Way Down South, Almost
Copyright© 2023 by Lapi
Chapter 16
There was a lot going on, a bit more than I ever suspected. Soaring Eagle seemed to be affected the least, meybe she knew something no one else did; given more thought maybe Ma did too. The rest of us NADA.
Sgt Williams and Sue were now the subjects of most new palaver, at least for a while. Them Sioux had Soaring Eagle to rely on, Ghosts, well I guess me was all they had, well, me and Soaring Eagle.
The Commanche, they really had nobody. For as long as anybody here could remember, no one wasin-charge of them. Kiowa, Sioux, all the other tribes around here had a chief or two; not them.
In a way that worked out good for us. With food, water, green grass, shelter and that thing called HOPE, several hundred made what was left of Soaring Eagle’s tribe a real, going concern, soon to be growing.
Wasit easy? you ask. Well, not a first. As the wives took over it became like falling off logs. No one hd ever treated an Injun, human-like. At first, their living together was what it was. It took an ‘incident’ to begin to change that.
A bunch of ‘no-accounts’ from Dallas way(Ex Blue-bellies probably) decided they wanted what we had for themselves. Now I’m not saying that was the sole reason things changed, but it started things.
Them Ghost Warriors were, well like everwhere on the ranch or wherever Soaring Eagle went. Me, not so much. Where they went, a dozen or three Commanche followed. A .44 Henry often got mis-placed a time or two. The Ghosts took to them Winchester .45’s.
Given on a horse, ‘our’ team out road, out shot and out anything else them miscreants attacking us could muster. It became a ‘rumor’ of sorts that attacking us was a form of suicide maybe. A drover soon had a companion watching over them. That, in itself was huge. To make things simpler, most of our land became a ‘no-go’ zone to any and all who meant us harm. US meaning us, white eye or indian.