The Awakening by riddleofsteel

The Awakening
by
� riddleofsteel

Caleb was strong man, clear of eye and of proper wit, well suited to the wilderness. He walked into to St Joseph Missouri in the spring of 1866. Having taken a small sack of gold coins from a dead Yankee officer during the war he was now looking for a wagon, mules and rifle suited for hide hunting. The wagon he found a bit used but solid. He found his rifle in a mercantile on Charles Street where he was buying flour and salt. It was an used 1859 Sharps Carbine in 50-90 caliber. By the time he was through dickering the rifle, brass cartridges, powder, primers, molds, lead and reloading tools cost him a steep $120.00. Sitting on his wagon he cyphered the cost per shot on some wrapping paper with a short pencil stub. Lead for casting bullets, primer and powder came to about $.80. Figure the cost of replacing the brass after several hundred shots and the total per shot came close to $.90. Summer hides, sold for leather were selling for as low as $3.00 per hide. Winter killed robes that were well haired and not to scarred up could sell for as much as $15.00. In a pinch dried bones collected on the plains sold for $4.00 per ton. He had heard there was a fortune chewing grass on the great plains. But now it became clear that the profit margin depended on good marksmanship and frugal living.

The thought of having to kill buffalo just for their hides or bones did not seem to bother him much. He had just come out of the Civil War and had killed hundreds of Yankees without a dime to show for it. The problem of having no mules did prey heavy on his mind. It seemed the entire country was pouring into the Mississippi valley intent on moving west. Oxen, horses and especially mules were at a premium. Try as he might he had not been able to find so much as a donkey for sale. Then one morning a gangly red haired boy with a thick Georgia accent came up the street leading four big grey mules. Caleb watched him from his fully loaded but immobile wagon. The boy stopped and asked Caleb for a chew of tobacco. As they shared a chew Caleb inquired about the mules. Seth told him they were "borrowed" but no one was looking for them yet. They both laughed. Caleb eyed Seth's cap and ball revolver and muzzle loading .50 Hawken rifle. He asked Seth if he had ever considered hide hunting. Seth said "Ifin I had the money for a hunting setup do you think I would be stealing mules?" They both enjoyed a hardy laugh as they hitched Seth's mules to Caleb's wagon. The hide hunters were in business.

Seth and Caleb struck out to the northwest after crossing the Mississippi by ferry. The first few months were tough as neither men knew anything at all about the habits of the animals they they were hunting. Only the sheer numbers of buffalo available for the killing made their efforts a success. They soon found that it was no good killing more buffalo than they could skin and prepare in a couple of days. With just the two of them that rarely amounted to more than three to four animals every couple of days. After deducting the cost of ammunition and rations they normally made about $8.00 a week between them. Anything more they considered pure profit. The work was hard. It involved long hours of skinning, rolling heavy animals and scraping hides in the hot sun or freezing cold. In summer the flies were out in droves and in winter you could only work for a few minutes before having to warm your fingers between the hide and the hot carcass. Summer or winter the stench of death was always on everything you owned. It soon became clear that they would have to kill and skin in greater volume if they were going to make all this worthwhile.

In the fall of 1867 Caleb and Seth took on a crew of four hide cutters. They came equipped with two wagons and all the truck needed to skin and prepare hides. The two crews had struck a deal. Caleb would set up the stand and kill as many buffalo as the cutters could skin and scrape in a day. Then while the cutters did their jobs Caleb would scout the herd and the next days stand location. Seth would prepare meals for both crews and stand guard for Indians as the crew worked. When the hides were sold each man would take an equal share after expenses. The 1867 winter hunt was very lucrative. Enough so that both crews decided to spend the worst part of the plains winter in a town drinking and whoring.

The late winter in Mud Butte, Dakota Territory was long, cold and expensive. In a gold rush atmosphere local merchants made sure that anything a hide hunter needed from basic supplies to whiskey cost twice what it was worth. It was in Mud Butte that Caleb met a half Lakota-half Irish hunter called Toecutter. He had acquired this name due to his habit of cutting a big toe off of his enemies after killing them. He dried the toes and strung them on a necklace he wore. It was Toecutter that first told Caleb about the legend of the Tantanka ska (buffalo white). Toecutter explained that according to Lakota legend a man who saw a white buffalo had his life changed forever. It was the appearance of the white buffalo that would also herald the salvation of the Lakota people from their enemies. When Caleb asked exactly how all this salvation was going to take place Toecutter laughed. "It is only a tale for old men and children" he said. When Caleb told his crew about the story Seth told him that a white buffalo robe was worth $500.00 gold. On top of that a mounted head of a bull white buffalo would be worth at least $500.00 more. In his mind Caleb thought "That is my kind of salvation, $1000.00 gold."

By the green-up of spring all the men were broke and all they had left was their hunting outfit and supplies. They rolled out of Mud Butte and struck out west toward the prairie south of the Black Hills. Toecutter had joined up with them and he had promised to lead them to a good herd. Spring hunting was easy as the female buffalo would not leave their new born calves. They just milled about confused as Caleb's rifle slammed the 475 grain bullets through them. The skinning and scraping of hides was also more comfortable in the moderate spring weather and the flies were not out yet. Then late one afternoon Toecutter spotted Indians.

From a hilltop Caleb and Toecutter watch the Indians as they moved their village. Forming a loose group, the procession of Indians moved slowly dragging their folded lodges behind them. Along the edges of the group braves on horseback kept a watch on the village as it moved.

"Are they Lakota?" Caleb said. "Yes they are. they are moving to summer camps," said Toecutter. "They will be hunting to."

"As long as they leave us be we will not bother them either" Caleb said.
"Likely as not they will be more interested in our horses than us" said Toecutter.
That night Caleb began to dream of Tantanka ska. In the first dream the white buffalo was running across a battlefield. Everywhere he went the soldiers stopped shooting and killing. In his second dream the white buffalo was standing on a hill above where they were skinning carcasses. He looked down on them and in his deep blue eyes Caleb felt he saw compassion. Compassion for an ignorant people that did not realize the evil they do. Each night the dreams of Tantanka ska grew more real and more intense. Although the dreams troubled him Caleb did not tell anyone about what was going on.

Each day as Caleb pulled the trigger over and over, he felt a twinge of guilt. this was new to him. Buffalo had always meant money before. He had not really seen them as alive, Now the deep blue eyes of Tantanka ska were watching him as he killed. It was like a man that never knew he was doing wrong suddenly waking up to the reality of his actions.

Caleb sat on the hillside watching the skinners at work. The crows had come to share in the bounty and the ever present flies were swarming on the naked carcasses. The stench of death was thick in the little valley. It just did not seem to smell of money anymore. Just then he heard a faint sound. It was a sound every spring buffalo hunter hears all the time. It was the bawling of a calf looking for its mother. Caleb shouldered his rifle and went looking for the calf. He found the calf up at the head of the valley among the dead buffalo that the skinners had not gotten to yet. When he saw the calf he dropped his rifle and dropped to his knees. Before him was a white buffalo calf.

A flood of images washed over Caleb like an ocean wave. He saw the futility of his life, the horrors of war, the shame of hide hunting. When he came to he was surrounded by Seth, Toecutter and the skinners. "Damnation, a white buff calf" said Seth. "Thats not a full grown hide but I guess it will bring a couple of hundred dollars."

"We are not going to kill it" said Caleb.

Toecutter tried to tell Caleb that the calf was going to die anyway. Without its mother it was only a matter of time. At least if they killed it they would profit.
"We are not going to kill it" Caleb said again.

" He is Tantanka ska wo" said Toecutter. " He has the white buffalo sickness. It has affected his mind."

"OK lets think this through" said Seth. "Maybe if we keep him alive for a while he will grow up a little. The bigger he is the more his hide is worth huh"
"We are not going to kill this calf. If we raise him it will be to turn lose" Caleb said.

Just then one of the skinners cracked Caleb over the head with a rifle butt.
"Damn him" he said "We an'it out in this stinking country for our health. Nobody is turning lose a thousand dollar buff."

Caleb woke up with his head throbbing. Then he realized that he was naked, his partners had beaten him, stripped him and left him for dead on the prairie. Standing over him were two very confused looking Indian boys. Caleb sat up and the boys jumped back. To one side was a third boy holding their horses. One of the boys stepped up to Caleb and said "Tantanka ska??" Caleb was amazed. He must have repeated the phrase while he was knocked out. He shook his head up and down and said "Yes Tantanka ska." He pointed to the small buffalo calf tracks in the dust between the wagon tracks. It seem that Seth had decided to keep the calf alive for a while longer. The boys began to speak very excitedly between themselves. They began to motion off to the south. One of the boys jumped up on his horse and rode off. The other two boys help Caleb up on a horse. Caleb's head throbbed, he drifted in and out as they rode along toward the south. After several hours he passed out and fell off the horse. When he awoke he saw they had been joined by half a dozen Lakota warriors.

One of the warriors was very tall. His face was blackened and he wore a head dress of wolf hair and feathers. Over and over he questioned Caleb about the Tantanka ska. Caleb did not speak Lakota and none of the Indians spoke English. The only thing he could get across was that there was a white buffalo and that they had to go find it now. When they caught up to the hide hunters it was already evening. From the hilltop overlooking the camp Caleb could see the white calf tied off to the wagon. Seth and the crew were all sitting around discussing what they would do with their windfall. With sign language and drawings in the dust Caleb tried to explain to the warriors that the hide hunters meant to kill the calf.

In the gathering darkness the warriors crept up on the hide hunters camp. The sentry was killed quickly and silently. During a brief but violent struggle all the remaining hide hunters and two of the Lakota warriors were killed. The next morning Caleb helped the warriors burn the wagons and tools he had struggled so long to obtain. He only kept the possibles he needed to survive. Two of the Lakota boys were playing with the white buffalo calf. The threesome was taking turns chasing, catching and butting each other. Caleb thought about inquiring about the fate of the calf but given the language barrier it seemed too difficult a subject. As Caleb was strapping his rifle to the pack mule one of the warriors came over and laid his hand on the rifle butt. Then he pointed to the distant buffalo herd and said "Wakte tantanka woyute lecela" (kill buffalo for food only). Caleb shook his head and said "I am not going to hunt buffalo anymore." The warrior repeated "Wakte tantanka woyute lecela." Maybe it was the kind look on the Lakota's face or the inflection of his voice. Kinda like a father would talk to a child who had been naughty. Caleb slowly realized that the warrior meant that buffalo were food not simply a source of hides. Another one of the Lakota warriors put his hand over his stomach and said "Niye hecha wote" (you have to eat) and laughed. Caleb then knew that the shame was not in the killing of any animal even the buffalo. The shame was in the waste and greed of hide hunting for money.

Caleb mounted his horse and raised his hand to his new Lakota friends. "Thank you" he said. For the Indian boys had saved his life as well as the life of the Tantanka ska. The black faced warrior raised his hand and said "Pilamayaye toksa" (thank you, see you later). Caleb rode off to the southeast. In his mind he remembered Toecutter telling him the story of Tantanka ska. Indeed his life had been changed forever. In one day he went from being a well off hide hunter with a crew to a man alone in the wilderness. He thought that the strangeness of this life is without measure. To save the life of a single buffalo calf he had participated in the death of men he had called his friends. He had burned everything he owned and abandoned a lifestyle and an attitude. That night he dreamed again of Tantanka ska. The white buffalo was standing on a bluff overlooking the great plains. On the plains were strings of wagon trains, settlers moving west. The great white bull shook its head up and down and Caleb knew this was the shape of things to come.

Caleb was a strong man, clear of eye and of proper wit, well suited to the wilderness. In the spring of 1868 he rode into St. Joseph Missouri. Having experienced a spiritual awakening on the great plains he was seeking work that did was more to his liking. Caleb got off of his horse on Charles Street. He looked around and marveled at how little the area had changed. A man dressed in a shirt and trousers of homespun cloth approached him. "Good sir, you look like a man that know the wilderness." the man said. Caleb looked the man over and said "Yes I know the plains." "Well then you are the man we are looking for. I have a wagon train on the other side of the river that needs a guide." Caleb told the man it would be a hard trip. The man said "Sir we are determined to go. Unlimited opportunity awaits us beyond those plains. I have heard a new life awaits us there." Caleb slapped the leg of his dusty leather pants and said "My friend you don't know the half of it.

IHAKE (THE END)