Chapter 35
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched- they must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller
At the roaring sound of the buffalo bulls angry in their rutting, Christine’s horse bolted and took off running. His flaxen mane and tail were soaring in the wind as Christine bounced around in the saddle. It looked like she was going to fall. Yellow Hair had been staying at the Turner’s place for the past two days helping Adam repair fencing and put up hay when Christine asked if he would join her for an afternoon ride. He did. It was a beautiful day.
He squeezed Kodah’s side urging her into a gallop in the direction Christine and her horse were heading. Bending over with each of his hands along side of Kodah’s neck, he kept encouraging her to go faster. Esben knew Kodah could go further then Christine’s quarter horse, but he wasn’t sure she could catch him in time before Christine lost her balance and fell. He saw a game trail that led through a ravine that ran parallel to the trail they were traveling. It curved around and came out on the trail again about two hundred yards up the mountain. Taking it would cut the distance between them enough where he would end up in front of Christine. At least that is what he hoped. The only problem he wasn’t sure how badly rutted out the game trail was. He had no choice. He turned Kodah and started down the ravine coming up the other side. So far everything was working as Esben had planned. He hadn’t encountered any serious washouts and was able to keep Kodah at a steady lope. As they broke out around the bend, heading back toward the trail, he noticed a tree about two feet in diameter across the trail ahead of them. He urged Kodah on, hoping she had enough strength left to clear it and keep going. He leaned forward with Kodah’s surge and she gracefully lifted off the ground and cleared the log with room to spare. Kodah had spirit and the will to please and she didn’t quit. When they landed Esben’s weight shifted and he started to fall. Kodah slowed until he could right himself and then she picked up speed again.
Esben reached the trail just as Christine was rounding the bend. He turned Kodah and they loped ahead, keeping Christine and Bucket behind them. He gradually slowed the pace. When Esben felt it was safe, he dropped back and reached out for the big gelding’s reins and pulled him along side turning his head to the right. This combined with fatigue caused him to slow to a walk. After they came to a stop, Bucket was still nervous and kept prancing around and tried to pull away. Esben moved Kodah with him instead of fighting him. Soon he tired of turning and came to a stop, snorting to clear his nose. The sweat on both horses glistened in the afternoon sun. Christine’s hat had blown off and was on her back held there by its stampede string. Esben turned to face her and he could see the fear in her eyes. She trembled. Her hair was being blown in her face and eyes by the wind.
“Are you okay?” Esben asked.
“I’m fine. Just a little shook up,” Christine replied.
“Let’s rest for awhile and let your horse calm down. “
“Okay, she replied. Where did you learn to ride like that, Esben?”
“I spent ten years riding and hunting with the Lakota Sioux,” he said.
She was quiet for awhile.
They were both sitting on the ground watching their horses lazily graze on the tall buffalo grass when she asked, “How did you end up living with the Sioux?”
“My mother married a Sioux warrior named Grey Wolf and we lived on the reservation. Grey Wolf taught me many things.”
“What happened to your real father?”
“He died on the ship on our way from Sweden to America. He caught diphtheria along with ten other people. They all died. I was only six years old.”
“I am sorry, Esben. Do you miss him?”
“Yes, even though it happened a long time ago. It’s been twelve years and a lot has happened since then.”
“My mother died from the influenza epidemic in Wisconsin. That was three years ago and I still miss her, Christine replied.
Do you still miss Sweden and your friends?”she inquired.
“I miss my uncle Lars and his wife Candace. Lars was a big strong man. My father and Lars were very close. They both wept when we left. I had one close friend as we lived on a farm outside a village named Starns. There weren’t too many people close by.”
“Where are you from Christine? I mean before Wisconsin.”
“England, and I don’t miss it at all. The King of England is a very pompous person and not very nice. I am glad we left.”
Changing the subject she said, “Kodah is a beautiful horse. I love her light brown color.”
“She is called buckskin because she looks like a deer. The dark line that goes down across her withers, the Lakota call the magic line. You wrap your legs around in front of the line and the horse will go back and when you want the pony to go forward touch your heels behind the line.”
Christine asked, “Where did you get her?”
“I caught her on the prairie near Grass Creek.”
“You caught her?”
Christine was asking a lot of questions and Esben was feeling uneasy talking so much about himself. For some reason it felt natural to talk with her.
“I had trailed her for seven days, staying within her sight so she would see me every time she stopped. I had cut her out from a herd of close to two hundred mestengos. Finally she allowed me to get near her. I didn’t do anything but sit on my horse and let him graze alongside her. She stayed close to him for the next two days while they grazed in the tall buffalo grasses. When the horses entered a river and went up to their knees in the water to drink, I jumped from my horse onto her back. The power of the current in the river kept her from moving quick enough to get out from under me. I then slipped a rope around her neck.”
“Did it take you very long to train her?” Christine asked.
“Not very long,” he replied.
“How did you do it?”
“After I caught her, I dismounted and reached out to touch her with one finger extended and then slowly opened my other fingers to rub her on her forehead. Grey Wolf taught me when approaching a horse to extend only one finger as an open hand is like a cat’s paw striking.”
“I began with only one hand and slowly moved it over every part of her body. It wasn’t long before she let me touch her everywhere. I went slowly as she tried to kick me when I touched her flank. I stayed out of the way until she tired of kicking. Gray Wolf said when touching them do not hurt or frighten them and soon they would trust and serve you. When she was convinced I wasn’t going to hurt her, I breathed from her nostrils. Her breath was warm and sweet and carried her spirit and I let her breathe in mine.”
It was then I knew her heart. I pressed my ear against her flanks and heard the sound of her spirit.
“The Lakota call the horse sunka wankan, sacred dog,” Esben said.
“Sunka wankan.” Christine repeated and closed her eyes and smiled, as if she saw a vision.
“After doing this, I mounted her and let her run. When she tired I dismounted and began to rub the sweat off her with sweet grass. I then fed her some grain I carried and led her back to the water to let her drink. It wasn’t long before I had gained her trust and she became my favorite hunting and war pony. From that day on, I not only lived on her but I lived by her and with her. I named her Kodah, which means friend.”
“That’s beautiful, Esben.”
“You said war pony? You fought against the army?” she asked.
“No, against the Crow Indian,” he replied.
“They are a long time enemy of the Sioux. They kill the Sioux’s women and children whenever they come across them when the Sioux warriors are gone from the village to hunt. The Crow are a bad people.”
They sat for awhile, watching the horses graze quietly in front of them.
Christine looked away and said, “Look at those trees, aren’t they pretty?”
“They are Cottonwoods, wagichun wagi - talking tree. They are sacred to the Lakota.”
“Really, have they talked to you?” Christine replied.
Esben smiled and just nodded his head and Christine gazed off toward the west watching the sun slowly set. She let out a soft sigh and said, “It really is nice out here. I love the sight of the mountains. Have you ever been there? To the mountains I mean?”
“I have, many times. I just returned from scouting for the mila hanskas. We led a wagon train through the Wyoming Territory on its way to California. We took them to the pass in the Grand Tetons and from there they go on their own.
Once they cross over the mountains they are in California. I have never gone that far.”
“Maybe someday I can go there, she replied. Right now I am enjoying the beautiful land we bought here in Bosler. I hear the winters are pretty rough. In Wisconsin we had some pretty cold weather but I hear in Wyoming you have cold weather and very high winds, causing the snow to drift, making it very hard for the cattle to live.”
“It does get very cold and windy here. I don’t know anything about cattle, only that they were not meant to live in this climate. My mother said the English brought them over here because of all the free land the government was giving them to use and raise them on. We came across many frozen carcasses of cattle a few winters past.”
“Do you still live with the Sioux?” she asked.
“No, since my mother and Gray Wolf were killed, I had no place to go. I go back once in awhile to see Gray Wolf’s sister. I spend some time on the Brule Reservation with my friend Little Elk.”
“What was your mother’s name?” she asked.
“Corinne.”
“What was your mother’s Sioux name?” she asked. Her horse was quiet now still grazing along side of Kodah while they sat and watched them.
Leaning back on his elbows, Esben replied, “They called her Pale Horse, because of her pale skin. She was like most Swedish people while my father was a little darker. I have my father’s skin and hair.”
After a thoughtful moment, Christine said, “I like that name, Pale Horse. The Sioux give their people beautiful names. How do they come about picking the names for their children?”
There was something about Christine that made him willing to talk to her. He had never been able to do that before with anyone else, not even Little Elk, who was his best friend. “They feel that the Spirits speak to them and give them a sign, which could be an animal running by or a great wind or storm building up while they are communicating with them. It is different then what we do. We name our children in honor of our ancestors while they honor the earth and its creatures.”
“What would you name me, Esben?” she softly asked.
“Cikala Anpo Wilapi.”
“What does that mean,” she asked?
“Little Morning Star.”
She stared at Esben for a moment before asking, “Why Little Morning Star?”
“Because you bring promise of a sunny day”, he replied.
Her eyes widened and she smiled, “I like that. You are very kind Esben.”
She was quiet for awhile before asking him, “Don’t the Sioux hate white people? Where did your mother meet Grey Wolf and how did you and your mother end up in Wyoming from Sweden?”
Esben smiled at all the questions she had. “I don’t know if they hate white people. I think they are angry with what the white people are doing to the land that has provided for them all their lives. The white man is destroying the Sioux’s way of life. My mother worked for a Captain Kramer at Fort Kearney when we first moved here. We came from the Wisconsin Territory just as you. We lived with my father’s sister and her family in a place called New Glaurus when my mother received a letter from her cousin, Jon Bjorg, who was working for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He invited us to come live with his family in Wyoming. He traveled with the railroad laying track from the Black Hills through the Wyoming Territory and was gone for a long time and wanted someone to be with his wife Jenna and my little cousin Brita, who was only two years old. We stayed with them until they moved to Montana. They asked us to move with them but by then my mother had met Gray Wolf and decided to stay with him.”
“Was that difficult for you? Staying with him I mean instead of moving with your mother’s cousin and his family?”
“Not really, Cousin Jon was gone all the time so I didn’t know him and Jenna is real quiet and only spoke Swedish. She rarely spoke to me. I think she was sad that we didn’t go with them. My mother was the only person who spoke Swedish except for Jon so Jenna had no one to talk to. It was strange moving from a cabin into a teepee. “You lived in a teepee?”
“Yes, where do you think we lived?”
“I don’t know, I just thought… well what was that like? Was it cold in the winter?”
“Not really, we kept a fire going all the time and we wrapped up in buffalo robes. It was as warm, if not warmer, than the cabin we stayed in with Jenna and Brita.”
“Why do the Sioux live in teepees? Why don’t they build cabins and live in them?” she asked.
“The Sioux are great hunters like the wolf and they follow the buffalo herds so they move all the time. It makes it harder for their enemies to find them.
“Hunters like the wolf? That is a strange thing to say, Esben.”
To the Sioux, the wolf is a wise and powerful animal that has many qualities that are needed for their survival. The Sioux have these qualities as well. The wolves are responsible animals that hunt to provide for their families, just as the Sioux do. Both wolves and Sioux are great hunters because they work with other members, and they know how to use the land to their advantage. A pack of wolves splits up when they are not hunting, but when hunting they come together to form a hunting group. The Sioux do the same thing. That is what we were doing when Gray Wolf and my mother were killed. We were on our way to join a hunting party with other Sioux to hunt the buffalo.”
“How were they killed?” Christine asked as she reached out and touched my forearm.
Esben could see the sadness in her eyes as she looked at hime. It was his sadness that she feeling. It made him feel protective of her and made him want to open up and tell her what happened and to share the pain and loss that he was carrying.
“We were camping along the Little River. We were on our way to meet with other warriors to join in the spring hunt for buffalo when six Wasichus rode down on our camp. One man, who was very big, threw a rope around Gray Wolf and dragged him behind his horse while three others grabbed my mother and took her into our teepee. I ran while two of them chased me. I was afraid. Gray Wolf was torn to pieces by the dirt and rocks along the river bank as they dragged him through the fire and into the river, They stabbed Gray Wolf in the heart and then scalped him.
The Wasichus’ hung them both from a tree. They came after me but they could not find me. I hid in the hills until the next morning when I went back to our camp. I cut them down and sent them on their journey back to the spirit world. I made a vow then to get revenge on the men who did this to them. “
Christine looked into his eyes and said, “I am so sorry, Esben. I just can’t imagine going through that.”
The concern and sadness in her eyes made him want to reach out to her. To bring her into his arms keep her there forever.
Christine leaned forward and put her hand on Esben’s cheek and brought her lips up to his. It was a soft and tender kiss. Her eyes were smiling at him as he took her in his arms and returned her kiss with an ardor he didn’t know he had. Esben’s head was swimming and it wasn’t from the blows he took from that big cowboy a couple of days before.
Slowly Christine pulled back and said, “We should probably be going. My father might be worried. Can you stay with us for awhile longer?”
“I have to leave tomorrow. I have to finish what I started but I can come back, if you want me to, Cikala Anpo Wilapi.”
“Yes, Esben, I want you to.”
Esben couldn’t help but smile. “We had better go now,” he said as he went to get Kodah and Christine’s horse, who were contentedly grazing on fresh clover.
When he brought back the horses he held onto the bridle as Christine got into her saddle. Smiling, Christine said, “Thank you, Esben.”
They mounted up and rode back to the ranch at a leisurely pace. When they got to the cabin, Christine said, “I will tell papa I am going to start supper. You should come in one hour.”
“Okay, he replied as he took the horses to the barn and rubbed them down with some old burlap bags that were stacked in the back of a stall.
The next morning Esben got Kodah ready and swung up on her back and looked over at the Adam’s house. It was still dark and quiet.
“Good bye Cikala Anpo Wilapi, he said turning and riding out before the sun was up.