Ida's New World

by Lise Muusmann

  “Oh, you mean set up a homestead here in Indian country?” Henry said. “They are everywhere. It is the Indian reserve. The place we have just left is called Fort Yates. It is named after captain George Yates, who got killed in the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.”

  “They did come first, after all,” Frederik said. Henry stared at him in amazement, and shook his head. “The Indians, I mean.”

  “There is still room enough for all of us though, right?” Henry said quickly.

  “One must hope so,” Frederik answered. “We would like to set up our homestead in a good place. Maybe in North Dakota?”

  “Me too!” Henry shouted and cracked the whip, making the horses run faster.

  Inside the wagon, Katrina noticed a blanket moving every so often, as though there was something under it. Rose could not help laughing, as Katrina and the girls watched the unruly blanket with wide eyes.

  “Come out now, Stephen!” Rose said. A moment or two passed before all of a sudden a head appeared. Then a skinny boy crept a little way out from under the blanket.

  “This is my eleven year old son. He will come out in a short while.” Rose said. “It is going to get too hot under that blanket”.

  Ida was busy keeping a lookout for flying feathers in the grass. They drove on for a couple more hours when all of a sudden, she saw them. The feathers had different colours and cut through the grass like birds. Ida did not say anything, but Henry did.

  “Indians!” He shouted. “They are fast and noiseless. We hope they are only going to greet us from afar.”

  “Can they do more than that?” Frederik asked nervously.

  “They can do all sorts of things. They think it is their country.”

  “Have you set up a homestead before?” Frederik asked. Henry nodded.

  “We came up from Nebraska, but we would like to go further out into the wilds.”

  “There are a lot of Indians here, are there not?”

  “Yes, you have not seen the last of the Indians.”

  The Indians followed them for a while and then they disappeared.

  “Are they gone now?” Frederik asked, looking around. They had entered an unpleasantly swampy area. It was slow going, as it became more and more difficult to keep the wheels turning and to dig them out of the waterholes.

  “Are your horses good for this?” Frederik asked.

  “The best I could afford,” Henry answered. “We have to get clear of this swamp, before we stop for the night.”

  But it was quite dark when they finally came to a halt and everyone crawled out of the wagon. They had come through the swamp and arrived in a narrow valley with tall tree clad hills on either side. When at last they were sitting around a blazing fire to have dinner, Stephen came out to them. He crawled on all fours, still covered with the blanket and sat down next to Ida and Lisa. He silently put a hand out to ask for food. Rose put the food into his hand, which quickly disappeared under the blanket again.

   Chapter 23

  The next morning they set off bright and early. Henry asked Frederik to keep his gun at the ready. Wives and children were told to sit quietly under the canvas and Henry handed another gun to his wife. Katrina looked at the weapon in surprise and disgust.

  “Can you shoot with it?” She asked Rose, who nodded.

  “Good Lord,” Anna cried. “Is the country at war?”

  “We are in Indian country,” Henry answered and started the horses off at a fast clip. They had not been rolling for very long, before Ida pointed towards the tall prairie grass.

  “Look, the feathers are flying again,” she shouted. This time, the Indians were riding so close that one could clearly see their faces. There were six Indians in beautiful brown fur coats, with shining feathers in their raven-black hair and painted faces. Ida hardly dared to breathe, and she held Lisa tightly by the hand. The Indians followed them for a short while. Suddenly they were gone again, like a flock of birds.

  They came to an area where everything appeared dead and without life. Once again, it was a swampy place, and hard to get the wagon wheels through the sticky swamp. There were no animals to be seen, neither on the ground, nor in the air. All of a sudden they were stuck fast. The wagon wheels were sunk deep into the mud. It was a cloudy day, the sun only broke through the thick clouds intermittently. Humidity rose up from the swamp, creating a thick haze, making it hard to see anything. The landscape had vanished behind a grey wall of cloud. Everyone got out and had to work hard to help the horses drag the wagon free. Ida had mud up to her knees, and Lisa was sinking almost to her hip. Stephen clung to his blanket, shivering as though from cold, but he pushed too, as best he could. Finally, they managed to get the wagon free. The place was so scary, they decided to leave immediately, without pause. Through the thick mist they could see trees standing in water, looking like stiff old men on the brink of drowning. It was the country of death.

  “Phew,” Anna said, as they sat in the wagon again, rolling along. “What a sinister place.”

  “It is a grand thing, we have such good horses,” Rose said with a smile. “Now, we hope to come to a nice place soon, with sweeping valleys, and a bit of forest here and there.”

  “That could be difficult, it is prairie all over,” Katrina said. Ida acted as interpretor, and she was quite good at that.

  “My, she is brilliant,” Rose said and looked at Ida. “You can be proud of her. She already knows how to speak in English.”

  “Yes, she is going to amount to something one day,” Anna said and nodded.

  Ida was very happy and forgot all about the Indians, that had come so very close to their wagon. Stephen was lying under the blanket, playing with a wooden revolver. He shot with it and shouted: “Bang! Bang! Bang!”

  “Why is he lying under the blanket all the time?” Ida asked.

  It was a while before Rose answered. She looked very sad.

  “We lived in Nebraska and had set up a good homestead there. Then there were troubles with the natives and when the Indians took our eldest son, Tom, we only wanted to get as far away as possible from there,” she answered in a quiet voice.

  “Did he never come back?” Asked Ida. Rose did not answer. Suddenly Stephen put his head out from under the blanket and started firing urgently with his small revolver.

  “Bang! Bang! Bang!” He shouted really loudly and made threatening motions with the wooden revolver.

  “Please be quieter, Stephen,” Henry shouted from the driving box. “We have all heard you are good at shooting.”

  “Did the Indians take Tom and keep him?” Ida asked again, with her mouth falling open in horror. Rose looked very sad.

  “Yes, they abducted him, and we have not seen him since.”

  “What did the police say?” Ida asked.

  “There are no police in these deserted places. One is lucky if there is a sheriff.” Rose sighed deeply.

  “What is a sheriff? I do not think we have a sheriff in Denmark.”

  “There are sheriffs in many places here in America. A sheriff is a law-man. His job is to catch and convict criminals.”

  “Were those Indians criminals?” Ida asked.

  “It is difficult,” Rose said. “We Europeans are coming here and taking over their land. They are being pressed further and further back to miserable areas, where it is hardly possible to survive.”

  “Then it is correct, the Indians came here first?”

  Rose nodded.

  ”Can’t we live together with them?”

  “It is not easy, because the Indians live in a different manner than we do,”

  Rose explained. “They are moving around all the time. They move their whole settlement from place to place with the change of the seasons. They follow the buffalo where they can find food.”

  “Aren’t we doing that as well?” Ida asked. “We have come here to find food.”

  The women nodded and laughed. Anna needed a fresh translation, before she could understand. Stephen poked
his head out, and fired a long series of shots.

  “How far is it till we get there, I wonder?” Katrina asked.

  “Just a bit longer,” Rose answered. “There is supposedly a good place up near the lakes.”

  “Now that sounds nice,” Katrina said with a smile. After a while they stopped for a break amongst a small grove of oak trees. They had coffee and bread, which they heated over a small fire. They had left the swamp behind and the haze was gone. The spring sun shine appeared and heated the new settlers on the prairie.

  Chapter 24

  Ida had just started to bite into a nice warm bun, when there was a whistling sound through in the grass and the fireplace was suddenly filled with sparks. Without warning a heavy-set man burst into their camp site. He kicked things and charged about, shouting. He had a partner, a sinewy pale fellow who stood and glared at everyone. The interlopers were dressed all in black and wore big hats that cast a shadow over their faces. Then Ida noticed that they were pointing their revolvers at them.

  “Hands up all of you!” The big man bellowed and pointed the revolver at Frederik and Henry.

  “We have got nothing in this world,” Henry said calmly. “We are just poor settlers on our way to find a place to build a homestead.”

  “Come now! Show us your money!” The sinewy man shouted with a broken voice.

  “Are they going to rob us?” Frederik asked, standing up slowly, with his hands in the air.

  “We have only got a little bit of cash,” Henry said.

  Now the revolvers were held at Henry and Frederik’s temples.

  Henry looked at Rose, who quickly clambered up into the wagon. She came back with a couple of notes in her hand and some coins. She gave the money to the biggest man who snatched it impatiently. He looked at the money in his hand and shook his head in disgust. Frederik looked at Katrina, who brought out her last bit of money from her clothing. The man laughed out loud and furiously kicked at the fire, so that sparkles flew around and hit them. Ida sprang back and held her arm.

  “Ow! That hurt.”

  The ruffians laughed even louder as they ran off, vanishing into the trees. They could be heard riding off on horses at the gallop. Every one sat down again silently, more than a little shaken by what had just happened. Henry shrugged his shoulders.

  “Such vermin also reach the prairie. They are healthy and strong, and could easily do a day’s work, take care of cattle for a wage for instance, instead of robbing honest people.”

  “Maybe the sheriff will come after them?” Ida asked.

  “Yes, maybe,” Rose said. “It would be very nice to have a sheriff around now.”

  “I hope we won’t meet any more such as those ruffians,” Frederik said. “It would become difficult for us to settle here.”

  “We will manage,” Henry answered and slapped Frederik on the shoulder. “Let us get on.”

  “Were they really going to shoot us?” Ida asked and shivered all over.

  “The were very stupid,” Lisa said. “Stupid black men.”

  “Bang! Bang! Bang!” Stephen shouted and poked his head out from under his blanket. He brandished his toy revolver in all directions. “Bang! Bang! Bang!”

  “Yes, Stephen,” Henry said patiently. “It’s alright. But now it is time to move on.”

  Henry extinguished the fire, and they gathered their things together and packed them up in the wagon again.

  Soon they were rumbling along over the prairie once more. The girls kept guard at the rear and looked out over the passing prairie. Now Ida was watching out for big black hats as well as for flying feathers amongst the grass. Ida convinced herself she was very brave and not afraid at all, and that she would arrive at the place where they were going to live in Dakota, alive and well and in one piece. On and off, she found herself thinking of the little town of Nakskov back in Denmark, where men were not running around with revolvers in their belt. She had often seen the Lord of the Manor attacking people with his whip. But there were no cartridges in a whip.

  Chapter 25

  They stopped for the night near a forest that had showed up on the trail just around sunset.

  The girls and the women slept in the wagon together with Stephen, who was still under his blanket. Ida lay at the rear of the wagon where she could keep a close watch on the shadows over the camp fire. That evening they had eaten the rest of the lunch, which they had not finished because of the attack. Lisa snuggled up close to Ida and fell asleep immediately. The men lay near the fire and close to the wagon. Then Ida thought she saw something moving just behind the light of the dying flames. Suddenly she saw eyes that flashed yellow and menacing in the darkness. Low shapes moved closer and closer to the fire, so that one could see their furry faces. They looked like dogs, but they were big and fierce with their thick fur. Ida counted at least six of them. When one of them came really close, Ida got on her feet and shouted:

  “Shoo! Off you go.” Everybody woke up.

  Henry and Frederik grabbed their revolvers.

  “It is wolves, I think,” Ida cried out, pointing. Although she had never seen a wolf before in her short life.

  The wolves which indeed they were, moved off a little, but kept on circling the fire and the wagon. Henry fired a shot in the air and walked menacingly towards them.

  “Be careful, Henry,” Rose shouted. “You know how daring and dangerous they can be.” He shot into the air again. Lisa started to cry, and Ida tried to comfort her. The wolves kept on circling the wagon. Their eyes were like lightning.

  “What should we do, Henry?” Frederik shouted.

  “Put more wood on the fire. Make it blaze.”

  Frederik grabbed some more pieces of wood and threw them into the dying embers. He held a hurricane lantern high, in order to get a better look at the creeping enemy. The wood did not immediately fetch a good blaze. Rose jumped down from the wagon and threw some old bits of dry sacking onto the fire. They both blew on the embers and flapped their hands to get the fire to catch and finally they succeeded. As the fire roared and crackled back into life, the yellow eyes receded and moved back. Everybody sighed with relief. Henry and Frederik stayed by the fire and tended to it, so that it did not die out. When morning came, they were so tired, that they fell asleep. It was hard to wake up only a few hours later.

  “We have to move on,” Henry said. “We will not be in the wolves’ territory much longer.”

  Katrina started to make coffee. They finished it quickly, nobody was able to relax enough to enjoy the coffee for worrying about the wolves reappearing. They packed their things and loaded them into the wagon again. Stephen stayed under his blanket for many hours and did not poke his head out at all.

  “Do you think he is dead?” Ida whispered to Lisa. They kept an eye on the blanket. When they looked out on the prairie again, Ida saw a row of flying feathers in the prairie grass.

  “Indians!” Henry called from the driving box. “They have been following us for a while.”

  “Who are they?” Frederik asked.

  “Sioux,” hissed Henry. It is one of the tribes living in Dakota.”

  “Are they going to attack us?” Frederik asked with a slight tremor in his voice.

  “That depends,” Henry answered. “We have to get used to them and they to us.”

  “But do you think they are bloodthirsty?” Frederik asked.

  “They are merely defending their land,” Henry answered. “We are not coming here on a Sunday picnic.”

  “Why did you decide to come to America?” Frederik asked.

  “Ireland is not a good place to live these days. We were tired of being poor and having no freedom.”

  “Yes, we can say the same. It is no better in Denmark,” Frederik said with bitterness in his voice.

  “There is only one way, and that is forward,” exclaimed Henry. He pointed out towards the prairie and the waving grasses. They kept a weather eye out for the flying feathers, but after a while, it seemed they had gone.


  Chapter 26

  They passed through wetlands again, where the only living thing was the tough swampy undergrowth, but no animals. There was an ominous silence over the land and Henry urged the horses to move faster.

  “This is the place where evil spirits dwell,” Henry explained. “There are several places like this on the prairie.”

  “It is really mysterious,” said Frederik gazing around a feeling a slight chill in the usually warm air. Henry nodded in agreement. The horses were jumpy.

  Rose tried from time to time to remove the blanket from Stephen so that he could come out and see daylight. It did not work. He stayed under his blanket, from where the occasional odd sound could be heard. Katrina smiled at Rose, and shook her head. Rose shrugged her shoulders and grunted something.

  “Look mother, now some huge clouds are gathering out there,” Ida said and pointed. The women left their seats and stared worriedly out at the weather.

  “Henry,” Rose shouted. “Foul weather coming!”

  He halted the nervous horses and stared out the back. Then he scouted the landscape and spotted a forest just a short distance up ahead. He urged the reluctant horses forward, using the whip. They were not happy with the threatening weather and Henry hoped they could manage to outrun the approaching storm.

  “Gosh,” Ida said. “I have never ever seen clouds this big. They are pitch black.”

  “I have,” Lisa whispered. “It is going to be very bad weather.”

  The clouds rushed closer, and all of a sudden the rain started down in big warning splats. It sounded as though dinner plates were being thrown at them. The trees came closer as the horses stretched out their necks at the gallop, the wagon rocking hectically. Then down came the real rain. The canvas had a hard time withstanding the heavy rainfall. Soon water was seeping through the canvas and dripping into the wagon. Stephen moved his blanket aside and peered out.

  “Bang! Bang! Bang!” He shouted and shot at the rain. Then he crept under the blanket again.