"The white man called them buffalo." "We call them Tatanka, the majestic ones." "Their story is the story of our people." "Tatanka lived in the underworld" "Until he saw our people in a vision." "He saw that we were needy." "And for the love of us, Tatanka came up out of the earth" "And became flesh so that we could eat," "Make our clothes and our dwellings from his hide." "He called us the buffalo nation." "The prairie opened up like a dog mouth yawning." "The hole was very big." "I looked down into the darkness and the buffalo went into the hole." "I saw the last buffalo go back to the earth." "I saw our people starving and living square lodges." "Lakota people, Growling Bear is wrong." "soaring eagle, a medicine man, could not accept the terrible vision of Growling Bear, the buffalo would disappear, and the Lakota would live in square houses." "It would be good if Soaring Eagle was right." "I suppose the best place to begin our family's story is with grandsire Abraham." "Many was the time as a boy i listened to his tale of how a cannon subtracted a leg at the battle of yorktown." "I'd have wagered both mine to see what he saw." "My misfortune was to be born in a drab age and to have lived in the stifle of a barn where a man was only as good as the things he crafted." "Wheelwrights we were, going back to the time when they invented the damn thing." "Wheelers made wheels, but in my day, we'd seen the wheels made the wheelers." "All the long day, i lived in my books, and by night, i dreamed of a better life, beyond the Mississippi." "Morning, Enoch. hi, papa. how are you?" "Good.good." "Nathan. mornin'." "Now, that is a thing of beauty." "Anybody see Jacob?" "Jacob?" "At your age, i was repairing cannon wheels at Valley Forge." "At least you got to see a bit of the world, sir." "That was the war.we had no choice." "Thank god you live in a time of peace. yes, sir." "Apply yourself to the anvil, and you're set for life." "It takes ten years to make a journeyman wheelwright." "Another ten for master. you'll never lack for work." "They need wheels in time of peace," "They need wheels in time of.." "Don't you sass me, young man!" "Yes, sir." "You boys knock off for lunch now." "Except Jacob." "You already had yours." "Plow horse needs shoeing out there." "Good morning." "Who do i see about replacing a rifle cock?" "That'd be me, sir." "If i may, sir, how'd you come by that scar?" "Difference of opinion with a cheyenne warrior." "Savage thought my scalp might look better hanging from his belt, but i favored where god put it." "But then i fancied his locks on my belt." "May i?" "Sure." "My goodness." "What in the sam hill is that?" "Ho. sacred." "Grizzly... on its hind legs, about where that first rafter starts." "Goodness gracious." "Must be hell out there." "It's more like the Garden of Eden, son." "Come across some tribes'll give you the girls." "You got mountains covered with snow in summer and forests that go on forever, rivers that you can't hardly see across." "Sometimes you wait half a day for a buffalo herd to run past." "Big shaggy beasts.Three times a horse." "Horizon to horizon." "And the pacific, unsullied by human hands, as it was on the eighth day of the world." "See if that'll work for ya." "Thank you." "Did you finish shoeing' that plow horse like i told ya?" "That's a fine young man you got here." "If he doesn't get knocked into a cocked hat first." "and you let the fire burn down, too." "We could've turned out another wheel before the end of the day, but not now." "Think you can put a sharper edge on this for me?" "Yes, sir." "is that...human blood?" "Arkansas toothpick ain't for cuttin' your steak." "So where are you headed, sir?" "St. Louis to meet up with Mr Jedediah Smith" "The Jedediah Smith?" "God made only one of him for all of us to look up to." "Who's that?" "Mr Smith opened up the deep west for trappers." "Lookin' for a few good mountain men to explore the beaver populations around the great salt lake." "How much can a man make off a beaver?" "They keep buyin' beaver hats in London and Paris, upwards to four or five thousand dollards a year." "It's time for you to get back to work now," "All of ya." "Five thousand." "Oh, now, margaret, that is a fine-looking goose." "Do you believe that beaver story?" "Sunday dinner was another form of labor with my father and nick..." "My mother margaret...say grace first." "My brothers Ezra, Nathan, and Jethro." "...for what we are about to receive..." "Grandfather Abraham presided over the ritual with grandmother Hannah." "The wheelers pounded iron 6 days a week, but on the seventh, we pounded each other." "President Adams is saying to Europe," ""keep out.it's all ours."" "It needs another Jefferson to take it all." "But isn't the west just one vast desert?" "That's a common untruth, mama." "West is all kinds of terrain." "It's a veritable garden of Eden." "Yes." "Jacob's just returned from the west wing of the house." "Jacob, in fact, has yet to discover the western side of the barn." "As with all rituals, nothing ever much changed until that sunday, when i looked around the table and said my silent good-bye to each and every wheeler." "Where are the buffalo?" "Heyoka, the clown, tried to lift their spirits after Growling Bear's dark vision." "For the boy, White Feather, there were only questions." "He sought answers among his family." "What you did was wrong, grandson." "Yes, grandfather." "Is the dream of Growling Bear true?" "White Feather..." "Eat." "But who killed the Lakota?" "They just told you to eat." "White Feather was determined to discover the meaning of Growling Bear's vision and if the future it predicted could be changed." "Your dream...is it true?" "A man called Drinks Water had the same vision long ago." "White Feather did not have words to match what he knew to be true." "But he knew that a vision was a dangerous thing." "He knew a vision could kill a man." "Jacob!" "Jacob!" "you hold up!" "Jacob!" "Jacob!" "Jacob!" "Jacob!" "Jacob, wait!" "Jacob!" "Jacob!" "Wait!" "What do you figure?" "Just run out and not tell nobody, hope your fool scheme works out?" "I don't expect Mr Smith and Mr Fletcher are gonna tarry long in St Louis." "And ma and pa what do we tell them?" "Tell 'em i love 'em. i ain't got time to lose." "I made my last wheeling wheel." "Why would a frontiersman accommodate you?" "Ask and you shall receive." "Mr eternal optimist." "Nathan, I thought you had more enterprise in ya." "Jethro, you always been a blade of grass bends with the wind." "Wait up." "No." "You'll be the first wheelers to give up the trade." "You'll stay behind and pound on dead iron till you become dead as iron?" "ah..." "Come on, Jethro." "Now or never." "Aw, come on." "Yahoo!" "White Feather could not accept" "Growling Bear's vision that the buffalo would not return." "A ceremony was performed." "The people danced to give gratitude to Tatanka." "And pray that he would live again and again in the great circle of life." "White Feather!" "Come!" "Duffalo have come!" "To lead the buffalo to the jump was to taunt death." "White feather knew that his brothers," "Dog Star and Running Fox, were chosen for their ability and courage." "He was proud of them, but afraid also." "You have never jumped before." "When you run and jump, you must not stop." "The run, jump, and swing, must be one." "Otherwise, you will not swing into the cave." "Tatanka spared the boy, so on the day the boy's mother was put to rest," "White Feather was renamed Loved by the Buffalo, and all agreed that he had been called to walk the road of the medicine man." "Let White Feather be known as Loved bu the Buffalo." "One of my sons a holy man?" "That brings honor to the family." "But Soaring Eagle killed Growling Bear with evil medecine." "You give too much power to Soaring Eagle." "We must keep all eyes on this boy." "And so Loved by the Buffalo took no food or drink in four days." "He cleansed his body and mind to open his spirit, for a vision to enter." "Hey." "Let's stash the horses over there." "Wait till dark." "what the--hey!" "Hey, get your black hands off of me!" "Let go of him!" "When you let go of me, when you let go of me!" "You're dead as mutton if you don't." "And so is your friend." "All right, i'm gonna let go. let go." "Who's in there?" "You answer me, by god!" "Just a couple of hungry boys out for some eggs, sir." "How many are you?" "Just two of us in here stealing eggs, sir." "Regret to say the wolf in our stomachs overcame our god-fearing souls." "Well, you only had to knock on my door to discover christian charity." "Had your fill of eggs to boot." "We only took enough to keep the wolf at bay, sir." "Well, go on. take a few." "I had my hopes up..." "What with a big reward for a runaway slave." "You don't say." "How much is that reward?" "One hundred silver dollars." "Sir, with your permission, we'll be on our way." "What about the..." "Nathan, let the good christian man go back to his warm bed." "Thank you. thank you heartily, sir." "God bless, boys." "What objection do you have to one hundred silver dollars when the only thing that stands between us and ruination is seven dollars?" "!" "This man kept his word, Nathan." "I intend to keep mine." "What man?" "He's a runaway. that money's mine." "Not with my rifle!" "unh!" "Poor as job's turkey, you won't even bend down to pick up one hundred dollars just laying on the ground." "Man's gotta draw a line somewhere, Nathan." "He did the honorable thing." "You're a damn dreamer." "Let go, Nathan. no!" "Who made you captain of this enterprise, huh?" "You won't be alive when i catch you, boy!" "There goes our one hundred silver dollars." "Damn you, Jacob." "Stop running!" "Not soon,farmer boy!" "See you!" "We'd been in St. Louis long enough to see the sights and then some, but it took us more than a fortnight longer to find what we'd come for." "Mr Fletcher." "Mr Fletcher." "You remember my brother Nathan?" "Yeah, I remember." "You said you needed men, sir." "Yeah, I said I needed men." "Mountain men." "Well, we'll pull our weight, sir." "Do you suppose you could introduce us to Mr smith?" "We've surely come a long way." "St. Louis is raining mountain men," "Jacob, my boy, Nathan." "Seasoned men." "Men more indian than white." "Heh!" "Men who can speak Apache," "Cheyenne, Mexican." "Nathan, hold on." "I'm sorry, Jacob, maybe next time." "Where the hell you been?" "St. Louis loves the brothers wheeler." "I couldn't lose a hand." "Ten times I tried to quit, ten times they made me stay." "I have won this." "This is an escritura. that's spanish for deed."" "I won that at poker, too." "It's a mere one hundred acres in Tejas." "You, twenty five. me, seventy five." "What do you say about that, brother Jacob?" "Tejas ain't even in the united states, Nathan." "so what?" "Well, they don't speak english and their catholics." "We have one hundred acres, son, who cares?" "I've made up my mind." "I'm going with Jedediah Smith." "You see that furry creature?" "That's the kind of man Jedediah smith wants." "But who cares beans?" "We found our fortune in Tejas." "I want to see the Pacific Ocean." "and then what?" "I don't know." "I've got a bird in the hand in Tejas." "You're after the will o' the wisp out west with adventurers and criminals." "Well, I say we stick together." "yeah, well, why should i stick with you?" "There's a reason why our father gave you the grunt work and me the precise measurements of wheelmaking." "It's 'cause you never had a head except for dreaming, and here you go again." "Are you coming or not?" "I thought of our mother, vexed by her perfidious sons, always consoling herself with the notion that we had each other," "But we didn't allow her even that much comfort." "I'll be leaving from the steamboat within the hour," "If you change your mind." "Nathan went south, and i went west." "I put my best foot forward and bought a new old suit of clothes for the occasion of meeting the great Jedediah Smith." "It was not easy to find Mr Smith because he endeavored to stay upwind of me." "And then suddenly he stood in front of me." "Well, sir, I just want to see" "What no white man has ever seen before." "And if a horse throws a shoe, i'm a first rate ferrier." "Been at it since I could pick up a hammer." "Can you shoot?" "Why, Sir, I'm a hunter. this is my rifle." "Exactly what kind of game do you hunt?" "Rabbits and deer, sir." "You ever kill a man?" "No, Sir." "I admire your spirit, boy," "But only the best of the best will be chosen." "So you go on home. nobody here'll think the worst of you." "Maybe next time around." "With all due respect, Sir, you ever kill man?" "My friend, Mr smith cannot count the savages that fell to his hands." "Well, you know what?" "it's pretty easy to kill a savage out to scalp you." "But you ever hunt down an innocent rabbit, done you no harm, cut it down in cold blood and eat it?" "Nobody in Wheelerton would've believed that I was riding with a legend." "Hearty as buck,a crack shot, a walking encyclopedia of Indians and their strange habits." "Mr Smith was like no man I ever knew, and I would never be the same." "The buffalo jumpers, Running Fox and Dog Star, had their eyes on two sisters, but had to prove themselves to a more dangerous opponent than stampeding buffalo." "A small skinned rabbit did not impress the girls' protective father." "These are good horses." "Come in." "Come in." "Two brothers married two sisters and walked the path of old tradition." "Loved by the Buffalo studied the power of plants, of roots, and herbs." "He learned how to cure the body and the spirit using songs and ceremonies." "But the holy man did not know all the powers the boy was given." "Loved by the Buffalo discovered he had the power to take another's pain upon himself." "He knew the power was not his own, but that of Wakan Tanka." "Watch this." "See?" "Now watch this." "See?" "Thunder Heart Woman would carry the medicine wheel that Growling Bear gave to her brother." "In it she would keep her family and her memories, and that gave her comfort." "Days passed into months until I lost track of time altogether." "Riding with Mr Smith," "I saw the grandeur and majesty of the West as few white men had ever seen it." "Mr Fletcher, is that path passable?" "That path ain't even jackassable." "Everywhere I looked" "I saw treasures of immeasurable beauty, and I longed for my brothers to share them." "Get back." "Give me some room." "Shoot him!" "Praise the Lord for providing our supper tonight." "Amen." "Praise the Lord." "Put me down there, boys." "Fetch my bag, Mr Wheeler." "What do you need from it, Sir?" "Here we go." "Put my scalp, Mr Wheeler." "Yes, Sir." "Thread the needle..." "Sew it back on, son." "Go ahead." "Sir, I ain't never done nothing like that before." "Neither have I, son." "Uh, perhaps Mr Fletcher could" "I gave you an order, boy." "Thread that needle and sew my scalp back on." "Yes, Sir." "Isn't this gonna hurt, Sir?" "I believe it will, son." "But I think it'll hurt the person being sewed more than the sewer." "Mr Fletcher?" "Yeah?" "Fetch my bible, please." "Hold still, Sir." "Thank you kindly." "Unh!" "oh, goodness." "I'm sorry it hurts you so much, son." "That's right, darling." "Stretch 'em nice, you get a good price." "Loved by the Buffalo began to walk the path of a holy man." "The way was long and dangerous, but for one who communes with Wakan Tanka, many things are possible." "In the medicine wheel, Loved by the Buffalo learned the mysterious realities of life." "He saw the sun and moon and seasons come and go in a circle." "He saw that all true power moved in a circle." "When we descended from the high Sierras, we came across a friendly tribe." "They called themselves Mohave:" "the people who live along the river." "and they called us beaver-eaters." "Mr Smith purchased horses to replace those we consumed." "One blanket,two knives." "A gift." "Thank you." "Maricopa." "Maricopa." "Maricopa." "Maricopa." "Maricopa...is just dandy." "Dandy." "Dandy." "Maricopa." "Women!" "Very dandy."