American Struggle

by Veda Boyd Jones

  She and Edoda each covered half the enormous area. Nellie saw sickness everywhere. Mostly the sick were elderly, but there were also many children lying down under the shade of a few tents. Several times, she heard the whooping sound of a cough, and fear gripped her for those who had the dreaded disease. She scurried from group to group, mostly looking, not asking questions about Lewis. An hour later, when she met Edoda at the gate, neither one had seen him.

  “We must get back to Etsi,” Edoda said. “He may have been directed to our camp.”

  Nellie didn’t think that was likely, but she was hungry. Starving, really, and from the looks of the Cherokee around her, they felt the same way. Many had no campfires lit for cooking but sat around charred remnants of earlier fires.

  “Why haven’t the soldiers given them food?” Nellie asked her father as they hurried toward their campsite.

  “I’ve heard that many are refusing food offered by the white men. Their pride will not allow them to take food from those who take our land.”

  Nellie could understand that pride, but her growling stomach would not have held out if she walked past a soldier handing out food.

  “Lewis?” Etsi called from her kneeling position beside the stew pot. She looked beyond Nellie and Edoda, obviously hoping to spot Lewis.

  “Nothing yet,” Edoda said.

  “We’ll find him,” Nellie said with false cheerfulness.

  “He will come to the camp.” Old Rivers sat on the ground, leaning against the wheel of his wagon, which was pulled directly behind the Starr wagon.

  “How are you feeling?” Nellie asked. She squatted on the grass beside him, drawn to him because his words promised that Lewis would show up. How he knew that, she didn’t know, but he sounded so confident, so sure that it would be so.

  “I’ll be fine with a little more time,” he said.

  “You speak strong words,” she said, probing—without asking outright—to find out why he was certain that Lewis would show up.

  “Yes, they are strong words, and they will be kept. Lewis is a smart boy.” He must have seen something change in Nellie’s eyes for he immediately added, “He is smart in the ways of a hunter. You are smart in the ways of book learning. Both ways are smart ways.” He coughed as if speaking so many words had worn him out.

  Nellie lifted her eyebrows. What did Old Rivers know about her? She had not been around him much and could never recall a private conversation with him.

  “Lewis is proud you are his sister with your gift of languages.”

  “Lewis is proud of me?” she asked.

  “Of course. And you should be proud of him.”

  Nellie tried to think why. He was a boy full of mischief, and he didn’t value the things she held dear.

  “His common sense is from the heart, not the mind, and he knows what’s important,” Old Rivers said, and again he was racked with a tight cough.

  “But he’s not quite twelve,” Nellie said.

  “Many things are learned at a young age. Wisdom is gained by time, but knowledge can come early.”

  “The stew is ready,” Etsi said. This time she had dug out some dishes so that the Starr family and Old Rivers and his son could eat at the same time. “We don’t know how long we’ll be here before we go to the new land, and we will eat like the civilized people we are.”

  We may be civilized, Nellie thought, but we have no table, just bowls and spoons. But they had more than the Cherokee at the next campfire, who ate from hollowed gourd bowls. Again she was reminded of what a privileged upbringing she had. Having a nice house, more food, and more book learning didn’t make her better than the Cherokee at the next campfire. It might have made her life easier, but they were all in the same place now. All feeling the same sense of loss.

  Edoda asked a blessing for the food they were about to receive and added a plea for Lewis to be found.

  “But he is not lost,” Old Rivers muttered softly so that only Nellie heard him.

  Nellie glanced at him, then at Smoke Cloud, his son. Smoke Cloud rarely said much, and his look was always a haunted stare. He is lonely, Nellie decided, and she made up her mind to talk to him on this trip to the new country.

  After they had eaten, Edoda went off to look for Lewis again. Nellie and Sarah helped Etsi wipe the dishes. When the dishes were put away in an easy-to-get-to spot in the wagon, Nellie sat in the grass beside Smoke Cloud. Old Rivers had fallen asleep on the shaded grass under their wagon after drinking another of Etsi’s potions.

  “Do you think it is useless to look for Lewis?” Nellie asked. “He will come when he is ready.” He spoke with the same authority as Old Rivers.

  “What do you think he’s doing? And how will he find us?”

  “He can follow any tracks, animal’s or man’s,” Smoke Cloud said, his eyes brightening with pride. “So many wagons have left him a path he could follow with his eyes closed.”

  “Did you teach him how to track?” Nellie asked.

  He nodded with a slight smile.

  Edoda returned to camp with the news that he had spoken to Reverend Jesse Bushyhead, who was one of the best Cherokee preachers around.

  “Did Jesse have any news of Lewis?” Etsi asked.

  “Nothing, but I am coming to believe Old Rivers is right. Lewis will find us, not the other way around. But I have much news.”

  He sat on the tongue of the wagon and talked. “Some of these people have been here for weeks. There has been much sickness in the stockade, and some of the old have died from disease. Three children have also died, and many are weak from starvation. I have talked to some men and tried to make them change their minds about not taking food from the white soldiers.”

  “I would take food,” Sarah said.

  “Yes, you would,” Edoda agreed. “I’d see to it. The white man’s government will provide for us as they promised. I hate what has happened to us as much as any man here, but the Cherokee way is to know when the past is gone.”

  “That is so,” Old Rivers said. His voice startled Nellie, who thought he was asleep. But he was awake with his ears open, even if his eyes were closed. “We are no longer caretakers of the past. We must build on what has gone before.”

  “We will take the best of the Cherokee ways with us,” Edoda said, “and the best of the white man’s ways. We must leave what is bad behind us.”

  “Did you learn when we are to start on the journey?” Etsi asked.

  “A group leaves tomorrow, but we will not be part of it. There are rumors that other groups will be delayed.” “Till when?” Nellie asked.

  “Until a break in the weather. The drought has lowered the rivers, and water travel is near impossible. Tomorrow’s group will be the last to make it if the water falls any lower. And on the overland route, springs are drying up. Too many here lie sick of bilious fever and whooping cough, and the white government may let us stay until the weather breaks.”

  “But who knows when that will be?” Etsi asked no one in particular.

  “No one knows,” Old Rivers said. “No one knows.”

  CHAPTER 5

  What Happened to Lewis

  May I go see Morning Sun?” Nellie asked Etsi. “I can keep an eye out for Lewis.” “You may go, but be back here to help with supper.” As she walked through the huge encampment toward Morning Sun’s wagon, Nellie glanced around, looking for the black hat that Lewis would never be without. It was much like Edoda’s black hat but without the crow feather that distinguished Edoda’s.

  “Morning Sun,” Nellie called when she spotted her friend sitting under the wagon’s shade.

  “Did you find your brother?” Morning Sun jumped up and rushed to Nellie’s side.

  “No, but we trust he will find us. Want to walk around?” Morning Sun checked with her mother, and then the two girls walked around the camp, looking for other friends.

  As they passed the entrance to the stockade, Morning Sun said, “It is our good fortune that we are here. We’ve heard th
at at other camps everyone must stay inside the stockade.” “How can they get so many people inside?” “They are crowded so close there is barely room to stand,”

  Morning Sun said. “So we hear.”

  Nellie hoped it wasn’t true. If the soldiers here forced everyone inside, there would be even more sickness.

  “Oh, no.” Nellie stepped back. Four men carrying a wooden coffin walked somberly toward the open stockade gate. “Let’s go,” she whispered.

  “At least that person will be buried on Cherokee land. They’ve started a cemetery over yonder.” Morning Sun pointed toward the north edge of the woods that encroached on the campgrounds.

  With heads bowed in respect, the girls backed away from the grieving family who followed the coffin. Clouds covered the sun, casting a shadow over the group.

  “Has this happened before?” Nellie asked.

  A woman standing nearby answered, “It happens many times every day. This sickness season and the heat are too much for the old—and the young.”

  “I think we can add heartbreak to that,” Nellie said. In her wanderings in the camp, she had seen no happy faces on the elders, no smiles at all, just heads lowered in grief. Only very young children seemed unperturbed by the situation, and their laughter as they played seemed out of place among such a sad group of people.

  The girls walked toward the edge of the camp as the late afternoon breeze picked up and blew Nellie’s long black hair into her eyes. She pulled it back and glanced up. Clouds were moving in. Dark clouds moving fast. Lightning streaked the sky, and thunder boomed.

  “I’d better get back to the others,” she said. She left Morning Sun at her campsite, then ran to her area, arriving only moments before the sky let loose and rain drenched the land. She huddled with the others under their wagon.

  The downpour lasted a brief ten minutes before the storm clouds scudded toward the east. The western sun shone brightly again, turning a freshly washed, glistening world into one where Nellie thought she might actually see steam rising from the ground.

  “That might help the drought,” Nellie said.

  “It’s not enough,” Edoda said. “We need a steady rain for many hours. But we do need shelter from more rain, since we’ll be here for some time.”

  “Lewis is somewhere in the rain,” Etsi said.

  Nellie didn’t know what to reply.

  “We will ask about a tent, or we’ll make a brush shelter,” Edoda said. “Once everything is dry. And we’ll make an outhouse, too.”

  “Away from our camp,” Nellie said. The stench from improper sewage had only intensified since the downpour.

  “As far away as we’re allowed,” Edoda said. He glanced toward the soldiers patrolling the outer perimeters of the campground.

  The brief rainstorm made things miserable. Nellie wiped sweat from her forehead and wished she could slip down to the creek for a bath. She was still in the same dress she’d worn yesterday morning when the soldiers had come. Was it just yesterday that her world had been turned upside down and inside out?

  She wondered if she could get to the trunk where her writing supplies were kept. She asked Etsi, who helped her rummage around in the wagon until they unloaded enough things to get to the trunk. With her pen and ink and paper, she sat on the tailgate of the wagon and used the wooden box of dishes as a desk. She poured her heart out in her journal, starting with the very moment she had heard the soldiers were coming. She wrote about missing Lewis and the pain of leaving home.

  “Lewis!” Sarah screamed.

  Nellie looked up to see Lewis riding his pony and pulling a heavily laden travois. The two poles of his travois left a trail in the soft wet earth.

  “Need some more paper, Nellie?” he asked.

  Nellie dropped her writing, jumped off the wagon, and joined the family rushing for Lewis.

  “Lewis! Lewis!” Etsi pulled him off his horse and held him close. Edoda didn’t wait his turn but hugged him from the back, putting his arms around Lewis and encompassing Etsi, too.

  Tears washed Etsi’s face, and Nellie found herself wiping tears of joy. Sarah jumped up and down beside Lewis. Old Rivers and Smoke Cloud joined the group.

  “I knew you would find us,” Smoke Cloud said. “Just a matter of when.”

  “Where have you been?” Nellie asked.

  “Where were you when the soldiers came?” Sarah asked at the same time.

  “Give him a minute,” Etsi said. “Do you need water? Are you hungry?”

  “Both—water and food,” Lewis said. “And for Blaze.”

  “I’ll get fresh cool water,” Nellie said and grabbed the nearly empty bucket from its hook on the side of the wagon. “Not a word until I get back. Promise?”

  “Let’s get him fixed up,” Edoda said. “Then we’ll listen to his story.”

  Edoda unhooked Blaze from the travois, took off the saddle, and led the pony toward the creek. He walked alongside Nellie. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Lewis kneeling beside Old Rivers. Smoke Cloud stood, talking to Lewis. Etsi and Sarah were building up the fire to start supper.

  “Where do you think he’s been?” Nellie asked.

  “He will tell us in his time,” Edoda said. “I thank God that he is with us now.”

  “I hope he is safe with us, but he may have been safer away from this camp,” Nellie said. As she dipped the bucket in the cool water, she told Edoda of the funeral march she had seen. Blaze drank his fill a few feet farther downstream.

  “I know there is much sickness, and we must stay away from the sick ones unless they have no family to care for them.”

  “At least the dead one is lying in Cherokee land,” Nellie echoed the words Morning Sun had spoken earlier.

  “We spring from this earth—our hearts and spirits, and it is good that the departed one can return to it. But the rest of us must go on and claim a new land. And now Lewis will be going with us to the new territory.”

  “Yes. I wonder what he meant by asking if I needed more paper.”

  “We’ll find out soon enough. Blaze, that is enough water for now.” With a tug on the reins, Edoda gently pulled up the pony’s head and led him away from the stream.

  They hurried back to the camp, where Lewis was still being fussed over by Etsi. Nellie filled the dipper with fresh water and handed it to Lewis, who drank it, then filled it again.

  “Now can you tell us where you’ve been?” Nellie asked. “Or must we wait for supper?”

  Etsi’s wide smile stretched across her face. She seemed unable to stop smiling, and Nellie loved seeing her mother so happy.

  “We will cook after we hear of his adventures,” Etsi said.

  They gathered in a circle near Old Rivers’s wagon where there was no hot cook fire to make the steamy heat more unbearable. Nellie sat on the ground next to Sarah and across from Lewis so she could hear his every word. Beside Lewis was the travois laid flat, a blanket covering lumpy items.

  Lewis started his story with a confession. “When I left Old Rivers’s place, I didn’t go directly home.”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary there,” Nellie said, and they all laughed.

  “I was riding in the woods, thinking I’d hunt some game for supper,” he said. “I was near the road but hidden by the trees, and I saw the soldiers ride by. Of course, I knew why they had come.”

  “Didn’t you want to go with us?” Sarah asked.

  “Of course I wanted to go with you,” Lewis said, “but I thought I’d see what their plan was before I made myself known. I saw Nellie drag a trunk to the front porch, and that gave me the idea to ride to the store to get supplies we would need.” He took off his black hat and wiped his brow.

  “That’s why you asked if I wanted more paper?” Nellie asked.

  “Yes. I brought you paper from Edoda’s store. There were no workers in the store, and already people were running in, just taking what they wanted, so I did the same.” He reached under the blanket beside him and pulled out a
stack of papers.

  “All food was gone before I got there, but I got other things. For you, Sarah,” he said and reached under the blanket again, “I got this cornstalk doll.”

  “Oooh,” Sarah squealed. “Now I have two dolls. They can play together.” She jumped up from her place in the circle, ran to the wagon, and proudly held both dolls in her lap when she sat down.

  “For you, Etsi, I grabbed some cloth that had been trampled on. It’s a little dirty.” He pulled a bundle of bright blue fabric from his pile of surprises.

  “It’s lovely, Lewis. Thank you. It just needs a washing, and then I’ll make a new dress. Thank you.” Etsi reached over and kissed Lewis on the forehead.

  “Was the store overrun?” Edoda asked.

  Lewis looked down at the ground as if studying it for words. “It was ransacked. Shelves were torn down. Aisles were strewn with things that weren’t already taken.” He reached under the blanket. “But for you, Edoda, I have …” He paused for effect, looked around, and then whispered, “Your ax.” He raised a blanket corner where the handle could be seen.

  “My ax!” Edoda said softly. He glanced at the soldier on patrol nearly a hundred feet away. “Weapons aren’t allowed.”

  Lewis grinned sheepishly. “I left it under the tree where I was chopping wood two days ago, but this time, that was a good thing. It will be good to have it in the new place.”

  “It sure will,” Edoda said. “We’ll just keep it our secret.”

  Lewis nodded and reached under his blanket again. “For you, Smoke Cloud, I have your arrowheads.” He produced a leather bag full of Smoke Cloud’s fine work.

  “You went back to our house?” Smoke Cloud asked.

  “I went there after I got the few things left at the store. You were already gone and had been in quite a hurry, from the looks of all you left. I gathered supplies and used your workshop to make my travois to carry things. I didn’t like the idea of riding around carrying a doll,” he said with a laugh. “I was in the outbuilding when white looters came. But they didn’t see me. I put as many tools on the travois as it could carry.”

  “You did good work,” Old Rivers said. “Smart boy.”