The Missionary and the Half-Breed

Foreword

Those readers who have extensive knowledge of the time and places where this story occurs may find errors or omissions I have made. Those errors and omissions are the result of imperfect research or were done in the interest of brevity and are not intended to be disrespectful in any way.

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The keelboat laboriously made its way against the current of the Missouri River just as it had for the last three weeks of April in 1825. Rebecca Ames listened to the men clomping up and down the deck as they poled the boat through the shallow water close to the bank. It was a sound she at first had thought fascinating, then irritating, and now found maddening. It had been this way, day after day, since the boat had left St. Louis. On the occasional day, the small sail was enough to power the boat up river, but usually, it was the men, shoulders against the long poles and walking endlessly up and down the deck.

Even though her husband was there, Rebecca did not feel safe. Fredrick was a kind man and a religious man, but not a very brave man. When she ventured out of the small space in the cabin that held only a small cot she and Fredrick shared, the boatmen would stare at her and she sometimes heard comments that chilled her to the bone.

"I knowed a red-headed woman in New Orleans who could raise your pole and make it spit in two minutes. Yessir, you want to get yer pole greased good, you go find you a red-headed woman. Like to have one right now, wouldn't you?"

"Georgia is where they grow them peaches, ain't it? I heared tell them peaches are sweet and juicy when you split 'em open."

"Womens needs a real man 'stead of a preacher man. Preacher men don't know how to settle a woman proper like. They's too busy prayin' fer souls while they womens are praying for a good stiff poke."

The comments were said just loud enough for her to hear them and she knew they were about her. Rebecca had copper-red hair, she was from Georgia and she was married to a man who was a Baptist preacher. So far, none of the men had tried anything, but Rebecca was worried that if they did, Fredrick wouldn't be able to defend her. He didn't even have the pistol the man at the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missionaries had recommended. Fredrick said if he had a pistol, the Devil might tempt him to use it and that would be a sin. He said God would protect them from anything that might befall them.

While she and Fredrick were man and wife in the legal sense, they weren't in the biblical sense. Their marriage was one of propriety rather than love. It would be a sin for a man and a woman to travel together and then live in a remote place like the Dakota Territory unless they were married. Fredrick had consummated their marriage on the night of their wedding, but had not touched her since. He said if she became with child, their mission to the Lakota Sioux would suffer. He didn't seem to be concerned that she wanted children as badly as he wanted to be a missionary.

That was his only concern -- the mission to the Lakota to convert them to the Baptist faith and to teach them to be civilized instead of heathen savages. Only if the Lakota were to do both would God accept them into Heaven. He believed he was born to lead the savage onto the path of salvation.

They had both volunteered for the mission because of their strong faith and the belief it was every Christian's responsibility to spread that faith. That faith had held her firmly committed even though she was equally frightened about what that mission might entail. If only they would reach Fort Tecumseh and she could get out of this boat, stand on dry land again, and get away from the coarse and boastful boatmen.

That did happen about an hour later, though Rebecca didn't know it until she felt the boat bump against something and heard Fredrick's voice. She climbed the steps to the deck and saw the boat was being tied up to the shore. In the distance, she saw the log stockade of Fort Tecumseh, the trading post established by the American Fur Company. There, they would seek out someone to guide them to the encampment of the Lakota and introduce them. The ABCFM man said they should look for a trapper who would do that since trappers traded with the Lakota.

Fredrick had been on deck the whole morning because the boatmen said they would reach Fort Tecumseh sometime that morning. He was talking with a man standing on the shore. After a few minutes, he walked back to where Rebecca stood.

"We can find a place to stay at the fort and I've arranged for our supplies to be taken there. It's a short distance, and I'd like to stretch my legs after being cramped in this boat for so long, so we'll walk to the fort."

On the way to the fort, Rebecca asked Fredrick if the man on the shore had said anything about a guide for them. Fredrick shook his head.

"No, but he said the man who runs the fort would be able to help us. He knows all the trappers who come here to trade their furs."

Rebecca hadn't expected a room in a believer's house like they'd had in St. Louis while waiting for the keelboat to start the trip up the Missouri, but she hadn't imagined how primitive their small room at the fort would be. It was little more than one small bed and a fireplace. The manager of the fort said the price for the room included their meals with the other residents, so at least she wouldn't have to try to cook in the fireplace.

She hoped they wouldn't be there long. The men at the fort were as bad or worse than the men on the keelboat. Most wore filthy, greasy leather clothes, carried a large knife on one hip and all had at least a rifle in their hands. They all stared at her and some smiled and licked their lips. Many brought their Indian wives with them, and Rebecca could not fathom why a white man would ever marry a savage.

She also wondered if they were really legally man and wife or if the trapper was just keeping the woman to satisfy his carnal needs. She thought that was probably the better explanation. The Bible warned about that type of conduct being a sin, but what could she expect from women who were so uncivilized and men who had apparently rejected the civilization they had once known?

Rebecca and Fredrick had been at Fort Tecumseh for two days when Fredrick said he might have found a guide.

"Mr. Sublette, the manager of the fur company, says there is a man who lives with the Lakota and has brought his furs here to trade. This man is not trusted at Fort Tecumseh because he is half Lakota and half white. Apparently his white mother was married to a Scotsman who worked for The Hudson's Bay Company. The husband was killed by a bear and left the woman nowhere to go. Because her husband had traded with the Lakota, she had established a relationship with the Lakota women and men.

"I suppose it was out of self-preservation -- I can't think of any other reason any decent white woman would want to marry a savage - but she did and this man was the result. The manager says the man is more Indian than white but that he can speak both English and Lakota because his mother taught him English. Both languages will be necessary if we are to accomplish the conversion and civilization of the savages.

"I am not certain about any man of mixed race though. I will talk with him tomorrow morning and then decide if he is a man we can trust to lead us to the Lakota. You may come along if you wish, or you may stay here in our room. I will make the decision in either event."

The next morning, Fredrick and Rebecca met the man outside the stable at the fort where he was packing his belongings on a horse. Upon first seeing him, Rebecca was impressed by his size. The man was much taller than all the other men she had seen at Fort Tecumseh and his bare chest spoke of a strength she had not seen in Fredrick. That chest also was scarred in several places, short scars across his upper chest that looked as if he might have been cut by a knife several times.

The man did not smile when Fredrick walked up and offered his right hand. The man stared at Fredrick for almost a minute and then simply said, "Mister Sublette told me you want a guide to the Lakota? Why?"

Fredrick lowered his hand and smiled.

"I am a missionary from the Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and I am on a mission to convert the savages to Christianity. I will teach them about the Bible and baptize them once they are believers. This is my wife, Rebecca, who will teach the savages to speak English and teach them how civilized people act. Both, obviously, will be our first task. If the Lakota can not understand English and behave properly, they will not understand what I am saying."

The man frowned.

"If I lead you to the Lakota and they do not accept you, what will you do then?"

Fredrick hesitated because he had not considered that possibility. He firmly believed that God would see to it he and Rebecca were successful. Finally, Fredric smiled.

"I believe that is not likely to be the case, but if it were, we would continue to live near the Lakota and teach those who do wish to learn."

The man was still frowning.

"Where will you live? How will you feed yourself and your wife?"

Fredrick gave the man the answer he truly believed to be the case.

"As the Lakota will learn, God cares for those who believe. I have no doubts the Lakota will furnish those things to us if you explain our purpose."

The man smiled then, though it appeared to Rebecca as if the smile was a smile of laughter rather than friendship.

"I am called Running Elk and I will take you to the Lakota. They may accept you or they may not. We will see.

"I leave when the sun is overhead but I have only the horse I ride and this pack horse. If you can not find horses to ride, you will have to walk. Bring only what you can carry yourselves. My pack horse will not be able to carry more than my own goods."

As they packed the few belongings they would take, Fredrick remarked to Rebecca that the white half of the man seemed to have been replaced by the Indian half.

"I had expected a man who is half-white to be more polite, but I would suppose being raised by the Lakota erased most of his God-given white traits. We must convert him among the first so that the others will see the light."

They started at noon, just as Running Elk had said, and while she was walking instead of riding, Rebecca found she was comfortable with the pace. They stopped beside a small tree-lined stream for the night as the sun was dipping down toward the horizon. Running Elk took the panniers and packsaddle from his packhorse, took the simple blanket from his riding horse, and then hobbled them both and turned them out to graze on the lush grass. Then he said if Rebecca and Fredrick would bring some wood from the stand of trees, he would build a fire.

Supper was something from a pouch Running Elk took from one of his panniers. As he handed Fredrick and Rebecca each a thick slab, he seemed to apologize.

"There are too many people around the fort so the game does not stay there. Tomorrow we will have better luck. Until then, this will fill your bellies and keep up your strength."

Fredrick said a blessing while Running Elk looked on and smiled, then bit into the slab of brown. He quickly chewed the mouthful and then made a face.

"I hope the Lakota eat more than this. It's like eating sawdust soaked in grease."

Rebecca found it to be greasy as well, but she detected the flavor of some sort of tart berries as well as the taste of meat. She asked Running Elk what it was. He smiled as he spoke.

"The Lakota name is wasna, but the whites call it pemmican because that is what the French trappers called it. This is buffalo and chokecherries and was made by a Lakota woman in my village. She gave it to me as payment for taking her deer hides to Fort Tecumseh to trade. It is good to have when you can not kill a rabbit or catch a fish."

That night, Running Elk took two blankets from his pack saddle and laid them beside the fire, then looked up and asked if Fredrick and Rebecca had brought blankets to sleep on. Fredrick looked embarrassed when he said they hadn't thought about that. Running Elk smiled that same smile that Rebecca thought meant he was laughing at them.

"It is still cool of a night. I will give you two blankets, but I expect you to earn those blankets by getting wood at night and by not slowing me down."

Rebecca was a little taken aback when Fredrick spread one blanket on the ground, laid down on one half and pulled the other half over him. She'd expected they would use one blanket on the ground and lay side by side with the other on top of them. She frowned as she repeated what Fredrick had done. Even here in the wilds where they had only each other, he still seemed to have no concern for her safety or comfort. He treated her more as an acquaintance than a wife.

As she drifted off to sleep, she listened to the creatures of the night. Some were the same as back in Georgia, but she heard others as well, sounds that made her wonder if she was really safe.

The next day was more walking until the sun was overhead. Running Elk stopped beside a small stream to rest the horses and to eat more pemmican before continuing their journey. They stopped earlier in the afternoon that day beside a larger stream. Running Elk said he intended to catch some fish for supper. While he did that, Fredrick and Rebecca went in search of wood for their fire.

They were some distance from the camp when Fredrick yelled in pain and then yelled again even louder. Rebecca saw him running back toward camp and followed him. When she got there, Running Elk was looking at Fredrick's left arm. He looked up and frowned.

"Rattlesnake, and he was bitten twice. This is not good. We will have to camp here until...until something changes."

Rebecca looked at Fredrick's arm and caught her breath. There were four large bleeding punctures just below Fredrick's elbow.

"Fredrick, what happened?"

Fredrick's face was a mask of pain mixed with fear.

"I saw a small log laying on the ground, and when I reached for it, I heard a noise and then something hit my arm. When I looked for what had hit me, I saw a big snake. I was still looking at it when it bit me again."

Rebecca looked at Running Deer.

"Can't you do something for Fredrick?"

Running Elk slowly nodded his head.

"Yes, but not what a medicine man could do. I am a hunter and a trapper. I can put the medicine on the bites, but I do not know the songs that drive away the evil spirits. I will go get leaves of a plant that will draw the poison out."

Fredrick seemed to get worse as the minutes ticked by. His whole arm was swollen and he complained about being thirsty. Rebecca brought him water from the stream and Fredrick drank it quickly, then vomited it all back out along with the pemmican he'd eaten that morning. A few minutes later, his face was very pale and swollen and he was gasping for breath. When Rebecca felt his face, it was cool and clammy with sweat.

Running Elk returned with a handful of leaves.

"Chew these leaves until they are soft and then put them on the bites. I will get a piece of my trade cloth to hold them against his arm."

Rebecca chewed the leaves and then held the resulting mass on Fredrick's arm while Running Elk wrapped it with a piece of red cloth. When he finished, Running Elk looked at Rebecca.

"This is all I know how to do. I will not lie to you. He was bitten twice and I can tell by the distance between the bite marks the rattlesnake was very big. It would have put a lot of poison into your husband with just one bite. With two...

"We will know by tomorrow if...we will stay here until he gets better. I go to catch fish for our supper now."

Rebecca was angry because they had come so far and just when they were about to begin their mission, those plans had been spoiled by a snake. At best, it would take Fredrick several days or even weeks to get well again. At worst, well, Running Elk had said it when he said they would know by tomorrow. That could only mean by tomorrow Fredrick would be getting better or he would die.

She was also angry that Running Elk seemed resigned to letting fate take its course. Rebecca wanted justice for Fredrick.

"I can wait on supper. We have to go and kill the snake."

Running Deer frowned.

"Why do you want to kill the rattlesnake? It did nothing wrong. It was only defending itself. If you were the rattlesnake, you would do the same. It was only because your husband did not watch for the rattlesnake that he was bitten."

Rebecca began to cry.

"But Fredrick might die."

Running Elk shrugged.

"All things die. It is part of the circle of life and all things are in the circle --you, me, your husband, the rattlesnake, the tree the stick came from. Nothing can change the circle. What happens, happens."

Running Elk caught three fish in the small creek and cooked them over the fire. He ate as if nothing had happened and that further infuriated Rebecca. She managed to eat as well but Fredrick did not. He had begun to ramble on without making sense but soon became unconscious.

Rebecca wanted to stay awake with Fredrick all through the night, but once darkness fell, the long walk and the stress of Fredrick's injury caused her to fall asleep. She didn't wake until morning and then only because Running Elk shook her shoulder. When she opened her eyes, she saw him looking at her with a frown on his face. She was surprised by the tone of his voice. It was almost sadness, not quite, but almost.

"Missus Ames, your husband is barely breathing and his arm has swelled to almost the size of his leg. I do not think he will live much longer but I do not know why. I have never seen a rattlesnake bite do this to a man before. The leaves should have drawn the poison from his arm by now, but they have not. I do not know what else I can do."

Rebecca went to Fredrick to see for herself, and gasped when she saw his arm. It was black from his fingertips to his shoulder and was so swollen it looked as if his skin might split wide open. She could barely see the movement as he breathed. In her heart she knew running Elk was right. She would soon be a widow.

She looked up at Running Elk.

"Will you help me bury him?"

The next morning, Running Elk began digging a shallow grave beside a large tree. As he dug into the soft ground with a small shovel from his packsaddle, he wondered at how Rebecca had acted when he said he thought her husband would die. She had not shed tears. She had only asked if he would help her bury her husband.

In any Lakota village the wife of a man who died would wail and cry for sometimes days. He knew that was partly because of custom and belief, but he also knew most Lakota wives felt real grief at their loss. Their grief was not that they would be alone. Almost any Lakota widow would quickly find another husband even if she had to share him with another wife. The reason was because of the love any husband and wife share. Rebecca did not seem to share love with her husband, nor did her husband seem to share love with her. He wondered if that was the way of whites or if these two were somehow different.

When he had dug what he considered deep enough, he carried Rebecca's dead husband to the grave. He wasn't certain about what he should do then. He knew little about how whites treated their dead other than like the Lakota, they put them into the earth. The Lakota buried their dead to return them to the Earth from which they came. He did not know why whites placed their dead in the ground unless it was to hide them from animals.

Once he had scooped the pile of dirt over Rebecca's husband and then covered the grave with rocks he brought from the stream, he was unsure about what to do next. It surprised him when Rebecca opened a book and began to read. He was more surprised by the words she said.