Chapter 12

It was near three months since getting home. More whites were moving west and the Indians were being pushed farther west too. The buffalo was being killed for its hide as buffalo robes were in high demand. I felt that if the killing of the buffalo was not stopped soon there would not be anymore left. When I mentioned this at the fort I was laughed at. The fort Commander was saying the herds cover three states it would take years to kill all of them.

Grey Wolf and Running Elk had returned from a meeting of the great chiefs. Grey Wolf asked me to meet with them. He said that most of the great tribes were there. Some spoke of war with the whites others talked of moving north or farther west and still some thought to try and live among the whites. Grey Wolf asked what I thought would be the best choice for his people. I was honored that he would listen to my thoughts.

I thought for a while and then had the idea to buy as much of the land around us and have Grey Wolf's tribe live on it and run it like a ranch but instead of cattle use buffalo. Everyone agreed that it was a super idea if we could make it work.

The Homestead Act gave an applicant freehold title to "Homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River. There were three steps: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Anyone who was 21 or older, had to live on the land for five years and show evidence of having made improvements, this would work for us.

Marge and I could each file for land and in 5 years Brenda and Thomas could file. We would put the four in a box and build all the Ranch houses barns etc in the four corners close together but on each individual part of land. The Indians would build in the far corners and patrol – protect the land as well as work it and all the buffalo that we could keep on our land.

We requested 2 acres wide by 80 acres long both being together 4 acres wide and 80 acres long this started on the opening of a canyon so the land inside the canyon could not be accessed without going through our land. There were some places back in the canyon that you could get access but it was deep in thick timber and rough terrain all around. Yeah this might have been sneaky but it would give us more land we could protect until we had people old enough to buy it.

The Indians understood the importance of gold to the white man and were quick to gather all that was easily found around our land. This is what we used to pay for the land. The more gold we brought in the better we were at protecting our land.

We had already built two ranch houses and barns with corrals and other required improvements within three months. We had the gold so we were allowed to buy more land with the same requirements. The next two were put adjacent to the first two making our land 4 acres wide and 160 acres long.