“When can we have the wedding?” Daisy asked. “I have known Gray Wolf since I first got lost, so I don’t think I should have to wait a year.”
“That is up to your mother, but if you intend to travel back to the Sioux village, we shouldn’t wait too long, though, so you can make it back before summer is out and winter starts setting in there.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“You have to be out of your mind,” Loran muttered as he walked with Daisy in the back garden. “Your life with the Indians would be drudgery, compared to the life you would lead if you remained here. You just haven’t gotten time to get used to it yet! You must reconsider, Daisy. Your Indian friends being here in town has already caused a stir! What were you thinking?”
“I know you believe I should be practical,” Daisy murmured. “You didn’t like the fact that I was marrying Madison either.” She stopped walking and gave him a long appraising look. “Why have you taken it upon yourself to become my advisor?”
Loran pushed back his unruly blond locks and gave Daisy an exasperated glare. “Well, for one, I am someone on the outside looking in. Madison is only concerned about his position at your father’s hotel, and while I am certain he has feelings for you, it was that single factor that motivated him. However, I think it was rather big of him to release you from your promise. Then this Indian brave…” He stopped, his expression bunching up into concentration, trying to convince her of her ill choice. “I know he has grown up with you, and fancies himself in love with you, and you with him, but that’s because you have not known anything but each other. He acted as your big brother and taught you everything you know about the Indian culture. That, in itself, would draw you to him. I have heard stories about captives who start to sympathize with their captors and end up becoming attached to them. It is true that Davy has not helped much. If he had accepted you as his sister, maybe none of this would have ever happened. But you can’t be serious, Daisy. You can’t possibly wish to marry a heathen and then live in a teepee for the rest of your life!”
“This just goes to show, you know little about love,” Daisy replied, lowering her eyes to her hands. “Until you truly love someone, you may never understand why I chose Gray Wolf,” she murmured.
“Bah and falderal, you are merely a girl, what would you know about true love? Gray Wolf is the only man you have had any real dealings with, other than Madison, and you were starting to like Madison during the short time you were friends with him. You are too young to make such a drastic decision that will change your whole life!”
“You sound like my father. Did he put you up to this?” Daisy stamped her foot on the stone walk, giving him a suspicious gaze.
“I just hate to see you throw away your life over an Indian that you have been influenced by your whole life. I have heard about captive children being returned to their families and then turning around and going back to the tribe that captured them. They were young and impressionable at the time of their capture. It is like raising any child. They get used to their environment and feel more comfortable with the way they have been raised, than by their true parent’s environment they have been placed back into. They forget their parents and the love their parents felt for them and only remember the love their adopted parents showed them. I am sure it can’t be helped, but I hate to see you turn into the wild people who captured you in the first place.”
“Gray Wolf did not capture me. He found me and took me to his village so I would be safe,” Daisy insisted.
“Ha! He knew that your wagon train was not that far away. He must have known you came from a wagon train when he found you out in the middle of the trail. His father could have taken you there when you told him where you came from. They didn’t want to take you to your real parents. They wanted to keep you, like they have kept other children captives because they knew it was easy to influence you and raise you as a true Indian. And you, being young and unsuspecting, fell for it!”
“I shouldn’t have told you anything about how I was found,” Daisy muttered, feeling she was being backed into a corner, but then she paused, remembering how she had hoped her father would come and get her to take her home where she knew she had a room full of toys and people to wait on her hand and foot. It took a long time before she finally accepted her plight, and began to embrace the Indian way. For the first time, she started to doubt her own judgment, and wondered if Loran could be right. Gray Wolf’s father could have taken her to the wagon train when she told him she had gotten left behind. He had said he didn’t know where her parents were, and would wait for them to come claim her. But he did know where they were. She had told him! Many Indians followed the wagon trains that came near to trade with the travelers. He must have known the wagons were passing through, even if Gray Wolf hadn’t. However, her parents had no idea where she had disappeared to, so how could they come claim her?
For the first time since Gray Wolf found her, she began to see everything in a new light, but it did not change her feelings for Gray Wolf, it only made her realize she had been taken advantage of as a child. Gray Wolf had been a child at the time himself, and since he could not understand her, there was no way to explain to him he could have just taken her back to the wagon train on his horse when he first found her. She remembered how she had tried to tell him, but, of course, he couldn’t understand a word she was saying, and she hadn’t been able to understand him either.
“You may be right,” she mumbled, “but it doesn’t change my love for Gray Wolf. We understand each other because we have been raised together. You and Madison, and even my parents, don’t understand me at all!”
“You may think Gray Wolf understands you, but he only understands the Indian part of you. He doesn’t understand the little white girl that is buried inside of the woman you have become because of how the Indians raised you. You haven’t had time to even discover her yourself.
“Davy and everything that has happened since you returned has gotten in the way. You should give it time before you leap into marriage with an Indian like this. You were going to wait a year before you married Madison. You should wait a year before marrying Gray Wolf, and during that year, you should remain here.
“You can learn to play the piano like Madison promised to teach you. Finish learning how to read and write. Get to know your little brother better and become his friend. Give your mother the opportunity to have her daughter back again before you hightail it off back to the Indians where you believe you will be safe!”
“I did want to learn all those things, but my father is determined to marry me off to someone here, so my husband and I can take over his business dealing, eventually. Gray Wolf could never run a hotel!”
“My point exactly, Daisy. Are you going to be happy living in a teepee, having to hunt the buffalo to survive and risk getting sent to a reservation along with all the other Indians? The Indians hay-day is coming to an end, Daisy, and then it won’t be all romantic the way you envision your life to be with them. I have heard horrible stories about the reservations other Indians are forced to live on. They are destitute and poor, relying on the government to feed and clothe them because they don’t know the concept of work. They don’t want to farm to support themselves. If they can’t hunt the buffalo, all they wish to do is drink and play their gambling games with each other. Is that what you want for your future?”
“That can’t be true,” Daisy complained.
“But it is. Don’t you know that the President of the United States, himself, has passed a proclamation to rid America of the Indians, or put them onto reservations so American citizens can have use of the land and not be bothered with Indians complaining about it? We were never going to let them live free on land that we had a use for and wished to have for ourselves. The Government can’t let them stand in the way of progress.
“The Indians are a backward people who don’t know how to adjust to a new way of life. They only know one thing and they won’t give up their traditions easily.
Either they cooperate with the government or be wiped from the face of America. And you will be just like them if you persist in your silly goals. You may go back to your Sioux village, only to be wiped out with the rest of the Indians when the Calvary comes to kill them all.”
“What you don’t understand, nor does the government understand, is that everything these people do is centered on their spiritual beliefs. The buffalo is sacred to them. If you take the buffalo away from the Indians, you are not merely depriving them of food, and a way to make clothes and tools, but of a way of believing in their Great Spirit. All the ceremonies, taken part in, have to do with how they rely on nature and God to provide for them. If the government provides for them, they have no purpose. It is like taking God out of their lives. Each little thing is built upon another, and linked together like a chain of life. Once that is broken, such as slaughtering all the buffalo, or not allowing the tribes to hunt where the buffalo can be found, what will they have left to motivate them? It is no wonder they turn to drink if what you say is true.”
“The Indians have no God. They believe in superstitions. That is why we are trying to give them religion so they will stop worshiping the sun and the moon and all those pagan beliefs that were practiced back in the Bible days.”
“Just because they don’t have a religion, does not mean they do not believe in spiritual things. The sun and moon is part of nature, and God made the sun and the moon, so how one worships what God makes should not make you believe they are not as worthy as you are. They know more about God’s creations than you will ever hope to know!”
“I can see you are completely brainwashed by them, Daisy, and it worries me that you will be throwing away everything, over one insignificant Indian brave.”
“He is not insignificant! He is very significant to me!”
“Just think about it. Take a year to discover if that is what you really want. You were willing to wait a year before marrying Madison, so why balk at waiting a year to marry Gray Wolf? If he loves you, he will be willing to wait a year so you can both be sure of your love.”
“What you say sounds practical, but I don’t know that I wish to be practical in this matter,” Daisy pouted.
“Just think about it, is all I ask.”
“’Very well, but I doubt I will change my mind. I can’t wait to get back to the Sioux village before they leave for their winter campground.”
“I don’t see how you can enjoy moving all the time and never having one solid place to call home.”
“Our home is in our hearts and family. Where we live is just a necessity depending on the weather,” Daisy tried to explain.
“I don’t quite see it that way,” Loran chuckled.
“There is Gray Wolf. I will have to leave you. It was nice visiting with you, though Loran.” Daisy was anxious to put an end to the conversation which was making her more uncomfortable by the minute.
“Let me know what you decide,” he said as they parted.
“Who was that?” Gray Wolf inquired as he approached Daisy.”
“Just a friend,” she mumbled. “What have you and your friends been up to?”
Gray Wolf frowned. “You mother has informed us that we can’t wear our Indian clothes to the wedding. She wants us to dress up all fancy and silly like the white man.”
“They probably think the same thing about your clothes,” Daisy pointed out, giving his clothes a once over. “However, I think you look very handsome in your Sioux clothes.”
“You look strange in your new white man clothes. You don’t seem like my Little Flower, when you are wearing them.”
“My father burned my Sioux dress on our way out here, so there is nothing I can do about it.”
“My mother toiled over the beadwork on that dress. It is a dishonor to her,” Gray Wolf almost raged. “I don’t think he likes me, and your mother seems to be frightened of me, like she thinks I may scalp her in her sleep,” Gray Wolf smiled. “However, I do not wish to wear the white man clothes. She wants to turn me into one of you!”
“Well, you turned me into a Sioux, so should you be surprised?”
“That is different. You were becoming a member of our tribe.”
“Which is something I would like to talk to you about. Your father could have easily taken me to the wagon train when I told him I got lost from it, but he didn’t make any effort to take me back to my parents. You said you were keeping me safe, but in truth, you were just keeping me period. You didn’t want me to be with my real parents. Think of how you would have felt if a wagon train found you when you were young, and forced you to come with them, not letting you go back to your tribe.”
Gray Wolf paused and looked down at Daisy, a worried expression starting to mar his usually stoic features. “Someone is trying to turn you against us,” he murmured low in his throat. “Is it that man you were just speaking to?”
“Well, he did point out that you actually captured me, while making me believe that you were just saving me. The wagon train had not gone that far by the time you found me. It would have been easy to catch up with it to return me to my parents.”
“That is all past. Why are you worrying about it now? We treated you kindly and thought of you as one of our family.”
“Well, you can see how my mother and father must feel. The least you can do is dress the way she wishes you to do for our wedding.”
Gray Wolf’s features turned stern. “I will not put those silly clothes on,” he said defiantly.
“Apparently you must not want to have me as your wife very bad,” she flung at him. “If I was marrying you in your village, I would be expected to wear the wedding costume you use in the ceremony,” she pointed out. “I would be covered with bells and fringe and shells dangling from my ears.”
“You are twisting everything,” he grumbled. “They are changing you. I can see you are not quite the same girl who asked me if I still loved her before I was to leave on the hunt.”
“No, I am not. Not only has Talking Dog changed me, but my life here is starting to change me as well. It is making me see life from a different prospective. I still love you, Gray wolf, but maybe Loran is right. Maybe we should wait for a year to make sure it is the right thing to do before we rush into anything. Maybe by then, you will look forward to wearing silly white man clothes!”
“So, your friend was trying to change your mind about becoming my wife!”
“I suppose, but some of what he said, sounded wise.” Now Daisy could not look up into Gray Wolf’s eyes. She was feeling suddenly insecure and unsure of herself.
“I came here to discover if you were happy. You did not look happy being treated like a prisoner and locked in a house, and now you say you want to wait for a year? Will you come to our village to wait the year, or remain here?”
“Madison is teaching me to read and write, and he promises to teach me to play the piano,” she admitted. “You could stay here with me, if you wished.”
“So the white ways have already started to turn your mind from me.”
“It is not you I am turning from. It is so many other things. There are rumors that the Indians are going to be forced to live on reservations. Some have already been put on reservations. What if it happens to the Sioux? What will we do then, Gray Wolf?”
“I have also heard of these reservations. It worries me, but we could go farther away and…”
“There is no place to go. All the land is owned by the Americans…or so they believe. We could never escape them, no matter where we went. If we went into hiding, we would have to leave the tribe. If we went alone, what kind of life could we have? What kind of lives could our children have? Indians that refuse to stay on the reservations are considered criminals. They would punish us and call us renegades. They would take our children away from us and send them to white man schools, thinking we had nothing to offer our children. My father is very wealthy. I stand to inherit some of that wealth. We would never have to rely on the government to
take care of us then.”
“While I will be expected to live like a white man,” Gray Wolf grunted.
“They will make you live like white men in a reservation, only it will be worse because you will be poor and bored, with nothing to do. No going on the hunt. No preparing for war. No raiding other tribes. No riding your horse wherever you please. No having the freedom to just be a Sioux. Only if we got married and remained here, you would have to learn to read and write and understand mathematics. You would be expected to help run the hotel, and it might frighten patrons away to see an Indian behind the admissions desk.”
“So, you see, there is really no place for me,” Gray Wolf almost growled. “Not in my world or your world.”
“We will have to find a place,” Daisy insisted. “Only I don’t think it will be easy.”
“It may not be able to be done at all,” Gray Wolf huffed. “They still may accuse me of refusing to stay on a reservation if they are ever able to subdue my people.”
“It is only those Indians who try to leave and live their original ways on land other than the reservation. Those who find work, or who are hired by the military, or become farmers and stay on land they own legally, are not considered renegades. My father tells me that the government is trying to school the children from the various tribes and teach them a trade so they can fit into society, when they grow up.”
“You are merely trying to turn me from my true ways, the same way your government is trying to tame the Indians. Even if we did learn a trade, you think that is going to help us fit into your society? Unlike the Indian who will accept anyone as an adopted member of their tribe, the white man will never accept the redskins as part of their society.
“The Sioux are the strongest tribe in the Indian nation. No other tribe has been able to overtake them. Through generations, they have pushed all other tribes out of the best hunting grounds. They have showed their superiority in strength and numbers. Even your white soldiers have not been able to stop them or won a battle with them. You have lost faith in your adopted people. You don’t wish to live like a Sioux any longer and want to convert me to the white man ways!” Gray Wolf pinned her with a scathing glare, then turned from her to briskly walk away.
Little Flower Page 21
