Chapter 17: Starting A Family

DM, PW, and Hawk were kneeling naked with Hawk in the middle, DM on her left and PW on her right. I suspected something was wrong as they all looked like they had been caught doing something naughty.

I smiled and asked what they needed. Together they said, “we ALL are with child.” I hugged them all and told them how happy I was to become a father. They were afraid I would be angry since we had not discussed children.

The next morning, they were proudly walking around getting breakfast for me and themselves. Finally White Eagle asked what had happened that I had my wives so excited today. Golden Hawk answered, having guessed that they were going to have babies. White Eagle then looked at me and asked if I had planned for this or if the squaws allowed themselves to be with child.

I said that it did not matter as I was proud to be a father and would do my best to be a great father.

I then asked Hawk if there was anything we might need to buy from town to make this safer and better for them.

Hawk said that we had everything we would need, then added that more flour, rice, sugar, beans, and most importantly coffee would always be a good thing to get. That made me ask about the coffee stores and I was shocked to find that there was only about three pounds of coffee beans left.

I suggested a trip to town tomorrow. Hawk asked where my coins were. I said they are where I always keep them. I had an ammo can that I had used to keep my collection of Gold and Silver Eagle coins; I had collected 757 Gold Eagles and 1093 Silver Eagles. Hawk told me the can was empty.

Had I spent that much money without realizing it? I checked my leather pouch and had 3 gold eagles and 5 silver eagles. That would not buy much. I had to think about this for a moment.

I knew where gold deposits had been found in my time and was wondering if there would be gold here in the same place in this time. White Eagle asked what I was thinking as he could tell I was deep in thought after hearing what Hawk had said.

I truthfully told him that I might know where gold might be found. I explained that in my place there had been gold found near here and there might be gold here too. He quickly agreed it was important to check this out. He understood the importance of gold to the white man and our need of it for buying supplies.

The next morning after breakfast White Eagle, Golden Hawk, Two Bears, Soft Rabbit, Big River, Blue Sky, Far Runner, Swift Water, my wives, and I rode out toward an area half a day’s ride from our camp where I suspected we could find gold.

There was a small river, more like a creek that gold had been found in my time. With any luck there would be gold here too. We got to the creek just after lunch time. We settled for a cold lunch of dried bread and jerky. It only took a couple of hours before we were successful in finding gold.

Not a lot, but the nuggets we were finding were easily pea size or smaller. We also collected about a handful of gold dust too. All together I was guessing about three pounds. This would be about $840 or 42 gold eagles worth.

It was too late to head back to camp so we decided to just sleep here and return in the morning.

Since we had not brought tarps or skins for cover, we just slept in our bedrolls snuggled together for warmth. The fact that everyone brought their squaw everyone slept fine. My group had the four of us to snuggle together with and made for a pleasant night’s sleep.

The next morning while the women made breakfast, the men were able to find more gold bringing our grand total to about $1000 worth. We all decided that only our group would know about this site and only with permission would some of our group come out and gather more gold.

The story would be that we traded with other Indians that used it for jewelry and such not understanding its value to the white man. We traded fairly with the Indians in hopes of further trades at later dates.

Keeping this a secret would prevent or delay a gold rush into the area. That was something I explained to everyone here. Sooner or later, someone would find gold and the gold rush would be on. If we could get ahead of this, we might be able to prevent unneeded deaths and fighting.

DM the youngest one here asked why we didn’t just move our camp to where the gold was. There was fresh water from the creek, different game animals a plenty, in fact there was a meadow right off the creek that would be perfect for our camp. She continued saying that with our camp here nobody else could find the gold.

White Eagle smiled and took a feather from his headband and called Dark Mood to him. Cutting a piece of leather and tying it to the feather then tying the feather to her hair. This was very high praise. All my other wives could not wait to hug her. She just stood there crying. Golden Hawk hugged her and said that it was very important for the women to help the men realize what needs to be done, then she laughed. Everyone laughed with her. I congratulated DM on her reward for pointing out the obvious.

When we returned to camp, White Eagle called for the entire camp, including the other two tribes to gather. He announced that the entire camp would be moving. He explained why this was needed and how it could be good for everyone but could also cause serious trouble. We would not be able to hide the gold now that we were moving to the site. White Eagle and Golden Hawk stressed the importance of not talking about the gold to anyone.

So, two days later the entire camp moved. I did not realize that I was very powerful, rich, brave. I have 23 horses, 3 mules, 1 donkey, 4 dogs, and my three beautiful mothers to be. I decided to move the weapons from the fort as soon as we had established the new camp.

I did not want to have an issue once gold was discovered, or we revealed having gold and the COL being put in a position where he could not release the weapons to us any longer. I was hoping that we could avoid any problems with honesty.

I would say that we were going to move our camp to an area that would allow more tribes to join us. I also hinted (kind of a white lie) that I would be taking some weapons to the Blackfeet and Cherokee for tribes that were going to join together.

Golden Hawk and my wives wanted to go to town to shop. White Eagle sent Running Deer, Sitting Buck, Big Sky, and Fast Runner with me to watch over them and the gold we had collected. We rode into town just in time for lunch. I asked if everyone would like to eat at the Hawthorne shop. I made the suggestion we get the order to go and eat like a picnic or as we did at our camp. Everyone thought that was a great idea so we asked to use the area behind their store.

When I explained what we had in mind, Margret immediately saw the potential to expand the eatery during good weather. She told Thomas to get some tables and benches made as soon as possible. I just shrugged my shoulders and apologized to Thomas. Theodore just laughed so hard he fell down.

Annette agreed with her mother and told Theodore to stop horsing around and help get the tables and benches made. We had just finished eating when I heard a commotion coming from the wagon train we had helped. People were shouting back and forth.

Being the nosy type I wandered over with Hawk, DM and PW following me. The wagons were more of a box than a circle since there were only eight wagons. At one of the corners, there was a gathering and that is where the yelling was coming from.

Lenard Newsome had one of his women, naked, almost hanging from her wrists which were tied with ropes pulled over the top of his snake charmer wagon. He was in a heated argument with several others, as it appeared he intended to whip the woman, since he was holding a bull whip. I had Hawk go ask the other women what was going on while I got closer to the argument.

Lenard was being yelled at by two men from the wagon train. What I heard was that Fred Morris and Allen Jones did not want Lenard to whip the woman in public, in fact they felt whipping a woman was just wrong.

Lenard was telling them to mind their own business, as he could do whatever he pleased with his indentured servants.

Hawk came next to me and was very angry. She told me that Lenard had demanded Kristy sleep with him last night. She refused and again this morning when Lenard demanded sex from her again. He told her if she did not have sex with him, he would whip her until she begged to have sex with him.

I knew the law was on Lenard’s side, but I also knew that whipping a woman in public, a white woman on top of it would not go over well with the townspeople.

Sheriff Riker showed up and was having a heated talk with Lenard.

I heard the end of the talk as both began to shout.

Sheriff Riker said he would arrest Lenard if he whipped a white woman regardless of her status.

Lenard said he could do as he wished with his property and would call the soldiers if Riker tried to arrest him.

I thought of one way that could end this situation and called out to Lenard asking him to tell me how much the woman owed on her indenture.

Lenard told me to mind my own business. Sheriff Riker said he needed to provide proof of indenture if he planned to whip a white woman. Lenard opened his leather pouch and took out a folded paper, handed it to Sheriff Riker and sneered at me.

Sheriff Riker read the paper and said that both woman were indentured at $20 each. I asked how much they were earning daily or monthly. Kristy had twisted around facing away from the wagon which caused her arms to cross behind her head. She shouted that he was charging them for their food and other expenses, which was against indentured law.

I took out two gold eagles and tossed them to the ground in front of Lenard and Sheriff Riker saying their indenture was paid in full. Sheriff Riker smiled and said to release the woman.

Lenard said he would not accept the money and just take his property and leave immediately.

Sheriff Riker pulled his pistol and said that would be considered kidnapping and he would shoot a kidnapper on the spot.

Wilma, the older of the two, had already started to untie Kristy.

Ellan Jones had sent her daughter Nattilee to the fort for help. CSM Gordon, CPT Olsen, 1SG Brown, and PVTs Straw and Rose came with her just as Lenard made the comment.

CSM Gordon interrupted saying that if Mr. Newsome came to the fort saying what he heard him say ... He paused, shaking his head, then continued saying Mr. Newsome would most certainly have been arrested or at the least have his indentured servants removed. CSM Gordon then advised Lenard to pick up the gold eagles and leave the area as fast as he could because when he reported this incident to COL McBride, he was positive the COL would want to have a very long talk with Lenard.

CSM Gordon then made a point to check with everyone from the wagon train and gave Mr. Quincy Anderson strong advice on proper care of slaves. He even suggested either moving on or releasing the slaves, as it was not accepted, or even barely tolerated in these parts.

As a parting insult Newsome refused to give the women anything, leaving them naked as he drove his wagon away.

Hawk took my coin pouch and marched both of them back to the store and got them clothing that matched what she and my other wives were wearing. A denim-like blouse, deerskin vest, knee-high moccasins, and the leather pants-skirt that looked like a skirt but was split in the middle with denimlike cloth sewn in to make them like pants. This allowed a woman to ride a saddle without having to bunch up a skirt or dress, or ride side-saddle.

This made me wonder if I was in trouble or as I suspected about to inherit two more wives as Hawk handed my pouch back, now with only 1 gold eagle and two silver eagles. Wilma and Kristy were just a few steps behind her. Wilma was the first to speak. She thanked me for buying her indentured and asked what she would be doing. Kristy quickly added that she also wanted to thank me and was curious as well.

Hawk giggled as did my other two wives who had just walked up to our little group.

I threw a seriously stern look at my wives, which only made them start laughing. This confused both Wilma and Kristy even more. I then said that I suspected my three wives were conspiring to get me two helpers as all three are pregnant. They know I don’t believe in slavery and indentured service is just another form or slavery in my mind.

Wilma smiled and said she was a midwife and could help with the births. Kristy said she was a schoolteacher, the town she was supposed to work at had a run of Smallpox and Typhoid causing a ghost town with no job. She ended up indentured rather than becoming a lady entertainer. Wilma added that her husband got both of them in debt and then killed himself leaving the debt to her. Everything she owned was sold to paid back the debt including her indentured status.