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Eagle's Wish
Eagle's Wish
Eagle's Wish
Ebook259 pages4 hours

Eagle's Wish

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The story of Carrie Ashton continues as the Comanche band she is now part of struggles to remain free as the white man wants to push all Native American people onto reservations and take the land for themselves.
As the soldiers attack and destroy the Comanche camps; food sources become scarce as buffalo hunters decimate one of the main Comache resources, and the white man moves westward, Carrie, now known as Blue Eyes, fights to keep her family together.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherEvelyn Grant
Release dateAug 17, 2012
ISBN9781476049779
Eagle's Wish
Author

Evelyn Grant

Evelyn Grant lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband. She enjoys writing, photography, woodworking and other crafts. Evelyn has dozens of stories in her head and they are all begging to be told. Her first book, Captive Hearts, was published in 2011 as a Kindle ebook and on Smashwords. The sequel, Eagle's Wish was published in February, 2012. There are now six books in the Captive Hearts Series. She welcomes your reviews and comments.

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    A great historical book that tells of some of the ways that the Indians had to live
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Eagle's Wish - Evelyn Grant

Eagle’s

Wish

By

Evelyn Grant

Copyright 2012 by Evelyn Grant

Smashwords Edition

Electronic Edition

Copyright © 2012 by Evelyn Grant

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

CHAPTER ONE

Her eyes opened suddenly and she wondered what had awoken her. She reached out her hand to touch Eagle, but the space beside her was empty. Then Blue Eyes remembered that Eagle had gone hunting. So what had made her wake up? She turned her head to look where her son was sleeping and saw that Gray Cloud had propped himself up on one elbow. She could see that her five year old son was listening intently.

Then she felt the vibration of the ground beneath her. Horses, lots of them, coming fast. The men wouldn’t be returning like this in the middle of the night unless they thought the camp was being attacked. It was too many horses to be the hunting party returning. It must be soldiers coming!

Blue Eyes quickly rose and told Gray Cloud he must run to the caves. She handed him some pemmican wrapped in a skin and he snatched up his small bow and quiver of arrows. They were ready and knew what to do in case of an attack. Quickly, she lifted up the rear bottom edge of the lodge so the boy could slip out.

Go quickly, Blue Eyes urged Gray Cloud. Hide in the caves with the others and I will be there soon.

Mother, Gray Cloud asked, Aren’t you coming with me?

I will find you. First I must go help Owl Woman and Deer. Deer is big with child and will not be able to move quickly. I will find you. Go now!

Blue Eyes ran to Deer’s lodge, it was just next to her own. Owl Woman was sleeping in Deer’s lodge while the men were gone in case Deer went into labor. The camp was in chaos, women shouting for their children to run to the caves as they grabbed what food and robes they could carry. They knew the soldiers would likely burn the camp. There were other items of food and clothing already hidden in the caves in preparation for such an attack. They had been through these attacks before. But the caves were small, too small to be used as shelter for more than a very short time.

Deer was already awake when Blue Eyes burst into her tepee. She was struggling to stand up. Her time was very near now. Blue Eyes helped her while Owl Woman grabbed what she could and then the three women left Deer’s lodge together, moving as fast as Deer could walk, climbing up the hill behind the camp to hide with the others.

Blue Eyes turned around to look at the camp. People were still trying to take what they could carry. The old men of the band were standing ready to fight while the women and children ran to hide. Younger men, what few had not gone with the hunting party, were also ready to meet the soldiers. They would fight and hold off the soldiers as long as they could and then they too would run and hide. They would run in the opposite direction of where the women and children were hidden to lure the soldiers away. Blue Eyes turned away from the camp; some of those men would die tonight.

In the caves and hidden behind the scrub brush, they waited. They could hear the sounds of the battle, the firing of the soldiers’ rifles and pistols. Some of the Comanche men had guns as well, but ammunition was hard to come by and they relied more on their arrows. At least until the enemy was too close, and then they had to use guns or run.

After some time, the noise was less and they could hear several horses riding away. But still some soldiers remained in the camp. Blue Eyes wondered what they were doing. She didn’t smell smoke, so they hadn’t started a fire to burn the camp. She could hear their voices talking and laughing.

Sunrise came, and still the soldiers remained in the camp. Were they waiting for the people to come back to their lodges? The Comanche waited in the caves until after the sun was straight above them. The camp was quiet now; they had heard no noise for a few hours.

A few of the older boys went stealthily down the hill to make sure it was safe. One of them came running back to tell them all was clear, they could go back down to the camp. Nothing was burned; the lodges had only been knocked down.

The camp was a shambles. Not one lodge was still standing, all had been knocked down and many were slashed. The wounded men were taken care of first. There were loud sobs as a few men were found dead. They were moved until the camp could be put in order and then they would bury the bodies. They had died a warrior’s death, the most honorable way for a Comanche to die.

The families of the dead howled and cried, they slashed their arms and cut off their braids in grief. Blue Eyes was crying as she went through the camp to help the wounded.

As the people went to their lodges and began the process of setting them up again, they saw numerous slashes the soldiers had done with their swords. A few lodge poles had been broken and would need to be replaced. Cooking pots that had stew simmering before the raid were now all turned over.

Once the lodges were erected again and they went inside to straighten their belongings, the people saw more damage. Buffalo robes had also been slashed, and every leather box, bag, or other container of food had been urinated on, destroying the food. Sleeping areas had been urinated on as well. Other personal belongings had been strewn about, some slashed and cut to ribbons.

Blue Eyes was one of the more fortunate ones. None of her lodge poles had been broken and the lodge cover had only two long slashes and several small holes that looked as though a soldier had repeatedly stabbed his sword into the lodge cover. She could patch the cover; it was easily salvageable with a little work. The pemmican she had stored in a leather box was ruined along with the box it was stored in. The buffalo robe on her son’s sleeping area was not slashed, but soaked with urine.

Deer was not so lucky. She had several broken poles and could not erect her lodge before replacing them. Owl Woman offered Deer the poles from her own lodge since she was sleeping in Deer’s lodge. Deer was in no condition for the strenuous work involved in setting up the lodge. Blue Eyes and Owl Woman did it for her while Deer kept an eye on Gray Cloud and some other young children.

The women all took their robes and clothing to the river to wash out the urine. This was a grueling process, the buffalo robes were heavy and when wet it was almost impossible for a woman to lift alone. They worked together for the rest of the day, spreading out the clean robes and clothing to dry in the sun. The only clean, dry robes in the camp were ones that people grabbed when they ran to the caves.

The children were sent to collect firewood. Many lodges would have only their fires to keep them warm until the heavy buffalo robes were dry. The evening meal consisted only of whatever pemmican had been stored in the caves or had been taken as the people fled their lodges.

Hard times for The People would continue, Blue Eyes thought. She hoped the men would be successful in their hunting and return with food and hides.

Eagle stood high on an outcropping of rock looking down at the white settlement. Last year there had been nothing but open land here. Now there were a couple of buildings and dozens of tents. He wondered if the white men would ever stop coming. Surely by now there were not very many left in the east. And probably none at all in the land over the big water that Blue Eyes had told him about.

The men had returned from hunting only to find their camp had been attacked yet again. This time the soldiers had not burned everything, but they had ruined the food and damaged many lodges, and killed some of the old men who tried to defend the camp. Fortunately the hunt had gone well. The men had returned with plenty of food and several hides.

Eagle wondered where he could move his small band to now. Space was running out. There were white settlements everywhere. If he took his band down off the Staked Plains they would run into whites every day. The Staked Plains was the only place left where the white man had not intruded, at least not to set up any villages. The blue coats came and raided whenever they could find a Comanche village. Especially if the warriors were out hunting and the village had only women and old men in it. Palo Duro Canyon was their last refuge. Only there could they still find relative peace for their camps and have someplace to run and hide should they be attacked.

Hunting was difficult. There were hardly any buffalo left. The white buffalo hunters had slaughtered millions of buffalo for the hides. They left the meat to rot. Other game was scarce, too. The women and children in his band were thin. His own son, at just five summers, had lost most of the pudginess that small children normally have. His beautiful wife had dark circles under her eyes and she was so skinny her bones sometimes poked him when he made love to her. Always she waited to eat until Gray Cloud and Eagle were finished with their food. Eagle often left a small amount of food in his bowl knowing she would eat it if she thought he had had enough.

Last summer a second child was to have been born but Blue Eyes miscarried in February. Eagle was sure it was because there had not been enough food to get through the winter. That was the year that the soldiers surprised the band by attacking in the dead of winter. The men had been far away trying to find some game. The young boys and old men had fought valiantly while the women and small children ran to hide in the surrounding brush and canyons. The soldiers had destroyed all the food they could find, torched the lodges, and killed many of the men and boys who tried to defend their camp.

Since then, nothing had improved. The summer following that attack had been spent almost constantly on the move. It seemed every time they tried to settle down for a few days to replenish supplies and tan some hides, the soldiers would find them and attack. When winter had come there was no big winter camp. They couldn't risk so many people being together again where the soldiers could attack. So this past winter had been spent much like the summers; always on the move, never staying in one place very long. They did not move quite as often, but at least once a month.

There was a shortage of everything. Food was scarce, warm robes were needed; many people had to share lodges with relatives who lost their lodge in an attack. Now it was July of 1865. Eagle didn't know what else he could do to keep his band safe other than to stay in Palo Duro Canyon and keep moving. Most of the other bands had gone to the reservation at Fort Sill, but Eagle refused to go. He was determined to remain free. Though after this latest attack, Eagle was not sure how much longer that would be possible.

Eagle’s band joined another band. Other small bands came and joined them. Soon the band had grown to nearly a hundred families. Seen from a distance the camp looked like a camp of The People used to look. But once you were inside the camp it was obvious that times were not good. The People were thin and wore ragged clothing. The children were not as rowdy as children should be. The lodges were run down with holes in the hides and worn spots from the lodge poles rubbing against the skins. The camp dogs were skin and bones, they lay listlessly in the dust.

The men went out on raids but often came back empty handed. They hunted but rarely found more than a few rabbits or other small game to add to the cooking pots.

There were so many white villages now that it was becoming more and more dangerous to leave the Staked Plains. Not that the Staked Plains were so safe, even Palo Duro Canyon was not safe. White soldiers came up and raided camps constantly. They killed warriors and rounded up the old people, women, and children to take to Fort Sill.

The soldiers tore down the lodges and set fire to them. They urinated in the food supply, turned over cooking pots, and destroyed everything they could find, and drove away any horses that were in the camp.

The band now remained deep in Palo Duro Canyon. There were not enough warriors to defend this larger camp, yet it was also more dangerous for smaller bands to be alone. They saw few white men here and that was the way Eagle liked it. They would winter together even though there would be severe shortages of food and robes.

Eagle would prefer to keep his small band on the move rather than stay with the larger band. But he had to take into consideration all the people in his band. While they might be able to avoid the soldiers easier as a smaller band, they would not have the man power to defend the band against the soldiers.

Gray Cloud was terribly thin and Blue Eyes had just informed him the previous night that she was pregnant again. It would be hard enough on her with the little food they would have. Frequent moving would surely cause her to miscarry again.

Blue Eyes was happy when Eagle told her of his decision to stay with the larger band for the winter. The larger camp made her feel safer and she did not want to be moving every three or four weeks like they did last winter. She knew that food would be scarce, but that was nothing new. Lately food was scarce all year round. Hopefully, if she didn't have to work too much this winter, if she could eat enough, her new baby would be born healthy in the spring.

She briefly wondered where Whip Harding was. It had been more than four years since she last saw him. He and his friends had come the spring when Gray Cloud was one year old and that was the last they had seen of each other. Blue Eyes wondered if Whip had finally given up on her returning to the white world with him or if something had happened to him.

Ten years ago Blue Eyes had been twelve year old Carrie Ashton. She and her parents were part of a wagon train heading for California. She and Whip Harding, who was one of the scouts for the wagon train, were the only two survivors of a brutal massacre when the Comanche attacked. Whip and Carrie were headed back to Fort Dodge when a small group of Comanche attacked them again. Whip had been shot with an arrow and left for dead. Carrie Ashton had been taken captive and given to Eagle’s sister until she was old enough for Eagle to marry her.

Carrie had become Blue Eyes. Eagle’s sister, Owl Woman, had adopted Blue Eyes and taught her the Comanche language and their way of life. Early in her time with the Comanche, Blue Eyes had tried to escape and had been recaptured. She had begged Eagle to let her return to the white settlements. But Eagle wanted her for his wife and he would not let her go.

Blue Eyes sighed and tried to get her mind back on the small rabbit hide she was working on. She was tired and hungry. So much work to do, and not enough food to eat. They had barely enough robes to keep warm during the coming winter. Because of the shortage of sleeping robes, Gray Cloud would sleep between her and Eagle for warmth on the coldest nights.

Their lodge was pieced together from old hides. Trader blankets had been stitched to the lodge cover in several places to fill holes. Blue Eyes has sewn patches of deer hide on the slashes made in the last attack. The lodge didn't keep out the wind like it should. The smoke hole was too big and there was not enough material to close it down so too much heat from the fire was lost. Their old lodge had been burned last winter in an attack. This one was smaller and in disrepair.

Even with all these troubles and the lack of enough food, if Whip Harding were to show up now and ask her if she would leave with him, Blue Eyes would say no. There was no way she would leave Eagle. Despite her attempt at escape and her early desire to return to white civilization, she had grown to love Eagle, and she knew that Eagle loved her. She loved her Comanche family and her life; she had no desire to return to the white world.

Things would improve. The soldiers would stop attacking, the buffalo would come back, and life would be good again.

CHAPTER TWO

The band enjoyed a mild winter. The snows were not too heavy, the temperatures were bearable. Best of all, Eagle and his hunting party had returned early in December with several deer.

Food was rationed carefully. Pemmican was made and kept in smaller storage containers so if the camp should be attacked and had to be quickly abandoned everyone could grab a small food container and still have food while they hid. Small caches of food and other necessities were hidden in nearby canyons.

While there certainly was no over abundance of food, no one went hungry. Blue Eyes could feel the new baby growing within her. The child was actively kicking and moving. It was early February now and Blue Eyes knew her baby would be born healthy in just a few more months.

Eagle had gone with a hunting party to find food. They would try and steal some cattle from an outlying ranch and drive them back to the camp. They would not kill any white people unless necessary, for they knew to do so would only bring the soldiers after them.

The hunting party rode for two days before finding a small herd of cattle. The cattle were far from the main ranch house though Eagle could see the house. There was a much smaller building nearer to the cattle with smoke coming from the chimney. Eagle knew the white man often built a small dwelling for one or two men to be near the cattle. He was not concerned that the few men who were in the small house would keep the hunting party from taking what they needed.

We will wait until the moon rises, he told his companions. Then, while the white men in the small building sleep, we will take what we need.

One of the men, Horse Back, replied, We can go now, kill the white men, count coup, and take the whole herd. There are not more than fifty head. Our camp will have food for the rest of the winter.

No, we will not kill any whites if we can avoid it. Eagle said. The blue coats will come looking for us if we kill, but for a few cattle they will not chase us. We do not need the whole herd, winter will be over soon.

Horse Back sneered as he said, You have become soft, Eagle. You are afraid to fight the white man. Is it your white woman that causes you to not want to fight?

Eagle’s first impulse was to attack Horse Back for his words. But he knew Horse Back spoke mainly out of envy. Eagle had seen Horse Back watching Blue Eyes as she went about her daily chores. Horse Back had lost his wife last summer when she died giving birth to a sickly child who also died soon after it was born.

I promise you, Horse Back, we will fight the white man in the spring and summer. But we are here now only for the purpose of bringing food back to camp for our people.

Horse Back had nothing further

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