Chapter 71

Big Cloud was worried, "Are you sure that you know what you are doing this time?" Fighting Hawk winked at him, "Yep." Big Cloud breathed a sigh of relief. He was sure that they were all in big trouble, but now he felt that it would still work itself out. "What are you going to do?"

Fighting Hawk smiled and said, "Just what I said that I would do. I'll cut off the finger of every white man that I find in the Cheyenne lands. And, I'll wait. It should take about two weeks to get things straightened out." Big Cloud stared open mouthed at Fighting Hawk, but he had come to trust that when he said that he could do something, he would find a way to make it happen, but he didn't see how this time.

Fighting Hawk turned to the six warriors."I have a special job for you. I want you to ride to every Cheyenne village and find every warrior that followed the Beavers. I want them dead, along with all in their lodge. If you don't feel that you can do that, then bring them to me and I will do what must be done, but I don't want you to miss one warrior. Not like we did Running Bear. I made the mistake of not seeking them out before. We can't afford to miss any of these vermin, or they will rise up again to strike at us when our backs are turned." The young warriors nodded their heads and quickly rode toward the closest village. Fighting Hawk turned to Big Cloud. "As War Chief of the Cheyenne, I submit myself to you. I have just ordered the deaths of women and children. I will await your decision on my punishment." Fighting Hawk turned his horse toward home as the warriors sat and stared after him, and then looked at each other, and then Big Cloud. They saw Big Cloud's face contorted with anger and her rode after Fighting Hawk.

By the time that they got back to the Cheyenne village Big Cloud had calmed down, but Fighting Hawk wasn't speaking to anybody. He went to the lodge of Gray Eagle with Big Cloud and Big Owl following. He sat at the cook fire and coughed respectfully. Water Lilly knew that something was wrong as soon as she saw him. Gray Eagle was quick to sit at the cook fire. He looked at the three of them and frowned, "So what happened this time?" Fighting Hawk waited for Big Cloud to speak.

When Big Cloud realized that Fighting Hawk wasn't talking he grunted and said, "He did it again. We found a warrior named Running Bear at the fort. He was a follower of Bright Beaver. Fighting Hawk administered justice to him. It was very effective for his crimes. Then he sent his warriors to every Cheyenne village to look for any more warriors that he might have missed. He ordered the warrior and all in their lodge killed, or brought to him to be killed. Then he turned himself over to me for justice."

Gray Eagle shook his head and frowned. "What have you decided?" Big Cloud shook his head, "You aren't putting this on just me. But I will say that I would have ordered them to do the same thing that he did. I won't have that problem coming back again in a few years." Gray Eagle nodded his head. "Then we do nothing. If there is a problem at a village, then we will go there and straighten it out. The people know what the Beavers were. Their followers aren't any better. If we have to force them to see it, then we will." Big Cloud nodded his head.

"But it might not make any difference, since Fighting Hawk has declared war on the white man. He said that he would cut off a finger of any white man found on Cheyenne lands, and the next time he would cut their throat. He also made sure to tell them that soldiers were white men, and they could look forward to the same thing." Gray Eagle stared open mouthed at Fighting Hawk, "Have you lost your mind, or is it blinded by hate?

Fighting Hawk leaned back and shook his head, "Nope, nothing like that. They had climbed in the blankets with Bright Beaver, and had broken our agreement. They knew what would happen if they broke our agreement. If I ignored it, then they would do it again whenever they thought that they could get away with it. We had to force the issue, and make them come to us." Gray Eagle nodded that he understood, "But you made it impossible for them to come to us. How can they come to negotiate, if they can't come on our land."

Fighting Hawk smiled, "Oh, I'm sure that they will figure out how to do it." Gray Eagle looked confused, "Well they must be smarter than I am, because I can't figure it out." Fighting Hawk looked at Big Cloud and he shook his head. When he looked at Big Owl, he also shook his head. Fighting Hawk sighed, "You are thinking like an Indian. You have to start thinking like a white man. We look at the valley to the south and see Cheyenne land, but the white man will see another white man's land. A white man that works with the Cheyenne people, the perfect person to act as a go-between; Mr. Tom Sherman." When he looked he saw all three of them smiling as they saw what he had in mind. Fighting Hawk grinned, "So father, what do you want from the Army this time?"

The people involved knew Fighting Hawk and he couldn't play the part, so he pulled Walking Buffalo aside and explained what he needed. He wasn't happy with the idea of playing Tom, but he knew that he had the best chance of pulling it off. A week later he and his women moved into Tom's house. Fighting Hawk was in and out with his regular business and didn't worry too much about when the army would arrive.

It took them another week to show up and Fighting Hawk wondered what took them so long to figure it out. A warrior waiting at Huggins trading post rode hard and got to the valley a full day before the army. Fighting Hawk suggested Tom carry the request for a meeting to the Cheyenne village and the important players would journey to the valley. All agreed and they waited at Gray Eagle's lodge for Tom to show up.

Just before noon the next day Tom rode into the Cheyenne village. He sat and had lunch with the warriors before they all headed back to meet with the Colonel. Fighting Hawk was surprised that the Colonel actually left the fort, but could understand that he wasn't willing to leave this to anyone else.

Tom led the warriors into the valley. When they approached the house Fighting Hawk saw the Colonel and a few other men on the porch. He huffed a few times and Tom wasn't any happier.

When they rode up Tom asked the men what they were doing. The Colonel seemed surprised at his hostility. "We were just trying to engage the women in some conversation. We meant no harm." One of the other officers quickly added, "There are a lot of women in there, they can't all be your women."

Tom looked at the Colonel, "How would you feel about a bullet in your head Colonel? I wouldn't mean any harm by it."

The colonel suddenly realized that he was not on firm ground. He motioned the soldiers off the porch quickly. "My apologies Mr. Sherman, I see that the women that live here are under your protection." Tom wasn't smiling when he said, "Let me explain my position to you clearly Colonel, You have come on my land without permission. You have asked me to carry a message to the Cheyenne for you. While I am gone you tried to force your attentions on the ladies in my house. Is that what they taught you at West Point, Colonel, or have you lived in the wilderness so long that you think if you want something that you can just take it?"

The colonel realized that his actions could be misconstrued in any number of ways, and the picture that Mr. Sherman was painting didn't look pretty. "I'm sorry Mr. Sherman, I didn't realized how this would look to you." Tom huffed, "If any of these fine young men ever come calling again, I will personally kill them. That goes for you too, Colonel. You are no longer welcome on my land. I can see why my Cheyenne neighbors won't allow you on their land either. Decent folks don't allow pigs to run free on their land. I would appreciate you taking your business away from my house, and when it's over, got off my land quickly before I start shooting." Tom climbed down from his horse and led it off toward the barn.

The loud officer was quick to comment, "He didn't have no call to act like that, we was just having a little fun." The colonel looked at the Cheyenne party and noticed that a young warrior was speaking to the Cheyenne leaders. He knew instantly that their every word was being translated. He spoke to the officer, "Captain, move the men well away from Mr. Sherman's house, and keep your mouth shut until I tell you to say something."

As the soldiers were moving away for the house the Colonel whispered to William, "Do the men usually act like that, when they leave the post?" William whisper back, "Yep, and most times worse."

The Colonel shook his head, "No wonder everybody hates us. I can't believe that I was a party to that." William grinned, "Yep, it's easy to do when you stop thinking. But now you had better start doing some serious thinking." William nodded to the Cheyenne warriors, "You see that man sitting beside Fighting Hawk? That's Gray Eagle, Chief of the Cheyenne Nation. You got all the leaders of the Cheyenne here; Chief, War Chief and the Spirit Walker. I'd be real careful what you say here today."

The Colonel looked surprised as he looked at William, "But they told us he was dead." William frowned, "Yep, and we did just like Fighting Hawk said, we didn't check a thing. We heard what we wanted to hear, and jumped on the wagon with them. Now we are paying the price."

The Colonel didn't look happy when Fighting Hawk lightly dropped to the ground and was followed by each of the other leaders. They quickly settled on the ground in a prearranged position, with the other warriors arranged behind them. The Colonel whispered to William, "Looks like we have our work cut out for us." William shook his head, "Not we Colonel, you. I've already made my mistakes, and I'm leaving this all up to you. I'm just the translator here."

The Colonel noticed the young warrior was positioned between Gray Eagle and Fighting Hawk and knew that they had their own translator. He sat stiffly on the ground facing the Cheyenne Leaders. He wanted to get the misunderstanding out of the way first. "We were told that Gray Eagle was dead, and that Bright Beaver was the new Cheyenne Chief. I am glad that Gray Eagle is still the Chief of the Cheyenne. We have worked well together in the past."

William translated the words. The soldiers had no way of knowing that all of the Cheyenne leaders could speak English, Big Owl was just rambling and pointing out little things that they might have missed, and making it look like he was translating. Gray Eagle saw the sweat on the Colonel's face and knew it for what it was.

All three leaders of the Cheyenne suddenly stood and faced the house. The Colonel looked to see Tom walking back from the barn on his way to the house. Once he was inside, they all sat back down. The Colonel looked at William and he whispered, "It is a show of respect. I think that you might have just pissed off the only man that might have had some sway over these men. It was a deep hole we were in, and I think that it just got deeper."

Gray Eagle spoke, "Bright Beaver had dreams of becoming Chief of the Cheyenne. He was a traitor to his people and all of those that followed him, have followed him to the Great Spirit. The only warrior still alive is the one that you saved. I hope that you understood the message that we sent."

The Colonel had started to learn Cheyenne, but wasn't good enough to understand everything. He waited for William to translate for him. "Yes, we understood the message, no eyes, no ears and no tongue. It was very clear. The young warrior killed himself later that night."

Fighting Hawk waited for the translation before he snorted, "I didn't think that he had that much courage, or maybe he had a little help, since he wasn't of any use to you anymore." The Colonel quickly saw that things were worse than he thought.

The Colonel was quick to get things moving again. He desperately wanted to change the subject. "It was all just a misunderstanding. I'm sure that we can get things worked out. I'm sure that there were mistakes made on both sides." Fighting Hawk snarled, "Do you remember what I said I would do when there was war?" Fighting Hawk looked at the colonel, and there was no mistaking his meaning.

The Colonel nodded his head. Fighting Hawk leaned forward and looked hard at the Colonel, "I have killed every Beaver in the Cheyenne nation, starting with Bright Beaver. I mean that I killed the men, women and children. There will be no more Beavers in the Cheyenne nation. Then I killed every warrior that followed him, and I killed every man, woman and child in the lodge of any that followed him. I did this to the Cheyenne people, what do you think I will do the white people in our lands? During a war, leaving survivors is leaving enemies to come back and try to kill you again. We will bleed the white man until the rivers run red and the valleys are filled with his dead bodies, then we will make the plains look like the buffalo hunters work, with the rest of them. Will we die? Yes, but we will kill so many of you that you will be a nation of widows and orphans." Gray Eagle raised his hand and Fighting Hawk stopped. His anger was barely contained as he looked at the Colonel with hate filled eyes.

The Colonel shrank back from the young warrior as William finished translating his words. Gray Eagle spoke softly, "You have aligned yourself with a traitor and I'm afraid that he feels strongly about traitors." The Colonel nodded vigorously that he agreed with Gray Eagle. "But what he says is true, too. You were warned what would happen if you broke the agreement, and you have broken the agreement. Fighting Hawk calls for the blood of every white man. The War Chief, Big Cloud, counsels that we should try again since Bright Beaver led you away with his lies. I wait to see who will sway my hand."

William was furiously whispering in the Colonel's ear. When he was finished the Colonel was shaking as he looked at Gray Eagle. He knew that this was the only chance for any of them. The fire in Fighting Hawk's eyes burned like the fervor of religion, and he knew that the young warrior could pull every Indian nation within a thousand miles to his cause. The Indians didn't need reasons to hate the white man, and one zealot with a powerful personality and the artful use of words could unite the all of the Indian nations under his leadership.