Grizzly Killer: Under The Blood Moon

by Lane R Warenski

  After Rendezvous they traveled over the Bear River Mountains into the land of the Utes to meet Running Wolf’s people and check on his sister who was alone, only to find she had been stolen by another Ute. She had been taken from the village just a couple of days before they arrived. Zach and Running Wolf pursued and in the fight that followed Zach killed her abductor. After that he had two wives and his adventures in the Rocky Mountains were just getting started.

  Rocky Mountain Spring

  Zach Connors opened his eyes and listened. He could hear the soft breathing of his wives Sun Flower and Shining Star as they slept one on each side of him. He could hear the rushing sound of the stream swollen to the top of its banks with the spring runoff. He could see a couple of stars through the smoke hole of their lodge and hear the faint snoring of Jimbo his dog lying just outside the lodge door. These were the sounds that he had grown accustomed to and he knew all was well.

  It was still early; the stars had started to fade but the night still held its grip on the world around their home on Black’s Fork. He lay there enjoying the warmth of his two Indian wives cuddled up against him. It was late spring 1827 and he had come through the third winter since leaving his Kentucky home with his Pa in the summer of 1824. This last winter had been by far the easiest with plenty of time to prepare. With the help of his Ute Indian partner Running Wolf, whom he thought of as his brother and their wives they were well-prepared for the long bitter cold winter of the Rocky Mountains. This winter he had not been alone like he had been the one before and now he wasn’t a greenhorn as he had been coming across the plains during that brutal winter after leaving St. Louis. When they were carrying supplies with General Ashley’s party to the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.

  They were running low on their food supplies and were looking forward to going to Rendezvous to resupply for another year. The Rendezvous this year was to be held on the southern end of Sweet Lake which was only four or five days’ travel from their home on Blacks Fork. The game was returning to the mountain meadows from their winter ranges so they had plenty of fresh meat. The flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and baking powder were just about gone, however, and they hadn’t had any coffee for the last month or so.

  There were five of them to feed and with the supplies of these items only available once a year at Rendezvous, being able to acquire adequate amounts and store them safely was not an easy task. They all knew these supplies were not a necessity for the Indians had lived in this wilderness without them forever, but Zach and the rest had grown accustomed to having them and they all thought it was worth the price and trouble to trade for and store them for the coming year.

  The stars had faded into the gray of dawn when Zach moved down and kissed Shining Star on her forehead and then rolled over to kiss Sun Flower there as well, but Sun Flower moved up and their lips met as he looked into those beautiful dark and sparkling eyes. He dressed in his buckskins and watched with joy as his two wives climbed out from under the buffalo robe naked as newborns and dressed in their doeskin dresses. He was happy and content and he knew this was going to be another great day in these Rocky Mountains that he’d grown to love so much.

  He walked down by the stream and relieved himself then washed his face in the icy cold runoff water of Black’s Fork. He walked over to the horse herd that was in the pole corral and Ol’ Red, his mule, came right up to him and he softly talked to Red as he stroked the side of his neck. Jimbo, his dog, had just come back into camp from his morning hunt and was still carrying part of a snowshoe hare that he was saving for later. Sun Flower, Shining Star and now Raven Wing were all up getting the fire going and starting breakfast. Running Wolf walked over to Zach and with a big smile said, “Good morning, Grizzly Killer, the one above has given us another good day to get ready for our journey.” Zach nodded and said, “Yes, it is a day to be enjoyed, let’s get the mules and horses out on the good grass of the meadow so they will be fit, for we leave for the Rendezvous in just three more days.”

  Jimbo had buried his rabbit half and was now by their side as they led the three mules and fourteen horses out of the corral and across the stream into the vast meadow beyond. The grass was greening fast and all of the stock went right after the tender new shoots of the Timothy grass. Zach looked up at the snow covered peaks of the Bear River Mountains or, as the Ute Indian People called them, the Uintah Mountains. As always, he was in awe at their ruggedness and stark beauty. He could see a pair of Bald eagles soaring in the heights against the dark blue of the sky and caught the movement of a herd of elk as they made their way over a ridge in the morning sun. There were the ever present marmots coming out on the rocks to warm themselves in the first rays of the sun as it hit the meadow. He looked up at the heavens and said, “Thank you, God, for such a beautiful day.”

  As they walked into camp they were met with the smiles of all three women and Sun Flower called Jimbo over and gave him a piece of the deer roast they had heated up for breakfast. Raven Wing who was Running Wolf’s wife and Sun Flower, Zach’s first wife, were sisters and Shoshone. While Running Wolf and Shining Star, Zach’s second wife, were brother and sister and were Ute. Over the last year they had become a very close and loving family.

  They’d had another good trapping season and had well over two hundred prime plews to trade at Rendezvous along with six tanned buffalo robes. They had trapped and hunted bobcats and coyotes through the winter and had over a dozen of each but the women wanted to keep them for warm clothing to start the next winter with. So they had bundled them up securely and had placed them in the cache when they had dug up the plews that had been stored there for the winter.

  For the next three days, they worked on the packs for the horses for most of them had not been used since last year. Zach made sure the special packs they had made for the barrels last year were good. He planned on taking the empty barrels with him to use for the flour, sugar, cornmeal, salt and baking powder again. The barrels had saved their supplies last year from severe rains on their way back from the Rendezvous in Willow Valley.

  That afternoon two riders came up and stopped a quarter mile from their camp and Zach could see at once they were Shoshone, he waved them in. When they were just a couple of hundred yards out Running Wolf shouted, “It is Buffalo Heart and Red Hawk!” and the women all came up to greet the two boys. Buffalo Heart jumped off his horse and ran up to them with a big smile with Red Hawk only a few steps behind.

  Sun Flower and Raven Wing had not heard anything from their village in almost a year now and the arrival of these two teenage boys was very welcome. They brought news that the whole village was going to Sweet Lake for the Rendezvous. Bear Heart and White Feather longed to see their daughters and meet their husbands who they had heard so much about. Their brother, Spotted Elk, was now the War Chief and had married Butterfly and although the winter had been a bad one everyone in the village had survived.

  After their evening meal they sat around the campfire and talked until the night was half gone. The boys told of their return home last year after the Arapaho’s had attacked them and of how much See’s Far was missed and how grateful his family was to Grizzly Killer and Running Wolf for giving him a proper burial. The boys were told of the Arapaho attacks on the Ute Villages and how that big Arapaho war party was just about completely wiped out and how they had rescued four Ute girls and got them back to their people.

  The next morning, these two young men pitched right in helping get ready to leave for Rendezvous and that day and the next were mighty busy. The weather was just about perfect with very cool evenings and mornings but nice warm days.

  There was a warm south breeze just starting up the next morning as they were loading up to leave and Zach thought it may be a sign that a storm was coming in. It was about the middle of June and warm enough that he didn’t think it would do more than just rain if it did come in.

  They left their dugout and headed northwest towards the Bear River and Zach figured they would hit t
he river sometime tomorrow. As they traveled through this high land on the north slope of these Uintah Mountains, they were going through country they all knew well as they had hunted and trapped it over the last year or two. As Zach surveyed all that was around him he was amazed at how excited he still got every time they crested a hill to see what was on the other side. The game was plentiful as they saw deer and elk throughout the day.

  Jimbo was traveling way out in front scouting the area just as he always did and every hour or so he would come back to them just to let them know all was clear.

  By early afternoon the south wind had picked up and was gusty. It was stirring up dust so hard that it stung their faces. They worked their way down a draw that was mostly protected from the wind and made an early camp in the protection of a stand of cottonwoods that surrounded a small spring. Running Wolf and the two Shoshone boys hobbled the horses on the grass that was growing just below the spring while the women were setting up camp and the teepee just in case the storm got bad. Zach climbed back on Ol’ Red and with his Hawken in hand rode on down the draw looking to make meat. He had gone only about a half mile when he jumped a half dozen deer that were bedded down in a thicket out of the wind and with practiced grace brought up the Hawken and dropped a small doe just before she ran out of sight. As he was dressing out this deer, Jimbo came up to him wagging his tail and letting him know all was clear.

  He could smell the fire going long before he reached camp with the wind blowing the smoke right along the ground down the draw. As he rode into camp he was greeted with smiles from the women and they went right to work skinning that deer and putting chunks of meat on sticks over the fire to roast. Shining Star put the heart and liver in the pot full of water to boil for their breakfast the next morning.

  By the time the deer chunks were ready to eat they could see a line of dark clouds to the northwest and it was getting dark mighty fast. They tied a picket line between two cottonwoods and brought in all the horses and picketed them in the protection of the cottonwoods. Ol’ Red was left loose, as always, as Zach trusted him to stay right there close. By the time the horses were all taken care of, the wind had shifted and now was coming right out of the north. Within just a few minutes the temperature dropped about 25 degrees. There was lightning hitting the ground under the cloud bank but with the wind they couldn’t yet hear the thunder but it was getting closer by the minute.

  The men made a final check of camp and made sure everything was secure and shoveled more dirt up over the mud flap while the women brought in a few more armloads of fire wood then they all got into the teepee. They sat around a friendly little fire and listened as the storm got closer. The wind started to subside a little and then the first rain drops hit the well cured buffalo hides covering of the teepee. It started out as just a light rain but within about fifteen minutes it was like the heavens opened up. As they all climbed under their robes for the night there was a hard pounding rain for over two hours.

  Zach lay there listening to the rain hit the teepee with Shining Star and Sun Flower snuggled up one on each side of him. Jimbo was curled up right in front of the door flap and as Zach was nodding off to sleep he could hear the rain slowing down.

  The next morning it was downright cold for being the third week of June. Zach rolled over Shining Star so he could get to the fire. With some small sticks and pieces of wood he blew life into the coals and had a small fire going in no time. The teepee heated up right fast and he pulled on his moccasins, untied the door flap and looked out into a completely white world. There was over a foot of snow on the ground and a biting cold was coming right into the teepee. He figured a person could never tell what might happen in the Rocky Mountains during the spring. Jimbo jumped right out into the snow and started running around marking his territory all over again. Zach just closed the flap and told everyone to stay under the robes… that they weren’t going anywhere for a while.

  With no coffee left he wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and went out and checked on the stock. In just a few minutes, Buffalo Heart and Red Hawk came out to help and they started hobbling the horses so they could try to find some grass. Running Wolf was right behind them and he got a fire going in the outside fire pit and started looking for some wood that was dry enough to burn.

  The sky was clearing and by the time they had heated up the heart and liver for their breakfast the sun was starting to come through. Then it started to rain all over again from the snow melting off the cottonwood leaves above them. They kept the fire going by putting the wet wood close in around the fire to dry out and then into the flames and by midday most of the snow was gone, only to be replaced by mud. The high June sun was warming everything mighty fast though and by late afternoon it was warm with the ground drying out as well. They sat all their packs and supplies they had in the open where the sun could dry it all. The women, each with a pouch, started off down the draw.

  When they returned they had enough roots and plants for a big pot of stew. Shining Star had found a plant with leaves almost like large hollow pine needles that she broke up, put in the coffee pot and made a tea out of it. Although it wasn’t coffee Zach figured it was a lot better than nothing.

  The next morning it was still mighty cool for June but most of the mud had started to dry. After eating the left over stew and drinking more of the tea they loaded up and were on their way once more. They were still heading northwest towards the Bear River and by midday they were out on the rolling sage covered hills. This was country Zach had traveled before and he figured they could make it to the river before dark.

  They started seeing some of the large Mountain hares that were so bountiful in this area and stopped to hunt them. They were in a shallow draw with just a small stream running through it and decided to stop for the night even though they were only about 3 hours from the river. Running Wolf and Raven Wing took their bows and the two Shoshone boys and went out. When they returned they had a half dozen of the huge rabbits and Jimbo had brought in three more. Sun Flower and Shining Star set up a spit over the fire and they roasted the rabbits and cared for the hides while they cooked.

  It was a cool but clear evening and they just rolled out their robes and slept under the stars. Zach closed his eyes and listened to the coyotes that were yipping all around them as he held Sun Flower and Shining Star. Jimbo was curled up at their feet and just before he drifted off to sleep a lone wolf howled his love of the night from a ridge top off to the north.

  They were up as the sky was losing its grip on the night and after a breakfast of left over rabbit they were on their way again. June in this country was just about the most colorful time of the year. The wild flowers are in full bloom and the varieties and colors seem endless. With so many of the eatable plants coming up this time of year their diet was much more diverse than it had been throughout the winter and spring and they all enjoyed the change.

  They had been only a couple of hours on the trail when they could see the cottonwoods that marked the course of the Bear River. They headed north staying up on the bench land on the east side of the river. They were seeing a lot of antelope in this area and Zach left the group just before midday and shot a young buck. They pushed on a couple of more hours and stopped to rest the stock and eat at the hot springs. This is where, just a year ago, he and Running Wolf had first met Sun Flower and Raven Wing and ended up buying them from the French trappers they were with.

  Zach thought back over the last year as he remembered first seeing Sun Flower at this very spot and how much he had grown to love her. He could not even imagine living in this wilderness without his two wives and what a close family they had become. He thought of the fight he had with the French trappers and just how much the chance meeting that day had changed his life. No one had used his given name since last Rendezvous and he had even started to think of himself as Grizzly Killer.

  There were signs that a large group of Indians had spent time there within the last day. So he sent Jimbo out to scout th
e area. When Jimbo returned he was wagging his tail letting them all know that the area was safe. After skinning the antelope and starting some of it roasting over a fire. They all stripped down and bathed in the very warm water of the spring. It had been a full year since they all had been in warm water and they spent the next couple of hours enjoying the bath and washing each other’s hair while the horses and mules were grazing on the grass that grew in abundance along the creek that flowed from the pond the spring had formed.

  Sun Flower and Shining Star tried to coax Jimbo into the water but he was not getting anywhere close. Then Zach walked up out of the water and Jimbo came right to him, with a good grip on his collar he led Jimbo into the water. Jimbo stood there in water up to his belly while Sun Flower, Shining Star and Raven Wing washed him down. Zach, Running Wolf, Buffalo Heart, and Red Hawk laughed until their sides hurt at the misery showing in the expression of that huge dog as these three naked women tried to wash him clean. When the women were satisfied he was as clean as they could get him they let him out of the water and after shaking water all over the three of them he ran up out into the brush and proceeded to roll in the dry dirt and dust until he was caked in the layer of mud. With the women yelling at him and Zach laughing, Jimbo just went over to their clothes and rubbed the mud all over them then went off into brush by himself.

  After eating the roasted antelope they loaded up and headed north again following the river. A few miles from the hot springs they found a good place to camp in the cottonwoods along the river. Jimbo went out on his usual scout as they were setting up camp and caring for the stock. When he returned he went right to Zach and started with a real low growl from deep down in his throat telling him there was trouble not far away.