Comanche Dawn

by Mike Blakely

  On the eighth day, they awoke to find the Great Mountains dusted with the first snow of the coming winter. Traveling under the rising sun, they soon came to a streambed that held water in pools where their horses could drink.

  “My son,” Shaggy Hump said, letting his pony drink next to Horseback’s, “when we leave this place, I will ride behind you. The land to the south of this stream is as mysterious to me as the Shadow Land. Now there is nothing to guide us but your vision, and the power of your medicine, for no True Human has ever searched this far south. In the old times, before First Horse came and circled your birth lodge, our people could not think of traveling this far. Your children will know a way much different from the way my grandfathers knew.”

  “The way will be better,” Horseback replied. “This is why I have had my vision.”

  They had drifted far from the mountains, so Horseback decided to ride up the stream of pools, as it would lead them to the south and west, closer to their landmarks. The shadows of their horses were beginning to fall behind them when Echo noticed a smudge of smoke in the sky not far ahead. Riding carefully on, they peered over the scrubby willows at each bend in the stream until they located a large camp of hunters at a place where water trickled from pool to pool in the sandy bed of the stream.

  The searchers looked upon the strangers’ camp for a good while. The camp was larger than that of any band of True Humans Horseback had ever seen—even larger than the village of the Corn People and the Burnt Meat People during the great camp-together. He counted forty-two lodges in view, with others yet unseen around the bend in the valley of the stream. The lodges were small, made of buffalo hides draped over four poles, the hides dyed red and white. Only a few horses stood near camp, and they looked poor.

  Horseback noticed several fresh buffalo hides spread on the ground, their fleshy sides still pinkish with blood. Butchered meat stood in piles on one hide, ready to pack onto several nearby pole-drags that were small enough for dogs to pull. Near the edge of the camp, five of the hunters were using pointed sticks as skewers to hold meat over a small fire. They laughed much as they roasted their kill.

  “My father,” Horseback said, “what kind of people are they?”

  “I do not know, but I see that they possess things that I saw in the villages of the Raccoon-Eyed People the time I went there to trade. See the blue blanket the nearest one wears across his shoulders? They use many-colored blankets the way we use our hides and buffalo robes. They make the blankets from the wool of sheep and from the hair of the cotton plant. That is what I have been told. They say the blankets are warm and the wool ones will turn water away. I do not know why they like it more than a good deerskin or buffalo robe.”

  “The color of the blanket is good,” Horseback replied. “Like the sky. But I have seen blankets that our warriors have captured from enemies. They come apart in little pieces.”

  “Hah. Now, see the woman cooking at her fire beside the fourth lodge? She uses a bowl made of iron. The iron bowl carries the magic of heat from the fire, so she does not have to drop hot stones into her stew.”

  Horseback looked over the camp for some time as the strange people moved about. The five hunters began to eat the meat they had roasted. “We could easily take the horses of these hunters,” he said in a whisper, “but the horses are poor and would only slow us down.”

  “They number greater than our small party,” Shaggy Hump said. “To fight so many for such poor horses would be foolish.”

  Horseback glanced at Echo, who was scowling at the strange camp through green willow leaves. “Yet, if we sneak away, they will find our tracks where we have looked upon them, and they will think us cowards. We must show ourselves and make talk with them. If they try to take our horses from us, we must fight until we have all escaped or died.”

  “This is a good place to die,” Echo said, “and a good time. The sun is shining and the air is like the wind from the wings of a great eagle. I hope they will try to take my horse.”

  Mounting their ponies, the searchers rode onto the brink of the stream bank, into view of the strange hunters. Several of the hunters ran out of the camp on foot to challenge Horseback and his riders, but since the searchers wore no paint and left their bows unstrung in their quivers, they were invited into the camp with gestures.

  The strangers gave Horseback’s riders some buffalo meat, and Horseback gifted them, in turn, with the hide of the elk Echo had killed a few days before. This pleased the strange hunters very much, and they began trying to make talk with the mounted searchers. There was a short talk among the hunters, and one of them ran away to the main part of the village, for what reason the searchers did not know.

  Horseback touched the blue blanket one man wore as he tried to make sense of the many signs these strangers made with their hands. He had heard of this hand talk, but had seen little of it. He knew how to make very few of the signs, yet he found them easy to understand when the strangers repeated them slowly. He felt he should learn more of this talk, as he had heard that many nations of the plains used it.

  Soon, Horseback and Shaggy Hump had learned that the strange hunters came from a nation of people called Tiwa. They knew much about the hairy-faced white men, whom they called Metal Men. These Tiwa hunters lived in a village just one sleep south, called Tachichichi.

  The visitors roasted and ate meat as the sign talk went haltingly along. Finally, the runner who had left for the main part of the village returned with another warrior, a young man who urged the Noomah searchers to speak, so that he might hear their language.

  “I am Horseback. I come in peace with my friends. We are searching.”

  The young Tiwa warrior frowned, for he did not understand.

  Then Horseback repeated the same words in the Yuta tongue he had learned from Looks Away.

  Now the Tiwa smiled and answered in the language of the Yutas: “I am Speaks Twice. You are welcome in my camp.” As he spoke, he made corresponding signs in the hand talk.

  “Why do you know the Yuta tongue?” Horseback asked, fearing that he may have stumbled into a camp of Yuta allies, and as such, enemies to himself and his searchers.

  “At Tachichichi, we trade with many nations,” Speaks Twice replied, “so it is good to know many tongues.” Again, he made talk with his hands as well as his voice. “How far away is your country?”

  “It lies north of the Yuta lands.”

  “I have heard others speak of your nation,” Speaks Twice said. “They call you Snake People.”

  Horseback had known for a long time that many other nations referred to the True Humans as Snake People. He could not understand why the true two-leggeds would be named for no-leggeds, especially when the Noomah avoided snakes, according to the wisdom of their grandfathers’ grandfathers. He thought maybe it was a joke among all the inferior nations, because they could not understand the importance of the snake taboo to the True Humans. Horseback did not understand the wisdom of the taboo either, for it was ancient and mysterious wisdom, and therefore the most powerful and unquestionable of all wisdoms.

  “Our enemies call us Snake People,” Horseback explained. “In our country, we have many enemies.”

  Speaks Twice took a moment to translate to his friends. “We have only one enemy. The Wolf People who come across the plains from the east to attack our villages.”

  “The Yutas are your allies?” Horseback inquired.

  “No. We have no need of allies. The Tiwa people trade under truce with all nations of people, except the Wolf People. We do not take the war trail with other nations. We are traders, planters, and hunters. Even the Metal Men are at peace with us, though once we were at war.”

  Horseback took a bite from a piece of buffalo that he had removed from the flames to cool. He grunted his appreciation for the meat. He liked this Tiwa warrior named Speaks Twice who spoke with his hands as well as his tongue. He felt he might learn much of the hand talk by making conversation with him. “Are all the warrior
s of your village here in this camp?” he asked, looking across the many lodges of the Tiwa hunting camp.

  When Speaks Twice translated this to his friends, the hunters laughed.

  “If Tachichichi were the size of my hand,” Speaks Twice said, “this camp would make only my little finger.”

  “I would like to see that many people in one place.”

  “I will take you to Tachichichi.” Speaks Twice pointed south. “It stands one sleep south, near the banks of the River of Arrowheads.”

  “I have heard talk of this river,” Shaggy Hump said to his son. “Warriors of many nations find flint at a place along the banks of the river.”

  Among these strange people, Horseback felt as if he wanted to dance, or sing the song Sound-the-Sun-Makes had given him. The spirits were trying to tell him things that he could not quite understand—much like the hand talk of Speaks Twice. He thought of Teal, and the moments he had stolen with her alone. He wanted to tell her of the things he was finding here in the south. He longed to show her these places.

  The halting talk between Tiwa and Noomah went on as searchers and hunters feasted on buffalo meat. Speaks Twice did not know all of the Yuta words, but he was skilled at the hand signs, and he easily learned new words Horseback taught to him in their awkward attempts to communicate. Speaks Twice seemed about the same age as Horseback. He was taller than any of the Noomah riders, the features of his face straight and long. He seemed strong and quick, though his muscles did not bunch and ripple like those across the shoulders and arms and legs of the burly Noomah.

  “You ride near the hunting grounds of your enemies, the Yutas,” Speaks Twice said. “Your party is small. Why do you undertake this danger?”

  “I have received a vision telling me to seek the country of Metal Men and get horses. Do the Metal Men have many horses?”

  Speaks Twice translated this very slowly, as if making time to consider his reply. “Yes, the Metal Men keep many, many horses of many different colors,” he finally said. “But the chiefs of the Metal Men forbid all trade in horses.”

  “You have horses,” Horseback said, pointing at the poor mounts grazing near the Tiwa camp.

  Speaks Twice smiled. “There are ways to get horses, though my people do not need many.”

  “What ways?”

  “Some trade with other nations who steal horses from the Metal Men. Some battle with enemies who have large herds. And then, some of the Metal Men disobey their chiefs and trade in horses, though it is forbidden.”

  “What do they take in trade for these horses?”

  Young Speaks Twice seemed uncomfortable with this question. “I have never seen this trading take place. I cannot know in my own heart what my eyes have not seen. Why do you want so many horses? The ones you ride now look good.”

  Horseback chewed a piece of meat. “In my country, the four-leggeds that make meat do not number as they do here. We must ride far to find enough to eat. We are surrounded by enemies, and our numbers are few. The horses help us move our villages when our enemies come in great numbers.”

  While this talk was going on, Shaggy Hump had been studying the red-and-white lodges of the Tiwa hunters. “Your lodges,” he asked through his son, “do your women make them?”

  Speaks Twice turned his hand over in front of him to make the sign meaning no. “In Tachichichi, we live in great lodges made of earth, and stone, and timbers. We use the hide lodges only when we hunt. We trade for these lodges.”

  “With whom?”

  “The people from the plains who come to trade at Tachichichi.”

  “What do these people call themselves?” Shaggy Hump inquired.

  “Inday,” Speaks Twice said.

  At mention of the lost Noomah enemy, Shaggy Hump sprang from his crouching position near the fire and drew his knife. Horseback and the other searchers joined him quickly, for all had heard the stories from their grandfathers of the cruel and treacherous Inday, most ancient of all Noomah enemies.

  Almost as quickly, the Tiwa hunters sprang and formed a defensive half-circle, reaching for the weapons they had on hand, one brandishing the pointed stick upon which he had roasted his chunk of buffalo meat.

  “Stop!” Speaks Twice shouted. “We only trade with the Inday. That is all. Sometimes they camp at our village. We do not go with them on the war trail. Our village, Tachichichi, is a place of peace for all nations who wish to trade. Many peoples come there under truce, even if they make war with one another when they leave Tachichichi. So it is with the Inday.”

  Horseback took his hand from the handle of his flint knife, noticing now that all the knives, lances, and arrow points of the Tiwas were made of iron. Other Tiwa warriors were coming with more iron blades, having seen the strangers spring and reach for their weapons. It would be foolish to fight these people, he thought. Horseback did not fear the Tiwa. He did not fear death or battle. He feared only that he would fail Sound-the-Sun-Makes in achieving his great vision, which yet stood shrouded in his heart by a blizzard of ignorance. To die here in battle, however bravely, would mean the end of his great quest, the end of the hazy thing that Sound-the-Sun-Makes wanted him to achieve.

  And there was yet another reason in his heart that made Horseback want peace with the Tiwas. Never in the memories of his elders had the True Humans known peace with any nation. Never before had he been greeted and allowed to enter the camp of another people, to feast and exchange gifts. Horseback did not need allies, but he liked the feeling of feasting with friends. Yet, he dared not trust these Tiwas, for he could feel the spirits moving in his stomach, warning him not to trust what he did not know.

  “Listen to Speaks Twice,” he finally said. “Let no blood stain this place of peace. I see no enemy of my people here. To trade with a nation under truce is not the same as taking that nation as an ally. Sometimes there must be trade, even between enemies.”

  Horseback’s warriors sheathed their weapons. Whip went to the fire and picked up the piece of buffalo meat he had dropped. Brushing away the dirt and ashes, he began to gnaw on it again. The talk between Speaks Twice and Horseback resumed, though they spoke no more of the Inday. Instead, they spoke of the Yutas.

  “You must pass through the hunting grounds of the Yutas if you wish to ride straight to the villages of the Metal Men,” Speaks Twice warned.

  “I will ride straight,” Horseback boasted. “Straighter than straight.”

  “The Yutas are powerful.”

  “I do not fear them.”

  When Speaks Twice translated this in the Tiwa language, the Tiwa warriors all laughed. Many of them had now gathered around. Horseback only laughed with them, for he liked the Tiwas. They laughed much and made graceful conversation with the sign talk. They possessed many beautiful and useful things they had acquired through trade with other nations. He found more iron in this camp than he had ever seen before in all his winters put together.

  The Tiwas were handsome people, in a lesser way. They were tall compared to Noomah people. Horseback saw one of them riding a pony, and thought how odd the warrior looked, so tall above the back of the mount. The rider’s broad shoulders made him seem off balance. His long legs stuck out, away from the horse, unlike the short, bowed legs of the Noomah warriors, which held a horse like a palm cupped around a gourd dipper.

  He was glad the spirits had made his people to fit astride their ponies. He was happy that the spirits had sent First Horse on the day of his birth. He was proud to have made this trip into the Sacred South, though it was dangerous and fraught with uncertainties.

  Horseback asked many questions about the Metal Men, and Speaks Twice began to answer:

  “The Metal Men first came to our old villages in the south many generations ago, bringing much iron, and many horses and other animals. They came in peace and spoke of the Great Spirit, but soon began taking our corn and other things that they did not own. Some took Tiwa girls and defiled them.

  “They call us Pueblo. It is their name for th
e kind of village we live in. They call our allies to the south by the same name—those who speak the Towa and Tewa tongues, and those who speak Keresan and Zuni and Tompiro. At Picuris and Cochiti and Nambe and many other villages. They call us all by the name of Pueblo, because of our lodges, but we are not related to all those peoples. The Metal Men do not understand this.

  “Twenty-five summers ago, the Tiwa nation and its allies made war against the Metal Men and drove them far away to the south. Many warriors died in this war, for the Metal Men fought bravely with many weapons of iron, but the victory was won by the Tiwa and our allies.”

  “Did they fight with Fire Sticks?” Horseback asked.

  When Speaks Twice translated the question, his fellow warriors laughed. “My brothers laugh because you say ‘Fire Stick’ like the old men used to say. The weapon is called a gun. Sometimes musket or escopeta. The Metal Men have many guns, but not much powder.”

  “Powder?” Horseback answered.

  “The powder that makes the gun kill.”

  “The black medicine dust.”

  Again, Speaks Twice translated, bringing howls of laughter from his friends. “Gunpowder. The Metal Men have little of it, so they fight mostly with bows and lances and swords.”

  “Swords?” Horseback asked.

  Speaks Twice stared for a long moment, but did not translate any more of Horseback’s ignorance for his friends’ enjoyment. Horseback felt that Speaks Twice honored him by not making him the object of more ridicule, but imagined that Speaks Twice would only make the translations later.

  After explaining the thing called a sword, Speaks Twice told more about the war with the Metal Men. “They wore shirts of thick leather. Some wore shirts of iron. They were hard to kill, and fought bravely. Still, my people defeated them and drove them to a place far away in the south, whence they had come.