by J. R. WRIGHT
“Oh my God!” Mary said when told, and even though deeply grieved over the news, thought of Tana Star over herself, and headed for the stairs. She was with Bree, her baby, and the baby’s father, Garrett Chapman, upstairs.
When Luke entered the house with White Bird in his arms, he went directly up the stairs and into their room, where he laid her on the bed. Looking down at her beautiful face now, he noticed a pacific smile there, as if she were at peace in death as she had been in life, the happy thought of the newborn still on her lips. It was that thought that she was so anxious to convey that had gotten her killed.
Luke stayed in the room with White Bird for the better part of an hour before Mary shooed him out.
“You have a daughter that needs you now. I suggest you go to her and let me do what needs doing here.”
Leaving the room, then, Luke spotted Tana Star in the hallway, her face in her hands. He scooped her up for a consoling hug and went down to his office where, through a window, he saw the grave diggers already fast at work. Pulling the blind down, he then sat at his desk with Tana’s head still on his shoulder and blankly stared about the room.
“Is Mommy dead, Daddy?” Tana Star pushed away and asked.
And that was all it took to start him crying all over again. Pulling the child close then, they wept together.
White Bird was laid to rest in the blue silk dress she loved so dearly, along with many of her other possessions. And on her feet were beaded moccasins to symbolize where she had come from. The only thing missing was the bird claw and pearl necklace she was never seen without. Mary thought to keep it back for Tana Star to remember her mother by. Luke, perhaps, would have objected had he been told. It was a tradition among Indians that all their favorite things go with them into the afterlife. And he’d promised White Bird the necklace was hers to keep…forever.
Tana Star clung to her daddy as he drifted about the house in a daze for three days after, even sleeping on a pallet in his room at night. Finally it was time Luke made the trip to Laramie to convey the news to Cola Bordeaux that her beloved sister was dead. Another maiden had fallen prey to the dreaded badger hole, Luke thought, remembering Pierre and all the horrifying stories he had told of relationships with Indian women.
Never again, Luke vowed. He would never marry again, no matter her race. Obviously there was a curse placed on those who became close to him, one that needed to be put asunder once and for all.
It was at breakfast the morning of the planned trip to Laramie that Mary kindly reminded Luke he had not paid a visit to Bree, who had yet to leave her bed after the birth of the baby. It had been a rough time for her, and she was just now getting her strength back.
“She’s been asking,” Mary added.
With that, Luke made a slow ascent of the stairs. He hadn’t forgotten he had a great-grandchild freshly born to him. That wasn’t the reason for him staying away. The fact was, as much as he hated himself for thinking it, he blamed the baby for White Bird’s death. Surely if he wouldn’t have decided to come into this world when he did, requiring White Bird to travel through a badger town to reach him, she would still be alive today. But that was nonsense, he realized now. No way should someone so innocent and obviously without a say in the matter, be blamed for this horrible thing so completely out of his control.
Luke knocked at the door before entering and found Bree, propped on pillows, nursing the baby.
“Grandfather,” she said joyfully.
“Bree,” Luke removed his hat and stood humbly by the door.
“We think he looks like you.” She turned slightly to make the baby boy a bit more visible and smiled broadly.
“Who thinks he looks like me?”
“Me… and Mary…”
“Well, Mary thinks everything looks like me. Even that red horse I ride.”
This got a laugh out of Bree.
No doubt, his hair was light, which was not a surprise since the baby was more than three fourths white, considering Bright Moon was at least half French. But that’s all Luke could see from a distance, with the baby’s face buried into a full breast. “What have you decided to name him?” He got the nerve to come closer.
“Garrett wants to name him John Henry, after his father. You think that’s okay, Grandpa?”
“Well, little girl, I don’t have a say so in the matter, but John Henry Chapman sounds like a respectable name for a white man to me.”
That brought a quick smile to his granddaughter’s face, but then she sobered just as fast. “I’m sorry about White Bird, Grandfather.”
“Me too.” He looked about the room as if searching for a place to hide his sadness. “She was a fine woman. We had six years together. Shoulda been more.”
“Yes,” Bree agreed.
“I’ll be leaving for Laramie today, to tell Cola and James. From there I’m going on to see how your folks are getting along. Is there anything special you want me to say to them?”
“Grandfather!”
“I mean other than John Henry, there.”
“Tell them it’s time they all came here to live. I miss them so much.”
“I agree. Maybe coming from you will make the difference.”
Back downstairs, Tana Star caught up to him just as he was heading out the door. “Where are you going, Daddy?”
“I have some business in Laramie, honey. I’ll be back in a couple weeks, okay?”
“Will you be seeing Aunty Cola?”
“As a matter of fact, I will.” He started out the door again.
“I wanna go!”
“I want to go,” Marry corrected, coming from the kitchen.
“Please!” Tana Star begged.
With that, Luke looked to Mary. “What do you think?” No doubt it would do the girl good to get away for a while. Surely Cola would offer to keep her while he was gone to the Black Hills.
“Please, Mary!”
Finally Mary nodded. “I’ll go pack her a bag.”
“Oh, goody!” Tana chased after Mary as she went up the stairs. “Can I take my dolly?”
“Of course you can, dear.” Mary glanced back to Luke.
“I’ll ready the buggy,” he said, planning to take both it and the red stallion he had tied out front, now that the plan had changed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cola took the loss of her sister quite hard, as expected. And it seemed she couldn’t hug Tana Star enough as she wept. So distraught was she that the news of Bree’s baby seemed to have little effect on her sorrow. Finally after a day of it she came to Luke.
“I want the girl.”
Taking note of that, James Bordeaux came to his feet from the table where he and Luke sat in the barroom of the store. It was soon apparent he was not going to object, but rather support his wife’s request.
“Tana Star?” Luke couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
“She’s better off here, Tom,” Cola said, through tears. “Here she can learn to read and write and have the mother’s love she needs right now. I know this is a bad time for you, too, but you have to think of the future of the child.”
“I can teach her to read and write. And she has Mary, and now Bree, when I’m not around.”
“I’m sure Mary is a fine woman, Tom, but she’s old and very busy with all the work she has to do. And Bree, she’s just a child herself. And now she has a baby of her own to keep her occupied. Please, Tom, just think about it?”
At that moment Tana Star dashed into the room. She obviously had been listening from the hallway that led from the kitchen. “Please, Daddy, let me stay. I just love it here, and Aunty Cola is like my mommy. You can still see me when you come. And I can go to the ranch in the summer to ride my horse…”
There was no doubt in Luke’s mind that Tana, at this tender age, needed a full time mother. And it was true thus far he had contributed little toward the raising of the child. That had been done by White Bird mostly, with Mary’s help. No doubt he would miss Tana Star,
but that he considered secondary to what was best for her. And it would be equally good for Cola, who had never had a child of own, and so desperately wanted one yet, especially one of her own bloodline.
Feeling the loss of White Bird all over again, Luke fought back tears and cleared his throat before beginning. “She will always be my daughter. I want that to be clear.” He looked to both Cola and James to make sure his words were being understood. “She will come to stay at the ranch for three months each summer. And if I ever hear her call either of you mother or father, the deal is off. She had a perfectly adorable mother and I don’t want her to ever forget that.”
“Is that all?” James Bordeaux asked, as Cola drew up a smile from ear to ear. “If it is, then we agree.”
“That’s all.”
With that, Cola cheered. “Yehhh!”
“Thank you, Daddy.” Tana Star came in for a quick hug, than skipped out of the room with Cola.
“You’ve made us very happy, Tom.” Bordeaux poked out a hand.
“You know, Mary will kill me for this.”
“She’ll have her close in the summer. Besides, we’ll still visit often, just as before.”
“That’s good to know,” Luke said, then glanced at the door Tana Star had just passed through, wondering if he had made the right decision.
Bordeaux then poured whiskeys for both of them. “I meant to tell you, the soldiers have been pulled from the Black Hills. President Grant ordered it. The wire came just yesterday from General Terry.”
“So it has finally happened. Just like Snively said it would.”
“I’m afraid so. Now the Indians are on their own at keeping the miners out of there. And that’s not all. A train of freight wagons was rumored to have left Cheyenne a week ago. It’s headed for the Black Hills. Supposedly it is loaded with mining equipment, lumber, and supplies. They’re asking for a military escort, once they get this far.”
“So the government is going to protect the trespassers against the rightful owners of the Hills. Now there’s a switch.”
“Apparently so,” Bordeaux said. “That puts Chaska, Bright Moon, and the kids in kind of a bad spot.”
“I’m heading up there tomorrow. Maybe after hearing what you just told me he’ll listen to reason.”
But when Luke arrived there, after three days of hard riding, the Lakhota village was gone. Not a thing was left behind except for cold fire pits and rings embedded into the earth where tepees had stood for decades. He looked about for any sign of direction of travel, but found nothing indicating that. Apparently they had been gone for months, and any signs that may have been left behind had been erased by the elements.
Not knowing what else to do, Luke headed for the cave, thinking perhaps they were there. But if so, where was the rest of the village?
Then, before noon the following day, deep into the hills while crossing a pine covered ridge, something in the valley meadow below caught Luke’s eye. It appeared to be rows of wild flowers, of near every color, all going straight away through otherwise waves of green grass, toward a distant mountain pass due west. For wildflower seeds, blown in on the wings of winter winds, to grow among a heavy blanket of grass, first the earth needed to be opened up, he knew. And what could have done that? A travois being dragged over it came to mind. Or in this case, many travoises in succession, used to haul heavy buffalo hide tepees and other possessions of an Indian village on the move.
Wasting no more time analyzing what may have caused this unusual phenomenon, Luke steered the red stallion down from the ridge and was soon on his knees among the mysterious rows of flowers. Running his hand over the ground he found the now grown over recessions he was searching for. Wagon wheels over soft earth would have done the same, but then, looking around, he doubted a hundred or more wagons had ever found their way into this valley, fortified as it was with heavily trodden hills all around. That left only the travois, and with that information he headed for the distant pass.
Three more days he traveled, the last two without any trail to follow, only with the knowledge that Indians, like bees, often traveled in a straight line, that is, when they knew where it was they were going. Over hills, through valleys, and across swiftly flowing clear water streams, he finally broke out of the dark, rock-domed mountains of the Black Hills and onto the rolling plains beyond. And there in a nearby basin were at least five hundred tepees shining brightly in the noonday sun. Far more than the lodges that had made up the previous Lakhota village.
Pulling a brass telescope from a saddlebag, he took in the activity of the camp, and more so, the markings on the tepees themselves. “Dakotah,” he said aloud while continuing to scan the village. Then, the shock of something striking him on the back near caused the red stallion to throw him as it nervously danced about.
“Hello, Grandfather!” Tom Too came up from some tall grass near a hundred feet away.
This further frightened the horse, and it took some maneuvering to control the large animal. “Whoooaaa!”
Finally, Tom Too got a hold on the bridle and settled him. “I figured you would come. I’ve been watching for you. I was hunting when I saw your red horse coming through the timber. I came here then and waited with a small stone. Show grandfather I can fool him now.”
“Yeah, well, next time you might give some warning.” Luke removed his hat and wiped his sweaty brow. “Good to see you, nonetheless.” He climbed down to embrace the boy.
“We moved,” Tom Too said unwittingly and smiled broadly.
“Yeah, I kinda gathered that.” Luke gave a chuckle. “It would have helped if your father had left a map behind. I searched the spot where his tepee had sat.”
“He did, in the cave behind the waterfall. He laid bones. He said you would know what it meant.”
“I didn’t get as far as the cave. Something caught my eye before I got there that caused me to come this way.”
“What was that?” Tom Too wondered aloud. Had they been so careless their trail, even though made late in the fall, could be followed yet, in summer?
“I came across a pretty Witansna on Cokala (bare naked maiden). She led me directly here. ‘Tom Toooo! Tom Toooo!’ she kept calling.”
“Grandfather….!” Tom Too scolded smilingly.
“Speaking of pretty young maidens, isn’t it time you took a wife?” He sized up the raven-haired, blue eyed boy, seeing he was near as tall as his father already.
“Mother say none in village worthy. Tom Too must go to Grandfather, like Bree, to find a good one.”
Just then an arrow whizzed overhead, followed closely by two more. This caused Tom Too to spring into action, running to the grass where he had been to gather his rifle. By that time Luke had already spotted the young boys at the edge of the village lobbing arrows in their direction, and yelled out.
“Wasichu he cola!” (White man come as friend!)
Tom Too then held up the rifle and yelled, “Go away or I will shoot you!” This had an immediate result, and soon the group had disappeared among the tepees.
“Come, I will take you to Father,” Blue said.
As the two of them walked through the village, once again in a mixture of both Dakotah and Lakhota, Luke heard the murmurings of old with the familiar “Ahu-poh…” (Dawn) passed from person to person. Hearing that, there seemed no doubt the Dakotah still recognized him as a friend after all these years, which was gratifying.
Hearing the commotion, Chaska and Bright Moon came from their tepee just as Luke and Tom Too arrived.
“Father!” Chaska marched toward him, but Bright Moon beat him there. She threw her arms around Luke as if she needed saving from something evil that was about to devour her.
“Tell me, Bree have the baby?” She looked pleadingly up to him.
“She did. It is a boy,” Luke offered to the three of them. “His name is John Henry Chapman.”
“A boy!” Bright Moon danced merrily for a moment. “John Henry Chapman? What kind of name is that? Is t
hat a name for a white man?”
“It is. I thought that’s what you wanted, a white man for Bree?”
“It is, but the name is not a pleasant one, like Chaska or Bright Moon…”
“It is a fine name for white grandson,” Chaska said, more so to shut her up. “Is the baby white?”
“His hair at the moment is the color of yours,” Luke said, but knew, from his own childhood, it would darken some in time.
“Hair like Chaska!” Bright Moon seemed pleased with that.
“Before I forget, I brought more cartridges for the Colt. Bordeaux had some in stock,” Luke said and went to his saddlebags.
“Thank you, Father. The gun has come in handy for scaring off miners who come with their mules loaded across our land,” Chaska said. “But not anymore!” He continued, sadly.
“What do you mean by that?” Luke handed him two boxes of 45 caliber cartridges, then reached to the other bag and handed him two more.
“I have decided to move here, let them have the gold that drives them to risk life to gather. When it is all gone, then maybe they will leave us alone.”
Luke could argue with that nugget of wishful thinking, but decided not to. He was actually pleased they were here out of harm’s way for the time being. And maybe they would get to go back someday, but he doubted it. If they went anywhere, it would more than likely be to a reservation somewhere at the government’s choosing.
“How is White Bird?” Bright Moon asked.
Luke’s eyes shifted to her immediately and glassed over. “Well, she took a fall… White Bird… Well, White… is dead. Her horse fell in a badger town”