Chapter 1

I was trapping along a river in the western part of South Dakota near the Wyoming-Montana border. The silence was broken by a woman's scream. I moved toward the direction of the scream to see what was going on and saw three Indian Braves teasing a squaw they had caught swimming in the river. She was naked and she was also very beautiful. I could see that she was trying to get away from the Braves. One had roped her left wrist preventing her from swimming away across the river or down stream. The squaw looked to be in her teens and very frightened. I could not tell what tribe she was from since she was naked.

The Braves were Crow, which meant bad news almost all the time, checking the powder in the rifle and pistol I started to move toward the Braves. Before they heard or saw me I shot the far one with the rifle and let it hang across my chest. I drew and fired the pistol at the closest; both Braves were knocked off their feet from the force of the bullet hitting them. The last Brave threw his stone hatchet at me before running out of the river and back toward where the Braves had left their horses on the far side of the river. I felt the hatchet hit me just above my left eye as I tried to dodge it and everything went black.

I woke on the shore of the river with my feet still in the river, I was soaking wet. Reflex caused me to reach for my rifle and I found it still across my chest, I felt for the pistol and it was hanging by the leather thong that was tied to the butt of the pistol and to my belt. I did not recognize the area but knew it was the same river as the fight had been on. I quickly reloaded both rifle and pistol, just in time to see the young Indian girl return pulling a buckskin dress down over her body. I could not tell if she was Crow or Blackfoot. However, I would soon find out she was Navajo. The buckskin dress was not made like a Crow or Blackfoot squaw would wear. It had beads and feathers along with small bones and teeth sewn into it for decoration.

I was friendly with a tribe of Blackfoot that was close to my current camp, and could speak a fair amount. I tried to speak to the girl, asking what happened. She looked surprised when I spoke, smiled then told me that the Braves were going to take her as a slave when I stopped them. She told how I was hit in the head and fell into the river so she went in after me and kept me from drowning. I was so big she could not pull me any farther out of the water, before she went back up river for her dress and knee high moccasins.

Her story was interrupted as a large black bear stood up and growled at the girl, catching her with a paw on the shoulder that sent her rolling into the river.