Chapter 16

There was a lot going on, a bit more than I ever suspected. Soaring Eagle seemed to be affected the least, meybe she knew something no one else did; given more thought maybe Ma did too. The rest of us NADA.

Sgt Williams and Sue were now the subjects of most new palaver, at least for a while. Them Sioux had Soaring Eagle to rely on, Ghosts, well I guess me was all they had, well, me and Soaring Eagle.

The Commanche, they really had nobody. For as long as anybody here could remember, no one wasin-charge of them. Kiowa, Sioux, all the other tribes around here had a chief or two; not them.

In a way that worked out good for us. With food, water, green grass, shelter and that thing called HOPE, several hundred made what was left of Soaring Eagle’s tribe a real, going concern, soon to be growing.

Wasit easy? you ask. Well, not a first. As the wives took over it became like falling off logs. No one hd ever treated an Injun, human-like. At first, their living together was what it was. It took an ‘incident’ to begin to change that.

A bunch of ‘no-accounts’ from Dallas way(Ex Blue-bellies probably) decided they wanted what we had for themselves. Now I’m not saying that was the sole reason things changed, but it started things.

Them Ghost Warriors were, well like everwhere on the ranch or wherever Soaring Eagle went. Me, not so much. Where they went, a dozen or three Commanche followed. A .44 Henry often got mis-placed a time or two. The Ghosts took to them Winchester .45’s.

Given on a horse, ‘our’ team out road, out shot and out anything else them miscreants attacking us could muster. It became a ‘rumor’ of sorts that attacking us was a form of suicide maybe. A drover soon had a companion watching over them. That, in itself was huge. To make things simpler, most of our land became a ‘no-go’ zone to any and all who meant us harm. US meaning us, white eye or indian.

I’m not saying the Red-man became something else, just that in our neck of the woods, we became our own little tribe. People that are fed, feel safe and live on good land change somehow. No, not farmers or even drovers but in the future time, one might say there was a divsion of responsibility all followed.

The result was, we grew; the horses and cattle grew and everyone benefit from it. When the striff between the Redman and white came, our little place(by Texas standards) seemed to miss all that tussel. By count, 1,200 more ‘wranglers’(Commanche and some more Kiowa) appeared to protect our border. I don’t know for certain but them Army troops must have figured it best to leave us be.

We no longer had much of a problem with rustlers.

Not much logs or wood to speak of, however a General’s tent, put together like were a Hell of a lot better than what many had. Just saying, one hand washes the other. Rifles and DA’s(Double action revolvers) trumped a bow and arrow sometimes. Our ‘Mexican bandit’ problems were greatly reduced, at least up to Waco they were.

Beyond there, it was an on-again, off-again kind of thing until 1871-1875. Most Commanche went on a resevation. We had our own kind of place a ‘friend’ could settle. To this very day there is a bitter taste left as to what was done. The Caddos indian tribe might have been a model our people followed.