Embrace the Wild Land by Rosanne Bittner Page B

started crying.
    “Navahos say soldiers should give them back their money. But soldiers keep it,” Black Elk was shouting. “Slam the gates on the Navahos and tell them to get out. Navahos started pounding on the gates and trying to climb over, and soldiers started shooting. I do not understand what is happening!”
    Zeke stared at the fort a moment longer. “I do,” he replied coldly, his eyes tearing. He mounted up again, grunting with pain. “Get moving!” he ordered all of them. “Get to those hills to the north. We’ll hole up there for a time and see if there are any stragglers that need our help. Get the children out of range in case they start shooting in this direction!”
    Zeke slapped some of the children’s horses on the rear and got them going. Black Elk followed, with his wife and child, but Abbie hesitated. Zeke circled his horse around and galloped up to hers, grabbing the bridle. “Get going, Abbie!” he ordered.
    She looked at him with desperate tears in her eyes. “Tall Grass Woman!” she sobbed. “Where is Tall Grass Woman? I won’t leave without her!”
    “You have to,” Zeke told her gently but firmly. “You have Jason and the other children to think about. They need their mother, Abbie-girl. Now get going.
Nonotovestoz!”
    She stared at the fort and the fleeing Indians, as some soldiers came out, running Indians down and shooting them point blank. “Why?” she whimpered. “Why are they doing that?”
    “Do you really need to ask that?” Zeke asked bitterly. He turned his horse and pulled hers along with him, feeling faint from the pain in his arm. She finallygot the horse into motion herself and headed for the northern hills. It was frightening to know what the soldiers and settlers could do to the Indian and get away with. She had been at Blue Water Creek when soldiers had slaughtered so many Sioux. Now it was happening all over again, and it hit her with all its horrible realism just what kind of hell lay ahead for the Cheyenne. What had happened to the Sioux and the Navaho would most surely happen to the Cheyenne and all the others. It was only a matter of time. It was open season on the Indian, as though he were no more than a wild animal on which a bounty had been placed.
    She rode hard then, following Zeke three miles back into the hills, where they waited until dark. No soldiers came. The Navaho had scattered in every direction, having to leave their dead loved ones behind. Most of their own Cheyenne clan were also missing, but few had been at the final race, so they held out hope for them, figuring many of them had already headed for home.
    Abbie sat on a hillside with the younger children around her. She wanted to be strong for them, but she could not control her tears. She felt especially ashamed at being of the same race as the men who had slaughtered the Navahos with no feeling and no regret. Wolf’s Blood stood at a distance, his face hard set, his eyes cold. This was only more proof that the white man was no good. He wanted no part of being white. His decision to be Indian and nothing more was now forever sealed. He too still had memories of Blue Water Creek, even though he had been much younger then. Now there was this new massacre. Nothing had changed. The soldiers who had acted friendly to the Navaho all these years had suddenly turned on them, cheating on the horse race and then shooting the Indians down for no reason.
    “E-have-se-va!”
the boy hissed.
    Zeke walked up to Abbie, kneeling down and putting his arms around her from behind, hugging her tightly. “I’m so sorry, Abbie-girl. I didn’t want it to be like this for you. This whole trip was a disaster for you. I’m so goddamned sorry.”
    She gently grasped his arms and placed her head back against his chest. “You couldn’t have known,” she replied quietly. “The first part was wonderful. I enjoyed it, Zeke. You couldn’t help what happened here.” She sighed deeply, breathing in the cool