Chapter 23
Grizzly Bear near the Laramie River
Yellow Hair had been riding close to an hour and noticed the tracks and horse droppings were getting fresher, indicating he was getting close.
After being stabled for over a day, Kodah wanted to run. “Alright let’s move.” he squeezed her flanks lightly and she immediately took off at a gallop.
He knew a spot along the Laramie River where he planned to set his ambush. He would take out Olive’s two companion’s horses and then drive Olive off and pursue him until they reached the outskirts of Bosler where he planned to kill him.
He had just passed the settlement of Wyoming and figured Bosler to be about another ten miles north. He followed them through a narrow ravine to a shelf of rock overlooking a canyon. In the glow of the morning sun, he watched the river running swiftly below. Olive was keeping pretty close to the river so Yellow Hair figured he could cut them off by heading east toward the Chugwater staying out of sight as he passed them, and then northwest to where the Laramie meandered into some pretty rough terrain which would give him the cover he needed.
He saw the craggy bank of the Laramie ahead and urged his horse up the bank. Dismounting, he removed the .50 caliber Springfield Buffalo Rifle and hobbled Kodah behind some rocks. He walked to a shaded shelf of lava rock and settled in to wait.
After about fifteen minutes, he noticed a group of about fifty riders coming from the north.
“This isn’t good,” he thought. Squinting, Esben saw the Calvary standard and knew it was General Cook. They were riding in a column of two with the Indian Scouts about a quarter mile in front. He knew he would have to come up with another plan to get his revenge on Olive.
Yellow Hair decided when the Calvary passed by, he would head back to Fort Laramie. His chance of getting Olive was pretty much gone, at least for now. He couldn’t attempt anything as they got closer to Bosler. People would be coming and going and the chances of someone stumbling across his ambush was heightened. He knew trying to hit him at his ranch would be foolish as he had been told Isom had close to fifteen wranglers working his spread.
As the Calvary approached he noticed Chief Spotted Tail in the middle of the column. Six horses with the bodies of their riders draped across their saddle were at the end of the column. One of them looked to be that of one of their scouts. Spotted Tail didn’t go without a fight.
General Cook brought the column to a halt as they rounded the bend along the Laramie River. Approaching them was Olive, Walcott and Corlett. They stopped for a few minutes talking before heading on toward Bosler. After they passed, the Calvary proceeded toward Fort Laramie.
Yellow Hair waited a couple of hours, giving the Calvary time to get some distance ahead of him before he mounted and rode back to Fort Laramie. He noticed that one of their dead was a scout, not a soldier, so it looked like General Cook would be looking for a new one.
He was interested in scouting for the army and nobody knew the Wyoming Territory better than he did. He figured it would be awhile before Olive would be leaving his ranch. He could wait.
He approached the base of a hill and Kodah came to a halt. Her head high and nostrils flaring with her ears pointing forward she started prancing around. She smelled something. Yellow Hair gently urged her forward, but she stopped after two steps. There was definitely something she was afraid of.
“What is it, Kodah?”
He dallied the reins around the bear pad and pulled the Springfield rifle from its scabbard; laying it across her withers, he turned her to the side putting her perpendicular to the trail so if he had to fire his gun, he wouldn’t have to fire it over her head. He waited. A couple of minutes passed and nothing. Kodah was still prancing around. He was expecting a lot from her to trust his judgment when her survival instinct told her to run.
“Easy girl, it’s alright nothing to worry about” he said.
Soon he saw what was scaring her. At first a brown hairy hump, then the enormous head of a male grizzly bear appeared. It looked to be about nine hundred pounds. Grizzlies are the only animals that his Sioux brothers actually feared and he was no different. One of the worst things that can happen out on the trail is to come between a mother grizzly and her cubs or a hungry male. Not only are they big and extremely strong, but also are fast and can run down an unsuspecting horse. When he was in a hunting party with Grey Wolf they encountered a mother grizzly. All the warriors emptied their quivers of arrows until the bear looked like a porcupine before it finally dropped. When a warrior, Little Thunder, walked up to claim his coup, the bear rose up and tore his face off. Yellow Hair wasn’t going to let that happen to him.
He took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The blast from the rifle caused Kodah to jerk back a step and his shot was wide and struck the grizzly in the shoulder. Emitting a growl, the bear spun around and rolled down the hill toward them.
He reined Kodah around, “Let’s get out of here, girl.” There was no need to kick her as she was as eager to leave as he was.
They took off down the trail for about one hundred yards and then stopped and turned. The bear was getting to his feet.
“Damn, that didn’t stop him.”
He stood at least eight feet tall. Yellow Hair chambered another round and pulled back the hammer and took aim. “Just one more time, Kodah.”
This time his shot struck the bear dead center in his chest throwing him over backwards. Keeping his ground Yellow Hair reloaded his rifle and waited. A couple of minutes passed and the bear still hadn’t moved.
“You stay calm, Kodah,” he said, as he slowly stroked her neck and squeezed her withers.
He dismounted and secured her to a small Ash tree just off the trail and walked slowly toward the grizzly. He kept his rifle leveled on its huge head. When he was about ten feet away, he threw a rock. It bounced off the bear. Nothing.
It looks like he’s dead, he thought.
Slowly he approached, cocking the Springfield, as he got nearer. He bent over and nudged the body with the barrel of the gun. The bear didn’t move. He walked around the body making sure he was dead. It was then the bear lifted his head and with a deafening roar swapped a huge paw at his gun, knocking him off his feet and causing the gun to discharge. Yellow Hair scrambled to his feet and the grizzly met him with a tremendous rush, and they went down together. The stench of rotting flesh coming from the bear’s mouth was overpowering. Yellow Hair opened his mouth and bit the grizzly’s sensitive nose. The bear began to utter a cry of pain while Yellow Hair quickly reached for his knife bringing it up swiftly and stabbed the bear in the heart. The bear rolled over dead.
When he was certain he was dead, he checked his body for any bite marks. He found there was none of significance. He was lucky he was able to kill the bear before he could get his jaws around his head, which is usually the first place grizzlies attack. Yellow Hair went back to Kodah and grabbed his riata and looped the rear feet of the grizzly. He then mounted and wrapped the rope around a limb of an oak tree just north of the trail and moved out leveraging the heavy weight over the limb. He trussed the carcass about three feet off the ground and dismounted, dropping the reins, ground tying Kodah. He secured his riata to the oak tree and went back to the grizzly. He knew he would get some good money from this hide if he skinned it properly.
Pulling out his Rezin Bowie knife again, he started cutting. The knife had an S guard at the back of the blade protecting his hand from being cut while in use. He used its’ Spanish Notch to strip the bear’s sinew that he would save for his bow.
Starting just below the anus, he cut down to the head, continuing his cut through the chest to the neck, stopping at the corners of the mouth. He then removed the paw pads.
From the paws, he cut down to the elbow then across to the chest incision, making sure each cut met at the same place by the main incision. Then he moved to the hind legs, starting at the heel and cutting down the center of the leg to about two inches above the anus.
At the rear paws, he began to remove the skin from the body. He had started a fire and threw some stones in and went to the river to get water. He poured the water into the buffalo pouch that was suspended on four sticks over the fire. Grabbing the bears tongue and liver, he placed them in the pouch. He lifted the hot stones and released them into the water cooking the meat.
After eating, he cleaned the hide and put the rest of the bear meat in it before rolling it and securing it on the back of Kodah with rawhide straps. He mounted up and headed back to Fort Laramie to see about working as a scout for General Cook.