"To the whites, it was The Treaty of Fort Laramie." ""Article five:" "The aforesaid Indian nations do hereby recognize and acknowledge the following tracts of country, included within the metes and boundaries hereinafter designated..."" "The Broken Hand who spoke for the White Father divided the Earth among the nations as if he were the creator himself." "He gave each nation land they already owned." "The White Father then told the nations to live in peace with one another and to allow the wagons of the whites to pass through without harm." "For that, he would give us cattle to eat and fine things, but for any wrong the people did, the people would make payment." "You cannot put stock in an Indian's word, Mr. Fitzpatrick." "I can assure you, Lieutenant Grattan, that if these people wished us harm, we'd all be quite dead." "Once they've collected Their trinkets, they'll go back to pillaging." "Tell me, lieutenant, how long have you labored to keep our frontier safe?" "This is my first posting, sir." " West Point, is it?" " lt is." "You'll find that the reality out here is a lot different from what the generals preach." "You'd do well to remember that, young man." " lt's a gift?" " Yes, it is." "Up near Yuba Pass, a wagon broke a wheel and a trapper fixed it." "What's going on?" "What is it?" "I just met a fella." "Says he may have seen Jacob fixing a wheel." "Look after the store until we return, and make sure he behaves himself." "A steady pace will get you there in a couple of days," " and I want to wish you luck." " All right." "Safe journey." "Don't you move." "I'll blast your guts down your backside." " l'm not a thief." " Shut up!" "You don't look like a thief." "You don't know the woods." "You announced yourself a mile away." "We're looking for someone." "We're looking for Jacob Wheeler." "Margaret, is that you?" " Daddy." " Hold that, young man." "Daddy." "Please, next." "Fine looking squaw, ain't she?" "She got a good-looking daughter too." "I wouldn't mind making her acquaintance." "Might even take me a bath." "I never known an Injun gal do wash like her." "Her husband must have clean britches every day." "Twice on Sunday." "You don't need britches." " Move on." " Bet you ain't wearing none" " under that skirt." " We're just gonna have to find out." "Easy there, partner." "Mind that scattergun, friend." "She knows how to use it." "Just get along and leave us alone, mister!" " Look at that Indian half-breed." " Let go of me!" "Hand over your pistols and clear on out." " Got no call to take our pistols." " Lucky I don't kill you." " Who might you be?" " The man that's gonna wing you just so I can carve your scalps and show 'em to you before I kill you." "Jacob Jr., take this, son." " Get on up!" " All right." "Next time you talk to a man's wife, you'll show her some respect." "Come on, get out of here!" "My name's Jacob Wheeler!" "From now on, any of you sons of bitches step out of line, you'll answer to me!" "Anybody want to challenge that?" "From his days as a boy when Tatanka let him live," "Loved by the Buffalo was chased by dark dreams of days yet to come for the Lakota." "He had seen the white man's wheels scarring the land, grinding into the Earth, rolling over all in its path." "A weapon that would make the world a desolate place." "He traveled the land and lived among its peoples seeking an answer to this terrible prophecy." "Hey, whoa!" "Come on back here!" "This way!" "Shoo!" "Shoo!" "Conquering Bear, a cow was taken from a wagon train that passed by this village, and I demand that you return this cow and turn over the thief." "High Forehead killed the cow, and they ate it." "He's Minneconjou." "They're not gonna give you this man." "They give you something for the cow." "The man who took this cow will go to the stockade." "He must turn this man over to me now." "He wants to sit and smoke with you." "The United States Army does not bargain with thieves." "Ready on those guns." " lt's just a cow." " Ready those guns, or I'll have you in the stockade for insubordination." "Conquering Bear, you are ordered by the U.S. Army to hand over this cow thief or suffer the consequences." "What's he saying?" "Will he give me this man?" "No." " Fire." " Sir?" "Fire, damn you!" "Fire!" "The people's pain was deep and their anger beyond control." "The white man had shown himself to be without honor." "The Treaty of Long Meadows was to be no more." "The wrath of the White Father in Washington rained down and became a flood that could not be stopped." "Everything seemed to be disappearing into a great hole in the Earth." "The vision of Growling Bear was coming to pass." "Loved by the Buffalo was afraid." "The West is a place, not a way to live." "Others would come to these lands seeking to escape the growing darkness back east, but the shadows would follow them, as they did Uncle Benjamin's son, Samson, and his family, the next Wheelers to set their wagons toward the promise of the setting sun." "It's done, like you said it would be." "Lincoln elected president." "South Carolina to secede from the Union." "This wheel could use a rim, Jeremiah." "Yes, sir." "I measured it out for you." "Like I was saying, sir, if there's work, I'm looking to get hired on." "I been pounding iron a long time now." "I even had me my own shop on the plantation where l was born." "Now, I done fixed wheels, shod horses." "I even turned me some real nice French Quarter banisters too." "I been freed by my master, and I got papers to prove it." " lf it's food you need..." " With all due respect, sir, I'll be working harder and faster than two men, and I don't expect much, just some place to lay my head when the day's done." "He could have the room at the back of the shop." "I'll work for nothing till you see I ain't lying." "What's your name?" "Henry." "Henry Foster, sir." "My sons, Aaron And Jeremiah." "Shake hands, boys." "The Lord did not intend for these Western lands to be cursed with the scourge of slavery." "Virginia may be lost, but we must endeavor to make sure Kansas stays free." "Samson Wheeler." "You'll work for wages." "I won't have it any other way." "Yes, sir." "Thank you, sir." "Thank you." "All right then, Henry, let's get to work." "Yes, sir." "Mr. Lincoln has made a proposal to span the country with a telegraph and a railroad." "A most righteous enterprise." "Do you think there will be war?" "Men driven to extremes are capable of anything, but war and hatred only breed more war and hatred." "Things will go hard on our people back in Wheelerton." "Let those that make war look to their consciences for forgiveness and love as we have to ours." "Why isn't Clara helping you?" "Oh, I do hate to pull her from her sewing." "The girl will never learn to make a home if you allow her to avoid her responsibilities." "I believe she is called to a higher purpose, Samson." "Someday, women in New Orleans or Atlanta or perhaps even New York will be wearing her gowns." "Frivolities." "Sheer frivolities." "Come in." "Clara, your mother requires your help for supper." "Papa, look at this." "Isn't it beautiful?" "It isn't done yet, but..." "Do you like it?" "It's quite beautiful." "It is, isn't it?" "You know, Clara, your mother might appreciate a new dress." "For material." "I know just what to buy." "Thank you, Papa!" "I'll make her the best dress in Lawrence." "Yes, you will." "There are those on our borders who seek to deter us from the great cause which we have made our own." "I speak of the murderous bushwhackers who refer to themselves as Quantrill's Raiders!" "I say to you today, we will defend our homes, and we will defend our beliefs, and we will not shy from blood until every godless slave-holding citizen of Missouri is cast into a burning pit of hellfire!" "Mr. Lane, why don't you save your guff for all those blue-bellied Yankees back east, you and all your Jayhawkin' Kansas trash?" "We're not gonna stand for you comin' around here and dictating' to us with your nigger worshipping'." "You talk about hellfire, Mr. Lane?" "I reckon we're gonna make things hot enough around here for ya, and that is a fact, sir." "I seen your faces, and I'm gonna kill y'all." "I'm gonna murder every last one of ya, and I'm gonna like it!" "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in his grave" "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in his grave" "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in his grave" "His soul is marching on" "The pay was $100 a month, and the distance was 2,000 miles from St. Joe, Missouri to Sacramento, California." "The ad read," ""Wanted: young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18." "Must be experienced riders willing to risk death daily." "Orphans preferred."" "Not many were orphans, but like my son, Abe Wheeler, they were all hungry for freedom and a taste of adventure." "And they weren't long finding it." "Sends it off with the Pony Express." " Somehow..." " Any sign of Indians?" "Well, not until just now." "Careful." "Abe Wheeler has seen the back of every station from, what?" "St. Louis clear to Sacramento?" "And more than once too." "is that so?" "Well, I rode me 60 miles today." "How many miles you make?" "Of course, I done better." "I do my talking in the saddle." "Well, you got yourself a race, Abe." "Yeah!" "Ten years had passed since I'd been restored to those I loved." "While the country lay on the verge of disunion, for us that decade was a time of great healing." "Never again would I know such peace and contentment." "Mother, Father, everyone's waiting." "Hurry please." "Ethan's losing the light." "Right, now, Mr. Wheeler, could I have you move a fraction closer to Mrs. Wheeler?" "And for the sake of symmetry, Jacob Jr., could you please change places with Corn Flower?" "Thank you." "All right." "Not a twitch." "And in this time of terrible trial, we ask that you give strength to Mr. Lincoln's soldiers and keep our son Abraham safe, wherever he may be." "And bless our Lakota family." "Bless their wives and bless their children." "Amen." " Amen." " Let's eat." " Now, Ethan..." " Yes, sir." "Tell me the truth." "Does Margaret treat her man the same way her mother does me?" " Jacob." " lt's all right." "Margaret is her mother's daughter in many respects." " Pass the potatoes." " Yes." "Yeah, but can she cook?" "That is a very dangerous question for me to answer right now." "Aren't you eating?" "It's time for me to go, Pa." "There's a war on now and California's declared for the Union." "It's time I set out on my own." "Thought on where you're headed?" "North, maybe, then east across the Territories." "I'll just let the wind blow me where it wants to." "Well, I'd like you to have my pistol." "I feel better knowin' you're carrying a gun that's already done some killin'." "And knows what it's about." "Jacob." "There are plenty out there who mean harm, so don't you be afraid to use it." "Better that than gettin' killed." "You understand me?" "Yes, sir." "I think it's coming today." "He says it's from New York." "Spare a penny?" "It's very nice, but no, thank you." "Thank you." "Quantrill's men did this." "All right." "Get to work." " l reckon I best be movin' on." " No." "To give in to such terror is to admit defeat." "I'll not have any of that kind of talk." "Samson." "Such convictions are all well and good for the boys, but I worry for Clara's sake." "At least allow me to send word to Cousin Daniel in Omaha." "I will not have the girl obliged for her welfare to a man with whom I am not on friendly terms with." " Never have been!" " l beg you." "No more of this!" "As each year passed," "Dog Star continued to count." "The symbols he drew caused him much pain, but he did not abandon the sacred trust which had been placed in him." "His brother Running Fox joked that he saw no difference in the pictures, just more white men every year." "Hey." "Fetch me a horse, damn it!" "Ain't no rush." "We're closing down." "What?" "Pick up your final pay in Sacramento." "We're done in." "Excellent shot, trooper." "What's he saying?" " Hell if I know." " He's thirsty." "Folks he killed won't be drinkin'." "Mount up!" "You speak their language." "What of it?" "Half the problem out here is we can't communicate." "Army could use a man like you, if you got a mind to help these people." "If I were you, I'd think about it." "Great lands have opened, and every day settlers arrive needing help." "I've signed on with the Army as a scout and interpreter, and I apprehend that I may be of some small use in the noble effort to preserve our Union in these Western lands." "Do not worry on my account..." ""For I know I have not yet met my destiny." "I look up at the moon and stars and am comforted knowing that we see the same thing, and that connects us even if we are separated by a great distance." "I remain your loving son, Jacob."" "Do you ever miss your family?" "You are my family." "Clara." "Get dressed." "Please, Samson." "Quantrill is burnin' the town." "We cannot allow these marauders to outrage us again." ""Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also."" "I've none left to turn, Susannah." "The Lord is a man of war, and this is his right hand." " But not this way!" " No more words." " Papa, what is it?" " Clara, I want you to get out of town." "You and your mama get out of town, no matter what you hear, no matter what you see." " You keep runnin', you promise me?" " Aren't you comin' with us?" "You're a talented girl." "I want you to use your gift." "I want you to use your gift to do good." "You promise me that." "You and your mother get goin'." "I'll come for you when it's over." "Go!" "Please come with us, Papa!" "Go on, now." "Git!" "Go on!" "Hurry, Mama!" "Clara!" "Listen to me and do as I say." "If anything should happen, I want you to make your way to Cousin Daniel in Omaha." " He'll take good care of you." " Mama!" " All right?" " Mama!" " All right, now, go." " No!" " Clara, go." " Mama!" "Go!" "Run!" "Run!" "Burn every house!" "Kill every man!" "Kansas must be cleansed, and the only way to cleanse it is to kill!" "Get over here!" "Shoot him again!" "You two check those houses!" "You three check the church!" "If you have to fire, stagger your shots." "Give yourself time to reload." "Come on!" "Samson!" "Susannah?" "Susannah!" "Papa, no!" "Too many found the ravages of the West to be unendurable." "Yet there were countless others who called on a courage they never knew they possessed." "Clara Wheeler was one of these rare spirits." "She would survive."