Chapter 80

Jason’s next call was to Austin Manning, the Head of the Tribal Council. As he was dialing, Maddie brought him his tea. “Steady Wind, it’s Longbow. You wanted me to call.”

“I sure did. In light of what’s happening, do we hold off on the property in Globe?”

“Austin, I suspect this could be over much quicker than I ever imagined, so I’d definitely wait until the dust settles. Anything else?”

“I called to some of the neighboring tribes, like you asked, with even more calling me. Have any of them called you?”

“A lot. Yours is just the first of a handful of people expecting a return call. From the response so far it sounds like your efforts were well worth it.”

“Good, then just one final thing. Make sure a provision is in place to return any of our people that were forced to move to places like Oklahoma.”

“That’s a good idea, and where requested by the family or the tribe, the remains of any of our ancestors who were forced off our land should also be returned for a proper burial in tribal lands.”

There were a few additional exchanges, but finally Jason hung up. He looked at the next caller on the list and was very surprised at the identity.

After dialing the number, a man answered, “This is Joe.”

“Hey, Joe. It’s Jason Magill, you wanted me to call?”

“Yes, indeed. We had a meeting of the tribal leaders this afternoon and wanted to know how things would work if your Northern border was extended to the upper end of our reservation?”

‘Damn, Joe, do you realize that move would come close to cutting the United States in half?”

“Well, it’s reservation property now, so it’s not like it’s that usable by the whites. I didn’t see anything from your session with the President that would really take away much from the country. They may lose a few parks, which we’d still allow them to use, and they’d no longer have the obligation to keep paying our expenses. If anything, I’d say they’d come out ahead, financially.”

“You may be right, but why would you want to tie in with us?”

“First, from what I heard today you’ve already taught them more about our people than ‘our great white fathers’ have learned in a hundred and fifty years. Then, when Austin called he said the two magic words, freedom and jobs - jobs that fit our culture, not the white man’s. White man says our culture is raising animals, making beads, and jewelry. You say our culture is family and community oriented, and you’re correct. We want the freedom to make what we want, but to do it our way.”

“You do realize many of those jobs will be manufacturing, and some will even be considered high-tech?”

“We’ve no problem with that. We can be taught, and we already have a lot of our people with college degrees working in other places. We don’t want white man’s charity or values. We do want the freedom to worship in the old ways, to hunt without dealing with fences, and to proudly hold our heads high again. We’re your cousins, and if you let us, the Navajo will work with you to make this new nation a great one.”

“Joe, the thing which would cause me the greatest concern is your population. Your people already greatly outnumber ours, and with the changes that will come this will only increase. There’s no way we could have any sort of representative government and not get overwhelmed by your people. We’d want to be fair, but we’d still have to have the final say on how things are done.”

“Jason, as you reminded the President, the Grant was to your people, and we understand that. We realize the central government would be Apache, and specifically White Mountain Apache, but as long as we’re treated with respect and have enough voice to express concerns or make suggestions, then I think we can find a path to a workable solution. As Austin said this afternoon, we’ve lived far too long under the domination of the white eyes. If we want to live free, there’s no room for tribal strife, distrust, or jealousy.”

“Then tomorrow I’ll advise the President of your desire. Could you send this as a formal request and overnight it to my office?”

“It’s already been done, and for the sake of all our people, let’s hope it falls on fertile ground. If you can, give me a call tomorrow afternoon.”

“I’ll try to do that,” replied a still shocked Jason.

The remainder of the calls Jason had to make were similar in nature. He was sad when he had to tell the leader of the Mescalero Apaches their reservation was just too far away from the Nation, to be incorporated. As an alternative, he did encourage them to relocate to the new Nation somewhere on the west side of the Rio Grande. The tribal leader had no idea how open his people would be to that idea, but he’d present it to them. The Comanche leadership in Oklahoma and Texas wanted to know if there was a place for them, and again they discussed what would be entailed. He was touched by how they responded to just the hope they might again live free. The Lakota Sioux, the Cheyenne, and some of the other tribes of the Northern plains wanted his assistance to try to create a similar nation for them. He promised to try, but, due to the special circumstances of the Grant he didn’t give them a lot of encouragement. He did explain if this was a success, in a few years the Federal Government might be more willing to discuss the matter just to cut costs.

Jason was about halfway through the second group of callers when Maddie announced, “Jason, there’s an Elizabeth Johnson on line three.”

“Thanks, Maddie.”

“Good afternoon, Elizabeth. Thanks for returning my call.”

“Not a problem, Jason, but your wife was concerned about Katrina.”

“Did she give you any information?”

“About what will be happening?”

“Yes.”

“She gave me a pretty detailed summary, and explained your concern. I would just instruct everyone to shield our little one from the events. She doesn’t remember ever seeing Brockman, and she’s shaken off enough of the hypnotic control to know Candice was her real mother, not Connie. She remembers a little of her real mother, but in Katrina’s mind the woman just passed into another phase of existence when she turned her daughter over to Connie.”

“Elizabeth, I think I follow that last part. But how has that passing affected the child?”

“In Katrina’s mind Candice is totally irrelevant - the child couldn’t care less if the woman was dead, or alive. Or, at least that’s the case as long as the woman doesn’t try to re-enter Katrina’s life.”

“So, you don’t see our little one as needing some form of closure?”

“Jason, Katrina received closure when Candice declared Connie was the child’s mother. Hawk, on the other hand, I think will definitely experience a positive effect.”

“OK, then I’ll pass this information on to my friend overseas, and thanks for discussing this with me.”

“Not a problem, Senator, this is about family.”

Jason started to call Prince Rashid, then remembered it was around one am in Dubai. He’d have to call him first thing in the morning, but was a little concerned about timing. Finally, he thought about email and sent his friend a warning to ‘keep the child away from the exhibitions.’

With that all behind him Jason sent Maddie home, and thought about the meeting. He tried to anticipate questions that might be raised by both allies and antagonists. After a few minutes of contemplation and making notes, he called Dan and gave him a list of information he needed for the next morning. Understanding what Jason was doing, Dan promised the information by 0900. After that conversation ended, Jason decided that his day was complete and called Joel for a ride home.

“Jason, meet me at the Second Street Entrance. I’ll be there before you will.”

As Jason approached the designated doorway he was meet by two Capital Hill Policemen. “Senator, we’ve been asked by your driver to give you an escort this evening.”

“But officer, it’s only a few feet.”

“That may be true Sir, but your driver informed us of two suspicious looking vehicles. When we checked the security cameras we found they’d been circling the building for more than two hours.”

“Then lead on.”

The two men bracketed Jason, each with their hands at their holster. They delivered him to Joel, waiting in the h3, and as Joel pulled away from the curb the two men resumed their places near the door. “What was that all about?” asked Jason.

“I hired a couple of out of work guys from the Reston VFW to make waves. After I warned the guards, the guys made one more pass and then went home.”

“And the purpose of this exercise?”

“The security around here was becoming too lax. Considering the bombshell that was dropped on this place last week, and your statements today, I wanted them to be more on their toes.”

“I can’t fault that. But, you know something? I just realized several people have commented about the meeting, this afternoon. Was it being televised on C-Span, or something?”

Joel laughed, “C-Span, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and probably everybody else besides Disney. I think more than half of the country was watching.”

Somewhat shocked at this revelation Jason asked, “What’s been the overall response?”

“It started out moderately favorable, but by the end of the day it had become very favorable. The commentators on the radio have made a big point about your logical and rational approach to the issues. The Conservatives love how you put the President and the Interior Secretary in their place, the answer on socialism has gained you favor with the Democrats, and your discourse on the power of women in Apache Society has made you the ‘darling’ of the feminists.”

“I suspect our favorable rating to go down some in the morning, but hopefully it’ll return by the end of the day. It’s going to be up to the American People whether this goes through, or not.”

“What’s going to happen in the morning?”

“There will be some who’ll attack me to gain points for themselves, and more of the conservatives will come unglued over communal socialism. And finally, this afternoon I returned a call from the leader of the Navajo people. It seems they want to join us in this new nation.”

“What’s the problem with that? It’s just more reservation land that will be involved.”

“Yes, but that reservation land goes all the way to southern Utah and into Colorado.”

“I see where your coming from.” remarked Joel. “That’s a big chunk of this country.”

“Yes, it is. Though I haven’t checked it out mathematically, I suspect it would be slightly larger than the original thirteen states. It also has the potential for nearly cutting the southern part of the western US in half. Of course, with the Interstate System, and guaranteed air corridors the effect will be minimal, but you know how people tend to focus on the extreme possibilities, rather than seeing a more realistic view.”

“That’s true. What will be your strategy to try to offset that?”

“My biggest hope for all this to succeed is the economic impact of no longer having to support these reservations will make the deal very appealing. Remember, not only is there a cost in supporting the reservations, and the people; there’s also the aspect most of the land isn’t currently productive, nor is it included in the local tax base. This means the local governments are having to receive extra funding from the state and the Feds to make up for it.”

By the time Jason reached the farmhouse he was exhausted. He had a quick dinner, warning Joel of an early morning as they both ate. Once the meal was over, Jason checked on his wife, and went to bed.

An hour and a half earlier than normal, Jason rose and prepared for his day. When he stepped into the kitchen he found Genna had buttermilk biscuits baking in the oven, and she was frying thick slices of Virginia cured ham to fill them. The aroma immediately caused Jason’s mouth to water.

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The Hawk and the Chipmunk

Mike Lowe aka The Scot

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