The Dying Grass, page 57
and we await our scouts, to learn whether they will come galloping in, shouting that Cut Arm follows us even now;
but still it is quiet to the west
and once the best men have sat in a circle (their copper bracelets shining in the sun), Toohhoolhoolsote offers his smoke to AHKUNKENEKOO, then draws three times upon the pipe.
3
White Bird says: I am grateful to the other chiefs for showing their minds. This is good, and I hope that we can all be of one heart, now when the Bostons are hunting us. Perhaps we can still make friends with the Cutthroats. Sitting Bull has dwelled in the Old Woman’s Country since last winter, and likes the Redcoats, I have heard,
to which Heinmot Tooyalakekt listens pleasantly, letting the pipe pass by, with his narrow dark pigtails wrapped in many loops of narrow rawhide whose irregularity makes it resemble strings of white shell-beads
(his dark gaze flicking everywhere, his peak of hair recently trimmed by Good Woman):
supple in body and mind, alive, aware, almost seeming to smile but in fact merely masked in pleasantry
as Looking-Glass, flicking down his eyes, meaningfully or not, at the necklace of bear claws that he wears, seizes the pipe: Now I shall tell you my heart. Hear me, my chiefs. The Cutthroats are all crooked! You do not know them as I do,
seeing before him the enemy whose horse is masked halfway down the neck, the mask white-beaded with red-, blue- and black-beaded overpatterning rectangled, diamonded and triangled like Navajo sandpaintings:
Cutthroats, enemies, Lakota! They will kill us all.
Taking the pipe, Heinmot Tooyalakekt then says: My chiefs, do we fight to keep our lives? No. Hear me: We fight for this place where our fathers’ bones lie buried. I would not lead my women among strangers to die in a strange land. Those who once named me a Boston-fearing coward, to them I now say: Stay here and fight beside me. We shall hide our women behind us in these mountains and die fighting for them. Better that than ride away to some unknown country.
Tossing back his round head, Toohhoolhoolsote watches them through narrowed eyes.
4
Looking-Glass says: Heinmot Tooyalakekt, my dear brother, we cannot go back home. I, Looking-Glass, am telling you! Moreover, the Cutthroats long to wipe their buttocks on our heads. Listen! I am opening my heart. Where now can we live but in the Buffalo Country? Even Cut Arm will not follow us there!
White Bird hides behind his fan of feathers. Toohhoolhoolsote is silent.
Heinmot Tooyalakekt, whose face is dark and smooth, shining clean with light like an otter’s just out of water, nearly begins to smile, perhaps, or even to agree—but Looking-Glass knows his heart:
This young chief, the merest camp-chief, lacks experience and cares for nothing, save only that the People do not quarrel.
So Looking-Glass,
he whom the Crows call Arrowhead,
cries out, waving mosquitoes away: Would you People die hungry? Buffalo meat is the best. Only buffalo meat will do,
as smoke blows delicious from the Bostons’ sizzling beef.
5
Then White Bird,
who knows Bluecoats (if not the Bostons) better than Looking-Glass
—has he not watched them march day after day like slaves to their bugle at Butterfly Place, and shoot their rifles badly, like children?
and who always behaves even-temperedly
(to him Two Moons, Wottolen and other great men have already come without Looking-Glass’s knowledge, for their hearts distrust the Crows
whom our grandfathers fought alongside the Snakes
whenever we were not fighting the Snakes),
says: My young men hungered to fight, and already they have lost heart! They have failed us and shamed themselves. Young men, listen! Young men, it is on your account that we lost our wealth at Big Water. Whatever you now say, I have small confidence in you,
at which Loon stares sullenly ahead, his roached hair rising perfectly, his nineteen white necklace-loops arrayed across his breast.
My People, from here to the Crow Country we must ride for many suns. From here straight north to the Old Woman’s Country is not far. Since we have quit the fight, let us ride quickly to a safe place before more of you become cowards.
Growing angry, Looking-Glass takes the pipe: White Bird, hear me. I thank you for opening your heart, and I would never contradict you. But have you forgotten when Eagle That Shakes Himself
(he who was a chief among the Crows)
called on us to stop eating the Bostons’ sugar? White Bird, you were there! He said to us: You People are cowards. Kill the Bostons who murder you! Had we agreed, he too would have risen up against the Bostons and joined hands with Sitting Bull. But when he rode to those Cutthroats to make peace, Sitting Bull took his life! The Cutthroats are more dangerous than the Bostons, I am telling you!
Toohhoolhoolsote the grizzly-tempered,
who remembers from the Butterfly Place council how Cut Arm kept grinning at him with the long teeth of an old horse,
and who now hates our young men forever
(through them Cut Arm lives to haunt us again),
smokes the pipe, then says: My heart does not care where we go. Let us ride where we please. This war will surely follow us. If our buffalo hunters say that the Crows will act straight, then I am satisfied. Five Wounds and Rainbow, what happened at Big Water was not your fault! Now open your hearts to us.
Yes, we both agree with Looking-Glass,
and the Three Red Blankets are of the same heart,
while Swan Necklace yearns likewise for the Buffalo Country; he is longing to steal enemy horses of all colors;
although Wottolen believes that White Bird speaks straight
and White Thunder keeps quiet because Old Yellow Wolf says nothing, while Heinmot Tooyalakekt, White Bird and Looking-Glass all differ
and Over The Point, like Toohhoolhoolsote, has been hurt in his heart by our woman-hearted young men who would not fight at Big Water; he cares not where we now go
and Wounded Head would seek any quiet place to live with his little son and his dear wife Helping Another.
Enough talking! Let us ride to the Buffalo Country.
White Bird says: Whatever you decide is good.
So Looking-Glass takes the pipe once more to say: Hear me, my chiefs! The Crows are my own brothers. With them our People will be safe, I am telling you three times!
And Hahtalekin, who has not yet opened his mouth, draws in a long smoke and says: Very well, Looking-Glass; you are head-chief now; take us to the Crow Country . . .
6
But Chief Red Heart, who was at Kamnaka with Looking-Glass and Three Feathers when the Bostons attacked, now takes the pipe to say: We shall not go. We shall ride to Kamiah and go on the reservation.
7
So it will be:
Looking-Glass, he whose dreams are as lovely as horses, will teach the young men how to hunt buffalo in exactly the way we have always done it until now;
thus our People will become rich again,
while Heinmot Tooyalakekt, saying nothing, knowing that their course is uncertain,
wondering whether Red Heart’s way is the best
(although Looking-Glass has warned him three times: Brother, you are reckless! No matter what you tell them, those crooked-hearted Bostons will treat your People like enemies),
cannot help Dreaming back along the trail, only for awhile:
swimming the Enemy River on Black Mane-Stripe,
who is stronger and more intelligent than any of Tsépmin’s horses,
then riding up along OUR MOTHER’s backbone, past Eel Place
(where our People sometimes used to stay, just for awhile,
catching eels or digging cous),
south down the lightning-crooked evergreen cañon, where the blue mountain-horizon lives in its jaws,
down its steep, steep gorge which is shagged with grass and split by faraway cañon-grooves,
to the river called Welíwe,*
where we once had a village of that name,
and its forest, which we follow up and out of the watershed, into the next cañon
(which snakes south across the Bostons’ line into Oregon),
mountains widening ahead;
and now the world is meadow, with mountains on the horizon
and the smooth greenness of the grass,
the sky-bowl of grass:
Wallowa, our valley once dark with horses.
I am turning; I am turning; I am turning back;
I shall circle back.
8
And so Heinmot Tooyalakekt,
knowing better than to interpose himself between quarrelling chiefs,
tells his women,
who have been turning the beef-strips which hang in greenwood smoke,
doctoring horses,
gathering berries,
all the while sweating and steaming the white camas roots in underground pits, pouring water on the mounds, cooking them until they blacken, then pounding them, steaming them again, smoking them over the lodge-fire so that they will keep as well as the Bostons’ hardbread
(as Welweyas looks up shyly from behind the others, anxious to hear what will be spoken):
My lovely ones, now we have completed our hearts,
promising Springtime a buffalo liver as soon as he can make a kill
(Good Woman needs nothing,
nor Sound Of Running Feet, who—clever girl!— has already packed a horseload of roots
—we can pound or bake them once we reach the Salish);
and Ollokot tells his wives: We shall not go to Sitting Bull,
at which Fair Land smiles in delight
because her fear was exactly this: to have her face smashed open with a brass-studded Lakota quirt.
Yes, now it has happened that even our women wish to ride to the Buffalo Country, where we shall eat berries from the branches without being afraid
and make ourselves new buffalo robes,
Looking-Glass’s wives longing for new earrings of German silver:
the Buffalo Country is where such treasures come from—
Toohhoolhoolsote’s wives delighted to learn they will soon be gumming sweet red flesh, which is better than beef
and Kate pounding camas without a word, Welweyas helping her
(but when they go together to care for their horses’ hooves, Heinmot Tooyalakekt murmurs to Ollokot: Brother, if I am killed, remember this: Whenever you go into council with Looking-Glass, take care for the People! He is a good man, but Cut Arm’s treachery has addled his heart. You know that he has always been quickly angered; now he is rash. We have comforted him for the loss of his country by making him our head-chief; perhaps indeed he will be best, especially in the Bostons’ country where he is known; but he greatly hungers to get his own way)
as the chiefs call for five brave men to stay here for three suns more, watching out for Cut Arm:
White Cloud, Shore Crossing
(he who can leap off a wild horse without falling),
Red Moccasin Tops, Red Spy and Rainbow—
leaving them a side of roasted beef
—while Red Heart and Chief Three Feathers depart with their People for Kamiah
(Looking-Glass saying: My brother, on account of what Cut Arm has done to me, I fear for you.
And I for you, brother! You are determined to wander like wolves. You have no home; what will become of you?);
and then, gathering their horses, the People ride east, commencing that hard trail of roots, rocks, sky, muck and fallen timbers.
As they depart their home, Toohhoolhoolsote says to his young men: I wonder if this ground has anything to say?
FAMILY REUNION
JULY 17
1
Until now all they have heard is a towhee digging through dead leaves in hopes of finding some delicious insect;
but White Cloud,
who has fought in every battle
(his horse killed under him at Cottonwood, falling down, half-crushing his thigh, which he healed with his WYAKIN Power),
is first to hear voices coming up from Weippe. We strip off our leggings and deerskin shirts, and he whispers: No more red blankets! Let us not be warning them anymore when they come,
as far away sounds the bugle.
Now we can hear their horses, and we see the Big Dust. They are speaking in our language, following our trail, so they must be the crooked Butterfly Place People
(their WYAKINS have forsaken them, lunging away, bunching front legs like fleeing deer):
first Tsams Lúpin, Cut Arm’s greedy, crooked slave, who has become an enemy to our religion; he is devouring us as he goes;
then Jokais and Meopkowit, who now call themselves Kaptín Tsan and Ol Tsolts* (each one has a daughter riding away with our People),
White Thunder’s badhearted half-brother Horse Blanket,
Sheared Wolf, who now calls himself Tsan Lavih,*
Aplaham Pluks*
and eight or nine other traitors,
those whom we set free after they fought against us at Sparse-Snowed Place.
Now we see them all at once,
carefully inviting them
as we lurk behind ferns in evergreen shade
and Tsépmin, whom we once called brother, comes grinningly galloping up on his grey horse. Shall we finally please our hearts by killing him?
As they come riding up the trail we commence to aim
(they are as indiscreet of speech as common nighthawks).
2
Shore Crossing shoots Tsams Lúpin in the arm
because Cut Arm has laid hands on Toohhoolhoolsote, who spoke for us
(I am unsteadying myself);
while at the same time Red Spy (saving his explosive bullets) shoots Aplaham Pluks,
who now begins bleeding and crying:
—we are smiling to see the other Crooked People tie him to a horse!—
and now White Cloud, holding his Winchester steady, carefully shoots Sheared Wolf
who falls into a thicket of wild rose. Bending low, Red Spy runs quickly there. From his belt he withdraws a dead Bluecoat’s Colt
(more and more of us warriors have been realizing the worth of these women’s toys)
—at which Sheared Wolf,
he who was already warned,
whispers: Wait, brother, I have news for the People!
reaching out his bloody hands toward Red Spy,
who giggles, saying: Tell us your news when you reach your Heaven,
and shoots him in the lungs until all the bullets have gone:
Áhaha!
—Tsépmin, open-mouthed, yanks his stallion’s head around, galloping back down the trail just as he did at Sparse-Snowed Place
where he began this war:
he has always been too crooked to make himself brave.
The bugle is blowing; the Bluecoats prepare their wheeled gun,
so we slip back into the bitter cherries and white maples where the boys hold our horses,
leap up and ride away to tell the People, asking our hearts as we go:
How can we make the Bluecoats raise their arms in terror? They will not turn back.
ADVICE FROM A MILITARY GENIUS
JULY 19
Very good, Mason; you discovered Joseph’s track. Now, how many Indians would you estimate were laying for you in this ambush?
At least fifty, general. Our vanguard was lucky to escape.
Thank you, colonel. That will be all. Chapman, what do you want now?
General, when I got near that thicket I seen Mr. Joe glaring at me, plain as daylight! And I’m pretty sure I saw White Bird—
Well, well!
I can guarantee you this, general: Them Nez Perces are so yellow, they wouldn’t dare waylay us like that unless they kept an entire war party at Weippe! Now when we ride in there, general, if we can grab us some of Mr. Joe’s squaws and children—
So you believe that the hostiles have not in fact embarked on the Lo Lo Trail.
I don’t know about that. But in my experience, sir, them Dreamers stick like glue to their friends. So maybe while the squaws are riding forward, Mr. Joe’s got the River Renegades to help him.
Is this inference, or did you in fact see Smohallie?
I don’t even know what an inference is, general. With all respect, I never grew up with your advantages. My point is, Smohallie may have brought his renegades there, but don’t you worry; I know ’em real good, near about as good as Mr. Joe—
You can go.
Sure thing, general.
Fletch, what do you make of that?
I have no opinion, sir.
Chapman wouldn’t intentionally mislead me. He’s brutal, but not vicious. And he certainly does know his Indians.
Yessir.
Fletch, wouldn’t it be fine if we could bag them all in one swoop?
AMERICAN SECRETS
JULY 20
1
Where’s Joseph now?
About thirty miles ahead now, sir. Just about at Weippe.
Thanks, Mr. Reuben. By the way, what do you think about Umatilla Jim?
No good, general.
Tell me why.
Umatillas are real crooked Indians, General Howard! Many of them Dreamers—
Is Jim a Dreamer?
I don’t know, sir.
Excuse me, general—
Yes, Fletch, what is it?
Some Indians are riding in to surrender.
2
Get me Umatilla Jim.
Right away, sir.
Who are these people?
Red Heart is their chief, general. He’s cousin to Looking-Glass. The other big man is Three Feathers. Red Heart says, they were hunting in the Buffalo Country, just for awhile, and when they got back to Weippe, Chief Joseph told them about the war. They didn’t know nothing about that. They’re good Indians, never killed anybody. They want to ride straight to their reservation and keep quiet.
