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| Prairie Grass by � coondogk9 Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1540. Sunlight bathed the prairie grass as antelope stopped their grazing to watch the painted ponies meandering by. The huge expanse of light brown grass waved like wheat in the breeze. Wavering mirages pictured water ahead constantly but there was no water there. Only the shimmering heat waves rising from the baked earth. Horned toads carried sticks with them to stop an rest on and relieve their blistered feet. snakes twisted along like a wrung out rag giving their bellies a chance to cool. At night you could see the sparks on the prairie as the light winds touched tips of grass together and the tips would burn with static electricity sometimes causing grass fires lasting days and burning millions of acres creating new life of lush green to be repeated over and over. It looked like a million fire flies in the night close to the ground. later years lightning strikes would hit a barbed wire fence creating a magical fire show as the fire flew along the fence for miles creating a red hot and blue wire sometimes emitting tiny blue arcs to the ground. Cattle during a storm would line the fence row with the wind to their back and noses just inches from the metal fence wire and lightning strikes race along lunging out electrocuting tens and hundreds as they dropped like flies. The wandering Indians followed the fence until they came to a broken wire or a corner the traversed along another trail. Sometimes they would slip thru the fence and stampede cattle thru it just for a shorter passage, other times a rope on a post would suffice. The ponies feared the downed wire and bolted at times and became entangled in the hard twists around their feet. Some had to be put down due to injuries. A fence may run as far a 20 or 30 miles in any one direction. The day of the open prairie was at an end. Antelope bellied under the wire often or leaped it like a gazelle. Coyotes slipped under it and trapped young calves away from the cows. Sometimes a 12 inch high cactus or a 2 foot yucca is the tallest and highest thing for miles in any direction. Other times and places mesquite is so thick even cattle can�t penetrate it or they can and horses can�t. therefore some aged cattle spend their life in the maze and never see a human in their lifetime yet were born from a captive mother and set free on the range. Generations live in and amongst the thorny briars and scrub trees for years. Angry when invaded they turn vicious attacking any unknown rider or animal that pressures them. A lasso is like a fish hook in a net. Many a horse has gone down with a horn in the belly. A mesquite thorn can rip the hide from a horse as well as puncture a foot or hoof. The Indians on their way to hunt mule deer or flint for arrows at the nearby flint escarpments. Some may even wade an grope the huge river catfish burrowed in muddy holes in the river bank. A small tributary may hold a basket of crappie. The days of war were over. The days of freedom were over. The days were over. Theirs were numbered and the numbers now were smaller and smaller. Now was the time for survival and that was a bleak desperational attempt. Every time they found some means to provide, some judicial decision plugged it with more bureaucracy. A small red light flickered in the distance. It grew larger and brighter until now it flashed an even redder skin. The charge was trespassing. Yes. They were trespassing on the same land their fathers walked, rode and hunted. The same land their fathers walked and lived on. They were trespassing on their own land. They found they were laughed at when they filed trespassing charges on the white settlers putting up their homes an fences. They were arrested when they forcibly drove the homesteaders out. I think they would have fared much better had they powdered their faces. Discarded their buckskins, cut their hair and passed as whit folks. Maybe then they could steal their land back from themselves and use the government to help. After all, that was the white mans way. Make the rules as you play the game. But alas, I suppose giving up your families, your traditions, your culture, your honor, your possessions, your children, your way of life, your heritage and ancestry, everything you ever were or were taught to be you had to give up. Do you think that is too much to sacrifice? Well, do you white Man? Vision Quest � 2002 T Lovett |