The Travelers 1

by Lee Hunnicutt

  She then turned to Tall Boy and said, “We would be honored to have you as our friend.” She then turned to the rest of the children and said, “We would like to have you all as our friends.”

  They spent the rest of the day with the Cheyenne children.

  Beth soon tired of playing house and walked over to where the boys were. They had stopped sneaking up on the old buffalo robe and were now playing another game. The boys were in parallel lines about fourteen feet apart. One of the boys at the end of the lines would roll a hoop that was about four inches in diameter between the parallel lines of boys. Each boy had a straight stick that was about eighteen inches long that had feathers on one end. The object was to throw your stick through the moving hoop. The hoop had a small circle of bone in the center supported by rawhide spokes. If your stick went through the center hole you got extra points.

  Beth watched for a while and then walked over to Jack who wasn’t doing so well at this game and asked to use his stick. On her third throw she put her stick through the center ring of the hoop. They played this game for hours and the only boy that Beth couldn’t beat at this game was Tall Boy.

  All of the boys, including Tall Boy, were impressed with Beth’s accuracy.

  Falling Moon Woman was standing outside of her lodge and saw what was happening with the children. She called inside for Two Feathers to come out. When he was beside her she took his hand and pointed towards the children playing. He looked down at his wife and smiled.

  Once they were accepted by the children, the whole tribe accepted them.

  That evening Whistling Elk joined them for their evening meal. After they ate, Two Feathers and Whistling Elk smoked the pipe. They passed some pleasantries. Whistling Elk told Two Feathers that two days before he arrived back in camp that the tribe had had a good buffalo hunt. They had enough meat drying to last the tribe another month.

  After the chitchat was over, Two Feathers lit another pipe, took a couple of puffs and passed it to Whistling Elk. Whistling Elk took a puff and passed it to Falling Moon Woman. She took a puff and passed the pipe to the children who puffed on it in turn and passed the pipe back to Two Feathers. They were now ready to talk about serious matters, which was why Whistling Elk was over for supper in the first place.

  Two Feathers spoke to Whistling Elk “We need to name the children. This is an important matter and I want your advice.”

  The naming of an Indian was no small matter. Some were named soon after birth but would change their names after something significant happened in their lives such as a mystical encounter with an animal or a plant like a tree or after a young Indian went on a vision quest. A vision quest was usually done by a young boy or in rare occasions a girl. The one seeking a vision would go to a remote area or a grave site where they would fast and not take water for four days. During these four days they would beseech the spirits to give them a sign or a vision. This sign or vision could mean many things but when a young boy did the quest it was usually in search of a path for his life.

  One famous medicine man went on his first vision quest at the age of nine. In this vision he was told that he would be a medicine man. He was told that he would learn the herbs and medicines and magic of a medicine man.

  Sometimes after receiving a vision and if the vision was powerful, the person who saw the vision would be renamed by his father or by the tribe’s medicine man.

  Adults would also go on vision quests seeking the answers to life’s great mysteries or if they were suffering from grief, they would look for consolation in the form of a vision.

  The consulting of Whistling Elk by Two Feathers for finding a name for the children was the proper thing to do.

  Whistling Elk said, “It is too early to name these children. They are special children and a name is too important to be given hastily. Their names must be chosen carefully because their names will help guide them through life. We will watch them and see if the spirits will help us with names. I will give this matter great thought and will dream on it.”

  Two Feathers said, “What will we call them for now?”

  Whistling Elk smiled looking at the children’s hair and said, “We will call the girl Yellow Girl and this boy” indicating Sonny “Yellow Boy and him” pointing at Jack “Brown Boy. I know” he laughed, “it’s not much but it will do.”

  Two Feathers was pleased. A burden had been lifted from him. He said, “I agree. These children will do great things. Let us wait in their naming.”

  Beth translated what had gone on to the boys. She said, “Don’t make any stupid faces. Don’t say anything with sarcasm in your voices and no stupid grins. These people take this name thing very seriously and are doing their best to give us a good name.”

  Both boys just looked solemn and nodded their heads. The last thing they wanted was Beth pissed off at them. Jack swore that his ribs were still sore from the last time she kicked him more than three weeks ago

  Two Feathers loaded up his pipe again and all partook of it. The adults talked for a little while longer and then Two Feathers cleaned out his pipe and put it away. Cleaning the pipe indicated to Whistling Elk that it was time to go. He made his good byes and as a good guest should do, complimented Falling Moon Woman on an excellent dinner and then he left.

  As with the night before Two Feathers went to his bed without a word. The evening was over. It was bedtime.

  Falling Moon Woman with the help of other women had started to make clothing for Beth, Sonny and Jack. When she started to measure them for shirts, leggings and moccasins, she started to measure Beth for a dress. Beth told her that dresses were fine but that she would rather have the same clothes as the boys.

  This information disappointed Falling Moon Woman. She had always wanted a daughter to train in the ways of a good Cheyenne woman and later a wife, as her mother and aunts had trained her. She had thought “I now have someone to pass my fleshing tool on to.” but now she knew that this was not to be.

  Beth’s decision didn’t surprise her but it did disappoint her.

  The three spent every day with the older children, the eleven to thirteen-year-old boys. These boys were just at the age to become warriors and some had already participated, with the tribe’s experienced warriors, in their first horse stealing raid and their first buffalo hunt.

  The games they played were games of hunting and war. Every day they sharpened their skills as hunters and warriors to be. The white children picked up these skills quickly. After being thrown several times or just falling off, stepped on and kicked they could ride a horse bareback and ride it well. After they learned how to ride they now had to learn how to guide their horse by just exerting pressure from their knees. Then they learned how to shoot a bow and arrow while riding. Once they learned how to shoot while on horseback they had to learn how to shoot accurately.

  They learned not only how to shoot a bow and arrow but how to make their own bows and how to make arrows. The bow was made from strong hard woods like ash, hickory or juniper. Unlike the British longbow the Plains Indian’s bows were short about three feet long and the arrows under two feet long.

  Shoots of gooseberry, cherry and Juneberry were cut and tied in a bundle to cure. Once the wood was cured the shafts were sanded smooth by pulling the stick through two pieces of grooved sandstone. It was then straightened by bending it and then heating the wood. The feathers for fletching were secured to the arrow shaft with glue made from boiled buffalo hooves. The bow was strung with two twisted buffalo tendons.

  Every day the children would get up early and go sit on the riverbank and talk.

  They usually talked about the happenings of the previous day and they were still filled with the wonderment of their situation. It was still hard for them to believe that they were actually living in a Cheyenne village.

  The boys were mindlessly chattering away about how accurate the Cheyenne were with bow and arrow and how the three of them were getting to be pretty good with the bow when Beth said, “What do
we do about Spotted Horse?”

  “What do you mean, ‘What are we going to do about Spotted Horse’?” said Jack.

  “Well it was him and his pals that slaughtered those settlers that we found. What do we do about that, just forget it?”

  “What can we do Beth? We can’t judge them by our standards, Twentieth Century white man’s standards. Besides, we’re just kids. What can we do? Nothing!” said Jack.

  “Well should we talk to him or leave when he comes around? The man’s a murderer for Christ sake! He killed everybody in that wagon, even the little baby,” said Beth.

  “Since we have come here everyone has done nothing but show us kindness. Spotted Horse has helped us make our first bow and arrows. Along with Two Feathers, he helps us and gives us hints with our archery and horseback riding. Tall Boy is our best Cheyenne friend and he’s Spotted Horse’s son,” said Jack.

  Sonny said, “Do you know what I think?” He went on without waiting for a reply. “I’ve been wondering,” he was lying on his back looking up at the clouds in the sky “do you think that since the beginning of time that any two clouds have ever been the same? I’m not talking about small clouds the size of a German shepherd, but big clouds, clouds bigger than say a football stadium and by the same I mean identical down to the last droplet.

  Think about it. Each day millions, maybe billions of clouds are formed and this has been going on for billions of years. You’d think that in all of that time at least two clouds would have been identical.

  What do you guys think?”

  Both Beth and Jack were stunned into silence.

  Jack got up and looked down at Sonny. Jack’s face was blank and showed no expression. He then just walked away. As he walked away, he began to laugh and shake his head.

  Beth jumped to her feet, looked down at Sonny and said in a loud voice “I swear Sonny, some days I just want to kick you and right now you are in a pretty vulnerable position.”

  She turned on her heel and stormed off.

  They had been in camp about three weeks when a wave of excitement swept over the tribe. Buffalo had been sighted. Everybody young and old went into action. The warriors stripped down to moccasins and loin clothes. The women fitted horses, with travois.

  As soon as the warriors were assembled, they set off to stalk the herd. Beth, Sonny and Jack ran to Two Feathers to ask his permission to join the hunt. He said, “Not this time. You are not ready yet. Perhaps when you ride and shoot better you can go on the hunt. Now go! Help Falling Moon Woman!” He then rode off with the other warriors.

  Two Feathers knew that they were disappointed but he also knew that they weren’t ready for such a dangerous enterprise. He was proud of them for wanting to go.

  They ran over to Falling Moon Woman and helped her outfit three horses with travois. The women and children above the age of ten moved out following the warriors. They found them about two miles from camp. The warriors, women and children stopped behind a line of low hills. Besides the dragging sounds of the travois ever one was quiet and there was no sound. They had approached the herd from downwind.

  The rules for a buffalo hunt were ridged. All hunters hunted for the tribe not for themselves or for personal glory. The Elk Soldiers Society would enforce the rules of the hunt. They would make sure that no hunter began the hunt before the rest of them did. This would insure that all warriors would have an equal chance at the hunt There was a hunt master, in this case Gray Dog, who set out the strategy of the hunt.

  Although the tribe would share the meat from the hunt, the wives and mothers of a warrior could identify the buffalo that he had killed by the markings on the arrows that had killed the buffalo. They would take the choicest cuts of meat and the hides from the buffalo. The regular cuts and whatever was left over were given to the poorer members of the tribe. This was sort of an Indian equivalent of a widows and orphans’ fund.

  Gray Dog instructed five of the young warriors, “Today your kills will be given to those who can’t hunt or have no one to hunt for them. Go and have a good day.” This was a great honor for the young men and it would inspire them to do their best and to kill as many buffalo as they could.

  Beth asked Falling Moon Woman if they could get a look at the buffalo herd. Falling Moon Woman motioned to her nephew a young boy called Stone Fist to come over. She said to Stone Fist “Take them to the top of the hill so that they can see the buffalo.” She admonished them to be quite and not to be seen by any of the herd.

  They crept to the top of the hill and slowly raised their heads above the grass. As far as they could see were groups of grazing buffalo in groups as small as ten animals to as many as one hundred. The closest buffaloes were less than one hundred yards away. It was a sight that they would remember forever and a sight that in less than a decade no one would see ever again.

  Gray Dog had given his final instructions and the warriors spread out and began up the hill at a walk. They would try to get as close as they could to the nearest group of Buffalo before the animals were spooked. Spotted Horse rode within three feet of the children. As he passed them, he looked down and smiled at them. The warriors were no sooner over the hill than the buffalo broke and ran.

  A whoop went up from the hunters and the chase was on and what a chase it was. What were once groups of buffalo were now coalescing into a huge herd of stampeding animals. The ground shook with the pounding of their hooves and there was a sound of rolling thunder.

  As soon as they were off and running, Stone Fist leapt to his feet and ran to his horse. He was on its back in a flash. With his bow and arrows in hand, he was off after the herd at full speed.

  Beth, Jack and Sonny got to their feet confused as to what to do. They ran down the hill and mounted their horses. They looked at Falling Moon Woman for permission. Falling Moon Woman laughed and swept her arm up with her hand pointing towards the chase. She called after them “Don’t get too close to the herd. Just ride close enough so you can see.” She and the other women began riding at a walk over the hill and towards the hunt.

  The braves quickly closed on their quarry and by the time Beth, Jack and Sonny were over the hill, the herd was half a mile away. They ran their horses flat out. They didn’t have to urge them on. These ponies had been on the hunt before and knew what to do. They closed fast, keeping about a hundred feet away from the stampede. They lay forward on the horses, their heads down close to the horses’ neck. Sonny and Jack’s hair was still short but Beth’s hair flew straight out behind her.

  The ground was uneven, low and rolling. They came over a small rise and in the depression was a dying buffalo. Beth’s horse cleared it without breaking stride.

  They were riding faster than the warriors and the herd. It seemed like they flew past one warrior after another. They could see the warriors firing their arrows into the buffalo. The braves rode without using their hands to guide the horses. Both hands were occupied shooting the arrows into their prey. Some Buffalo would collapse right after the shaft went into their heart and lungs. Others would continue to run for over a mile before falling.

  The noise of the herd was deafening. The children could hear faint yips above the sound of the hooves from the warriors as they scored a kill. Some of the warriors rode right into the thick of the herd. One misstep by the horse and both horse and rider would be trampled.

  The warriors knew exactly where to place the arrow. They shot it just behind the hump, behind the last rib into the diaphragm. If the arrow ran true and punctured the diaphragm, the lungs would collapse. The wounded animal could continue for a while but would die after a mile or so of running.

  Some of the great hunters could drop a buffalo with one arrow. Sometimes it took as many as three arrows to bring down an animal. Even a bad hunter on a mediocre horse could kill two buffalo on a hunt. A good hunter with twenty arrows could kill a dozen.

  This race of death went on for another twenty minutes. The horses began to flag and the warriors one by one began to drop out. It
was over and a hundred thirty-eight buffalo lay dead.

  Beth, Sonny and Jack turned back towards the warriors and looked for Two Feathers. They saw him and rode over to him. His horse was winded and they were both covered in dust and sweat. Jack took his bow from him and the four of them began riding back towards the women.

  It was a successful hunt. Two Feathers was in a good mood. He had killed eight buffalo. The tribe could feed on this hunt for weeks.

  The kids all started talking at once. Two Feathers smiled and held up his hands. “One at a time.” He said and then pointed at Sonny.

  “When can we join the hunt! I want to do it as soon as possible!”

  “You practice training your pony and practice with your bow and I will determine when you are ready. Remember all of your friends have been practicing for this all of their lives. Practice long. Practice hard and I will let you hunt. I will work with you and teach you how to be among the best hunters in the tribe.”

  He pointed to Jack.

  “Two Feathers, this has been the most exciting experience of my life. I am like Yellow Boy; I want to be part of the hunt as soon as I can. We will practice every day. We will make you proud of us.

  “That is good. I am sure you will.”

  He started to point to Beth but Jack went on. “I saw Tall Boy down a large Bull. He rode well and shot well. He’s about our age. Do you think we can join the hunt soon?”

  “When I think you’re ready. Be patient. Today no body was killed but that is not always the case. I have seen many a good, experienced warrior killed on hunts such as this. This is not a game.

  When we get back with the rest of the warriors, ride forward and tell them how you saw Tall Boy kill the bull and tell them how well he rode and how well he handled his bow.”

  He then pointed at Beth.

  “I saw you in the middle of the herd and thought that you had been forced into the middle by accident. I feared for you and thought that I would not see you again. It frightened me.”