Grizzly Killer: The Making of a Mountain Man Read online

  Just as the sun went down, Runnin’ Wolf and Raven Wing came back, and Raven Wing said we were to go back to the chief’s lodge and eat with him and dance. When we arrived at the chief’s lodge, he was sittin’ in front of the outside fire on a buffalo robe, and there was a grizzly robe spread out on one side, and he indicated for me and Runnin’ Wolf to sit there. Across the fire from me was an elk robe, and across Chargin’ Buffalo was another buffalo robe. The chief said something, and Raven Wing went over to his side and knelt down while Sun Flower stood behind me. In just a few minutes, there was a crowd of Shoshones circled around us, formin’ a ring. Then Spotted Elk and three others came up to the fire, and they took their places, with Spotted Elk across from me and the others sittin’ around between Spotted Elk and Runnin’ Wolf. Raven Wing had a smile and look of pride on her face as her brother took his place by the fire, and I wished Sun Flower was by my side, but she was standin’ behind me where I couldn’t see her. When all was seated, Chargin’ Bull said we would eat.

  His wives came and gave each of us around the fire a wooden bowl of what I could only describe as stew. They started with the chief then Spotted Elk and then me then the others, and Runnin’ Wolf was last. I couldn’t identify all that was in it, but it tasted pretty good. I didn’t know for sure, but I figured that was the order of importance they placed on each of us around the fire. There was no talk at all while we ate, and when all was finished, Chargin’ Bull said, “Now we smoke.” The older of his wives went into his lodge and brought out a small rolled-up hide that was almost pure white like her dress. It had beads and quillwork, and she unrolled it in such a way as everyone around the fire could see a drawin’ of a chargin’ buffalo. When it was unrolled, there was a pipe very ornately decorated with buffalo hair and an eagle feather, and it was painted in the same colors as the paintin’s on his lodge. I pulled out the pouch I had the tobacco twists in and offered the tobacco to Chargin’ Bull. He reached out and accepted it and spoke. Raven Wing said, “Chargin’ Bull thanks Grizzly Killer.”

  He slowly filled the pipe, and his younger wife picked up a stick from the fire and held it while he puffed the pipe to life. He blew out a big puff of smoke and started to chant softly as he moved the pipe through the smoke first up and down then left and right. Then he passed the pipe to Spotted Elk. He went through the same motions, but then he spoke. Raven Wing spoke softly when he was finished and said, “Spotted Elk says he is honored to smoke the pipe with such great warriors. Even though Grizzly Killer and Runnin’ Wolf have been our enemies in the past, they have proved themselves honored friends and are welcome in the land of the Shoshone.”

  He then passed the pipe to the next brave, and he went through the same motions. When he spoke, he was lookin’ right at me, and he spoke slowly enough for Raven Wing to keep up. He said his name was Badger. As I looked at him, he looked like I’d seen him before, but with the fancy dress and feathers he was wearin’, I couldn’t be sure. He said he was one that helped me skin the grizzly on the mountains to the south and the robe that I gave him that day was the one that me and Runnin’ Wolf were sittin’ on now, that I was not only a good warrior but a good hunter and that I had big medicine to kill the great bear all alone. And he passed the pipe to the next.

  As the pipe went to the next two, it was like they were tryin’ to outdo each other with the praise, and then the pipe was passed to Runnin’ Wolf. He spoke mostly in English as he moved the pipe up and down. He said he thanked the one above, creator of all things, for his life and the lives of his new friends, the Shoshone, that he hoped there could be peace between the Shoshone and the Ute, that he would return to his people and tell of the honor the great chief Chargin’ Bull and his warriors had placed on him, that in his time bein’ a friend of Grizzly Killer, he had learned it was better to help people when they needed help than to be their enemy. And he passed the pipe to me.

  I followed along the same as the rest had, and when I spoke, I simply said it made my heart good to be friends with the Shoshone people, that their warriors I had met in battle were brave men and did the Shoshone proud, that they went to the one above bein’ proud of how they fought, that my mule and my dog, who had also fought the brave warriors, were my friends just like Runnin’ Wolf and now the Shoshone people., that they fought with me ’cause they were my friends. I did not own them like I did not own slaves, and they stayed with me of their own will, and we took care of each other. I protected them, and they protected me. And I handed the pipe back to Chargin’ Bull.

  The chief said, “There has been much good spoke here tonight, and my heart is good that other people have honored our dead warriors and had protected our women. Now we dance to celebrate our new friends.”

  13 Trouble at Rendezvous

  They danced to the beat of drums till near mornin’, and I was dead tired when we finally got back to our lodge. Runnin’ Wolf and Raven Wing were nowhere to be seen. When I crawled under those new blankets, I fell asleep almost at once. I could feel Sun Flower lie down next to me, but the next thing I remembered were the sounds of a village wakin’ up and the light comin’ through the smoke hole at the top of the lodge. My arm was around Sun Flower’s naked body, and as I looked down at her, those dark eyes were smilin’ up at me.

  Runnin’ Wolf and Raven Wing were still asleep on the other side of the lodge, and I had never even heard them come in. I was as quiet as I could be gettin’ up, and Sun Flower pulled her dress on, and we moved the door cover to step out. Jimbo was curled up right in front of the door and had to move before we could even step out.

  I walked down toward the river to check on Ol’ Red and the chestnut with Jimbo leadin’ the way. They were still on good grass, and I led them down to the water. While they drank their fill, I washed my face and drank of the clear, cold water. When I got back to the lodge, Sun Flower and Raven Wing had a fire goin’ and were puttin’ some deer on to boil in the new pot, and I wished I would have thought to get some coffee along with that pot. I asked ’bout Runnin’ Wolf, and they said he went out to check on the other horses.

  Runnin’ Wolf got back, and we ate the boiled deer along with some pemmican that someone had brought over. I had never tasted anythin’ like it. Runnin’ Wolf really liked it. He said it was like the pemmican that the Ute women make. It appeared to be pounded meat, berries, nuts, and fat all pounded together and stuffed in a gut casing. We sliced it off and ate it like a sausage. It tasted different but good since we had been eatin’ just meat for many days now.

  I told the women we would go to the tradin’ tents again today and get supplies for the next year and that I needed to know if they wanted to go with us when we left Rendezvous or if they were gonna stay with their people. Sun Flower looked almost hurt that I would ask, and Raven Wing smiled at Runnin’ Wolf and said, “We will go where your trail takes you. If it is to follow the wind, we will follow the wind with you.” Then Sun Flower looked at me and asked, “Do you want me to follow the wind with you?” I smiled at her and nodded. She jumped, almost knockin’ me over as she threw her arms around me.

  Since we needed the pack horses and packs to get our supplies, me and Runnin’ Wolf saddled Ol’ Red and the chestnut then went out and brought the other horses in. We got the empty packs on them and asked Sun Flower and Raven Wing if they wanted to go with us. They looked at each other, and Raven Wing said they wanted to see friends and family today. We nodded we understood and headed for the tradin’ tents with two empty pack horses. Along the way, I started figurin’ just what we would need for supplies. I figured if we got triple what we had last year, we would be in pretty good shape. I still didn’t know what would happen when we got back to Runnin’ Wolf’s people. Would he stay with them or come trappin’ with me? We had talked a bit ’bout that, and I figured he didn’t know for sure himself. But I had the feelin’ he liked the adventure of seein’ new country. So I figured I’d have a partner whether he knew it or not.

  We had plenty of traps that were all still i
n good shape. I still had a keg of powder at the dugout, cached, but we would want more. We needed lead and flints, awls, and needles. We needed knives for the women and, if there was one to be had, a better rifle for Runnin’ Wolf. I had won my Hawken in a shootin’ contest at last year’s rendezvous that we had to give five dollars for a chance at it, and Ashley had made over 150 bucks on that twenty-five-dollar rifle. I was hopin’ he might do that again this year.

  As we neared the tradin’ tents, Runnin’ Wolf waved at a group of trappers that was sittin’ around a fire pit, talkin’, and then headed right for them. He jumped down, and as I rode up, there were backslappin’ and greetin’s goin’ on all around that fire pit. When Jimbo came up beside me, one of the men jumped back and started to pull out a knife. I told Jimbo to sit, and Runnin’ Wolf started laughin’ at the worried look on his friend’s face. It took just a minute, but that trapper started to chuckle himself and then said that was the biggest, meanest-lookin’ dog he ever saw. That trapper then carefully stepped around Jimbo, held out his hand to me, and said, “I’m Ely Tucker, and you must be the one they’re callin’ Grizzly Killer.”

  I shook his hand and told him, “I’m Zach Connors, and my friend here is Jimbo,” and Jimbo lifted his paw toward Ely, and everyone had a good, hard laugh. We sat around that fire, and I learned this was the group of trappers that had been in Runnin’ Wolf’s village last year, and these were the men he had guided and had learned English from. One of the men named Grub Taylor, whom they just called Grub ’cause they said he was always hungry, asked Runnin’ Wolf how his sister was doin’, and then he looked at me and said she was just ’bout the prettiest woman he ever saw anywhere, red or white. They asked Runnin’ Wolf where he was stayin’, and when he said with the Snakes, they all looked surprised. Ely said that he thought the Snakes and Utes were enemies. Runnin’ Wolf then told them that I had a knack of makin’ friends out of enemies, and he told them the story of us findin’ Sun Flower, Raven Wing, and Butterfly and of buyin’ them from those three Frenchies. Ely said he knew Jean Luc and he was a mean one, and he’d seen him and the other two he didn’t know ride in just this mornin’. Then Grub laughed and told Runnin’ Wolf he was just makin’ friends with the Snakes so’s he could get their women, that the Snakes had mighty fine women. Runnin’ Wolf just smiled and said, “They do have mighty fine women.”

  These were men that you could ride any trail with and know you could count on them. Like most of the men me and Pa had come west with, they were tough and rough, but if you needed help, you could count on every last one of them, and I could see why Runnin’ Wolf was glad to see them again. I would count them as friends from this day on.

  It was early afternoon when we heard a commotion over by the tradin’ tents, and it was clear that General Ashley and his men had just come back to camp. I figured I’d give him a little time to get settled after he got back, and then we said our farewells to Ely, Grub, and the others and went on over to Ashley’s tents.

  As we walked up, the general was lookin’ in his ledger book, and when he looked up, it took him just a minute, and then he smiled and said, “Zach Connors, you’ve done well.” He asked ’bout Pa, and it was painful all over again as I told him the story of the grizzly and of buryin’ Pa. He told me that Captain Jack would be mighty proud of the man he had raised, that it took a powerful will to spend a winter in these Rocky Mountains all alone. I told him the story of the Snake women and the Frenchman Jean Luc and his two companions and that I had paid them for the women and horses with forty plews. That they accepted it but wasn’t happy ’bout it, and they might make trouble. He told me they couldn’t make trouble, or they would be thrown out of camp and they would need supplies too. We picked out our supplies, and I got a few more things for the women. He had a few large coffee pots, so I picked one of them and got a lot more coffee and sugar than I figured we’d need, but I didn’t want to run short again on that. I really had been missin’ hot coffee.

  I asked him ’bout a rifle, and he said he couldn’t get a Hawken this year, that the Hawken brothers had every one in their shop spoken for. But one of his mule packers had a mighty fine Pennsylvania rifle made by Johnson that he figured would shoot as true as a Hawken, and he sent a man to fetch this packer. He said the packer’s name was Liam McKinney, and he might be willin’ to part with it if the price was right.

  In just a little while, Liam came up, and I introduced myself and Runnin’ Wolf and told him we were needin’ a good straight-shootin’ rifle. He was smilin’ as he handed me the gun and told me it was as true as any he had ever seen. He said it was .54, and if he was to sell it, he would need at least seventy-five dollars for it. I asked if I could shoot it, and he just smiled again and said sure. I picked up a rock ’bout the size of my fist and walked out there around fifty big steps and set it on top of another rock. When I came back, there were six or eight others standin’ there, watchin’. One of them said, “That’s a mighty small target at that range.” I checked the prime and pulled the hammer back and put the sights on the little rock. When I shot, the little rock just exploded into tiny pieces.

  I turned around and asked the general how much I still had on his books, and when he told me $608, I started thinkin’ I was bein’ robbed. These prices we were payin’ were ten times higher than they were back home. But back home was a mighty long ways away. Then Runnin’ Wolf stepped up and pulled his medicine pouch from his belt and opened it up. He told me that when he found these rocks last year, Ely had told him it was valuable and asked if it was enough the buy the rifle, and he pulled out two gold nuggets. The small one was the size of the end of my thumb, and the other was twice that size. I had never seen pure gold before, and I had no idea what they were worth. Liam’s eyes were as big as could be, starin’ at those nuggets, and General Ashley said that small one would buy the gun. Runnin’ Wolf handed the smaller nugget to Liam, and with a big smile on his face, he nodded and said deal. Runnin’ Wolf then turned to General Ashley and asked him if he would give me credit for the worth of this big nugget, and he said, “Running Wolf wants to help pay for supplies.”

  The general took the nugget and felt its weight. He set it on the fur scale, but it was too light to weigh. He threw it up in the air a few times and caught it and said he figured ’bout a half pound. He then handed it to me and asked if I agreed. It felt like it weighed ’bout half as much as a plews, and I told him as much. And he looked at Runnin’ Wolf and said he would put $150 in my books for the nugget and asked if that was what he wanted. Runnin’ Wolf nodded and said, “Next year I will have beaver of my own to trade,” and I knew then I would have a partner through next winter.

  We had all four horses loaded down heavy. We had put most of the supplies in barrels and had to change the packs a lot to carry barrels, and it was gettin’ to be late afternoon as we headed back to the Shoshone village, just leadin’ Ol’ Red, the chestnut, and two pack horses.

  While we were at the tradin’ tents, several groups of Injuns came by lookin’ and doin’ some tradin’ with furs they had. Some of it was tanned and some dried green like our plews were. There were a few Injun women tradin’ with trappers for a turn under the robes. And others just watchin’ the white men with hairy faces that they had not seen before. We were only ’bout a mile from the tradin’ area, when I noticed the hair rise all the way down Jimbo’s back, and then he took off on a dead run. I handed Runnin’ Wolf the lead rope of Red and the pack horse I was leadin’ and took off, followin’ Jimbo.

  Jimbo headed toward the river and through a bunch of cottonwoods and then thick willows. The willows were too thick for me to get through; then I heard Jimbo attack and a man yell and then scream. I had to find an openin’ and then fight my way through the willows with my Hawken in one hand and my tomahawk in the other. I broke through the willows into a grassy area that was hidden between the willows and the creek. I could see two naked women lyin’ in the grass, one partly in the river and one naked man tryin’ to stop his le
g from bleedin’, and Jimbo had another naked man down on the grass. I couldn’t see his face, for Jimbo was holdin’ him by the throat, but I could see he had several bad bite marks all over his body. The woman lyin’ partly in the water was cryin’, and I knelt down and checked the other and saw she was breathin’ but not awake, and I rolled her over and saw it was Butterfly. She had been beaten up something awful. Then I saw the man holdin’ his leg was Lucien, and I called off Jimbo, and when he stepped back, it was Jean Luc. Jean Luc was just barely conscious, and I told Jimbo to go get Sun Flower, and he took off. I told Lucien, if he moved, I would kill him, and I cut a good strip off one of their leggin’s and tied Jean Luc’s hands behind his back. I picked up Butterfly and was just settin’ her down by the water when Runnin’ Wolf came into this little clearin’. I quickly told Runnin’ Wolf that I figured Jean Luc and Lucien had attacked and raped Butterfly and her friend and Jimbo had heard what was happenin’ and had stopped it. Then I asked him to go back and get General Ashley just as fast as he could.

  Butterfly was comin’ awake, and I was tryin’ to clean up her face a little. One side of her face was badly swollen. Her eye was black and blue and swollen shut, her lips were smashed, and her nose was still bleedin’ some. She had deep teeth marks over one of her nipples, and she was holdin’ her ribs on her left side. The other girl had quit cryin’ now, and she had got up and pulled her dress back on and came over to help Butterfly. She had a black eye, and bruises were comin’ out on her arms and the side of her face, but she hadn’t taken near the beatin’ Butterfly had. Once I had most of the blood wiped off Butterfly’s face, she just leaned into me and was softly cryin’. The other girl brought her dress over, but butterfly didn’t move away from me at all. She was just sittin’ with her knees up to her chest, one arm holdin’ her ribs and the other around her knees, and leanin’ into me and not movin’. I put one arm around her, tryin’ to comfort her, and looked at Lucien sittin’ there, holdin’ his leg. He had a real scared look.