Wanted

Chapter 34

They arrived down at Walls's ranch the next day in the late afternoon. Enkoodabooaoo as planned stayed back in the cabin minding the horses and with the dog for company. He was to take turns with Matunaagd every so often once most of the crop harvest was done. He was too old for that kind of work, he told them, even though everyone knew he did not believe it himself. He wanted to see how it was done alright but simply didn't fancy having to do it himself.

They'd all been somewhat nervous, and years later Walls confessed that as soon as they had left Jeremiah's ranch that day of the picnic, they had started to wonder if they maybe had made a mistake when they invited them all to stay with them and do the harvesting together. 

The afternoon had gone so well, that they never even considered the possibility that things could go awry. But no sooner had they left, all they could think of were the horrific stories they had heard about the natives. In all the years, the only first-hand witness account of an encounter with a real-life Indian that wasn't negative, was their own and Jeremiah's encounter with Enkoodabooaoo. Everyone else had described them as either, dim-witted and blood thirsty savages, or shrewd and blood thirsty salvages, but always blood thirsty and always savages. Granted this was not the impression Jeremiah's friends had made on them but nevertheless prejudice was not something that could be wiped out in a few hours over a picnic on a sunny day.

Occasionally Walls had bought one of the bigger newspapers that were brought in from the East. Always already a few weeks or sometimes even months old, they at times portraited a different picture of the natives, which he didn't completely understand or believe in either, but which intrigued him. It made him think and didn't allow him to be entirely blind to the injustice of the fact that he had been allowed to legally buy land that was illegally taken from the Indian tribes.

Walls however, could not fully understand why this land was so important to the Indians, and why they hadn't sold it willingly in the first place or where it was sold, why they now felt it was stolen from them. He did not understand any of it. As far as he could see, they had made no use of it, not properly anyhow, not the way he thought God had told them to make use of it.

There was so much of it. He couldn't understand why they fought them back so vehemently. Did they not bring the word of God and a more advanced and thus much better way of living to the West? 'Why did they not just raise their livestock and grow crops like the rest of the human race. There was no need to follow the buffalo herd around and travel from place to place like a gypsy?' Walls thought.

In his ignorance, Walls believed reservations only existed because the Indians where hostile towards settlers who wanted nothing more than raise their families in peace and make use of the fertile land of which there was more than enough for everyone. Settlers were ordinary farmers like him and knew nothing of soldiering. They were not the ones who were at war with the Indians. They could have happily coexisted and taught the natives better ways if only they'd let them.

He claimed to mourn the fact that the buffalo was gone just as much as the Indians did and blamed those who terminated them on the plight that had now befallen the natives as a people but could not see the relationship with their extinction with him being there. 

Walls was steeped in the conviction that he belonged to the good people who meant the natives no harm. He even considered that maybe the buffalo being gone could be seen as a good thing, divine intervention so to speak, showing them that building towns and houses, staying in the one place all year round is a much more practical and healthier way of life. 

Of course, he disagreed with them being left to starve, or giving inadequate handouts, and pushed back into infertile lands. He wasn't completely naïve. He didn't understand all of that has happened to them and why and who exactly was to blame, but he understood that there were greedy people at play who did not care, and that the government only pretended to do their bit. He however was a good man, he was ready to share both his knowledge and his table, despite being scared.