again. "I guess she jumped in a stream and tried to swim away from her husband…that was before she married him. She was here quite awhile before she married. She wanted my son, but he wasn't interested. My son had been recently widowed. He lost his wife and child during childbirth."
"I'm so sorry. It can take a long time to heal from that type of loss." I couldn't help but think of my swim downstream.
"Yes, it has. But I think he may be coming out of his mourning. I think he's already found someone he wants to marry. He's a very kind, compassionate, thoughtful man. And he was a good husband. He's known for his even temper and we know he'll make a good chief some day," she said with an affirming nod. "Eat, Dani, eat. You've hardly touched your food."
I looked down at my plate. "Oh, sorry. This tastes good." Then it hit me. "Wait a minute, are you telling me I was brought here to produce children?"
Sitala looked shocked. "No, not at all! You will not be forced to do anything you don’t want to do. It's time for women to be brought into our camp and two women are needed. You'll be able to pick who you wish to marry…or even if you want to marry. Liwanu is one of the men looking for a wife. None of the women here will have him because he scares them all, he's so mean."
"No! Liwanu would make someone a wonderful husband," I said, shocked. "He may be a little gruff in the beginning…but he's tender and gentle, and caring. I'm sure everyone here knows that, knows how he really is." I stopped and thought. "And he does have a nice smile. I would hope no one would judge him because his face is scarred."