Chapter 28: Marie

After a miserable night in the cold with only intermittent sleep, Marie awoke to a white world of frost. Her meager blanket provided little warmth and, still naked, she was shaking with cold.

The sun was at least a half hour short of rising, but Marie had to get up and move around to get any semblance of warmth to return to her body. She went first for her morning ablutions at the stream and then kept moving, picking up firewood where she could.

After the sun was several hours old, Red Feather approached Marie and said, "Chief White Eagle say move today. No more grass for pony, need food, camp smell. You work, Sings in the Morning show."

Red Feather abruptly turned and walk away toward a group of other braves. If Marie thought the labor yesterday was backbreaking and that she ached so badly she could hardly move, she had an unpleasant surprise coming with the new day. The labor would be incredibly harder and more backbreaking before the sun set again.

SIngs in the Morning came to Marie from behind and gave her a light swat with the cane stick to get Marie's attention. Sings in the Morning motioned Marie inside the lodge and indicated to her to begin gathering up all the belongings. Marie watched her lay out a parfleche, a buffalo hide scraped clean on both sides and tanned.

When Marie had accumulated a pile of personal belongings from their storage areas, Sings in the Morning showed her how to arrange them on the flat parfleche. More importantly, Sings in the Morning then showed Marie how to fold and tie the parfleche into a compact bundle.

When the contents of the the lodge had been cleared and placed in a pile outside, the real work began. The heavy buffalo hides that served as the lodge covering had to be removed, folded, and tied also. Then the long, heavy lodge poles had to be dismantled and laid on the ground.

All of this heavy labor was considered woman's work in the Indian world and having given birth a few days back did not excuse participation. All the lodge poles were used in pairs, harnessed on either side of a horse with the other end dragging on the ground, to form a travois. One or more buffalo hides was wrapped around the two poles to form a platform. Upon this was then laid and tied all the Indian belongings. The injured or sick were also carried on the travois until they were able to walk or ride horseback again.

The warriors had gathered all their fighting gear: spears, quiver and a full complement of arrows, bow, knife, and perhaps a pipe tomahawk. Then the younger ones set about rounding up the horse herd for travel. When all was ready, the line of march began forming and moving out with groups falling in line as the line passed by. When all were underway, with only the warriors mounted, the column stretched out over half a mile and was over one hundred yards across.

Women and children walked, babies strapped on back boards, and the older ones of the boys guided the travois burdened horses. Marie thought she saw one or two other naked white women somewhere in the line, but the dust was so thick, it was hard to tell much very far away. Marie guessed if there were any others, none of them would be allowed contact with each other, but she could hope.

Marie had an innate sense of direction that had been augmented by her days of navigating the Mississippi before she became mistress of the Judson Naw'lins home. She determined that they were marching in a generally northwesterly course.

Much later, she would learn that the band was marching for winter quarters in Palo Duro Canyon, well north in the Texas panhandle. They would be arriving late as fall was advancing rapidly. It would mean some vicious, windy, cold, winter days of travel before they got to the canyon.

One morning, several days before their arrival at the canyon, Marie awoke, nearly frozen, to find two inches of snow covering the ground, including her body! Sings in the Morning made one of her few concessions to Marie when she stepped outside and found Marie blue with cold and nearly frozen. Sings in the Morning ushered Marie into the lodge, handed her a large buffalo robe and a pair of knee length moccasin leggings. She then bade Marie sit by the fire to warm up.

Apparently, thought Marie, my status has improved just slightly. More likely, my slave labor is too valuable to waste by my freezing to death! Whatever the case, I am glad for the warmth.

Sings in the Morning was working on a simple, everyday, "T" dress of deer skin. She was almost done. About the time Marie began to feel some warmth returning to her legs and arms, Sings in the Morning handed the dress to her and indicated she should put it on. To Marie's utter amazement, the dress fit very well. Sings in the Morning had taken no physical measurements of Marie and Marie had no idea the dress she had seen her working on a few times was to be hers.

Well now, I certainly have come up in the world some, thought Marie, A dress, a buffalo robe, and warm moccasin leggings. Sure does beat that inadequate and smelly horse blanket!

When Red Feather returned to the lodge, he informed Marie that she would now be known as White Woman With Fire In Her Eyes. As a slave, she was known simply as the Indian equivalent of "she" or "it" or possibly "you." The Indian term could be interpreted several ways in English.

All too quickly, Marie was prodded into starting her labors for the day. Two more long weeks of travel and temporary camps were in store before the village would arrive a their destination. But, at long last, in a heavy and cold windstorm, the village did reach Palo Duro Canyon and started down into the warm, sunny canyon below. The only way down was just a couple of narrow foot paths, so the trip down for so many people was going to take quite some time.

By the time Marie (White Woman, for short) arrived with the Numunuh, or the "people," as the Comanche called themselves, Palo Duro Canyon had been a continuous home to human habitation for more than twelve thousand years. The second largest canyon in the United States, only the Grand Canyon of the Colorado is larger. Palo Duro stretches some 120 miles long and up to 20 miles wide with a depth from the rim of up to 800 feet. The canyon contains some 18,000 plus acres of area.

After prehistoric man, the Apache Indians became tenants of the valley. The Comanche displaced the Apache south as the Comanche split from Shoshone and other mountain Indian groups and moved south. After a period of warfare, the Kiowa tribe became friends with the Comanche, their only real friends, and shared the canyon with them. The Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, on the canyon bottom, was the creative agent of the canyon, thus making available abundant, clear, cool water for human use.

Abundant flora and fauna also made human habitation possible. Palo Duro, the Spanish name given to the canyon by its first European explorers, means "hard wood" and comes from the vast number of juniper trees and mesquite present, along with cottonwood, salt cedar, willow, western soapberry, and hackberry.