Yelloweye
11
It Takes a Village
The Family
A RANCHER from Fort Collins arrived with two brood mares for breeding about seven in the morning. Ramie and Kyle had to deal with that just when the family had decided to let others do the work for the day and get back to the final pages in the box. They wouldn’t stand the mares to stud until they’d had a chance to settle down, but the rancher wanted to jaw a while over a cup of coffee. Of course, the topic was all about the tensions building at Yellowstone.
He finally left and their two hired hands took over the morning chores while Ramie and Kyle came into the kitchen.
“How much time do we have?” Mary Beth asked.
“Rafe radioed in that they were about three hours out,” Cole said.
“I didn’t put food on the stove for the hands.”
“I’ve got it, Mom Mar,” Aubrey said. “I prepped everything early this morning. It just needs to heat through. I’ll make cornbread and tortillas while you continue to read. I can hear you and keep an eye on the television at the same time. Fill yourselves plates if you’re hungry. There’s still tortillas and makings for a breakfast burrito.”
“Anything happening?” Ramie asked her lover.
“She hasn’t moved in two hours, but no one is willing to go approach her. They’ve gone on with regular insipid programming, but have her in a split screen box in the corner with a ribbon crawling across the bottom every five minutes giving the same update.” Aubrey scooped a spoonful of mashed carrots into her oldest daughter’s mouth. “Don’t worry, honey. Even though I’m in the kitchen, I’m right there beside you.” Aubrey kissed Ramie and Kyle sidled up to get his share, too. He kissed his daughters on their heads.
“Let’s get back at it,” Cole said around a mouthful of burrito.
“Wait,” Aubrey said. “There’s a bulletin and they are expanding the Yellowstone window.”
“Turn it up,” Cole said. Aubrey unmuted the TV as the picture zoomed back from Earth Sister standing in the distance as a reporter came into focus in the foreground.
Sixth Live Report
“This is Evan Waitley with the National News Network at the Yellowstone Grizzly Village protest site. This has been a tense morning as workers at the Shale Oil Company, prepare to activate the pseudo-fracking equipment on the low rise to our left at the foot of Mount Holmes. We’re told that high absenteeism has slowed progress which was slated to begin earlier today. The company is operating with a skeleton crew and a squad of security personnel who are reported to be heavily armed.” The reporter turned to the silhouette on the rise, nearly a mile distant.
“On each of the past five days, the spokesperson calling herself Earth Sister has approached our broadcast location to deliver her dire warnings. She has provided what many believe to be illusions of animals coming over the rise. On the third day, a trained wolf pushed reporter Sarah d’Angelo to the ground during her broadcast. We are told that Sarah is still suffering from shock, but that she is physically uninjured. Yet this morning, Earth Sister did not come to our location some distance away from both the installation and the protest site. As the sun rose, she was already at the top of that rise. She has simply stood there all morning. For a while, she was joined by two others dressed in wolf skins before they disappeared over the rise.”
“Evan,” another voice broke into the broadcast, “what about animals this morning? No illusions yet?”
“Nothing. In fact, there is no sign of any animal anywhere in the park.” The camera swung far to the right and into the sky as Evan pointed. “Up there, you can see a Park Ranger helicopter. It is the only sound that has been heard this morning. When we asked about why they were deployed today, the comment we got was startling. They are looking for animals. The Forest Service has been unable to locate any of the five thousand bison that live in the park. Nor have they spotted any of the thousands of elk, the hundred wolves, and the wide variety of other species that call Yellowstone home. In fact, we have not seen a bird in the sky, a squirrel in a tree, or even a fly all morning.”
“Evan, we are informed there is activity in Cody. Keep an eye on things there at Yellowstone for us, we are switching to a live report from Rhea Matthews in Cody, Wyoming.” The image of Earth Sister on the rise receded to a box in the upper right corner of the screen as the main screen shifted to a woman in jeans and a western shirt. Blonde hair fluttered beneath the brim of a cowboy hat.
“This is Rhea Matthews of KWYO in Cody, reporting for NNN. There are startling developments this morning in Cody as National Guard and U.S. Deputy Marshals arrived on the scene overnight with buses and some heavy equipment. They are staging at Stampede Park, home of the Cody Night Rodeo. I’m here with Deputy U.S. Marshal Grant Donahue who has agreed to give us some background information. Marshal, can you tell us what’s going on? There’s some heavy machinery moving in here. Are you anticipating an assault?”
“Nothing so dramatic as that, Rhea,” the deputy said. He smiled the smile of a front person designated to be in front of cameras while the real work went on elsewhere. “We are here to protect U.S. citizens who have come into conflict with each other. On one side, we have a legal drilling site. We’ve cross-checked all the permits and environmental statements and legally, Shale Oil Company has the high ground. However, peaceful protest is also allowed under the first amendment to the Constitution. The only law that has been broken is fuzzy at best in terms of the protesters occupying government lands. They have broken several park rules with their unauthorized encampment.”
“So, both sides have rights?” Rhea asked.
“Certainly,” Grant answered. “Unfortunately, the rhetoric of the past few days has increased to the point of threats against the lives and property of Shale Oil Company and its workers. In response, the company has ramped up its security. We are trying to avoid another Standing Rock situation. The loss of life there was a tragedy. We see no other option at this point than to remove the protesters from the site, in as respectful a way as we can, so that violence does not erupt. I have been informed that once the fracking process has actually begun, the protesters have agreed to leave peacefully.”
“Mourning Mother Earth and the lives of those that were lost,” Rhea read from a statement. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“The protest is highly spiritual in nature,” Grant said. “When they have lost the battle to stop SOC, the Native Americans at the site will undoubtedly have a period of ritual mourning.”
“So, there you have it. U.S. Marshals supported by National Guard personnel are preparing to move into Yellowstone and evacuate the protest camp so that violence is avoided,” Rhea said. “According to the briefing paper we were given, the encampment will be removed and the land restored to its pre-camp condition. Once that has been accomplished, the gates of Yellowstone National Park will reopen to visitors who have already lost nearly half the season’s opportunity to enjoy our treasured national resource. This is Rhea Matthews, KWYO in Cody.”
“And we will continue to keep you updated as the situation develops,” the network announcer said. “Until there is more, we return you to today’s broadcast schedule, already in progress.”
The family breathed a big sigh. Cole radioed Rafe.
“Rafe, we may not be in the pens when you get here. You know what to do. We’ll be moving them out of the holding pens and over to the old Calhoun place in a few days. I might have to hire a couple more wranglers to make the move,” Cole said.
“We wouldn’t have to worry about it if those two kids of yours were here. They’d just point and the cattle would go where they said,” Rafe laughed. “Sorry, Cole. I didn’t mean to make light of the situation, but I damn sure liked those kids.”
“Well, we might get them back somehow. That’s why the family won’t be out to meet you. Once you’ve got them all corralled, though, get your guys cleaned up a little and come up for lunch. Aubrey and Mary Beth have a kettle of chili on the stove.”
“They’ll like hearing that. We’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
“Mommy, I can’t do it,” Ramie said. She sat with the last few pages in front of her and tears ran from her eyes. She hadn’t called Mom Mar ‘Mommy’ in many years, but she needed the comfort. Mary Beth moved to comfort her daughter, but Ramie inexplicably held up her hand.
“Let me drive,” Miranda said from inside her. “Dry your eyes and sit back. I can’t help but love your brother and sister the same as you, but I lived in harsher times. I can handle it.” Ramie’s head nodded.
“Thank you, Miranda,” Mary Beth said. She hugged her daughter anyway.
“I didn’t mean to hold you off like that,” Miranda said. “Please come and cuddle us while we read.” Mary Beth sat beside her daughter on the sofa and Ashley took a spot on the opposite side next to Kyle. Cole watched from the big chair and sighed, but Aubrey came into the room and handed him both his granddaughters.
“Y’all need something for comfort,” she said as she kissed her father-in-law on top of his head. She retreated to the kitchen and listened as Miranda began.
Caitlin: Time in a Box
Merv was ready to head back to Laramie after about two months in Oxėse. He’d accomplished a lot, but it was cold living on the mountain. It was cold in Laramie, too, but apparently, he thought his house would be more comfortable than the mud, stick, and hide wigwam in front of the bear cave. As far as we could tell, there had been no sign of White Mouth returning for the winter. Even when we beat drums in the mouth of the cave, there was no answering rumble within its depths.
“I should probably go have Christmas with Mandy’s parents. They always seem to want me around,” Merv said. “Time masters, drum me home.” We all stared at him.
“Uh, Merv, we can’t take you back to Christmas,” Phile said.
“Grandfather, I drove from Lame Deer to Laramie on Christmas Day. You weren’t there,” Mandy said. “I told Mom you’d met up with some men who were going on a spirit quest and would probably be gone for a while.”
“I thought…” Merv pondered as he considered what we were saying. “So when is it in now-time?”
“We came through on February 29. Leap day,” I said. “We figured we would take you back tomorrow.”
“This is very strange. I hope my cousin hasn’t sold the trading post,” Merv said. “Come and look at what we’ve managed so far while I think about the problems of travel.”
We’d paid attention to Pa when he talked philosophy and history. Might not have seemed like it, but we listened. We’d figured out the whole concept of Schrödinger’s Cat. It didn’t apply to most things, but we kind of thought it did to time. The principle was that mostly we only know the outcome of history, not the process. Imagine a boy and girl who meet for the first time and fall madly in love. That’s the outcome. History. But the process—what brought them to that particular time and place where they met—is an unknown. Did she just happen to need a cup of sugar and had to run to the store? Was he pressured by his parents to attend that university when he wanted to go to a different one?
We knew, I guess instinctually, that we couldn’t change outcomes that were already known. It was the process we could affect. We’d tried to drum ourselves into the future with no luck at all. We had no idea what the outcomes were.
And Oxėse was a different matter entirely. Caitlin, Phile, Wolf Riding Woman, and Wolf Rising were synchronized when Yelloweye led us through that gateway. We aged at the same rate. Our day and night and seasons were the same. We’d stepped out of Oxėse into before-time to study drum making with Two Sticks because he was there then. We jumped back into Oxėse and it might have been the next day for all we knew, because time just didn’t make a difference there.
But the four of us, plus Merv and Mandy as they related to us, were locked into a synchronization with now-time.
Of course, we knew what Merv had accomplished in the two and a half months here, but time wasn’t the only thing that was confusing. I don’t blame him. We’d gotten used to a perpetual state of confusion through our whole lives.
Merv knew in his head that Wolf Rising and Phile were one person in their brains. Each of them experienced everything the other experienced. But his head told him that those two bodies were two different people and since we hadn’t been to Oxėse in two months, he had to catch us up on his progress. Mandy grinned and just listened to her grandfather tell us about drum making.
“Dogwood doesn’t grow in this climate,” Merv said. “It is more southerly and easterly. Since we are here, I chose a wood that was available. We have a lot of aspen. The wood is flexible and straight-grained.” He showed us a stack of wood. It wasn’t just logs. After cutting a number of young trees and dragging them to his lodge, Merv had stripped them of bark and split them into thin boards, using his draw knife to shape them. “These will be the outermost ply of our drum frame,” he said pointing at a few that were half-round rather than flat. We will build up the frame inside. But it is too cold to begin that work now. I’ll come back in June.”
We all laughed and began making up stories that could be told about Merv’s long absences from Laramie.
I know we got pretty flaky that winter, because we were doing without sleep a lot of the time. And we did have work to do on the ranch. Our boss at LK Stables, that’s you, big sister, seemed to have a thousand projects backed up for us. When the mares started coming in for breeding, they’d be staying in a luxury hotel. Honeymoon suite, I guess.
Phile and I would have dinner with the family and then go to bed. As soon as we figured the rest of you were asleep, we drummed softly and returned to our family. Sometimes Mandy went with us and sometimes she just rode in our heads. We’d spend the night moving bigger and bigger groups of animals from valley to valley. We even moved over a thousand right onto our pasture land here at home, only three hundred years earlier. We didn’t dare put a couple thousand bison in Pa’s pasture in now-time!
We couldn’t do it every night, of course. It was just too exhausting for all of us. Wolf Riding Woman and Wolf Rising had to hunt, even though we brought them flour and fresh fruit and vegetables when we crossed to Oxėse. All the rest of their time was spent making drums for the village. We still hadn’t figured how the village would work into our plan, but we knew there was a reason that Yelloweye brought them with us.
That’s when Yelloweye came for a visit. He showed up at our campsite on a night we were there with Mandy and just spending our time making love. I can never say exactly what he said, because it just doesn’t make words. So, I’ll let Mandy speak her version of owl-talk.
Mandy: To Move the People
Beneath É'omeéše'he, the Moon When the Horses Get Fat, I lay with my mates to celebrate the flowering around us. As we lay in our furs, Heove-'éxané came before us and spoke to our hearts.
You do well, children. If you move a thousand brothers and sisters, you can move ten thousand. Numbers will no longer matter. Only the size of your spirit matters. You must begin moving between what you call Oxėse and now-time. As you began with numbers, so begin with time. Small steps and then large steps.
In now-time, the People have become complacent. They are defeated as they were by the blue riders. Their spirit hides beneath their skin. The People you brought to Oxėse have not known defeat and have time to grow strong again. But you must not let them grow without guidance. The Wolf Twins must visit the people in their village each year at the summer apex. This will show the people that you are ageless and continue to watch over them. They will listen to you tell of a time to come when they will lead the People of all tribes in the defense of Mother Earth.
You must show the People that you can move them, too. But first, you must win them. Earth Sister will be the Voice of the Twin Wolves. This is why you have three spirits, five bodies. You are one hand. You will move both the animals and the People. You will even move the earth.
Caitlin: Running Fox
It was summer solstice, so we figured we’d make our first visit to the Oxėse village that night. We’d been in sync with our other selves since we arrived in Oxėse six years ago. That meant it had been six years since we left the village and we expected it to have been six years for the village as well. But that’s part of the mystery of time in Oxėse. We were in sync with ourselves in now-time. The People had no such ties. It had been twenty years to them when we returned to the village.
We’d decided to send Wolf Rising, Wolf Riding Woman, and Mandy while Phile and I kept a steady drumming beat at the cave to anchor them. We took nearly a dozen drums as gifts with us.
“I was with you when we passed from the world of whiteman to this land of plenty,” Running Fox said as we sat before the fire in the village. “I have seen twenty summers since that day and now I sit at the fire as the chief of our people. Yet, I see you as the youth you were when I was but a double hand of seasons. How is it that we age and die, but you continue to be young?”
“In truth, Running Fox, six years have passed in our time. As you journeyed to a time and place where there were no whites to disturb your peace, we, too, journeyed to a time and place where we must accomplish much in little time.”
“Will we see this place you have journeyed to?” he asked, puzzling out what I had said.
“If it is the will of Yelloweye,” I said. “It is for this reason that we must make the mountains echo with thunder from the drums. The drums call together the people and give them one mind. With one mind, we can walk the path to this world.”
“Running Fox, hear the words of the Twin Wolves and of our guide Heove-'éxané,” Mandy said. “You are Méstaa'e-vo'ėstaneme, the People Who Follow the Owl. Yelloweye has seen your village and blessed it. Around you there are fields and herds. You have plenty and grow soft. But the day comes when you must go to war for Mother Earth. These drums are your arrows. The wolves are your spear. And Yelloweye is your shield. Tonight, Running Fox will accompany the Twin Wolves to the battlefield where the People will live. He will stay a hand of days. When he returns, it will be at the next Sun Dance. Now, join the drums.”
We all joined in with the drumming and the Sun Dance. Phile and I maintained the rhythm at the cave. It was a celebration and the People danced and chanted the songs Wolf Rising and Wolf Riding Woman taught them. I noted with pride that the village had grown from the half dozen tipis with which we started, but was not stretching its resources or expanding unreasonably.
Normally, in the excitement of the drumming, Wolf Riding Woman and Wolf Rising could simply slip outside the ring of firelight and disappear. People wouldn’t notice until dawn that we were gone. But this night would be a little more spectacular. When the drumming and dancing was at its peak, we stood on either side of Running Fox and led him into his tipi, followed by Mandy. When the flap fell, the drumming was muted and he turned to us.
“What must we do?” he asked looking around at his familiar dwelling.
“It is done,” Wolf Riding Woman said.
“But I still hear the drumming at our fire.”
“We, too, have drums.” I opened the flap of his tipi and led him out into our valley. Running Fox stepped into a dawn for which he was totally unprepared. I think he expected to fly on Yelloweye’s wings or something. In his perception, less than a minute had passed between leaving his campfire and entering the valley. As we stood there, we heard the drums fall silent on the mountain. Running Fox collapsed on the ground.
Phile: White Wolves
Caitlin finally got to kill a wolf. Well, me, too.
It took a while to get Running Fox calmed down. He was a true believer, but this was almost more than he could bear. From our perspective, the experiment was a success. Running Fox and all his possessions had been moved to the valley. Even his fire pit had come along. His travois was propped against the tipi and his horse grazed quietly nearby. When he recovered, Mandy began the slow process of teaching him about what would happen in the future. We didn’t have a timeline yet, but we could see now what was going to happen more clearly.
Permits had been issued to some big oil company to use a new drilling technique right in Yellowstone National Park. They said work would begin the next summer and would not affect either the beauty of the Park or the ecology. They also claimed the new process was benign and, while based on old fracking techniques, did not pose the dangers of the previous technology nor risk seismic upsets. We’d seen that proven wrong before and had a strong sense that this would be our battlefield. We made our leap to bring Merv to Oxėse by way of now-time in the same location. We were in the basin near Grizzly Lake in Yellowstone National Park.
Merv had packed more tools and supplies on his mules for this trip, including an air mattress. We laughed at how soft the old Indian was becoming and he fed the teasing right back at us.
“You have three women to cushion you at night. I have only these old bones. Now do you want a drum or not?” he groused. We wanted a drum.
We also wanted to scout the route that the village would need to use in order to migrate to Yellowstone. The wolves had led us over the mountains and through the Tetons to get here, but moving an entire community needed an easier route. We elected to take them north to the Shoshone River and lead them into Yellowstone from the East. Even without the benefit of modern roads, that route was easier. Caitlin and I started jumping along it, thinking of how long a migration it would be to get the People here.
We estimated it would be about 400 miles from where the village currently was to where we wanted it. I didn’t figure we’d want to move it more than fifty miles or so at a time because people needed to stay settled and build their lives. So, Moses led Israel about that far and it took him 40 years. We figured at least 80. Not only did we need to move the People, we needed to grow the population to critical mass for the battle. And we needed a generation of people who accepted the task.
Cait and I were looking around an area with hot springs that we thought the People would thrive at for a few years when there was a snarl behind us and we spun to see two white wolves with hackles up. I immediately jumped to the mind of the male.
“We are not here to harm you, brothers,” I said.
You smell of wolf, but you are two-legged. You have trespassed on our territory. You must die.
“We come with permission of Creator Wolf,” Caitlin said, joining me. She’d linked the female into our conversation.
Show us this Creator Wolf!
“Creator Wolf does not answer our commands. We answer his.”
Then die. This is our territory.
The wolves crouched to spring and Cait started tapping on her drum. I joined and could feel the echo from the mountain where we hit the larger drums. The ground shifted and we arrived in the basin not far from where Mandy was giving instruction to Running Fox. Both turned to look at us in surprise.
“Now you are in my territory,” Caitlin bellowed. “We will see who dies.”
We cheated.
As the wolves circled, taking in their new environment, Cait and I drew our side arms. It was a rule on the ranch that we never went anywhere unarmed. When we were riding, we had our rifles in their scabbards, but since our sixteenth birthdays, we were never without a gun on our hips.
Throwing off their confusion, the pair turned to rush us. We both fired clean shots into the chest. The wolves fell, red blood staining their white coats. Behind them, Creator Wolf stalked toward us. He paused to sniff at the bodies and then continued toward Caitlin and me. It was tempting to just start emptying our guns in the massive creature, but we both knew we would not survive. We dropped to the ground on our bellies.
I felt his massive paw on the back of my neck. I’d felt it as Wolf Rising years ago, but this body pissed itself. The pressure let up and I heard Caitlin whimper. Then we heard his howl echo through the basin.
MINE!
The big wolf turned and stalked toward Mandy and Running Fox. They both fell to the ground but Wolf did not claim them.
This is a sign to you when you return to the People. You have trusted in the black wolves. You must trust in the white. The black wolves led you to safety. The white wolves will lead you to war.
We had depended on Mandy to let us know when it was time for Caitlin and me to meet Running Fox. The decision had been taken out of our hands. We were standing in front of him, in jeans and t-shirts with our guns still in our hands. Mandy was quickly explaining to Running Fox what had just happened and who we were. Cait and I had a deep kiss and then fell to skinning our opponents. We opened their bodies and consumed the livers. Then we skinned the dead animals. We would wear their pelts.
“The Twin Wolves are both light and dark,” Mandy explained. “Today, the light has manifested and been blessed by Creator Wolf. The light will lead you and tell you when it is time for the People to move forward.”
Having moved instantaneously to a new to a new location left him malleable and receptive.
When he returned to his village at the end of the week, Cait and I, draped in our white wolf skins, went with him. We never spoke. Mandy filled the shocked villagers in after Running Fox’s tipi was restored to its position in the village.
Cait and I brought Mandy back with us and took her to Lame Deer where she would work on preparing the tribe. She had also told us that she would have a surprise the next time we saw her.
Running Fox built the myths around the appearance of Creator Wolf and the magical slaying of the white wolves. He and Mandy verified that we were the ones who would lead the battle and move the People forward. Yelloweye’s tale of the scorpion stinging Mother Earth filled the People with rage. They were dedicated to their one specific purpose: To call the thunder from the mountain.
And the myth began to grow.
We cleaned the wolf skins more thoroughly and got them prepared as we continued to scout the path for the People’s migration. When we were ready, we drummed ourselves into the village on their next solstice. For us it had been just a couple of weeks, but to the People, we entered the village exactly a year after the return of Running Fox.
We explained the route and what to look for along the way. The next day, the 135 villagers packed their tents and began the first migration. It continued through the year as we popped in about once a week in now-time but once a year as they perceived it. Our visits were always accompanied by herds of bison, deer, and even small game for the People.
We said a sad farewell when Running Fox passed away just before the fourth migration. It was the thirty-third year of the People in Oxėse, but for us, it was just mid-February. The People chose Thunder Hand to be his successor as chief. At one time, the village would have chosen the strongest or the best hunter or even the wisest of the old men to be their chief. But Thunder Hand was the best drummer.
The People were taking this seriously and they followed the White Wolves.
The truth was that we only showed up at the start of each migration and set out the path. It usually took a couple of days to get them moving and then we’d return to our other selves. Mandy always accompanied us to the village and kept the stories alive. There were always enough people in the community who could recognize us from the last time we’d appeared in our white wolf robes that they could verify to the younger ones that it was really us.
It took a total of two years, but by summer solstice just before our 21st birthdays the tribe began the last migration from about fifty miles east of Yellowstone. We were timing their arrival so that we would all be present. When they reached our basin, we would be in complete synchronization with now-time and would all be present.
Caitlin: The Drum
Moving the tribe wasn’t all we did that summer and winter. In now-time, LK Stables was really taking off. The addition of Ramie’s black stud, Midnight, had attracted some of the top mares in the region. The rescue association assisted in the purchase of an additional thousand acres south of our ranch and we had nearly a hundred head of horses to care for. Apparently, we were the only ones who could separate a single horse from the herd that needed attention. Duh. We were the only ones who could talk to them and listen to their needs. We did get funding to hire two additional hands to work in the stable and breeding program, though. Ramie asked us if we could handle the rescues and since that was our love, we gladly agreed.
We even brought half a dozen horny mares up to the ranch to have Harley, Bolt, or Midnight cover them. It would be good to have some foals in the field. If it wouldn’t create a problem for the ranch, we’d have just transported all the horses to Oxėse where they could live out their lives in contentment. But they were doing okay at the ranch.
Merv worked all summer on the thunder drum. He built a jig for it in the most practical way possible: he dug a hole. The hole was as perfectly round as the six of us could make it. Inside the smooth rock facing, it was just under eight feet across. Merv had started soaking the boards as soon as the spring thaw started and gently began bending them into the jig. It took longest to bend the first tier as he’d insisted that it be a single piece, over twenty-five feet long and bent in a perfect circle. He shaped and pressed the supple wood, then glued and pegged the ends together. The next ply was easier to shape as the pieces were just six or seven feet long. These were also glued and pegged.
It wasn’t a fast process. Wood had to be soaked and bent daily and then had to dry in its new shape before glue could be added. But by the end of September, Merv had laminated the last ply into the jig. Then he buried it.
“Take me home. I’m tired,” he said. “This will lie beneath the earth and the soil will leach out the rest of the moisture. Next summer we will set it in the sun and let it dry completely as we smooth the outer shape. I have work to do in my workshop back home.”
We took Merv back to Laramie and made a stop in Lame Deer with Mandy to meet with the elders. Everyone was buzzing over what to do about the oil company drilling in the National Park. Mandy required a spectacular entrance and exit so the elders would listen to her. We were all stunned when she dropped her dress and stood naked before them.
It wasn’t that she was naked. It was the new tattoo that covered her torso and arms. At her command, we drummed ourselves into the room wearing only our white wolf skins. Our arrival and our appearance stunned the elders to silence. There was some dissent over tricks, but mostly the council listened and nodded. We had tentative agreement that they would support the village, noting that nothing could be traced back to the reservation.
The argument went on for hours, even after Mandy had claimed the name of Earth Sister, speaker for the Twin Wolves, and had put her clothes back on. Phile and I just backed into the shadows. They argued about everything from who should join the encampment to the religious aspects of mixing Christianity and Native myth. It may have been the fact that Mandy called them whiteman in red skins that finally got them to agree.
Then we drummed her back to our apartment and kissed every inch of her Twin Wolves tattoo.
The Family
The reading was interrupted by the sound of the cattle coming into the pens.
“We need to… get lunch out for the men,” Aubrey whispered. “It’s hard, but we need to do it. We need to do what we can do.”
The family moved. The familiar routines of getting the traditional chili lunch out for the hired hands was comforting. Cole and Kyle moved the folding picnic table out in front of the porch and the women began loading it with food, bowls and spoons. The men rode into the yard and tied their horses at the watering trough where they used the pump to wash the trail dirt from their hands and faces. Behind them, two ATVs rolled into the yard with four well-armed men.
“How’d it go?” Cole asked Rafe, his foreman.
“The hardest part was keeping them from stampeding. I don’t know what they felt, but not one cow or steer wanted to be left on that ridge. I don’t think we lost any. Close to five hundred head, including calves and yearlings,” Rafe said.
“We’ll take census this week and get them ready to move to the Calhoun place. We close there on Friday,” Cole said. “Everybody will get a bonus for this drive. Tell all the men they get ten dollars a head each for every head that was delivered.”
“They’ll like that. Almost makes up for how spooked they were.” Rafe paused and looked at Cole. “How’d you know what was going to happen, Cole? You got an inside source?”
“What do you mean?”
Rafe glanced over at the ATV. One of the men broke loose and walked over to join them.
“Tell Cole what your scout found out, Jay,” Rafe said.
“That corporation moved fast,” Jay said. “At daybreak, they had security with high-powered rifles crawling all over. They looked disappointed that there were no cattle to shoot. Right behind them, six trucks pulled up. One crew started stretching fence, one started assembling a Quonset hut, and one started assembling drilling equipment. We heard them start pounding the drill in about eleven. Echoed something fierce.”
“Shit. That means they’ll come here, too.”
“Should we move the herd over to the Alexander place?” Rafe asked.
“Mmm. Sorry. That wasn’t what I meant, but it’s a good idea. I hate to put your men under more stress, though. How are they holding together?”
“I have to admit that they’re all pretty exhausted. We’ve been in the saddle for twenty-four hours,” Rafe said.
“Give them a rest. Jay? Your guys fresh enough to stand watch?”
“If we can get a bowl of food first, we’ll call the guys in the lower field and set pickets,” Jay responded.
“Ramie has her hands moving the horses onto her lower fifteen. There’s guards down there, too,” Cole said.
“I don’t think the corporation will let their mercenaries move far from the installation, but those guys looked real disappointed that they didn’t get to kill something,” Jay said, glancing up toward the ridge.
“I need a couple hours’ sleep and a fresh horse. Then I’ll be ready to ride,” Rafe said.
“Don’t plan on anything until after dinner,” Cole said. “Rub the horses down and turn them out in the river pasture. Take ATVs to the bunkhouse up the road and get some sleep this afternoon. We’ll know better what to expect by then.”
“Thanks, boss.” Rafe turned to the rest of the men who were finishing up their food.
“Take ATVs to the bunkhouse and give the horses a rest. Boss says to go get some sleep. I agree,” Rafe called out. The guys all voiced their thanks and headed out.
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