Grizzly Killer: The Medicine Wheel

by Lane R Warenski

  He replied, “Lizzy you got nothin’ ta be sorry for.”

  Then with a worried look she asked, “Did I kill him?”

  Zach looked down into her tear-stained face and said, “Yes ma’am ya did, but I figure if anyone ever needed killin’, it was him.” He could see her bottom lip start to quiver as she tried not to cry again and he just pulled her against him again and she cried all the more.

  Zach thought they had been sitting there in the sage at least a couple of hours now. She had stopped crying but still had her head against his buckskin shirt.

  He felt her move just slightly and in a very soft weak voice started to tell him her story. “Tommy and I had only been married a year, we had our cabin built and was getting the fields ready to plant in the spring. Tommy’s Pa and brother had been helping get the fields cleared though the winter so we could have a decent harvest come fall, but they wasn’t going be there the day they come. That morning, I was cleaning up after breakfast. Tommy had left the cabin and was out feeding the mules, and the hog when they rode up.”

  Her lip started to quiver again and her voice started to break but she kept on. “I was standing in the doorway as Tommy came out of the shed to see who they were when Skinner, without ever saying a word, shot Tommy right where he was standing.” Zach could feel her body start to stiffen and her voice was getting hard as she continued. “I ran out toward Tommy but Skinner stopped me and dragged me back into the cabin. They all took their turns with me until I just felt numb all over. When they were done, Jake, he was the one you killed first, took his knife out and was going to kill me when Skinner stopped him and told him to bring me along that there wouldn’t be no women where we were going. That was over three months ago best I can tell.”

  Zach had no idea what to say to her, so he just held her. After a little while he told her, “It’s all over now, you’re safe.” They sat there and watched the clouds float by until the shadows started to lengthen then Zach told her to stay there with Jimbo and he would be back in just a little while.

  He walked back down to where the horses were tied and led Ol’ Red over to Skinner’s now stiff body. He loaded the body on Ol’ Red and led him down this little draw about a half mile and pushed him off at the base of a little dirt washout where he could push dirt down over the body. Then he jumped up on the back of the big mule and rode back to Lizzy and Jimbo.

  There wasn’t enough feed for all the horses where they were so even though there was only a few hours of light left they loaded up and started following this little trickle of water up stream. They had only gone about a mile when they came to a stand of cottonwoods. The buds were just starting to open so you could see a little green that would soon be leaves. There was quite a large grassy area here where the grass shoots were turning green as well. Zach went right to work hobbling all the horses so they could move around to try and get enough to eat.

  Lizzy started in gathering fire wood and then went to the pack that had the food and cooking supplies. There were still a couple of slabs of bacon, flour, corn meal, coffee, and a large bag of beans. By the time Zach was finished with the horses, Lizzy had some biscuits just finishing in a frying pan, several big slabs of bacon fried, and a pot of coffee sitting on the coals at the edge of the fire.

  Zach smiled at her as he walked up and said, “I didn’t figure I’d be eatin’ like this on this little trip.”

  She smiled back at him. That was the first time he’d seen her smile. He noticed she had been to the creek and washed her face and hands. She had pulled back her hair and tied it in a ponytail with a piece of buckskin. He noticed really for the first time she was quite a pretty girl.

  They ate in silence and after he was finished she got up and started cleaning up after their supper. Zach noticed her shoes had holes wore through them and her dress was torn to not much more than rags. He went through the packs and found an extra pair of trousers and a shirt that wasn’t as dirty as the dress she had on. He took them over to her and asked her if she would like to try them as he thought she would be more comfortable for they still had another couple of days to ride. She took them with a smile and walked over behind a large cottonwood and changed. The trousers were too large and she had to hold them up as she walked back toward him. He smiled and cut a piece of leather off one of the packs for her to use as a belt. His bed roll was a buffalo hide but the others that he had packed up from those murdering cutthroats were all dirty and worn blankets. He picked out the two best ones and shook them out then hung them by the fire to smoke out any bugs that might be in them, then they sat by the fire as the sun went down.

  Jimbo came back into camp with the remains of a large rabbit in his mouth and laid down on the other side of the fire to finish his supper as well. After the sun dipped below the horizon they watched as the shadows crept up the western side of the majestic peaks that was just northeast of them.

  She looked up at Zach and asked, “Where are you taking me and what’s going to happen to me?”

  Zach told her the first part of her question was easy, that they were going to the Shoshone village of Chief Charging Bull to see his in-laws. He was letting them know that their oldest daughter, his sister-in-law Raven Wing and his second wife, Shining Star were both about to have babies back at his home on Blacks Fork. She looked at him with a wondering look and asked, “Your second wife, just how many do you have?”

  He smiled and said, “I have two beautiful wives, Sun Flower and Shining Star. Sun Flower and Raven Wing are sisters and Shoshone. Raven Wing is the wife of my partner and brother-in- law, Running Wolf. Shining Star and Running Wolf are brother and sister and are Ute.”

  She smiled as she said, “You must tell me sometime how you come to have two wives, but right now what about the second part, what is going to happen to me?” He didn’t really know how to answer that, but he told her that depended a lot on what she wanted to do. She looked at him and said, “I still have family back home, but I have no idea how to get there. We came so far I don’t even know where I am.”

  He was silent, in thought for a few minutes. Then he told her about the annual Rendezvous, where General William Ashley brought supplies from St. Louis for the trappers every summer and bought all the beaver hides to take back with him. He told her if she could hold on ‘til then he was sure she could go back east with Ashley’s party. She stared into the flames of the fire as she thought, then she slowly nodded her head and asked how long it would be until Rendezvous. He told her he figured about another two months.

  She had a lost look on her face and just stared into the flames for quite some time, then without looking up asked, “What do I do ‘til then? Where will I stay?”

  He said, “Lizzy we’ll decide that after we get to Chargin’ Bulls village. Don’t you worry though, I ain’t gonna leave ‘til I know you’re safe. If you want to you can come back to Black’s Fork with me ‘til Rendezvous.”

  She still didn’t look up; she was lost in thought staring at the fire. Then she asked, “Why would you do that for me, you don’t know me, and what would your wives think about you bringing a woman home?”

  He smiled as he thought about Sun Flower and Shining Star and for sure he knew he didn’t understand the minds of women. He was still amazed that he had two wives and that they had become as close as sisters, he loved them both but didn’t understand the fact there seemed to be no jealousy between them. He told her that it had always been his family’s way to help someone that needed help. That his Ma and Pa had believed that was the Christian way to live. That Sun Flower and Shining Star understood his beliefs and would not expect him to do anything else. Even as he said that, he had a slight thought in the back of his mind, just what would they think about his bringing a pretty white woman home with him?

  4 Old Friends

  They started out the next morning much the same as they had traveled before with Lizzy in the lead and Zach bringing up the rear. Jimbo was out in front of them all making sure the trail was safe. J
imbo could travel much faster than a couple of dozen horses with nearly half of them carrying packs. So he would come back to them often wagging his tail to let them know all was safe.

  By midday they were starting to climb into the foothills and stopped to rest the horses and have some jerky for lunch. Zach picked out a route following the stream up for several miles then cut back to the southeast toward the pass. By late midafternoon they topped a small rise and before them lay a pretty little lake nestled in a pocket surrounded by quakies and ponderosa pines. Even though it was early Zach figured Lizzy needed the rest and they stopped there for the night. As he stripped the packs off the horses and started to hobble them on the abundant grass around the lake Lizzy opened up a pack and got out one of her sleeping blankets and disappeared around the lake. With a silent hand signal, he sent Jimbo to watch over her.

  When he was finished with the horses he couldn’t see or hear Lizzy and was getting worried. He started around the lake and hadn’t gone far when he seen her kneeling in shallow water scrubbing the clothes she had been wearing on some rocks. Jimbo was right there by her so he just smiled and went back and got a fire started.

  In just a few minutes Jimbo came into camp right in front of her. Zach looked up and smiled again as she walked up to the fire holding the blanket around her with one hand and carrying the dripping wet shirt and trousers with the other. Her teeth were chattering from the cold water and her hair was still dripping wet. He jumped up and took the wet clothes as she stood by the fire to warm herself. He cut a strip of rawhide from a deer hide he had found in the packs and stretched it from a tree to a stake by the fire and hung the wet clothes by the fire to dry. He threw a couple more pieces of wood on the fire and she stood there as close to the flames as she could until she stopped shivering, then said, “I couldn’t stand being dirty and being in dirty clothes any longer.”

  He smiled and thought back to the first time he had seen Sun Flower at the hot springs over by the Bear River. How she, Raven Wing, and Butterfly had just stripped down not bothered a bit about being naked in front of strangers. He looked at Lizzy standing there by the fire holding the blanket tight around her making sure she was completely covered. He shook his head and silently thought he was glad she had the blanket.

  It was nearing sunset by the time her shirt and trousers were dry and he took a walk gathering more firewood while she dressed. They had bacon and biscuits again for their supper and sipped hot coffee as they listened to a lone wolf howling as the shadows of the night were stealing across the mountains.

  He watched her staring into the fire lost in thought and seen the glistening of a tear as it ran down her cheek. He thought about everything she must have been through over the last couple of months and figured she had to be a mighty strong young woman.

  Just before light the next morning he was awakened by the braying of Ol’ Red and as he grabbed his rifle and jumped to his feet he heard Jimbo attack and then the sounds of a bear fighting his big dog. Lizzy sat up frozen with fear as Zach headed toward the sound of the fight. Only a moment later the fight was over and he could hear Jimbo giving chase out through the forest. He stood there waiting and watching for maybe ten minutes before Jimbo came back to him. He rubbed his dog’s ears then felt for any blood, but Jimbo seemed none the worse for wear. As they walked back to where the fire ring was, Lizzy was sitting with her blankets pulled up tight around her. She asked him what Jimbo had been fighting. He smiled and told her, “A bear just got to close to the horses so Jimbo ran him off.” Then patted the big dog on the head again and picked out some kindling, put it on the coals from the night before then blew life back into them. She got up then and put on a pot of coffee. They sat there and drank coffee until it got light then packed up and started out again.

  They headed out moving up over the pass and at midmorning they stopped to rest the horses. He had her follow him as he rode just a little way out on a point where they could see down the eastern side of the Wind River Mountains and the watercourse of the Popo Agie. It made its way from the mountains and headed toward the Elk River to the northeast. It was still maybe twenty miles away but the day was crystal clear. He could see just a haze of smoke hanging over the river where the creek running out of a big canyon rimmed with dark red cliffs runs into the Popo Agie. Pointing at the smoke he told her that is where they were headed.

  They made good time heading down hill on the eastern side of the divide. By late afternoon they were close enough that he saw two Shoshone riders running at full speed toward the village. Seeing those riders, he knew they had been spotted.

  No more than ten minutes later a group of riders were heading right toward them. He rode up alongside Lizzy and stopped to wait for the Indians to approach. When they were a couple of hundred yard away they slowed and Zach put his right hand in the air as a peaceful greeting, then one of the braves yelled and kicked his horse into a full run right at them. He had closed the distance between them by half when Zach recognized this fast approaching rider as Red Hawk.

  Red Hawk slid his beautiful pinto to a stop, jumped off and ran the last few yards. Lizzy jumped in her saddle and had a definite look of fear as Zach jumped off Ol’ Red. Then she saw the smile on Red Hawk’s face as he yelled Grizzly Killer. Jimbo jumped up on Red Hawk and he threw his arms around the huge dog then fell over backwards as the weight of Jimbo pushed him right off his feet. Lizzy just sat there in stunned silence as she watched these two friends greet one another.

  The other Indians rode on up and there was a happy reunion as Zach greeted his old friends. Zach was amazed how much Red Hawk had grown. Although still a teenager there was no doubt at all he was growing into a very capable Shoshone Warrior.

  Zach asked about Buffalo Heart, who was always with Red Hawk for they had been friends their whole lives. Red Hawk told him that Buffalo Heart was on a hunt with Spotted Elk, Otter, and several others, that he had stayed behind to help protect the village.

  Zach turned around and walked back to help Lizzy off her little sorrel. Her long blond hair was blowing in the breeze and this group of Shoshone braves just stared as Zach introduced her. Then apologizing to her he realized she could not understand a single word that any of them were saying. He then went through the introductions in English. She looked up at Zach and asked, “Why are they staring at me like that?”

  Red Hawk in his broken English told her, “We never see hair the color of the sun.”

  She blushed as she said, “I’ve not thought of it like that before.”

  Then Red Hawk asked with a worried look and tone in his voice, “Does Grizzly Killer take this white woman now and leave Sun Flower Women and Shining Star?”

  With a surprised look Zach responded, “No… No. No! Sun Flower and Shining Star are with Running Wolf and Raven Wing. I have come to bring word to Bear Heart and White Feather. I will tell of my journey around the fire tonight.”

  Red Hawk turned and told a young man he called Trickster to take word to Charging Bull and the village that Grizzly Killer is here. Trickster didn’t look to be more than twelve years old but he spun his horse and kicked him into a full run, competent as any skilled horseman. As they all mounted up Red Hawk said, “Everyone will have glad hearts to see you again.”

  As they rode into the village of thirty or forty lodges, there were dogs barking at Jimbo and everyone was out watching, some waving at Grizzly Killer. Although the kids, and many of the adults were pointing at Lizzy and telling one another to look at the woman with the hair the color of the sun. She was nervous and frightened not knowing what was being said and she moved her small sorrel right up next to Zach and Ol’ Red. He smiled at her and said, “Well Lizzy, it seems you’re the star. None of these people have ever seen blond hair before, they think you are someone very special.

  To show his respect he stopped in front of Charging Bull’s large teepee in the center of the village before seeking out Bear Heart and White Feather. They dismounted as the broad shoulders of Charging Bull p
ushed through his lodge’s opening. Zach could see the Chief had aged over the winter but he was still a very powerfully built man. He wasn’t tall but wide and stocky and Zach thought he was still a force to be reckoned with.

  Charging Bull smiled as he opened up his arms then brought his clutched hands to his chest saying, “It makes my heart glad to see our white brother again.” Then his eyes went to Lizzy and Zach introduced her to the Chief saying her name slowly Elisabeth Allen. She bowed to him as he said, “Welcome to our village, you will be an honored guest along with our white brother Grizzly Killer.”

  Zach translated for her. She thanked the Chief then looked up at Zach and asked, “Why do they call you Grizzly Killer.”

  Zach just smiled saying, “It is a long story, but that is my Indian name.”

  Zach was about to ask Charging Bull where he could find Bear Heart and White Feather when he noticed them standing there in the crowd that had gathered around. White Feather looked suspiciously at Lizzy then at Grizzly Killer as Bear Heart stepped forward asking, “My son, where are our daughters?”

  He smiled and said, “I have come to bring you good news. Raven Wing will have a baby before the moon is full and Shining Star will have our baby soon after.” A joyous buzz started through the crowd and the expression on White Feathers face turned from suspicion to one of joy. He continued, “Sun Flower wanted to come to bring you the news but decided she must stay to help if the little ones decided to come see the world early.”

  Tears of joy filled her eyes and she stepped forward and put her small but still strong arms around his large frame and hugged.

  Bear Heart clasped his hand as he said, “We will return with you, for White Feather will want to be there to see our grandchildren born.”

  Butterfly then stepped up carrying a baby but she knelt down and Jimbo walked up to her. With her on her knees Jimbo towered over her but she held her baby up for the dog to see and softly talked to both of them. She told Jimbo that this is Yellow Moon the daughter of Spotted Elk. Then she hugged the huge dog. She saw and then rubbed the piece of turquoise that was sown to his collar set in the middle of the half dozen grizzly claws. As she rubbed the turquoise she smiled and looked up at Grizzly Killer. As she stood she was looking at Lizzy and Zach then introduced Lizzy to Butterfly and his mother and father in laws.