Grizzly Killer: The Making of a Mountain Man Read online

  I told him they were trappers and said I thought it would be all right. But he just signed Snakes back to me. Them trappers came on in and climbed down and, talkin’ in Snake, must have told the Squaws to unload the horses, and the trappers came over and introduced themselves. The one in the lead was Jean Luc Lamont, the next was Jacques Basile, and the third was Lucien Mineau. They said they were free trappers and had been with Fontenelle up on the Popo Agie, that their squaws were Shoshone, and that they were headed to Rendezvous.

  Runnin’ Wolf had figured they were friendly by now and had slipped into his buckskins as well. I told them my name was Zach Connors, and then Runnin’ Wolf came around that chestnut, and I told them his name and that we were headed to Rendezvous as well. Jean Luc spoke real good English even though it was hard to understand through his accent. Lucien could speak a little, but it was he who was talkin’ in Snake to the squaws, but it didn’t appear Jacques spoke anything but French, and he was younger than the others, I figured ’bout my age or maybe a bit younger.

  I hadn’t seen Jimbo since just before those Frenchies had rode in, and I figured he was just out in the brush. And that made me a little worried ’cause he seemed to have a better feelin’ for people than I did. So it made me wonder just what kind of men these were.

  Those squaws had their horses unloaded mighty quick and then said something in what sounded like mixed Snake and French and walked right up to the edge of that hot spring and pulled their dresses up over their heads and, naked as could be right there in front of all of us, got down into that hot water. It looked like they were enjoyin’ themselves. My eyes must ’bout popped out of my head, ’cause those Frenchies started to laugh at me again, and Jean Luc asked what the matter was that I was standin’ just like that a few minutes ago. I must have turned red as a beet, ’cause they laughed all the more. Then they stripped down and got into the water themselves.

  I had only seen one naked girl before in my life, and that was ’bout three years ago back home just ’fore Ma passed on. There was gonna be a dance and social at the church over in Pottersville on Saturday night. I had been on a hunt with my Cherokee friends and had stayed at their village Friday night. I was really lookin’ forward to seein’ Emma Potter and maybe dancin’ with her Saturday night. Emma was my age and was real pretty. She had long auburn hair and green eyes and, at seventeen, was shapely enough she turned all the men’s eyes in her direction wherever she went. I had been sweet on her for years, and I knew she liked me too.

  As I headed home, I crossed buckhorn ridge and was followin’ the trail down Potters Draw, kind of daydreamin’ ’bout the dance, when I heard some splashin’ in the creek up ahead. I slowed right down and snuck on down the trail real quiet. When I could see some movement out in the creek, I just real careful like moved through the brush so I could see. Standin’ out in the creek in water just up to her waist was Emma. She was completely naked and washin’ her hair. Now I knew I should look away, but I just couldn’t. She had her head back with soap in her hands, workin’ her hair over; her eyes were closed. There were beads of water glistenin’ off her skin, and the sight just ’bout took my breath away. I was feelin’ mighty guilty, but I just couldn’t look away. Ma had always told me the good Lord was always lookin’ over my shoulder, so never do anythin’ he wouldn’t want me doin’, but I just couldn’t look away. Then I wondered if he really was lookin’ over my shoulder, if he was enjoyin’ the view as much as I was.

  I was hidden real well in a thicket and knew I couldn’t be seen if I didn’t move and just sat there and watched her finish her bathin’. Then she walked right up out of the water and picked up a towel and dried off. I’d never been so uncomfortable, sittin’ there in the thicket, not darin’ to move a muscle. I had feelin’s I never felt before, and my manhood was growin’, and I wanted to get out of there but couldn’t. I was breathin’ so hard I was ’fraid she was gonna hear me, and I had started sweatin’, but I just sat there and watched her get dressed and leave.

  The trail down Potters Draw led right down past the Potter Homestead and then on into town, and our place was way out on the other side of town. But instead of followin’ the trail past the Potter’s place, I climbed back up on the ridge and stayed in the forest all the way back home.

  At the dance that night, Emma was there wearin’ a newly made dress and lookin’ just as pretty as a picture. When she saw me, she came right up and said she wanted to dance. I must have turned mighty red, and I couldn’t look her in the eyes, and she wanted to know what the matter was, if I was feelin’ all right, and I just couldn’t say a thing. All I could see was her standin’ in the creek, naked. I started breathin’ real heavy and gettin’ lightheaded and had to sit down for a few minutes. She brought me a cup of punch and sat with me until I could breathe and talk again.

  When me and Pa left home, the thought of leavin’ Emma behind was ’bout the hardest part for me, but the adventure of seein’ the country we had heard tell of and bein’ with Pa after Ma had passed on were a stronger pull for me.

  I wanted to talk to them Frenchies ’bout the best way into Willow Valley, but I was havin’ a mighty hard time keepin’ my eyes off all those naked breasts splashin’ around in that water, and when I saw Runnin’ Wolf lookin’ too, I decided we better move on before these Frenchies took offense, and I said the same to Runnin’ Wolf. He smiled and nodded in agreement.

  By the time we had the travois tied to the horses and loaded, Jean Luc had gotten out of the water and, wearin’ just a breach cloth, came over, admiring my bundles of plews and other furs we was tyin’ on to the travois, and asked where I’d gotten them. He said he hadn’t seen any one man get that many in a season before. I just smiled and told him “In the mountains.” Then he asked if I wanted to do some tradin’. He turned around and said something in French, and the youngest and prettiest squaw came out of the water, naked as ever, and walked right up to us. He shoved her toward me and said he would sell her to me for twenty of my plews. Her eyes were down, starin’ at the ground, and she looked mighty afraid and sad. He slapped her hard on the rump and said something else in French, and she looked up and forced a smile on her face. I shook my head no and said I’d like to trade for a couple of horses. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her away from me and brought up his hand to hit her, and I unloaded with my right fist just has hard as I could and caught him right on the nose. I felt it break, and he went down hard.

  I had never really considered my size before, but I was taller and heavier than most men I ever met. I was even an inch or so taller than Pa had been, and he was known back home as a mighty big and powerful man. I had grown strong with workin’ all the time, and I had put every ounce of strength I had into that punch. Jean Luc didn’t move when he hit the ground. This naked squaw jumped back with a look of fear. Lucien and Jacques started for their guns, and Runnin’ Wolf stepped up with his bow drawn, pointin’ it at them, and at the same time, Jimbo stood up out of the brush, showin’ his teeth and growlin’, and those two Frenchies just froze right where they were standin’. The two squaws still in the water were holdin’ on to each other and starin’ at Jimbo, and the one by me took a step behind me, away from Jimbo. He was a mighty fearsome sight.

  I motioned with my hand for Lucien and Jacques to sit down in the water. They did, and so did the squaws. I got down and checked on Jean Luc. His face was a bloody mess, but he was still breathin’. I had only hit him the one time, but his nose was broke and his upper lip smashed and his left eye was already turnin’ color. I shook him some, and he started to come to.

  I told Jimbo to stay and had Runnin’ Wolf tell them squaws to get dressed. It was mighty distractin’ bein’ around naked women. Seems the Ute and Snake tongues are kind of alike, and Runnin’ Wolf could speak a little Snake, and between that and the hand signs, he seemed to be makin’ them understand. The ones in the water climbed out away from Jimbo, but the one behind me didn’t move. The look in her eyes told me she was afraid, and th
en I realized Jimbo was sittin’ right by their dresses. I called Jimbo over to me and told him to sit, and she grabbed hold of my arm and was standin’ right up against me. I could feel myself turnin’ red again just like when I saw Emma in the creek back home, and it seemed to be gettin’ mighty warm, but I just walked her over to where their dresses were.

  Jean Luc was groggy and just crawled over to the water and was washin’ off his face. I motioned for the other men just to stay in the water, and I went over and gathered their weapons and put them in a pile a little ways out in the brush. Runnin’ Wolf was talkin’ to the squaws, findin’ out what their situation was. He could speak a little Snake as Snake and Ute are kind of alike, and what they couldn’t understand of each other, they would use sign language.

  I motioned for the two in the water to get out and get dressed. I had been in such a hurry to leave I hadn’t put my grizzly claw necklace or possibles bag on yet and did so now. Jimbo was sittin’ on his haunches right by me, and when that real pretty younger squaw looked at me again, she pointed at me and said something in Snake. The others just looked at me and stared.

  Jean Luc was sittin’ there at the water’s edge, starin’ at me as well. After a minute, he said, “So you’re the one they call Grizzly Killer, and that is the Great Medicine Dog.” He slowly got to his feet and looked at me and said, “You got no call to hit me like that,” and I simply told him I would abide no man strikin’ a woman. He said that she wasn’t no woman, just a squaw, and I told him there was no difference.

  I motioned him over to the others and told them now we would talk. I asked them, if they had been trappin’ with Fontenelle, where all their plews were as their packs were carryin’ some but not many for three trappers. Jean Luc told me they lost most of them and half their traps crossin’ the Seeds-Kee-Dee. He said they’d looked for a few days downriver, but it was runnin’ so high with the snow meltin’ in the high country they never found one. I asked them why he wanted to sell the woman, and he told me they needed the plews to resupply for the comin’ year or they would have to sign on for just wages with one of the brigades. He said they were just squaws anyhow and he could get another later. I asked him how he knew of me. He told me that I was a great warrior to the Shoshone, and they were singin’ songs around their campfires of the Medicine Dog. That I killed the great bears all alone and killed enemies farther away than an arrow can fly. He said the Shoshone believed me to be both their friend and their enemy, that I had killed many warriors and had given of the great bear to others, and that I had great medicine.

  I asked them how they came by the squaws and why they had the right to sell them. He told me they stayed in their Shoshone village through the winter, and the squaws were given to them. Then Runnin’ Wolf told me these Snake squaws had been given to the trappers as a sign of peace, but after they left the village, these men treated them like slaves and beat them if they didn’t do just what they said.

  I asked Jean Luc how many plews he figured it would take to get outfitted for another year, and he said maybe sixty if they was sellin’ for the same as last year. I figured, lookin’ over their packs, they had maybe thirty or forty, and I told him I would give him forty plews for all three squaws, the squaw’s horses, and two pack horses. He laughed and said that was robbery. I told him I had the plews and he needed supplies and that was my offer. Those three Frenchies talked and cussed and wasn’t happy, but they agreed. I held my hand out to shake, and Jean Luc just looked at me and told me he would get even for his broken nose and bein’ robbed. I simply told him he didn’t have to take my offer, that he wasn’t bein’ forced, and he could find me at Rendezvous if he wanted to get even.

  I counted out forty prime plews while Runnin’ Wolf told the Snake squaws they now belonged to us. I had Jimbo sit by their weapons while we loaded the horses with all our truck off the travois. I had Runnin’ Wolf lead out, with the Snake women followin’, and I rode Red over to Jimbo and told him to stay again by the weapons. My meanin’ was clear to those Frenchies that they couldn’t get their weapons till Jimbo was gone. When I was ’bout a quarter mile out from the hot spring, I whistled real loud, and a minute later, Jimbo was right by our side. I trotted Ol’ Red up to Runnin’ Wolf, and he looked at me and said, “They come after us.” I just smiled and said, “I know.”

  11 Sweet Lake

  We traveled as fast as we could the rest of the day and on into the twilight. We passed a spot that the river widened out in a place it looked like we could cross. But I motioned for Runnin’ Wolf to just keep on goin’. I sent Jimbo along our back trail to see if there was trouble close and went up to tell Runnin’ Wolf to keep goin’ ’bout another mile and then drop down to the river and follow it back to this crossin’ and we would make camp on the other side. He just nodded and went on. He was leadin’ a pack horse, and each of the three Snake women were too. I dropped way back behind the others until they were out of sight, seein’ how clear of a trail we were leavin’ and how easy it would be to follow in the dark. The moon would be settin’ in ’bout an hour, and it would be a dark night. I didn’t think they could follow our tracks after that.

  I caught up to the rest ’bout the time Runnin’ Wolf was turnin’ down to the river. We followed the river back down to where it widened out, and although crossin’ in the dark wasn’t pleasant, we had no trouble. We made a dark camp, just eatin’ a little jerky and drinkin’ water. Jimbo came into camp then, and the women jumped when Jimbo came out of the dark and up to me. It was real plain Jimbo made them all real jumpy. He came up, and with his low growl, he was tellin’ me we were bein’ followed. Runnin’ Wolf grabbed his bow, and I asked him to stay with the women, and Jimbo and I would go. He looked disappointed but, I had got us in this fix, so it was my place to fix it.

  I saddled Red again and followed Jimbo out into the night. We went less than a mile when Jimbo stopped and got down on his belly. I turned Red off the trail and went back down by the river and let the reins hang as I always did then hurried back up to the trail. I had Jimbo stay in the brush on one side of the trail, and I got on the other. ’Bout ten minutes later, here came the three of them, and I heard Jean Luc whisper something in French, and one of the others cussed. When they were right between us, I yelled “Get ’em!” and fired my pistol into the air. At the same time, Jimbo jumped in, growlin’ and goin’ after the horses. Those horses started buckin’. Lucien was thrown off first, and his horse and the pack horses took off back down the trail. Then Jacques’s horse went down with him on it, and Jimbo jumped up onto Jean Luc and bit his leg, and he lost his balance and went down. Their horses were scattered all over the place, and since I didn’t know if any of them still had their guns, I stayed out in the brush, out of sight. When things had quieted down and I had moved down a ways from the trail, I yelled back up at them, “Next time you come sneakin’ up my back trail in the dark, you won’t walk away!”

  Next mornin’ we were on the trail ’fore light, and Runnin’ Wolf told me these squaws knew a shorter way to Willow Valley over the mountains that would save us several days of travel over followin’ the Bear River. We were now on the west side of the Bear and followin’ it along, headin’ ’bout straight north. We jumped several deer just after it got light, and Runnin’ Wolf motioned for us to stop, and he went on ahead. I was just startin’ to wonder where he had gone, when he came ridin’ back to us with a deer across the back of his saddle. We tied it onto one of the pack horses and headed north again.

  We found a grove of cottonwoods on a bend in the river and stopped to eat and rest the horses. Jimbo was now in the habit of headin’ down our back trail whenever we stopped, and he was just watchin’ me for the signal, and when I pointed, he took off. Those Snake women went right to work, skinnin’ and butcherin’ that deer, and they had a fire goin’ and meat cookin’ by the time Runnin’ Wolf and me had the horses watered and hobbled on grass along the river bottom. We sat down, and as I looked at these three women now with their dresses on, there
weren’t much difference in their ages. The one was a little younger and looked a lot like one just older. I figured maybe they were sisters, and both of them were mighty pretty. The other I figured was ’bout the same age as the older sister, if they were sisters, and was nice lookin’ too, although she didn’t have the natural beauty of the other two. Me and Runnin’ Wolf sat down by the fire, and I asked Runnin’ Wolf to have them come over ’cause I wanted to know their names.

  They came over to the fire with worried looks, and as I stood up, the two older ones stepped back, but the younger one just looked right up into my face and smiled. Her older sister said something to her and tried to pull her back, but she pulled away and kept lookin’ right at me. Runnin’ Wolf laughed a little and was smilin’ at the three of them. I asked what was funny, and he said, “The others are afraid of you, but Sun Flower Woman is not afraid.”

  I said Zach and pointed to myself and repeated Zach several times. Then Sun Flower Woman said Zach. It took a few tries, but she got it out pretty good. Then her sister looked up and said something and made the sign for grizzly and kill and pointed at me. Runnin’ Wolf chucked again and told me I was mighty big medicine to them and my name was Grizzly Killer, not Zach. I asked in sign if they were sisters, and with Runnin’ Wolf’s help, they understood and said yes. Then I asked the sister’s name, and she said something, and Runnin’ Wolf told me Raven Wing, and pointin’ to the other, I asked her name. She didn’t look up, and I could tell she was mighty worried. Sun Flower Woman said her name was Kimama and made a sign for butterfly. I asked Runnin’ Wolf to tell them they were safe and we would not hurt them, that they were free to do what they wanted and they could stay with us till we could get them to their village. Runnin’ Wolf looked at me and said he wouldn’t be safe in the land of the Snakes. Raven Wing then spoke in part English and part French, but she made me and Runnin’ Wolf understand that Grizzly Killer owned them now and they would do what he told them and that Runnin’ Wolf had helped them, that he was a great warrior, and he would be safe with Grizzly Killer and the Shoshone women in the land of the Shoshone. I asked her where she learned to speak our tongue, and without lookin’ at me, she said, “White man’s in village.” I was wonderin’, if the Snakes were friendly to trappers, why they had attacked me.