"Tatanka made us what we are:" "A buffalo nation." "So long as the buffalo ran, our nation was strong." "From Tatanka, we took our food, our clothing, our shelter... then the Whites came and brought strange, new things with them." "They traded with our enemies the Crow and other tribes." "We Lakota traded little with the Whites." "This caused anger among some of us." "Wheelerton, Virginia" "I had passed many joyous years among Thunder Heart Woman's people, but with the start of my own family, I felt a strong yearning to return to the place of my birth, so that our daughter Margaret Light Shines would know something of her father's world." "Just who might you be?" "This is the Wheeler house, is it not?" "We don't know any Indians." "Are you cousin Rachel, the daughter of Benjamin and Abigail Wheeler?" "I'm Naomi, Rachel's younger sister." "My God." "I thought you were still a child." "I'm Jacob." "Your father's my uncle." "We're cousins!" "This is my family." "Well, I'll be." "We heard from Nathan, a letter... he's in Texas." "He's married to... a Mexican." "Well, Texas is getting settled now, thanks to folks like Nathan." "Be proud of Nathan, mother." "He helped whip Santa Anna." "I just wish he'd come back home, even if it's just to visit." "Would it be proper if my wife were to take his seat for now?" "Oh, yes." "Yes, of course, and light shines beside you." "What's that?" "This is a very special gift from my bride." "Lord, you have blessed us this day with the return of my son Jacob." "Thank you, lord, and perhaps someday you will guide our other lost child Nathan to us so that he can be at this table with us so we can all break bread as a family once again." "Amen." "Amen." "Uh, here you are, wakin-yan-techate..." "Waki-yan-techantewyn." "It translates as Thunder Heart Woman." "What is it you intend to do, Jacob?" "What we've always done." "What we all do, be a wheelwright." "That is, if you'll allow me, father." "Of course I'll allow you." "Business isn't as it was, bank failures and all." "People barter for services nowadays, but we'll get by." "Bunk here until things turn for the better." "Your Squaw feel the same?" "Now don't call her my Squaw." "She's my wife, my woman, my missus." "There ain't nothin' dirty about it." "I lived with her people, hunted buffalo with them." "I learned to honor their ways." "They made me one of their sacred own." "I hope you'll do the same for her." "We'll do our best." "It may take time." "It's a boy." "She didn't cry out, not a bit." "How's that possible?" "Leah, Indians aren't human." "They don't feel pain like we do." "They're heathens." "I will name him after grandfather..." "Abraham." "And his Indian name will be "high wolf."" "One thing I can't get out of my head are those California oranges." "This big." "Bright and shiny, grow everywhere." "Boy, I miss them." "Then why'd you come home?" "Oh, Mexicans pushed us out, but people are pushing back." "Just like Texas, california's like a virgin lookin' for a husband." "It's gonna draw folks, no matter what the dons say or do." "Could be a positive thing for a man, to be a part of it all, help settle the country." "Look at brother Nathan." "He stuck it out in Texas." "Now he's got a farm, raisin' a family." "He didn't come back home, tail tucked between his legs." "You know, I came close to losing' my scalp a number of times." "If it hadn't been for Mr. Jedediah Smith or a man named Fletcher... he the one that came here that day, wanted his rifle-cock replaced?" "That's him." "Stood right over there." "He's dead now." "Talked about gold and fortunes." "I remember." "Now he's gone." "So much for dreams of glory." "That kind of life, it always carries a price." "Nothin' comes easy, but Mr. Smith is not dead." "He's out there blazin' trails, makin' a name for himself." "Plenty of glory goin' around out there, and he deserves most of it." "Greatest man I ever met." "Hides?" "Pelts?" "Got too many of 'em already." "Got somethin' we can use?" "Any of those you're willing to barter?" "'Cause there's a lot of lonely boys heading' west." "There's no preachers or high-falutin' women to tell 'em a man's pleasure ain't right." "Understand?" "'Course you do." "Jacob!" "Jacob, look here, Jacob... what's in the newspaper." ""Pathfinders needed to escort parties west from" "Independence, Missouri through to california..."" ""following paths trail-blazed by the recently deceased Mr. Jedediah Smith"?" ""Running low on water, Mr. Smith went ahead of the wagon train to find a watering hole or spring."" "He was leading a party on the cutoff to Santa Fe." "That part of the country's Comanche territory." "He knew that." "He cut sign with the best of them." "He knew a man alone ain't got a chance." "Well, he was a God-fearing man." "He was a modest man." "Saved my life up in a cave in Utah." "The Mojave had surrounded us." "Things were at their bleakest and it looked like the sun would wash our bones and he... kept us goin' and he kept me believin'." "Now he's dead." "He wanted me to stay out West." "said if I didn't, I'd never know the man I could have been, the man God wanted me to be." "Wheelertown's gone stale." "I don't know." "Maybe it's the dare of it all." "Besides, I don't like how they treat you... or young Margaret light shines." "It's not like family." "They will grow accustomed to us." "A man expects more from family." "I want back West." "It will be hard for the children." "We'll go in slow, easy stages." "This is your home." "Virginia's your people." "A man don't make history by sleeping' in the same bunk he was born in." "History?" "And takin' your brother with you." "Took Nathan last time." "We haven't seen hide or hair of him since." "I'm goin' because I wish to." "I had a chance before and I didn't go." "I won't make the same mistake twice." "Don't expect to come back in good times and get a piece of the family business." "That goes to them that works it." "That's understood." "Bye." "I just wanted to hold the baby a little while longer." "That's what comes of marrying' Indians:" "Longin' for the wilds." "Let's go, Jethro." "Pa... thank you, mother." "Jacob, wait for me!" "Wait!" "Who's that?" "!" "Rachel!" "Come to say good-bye?" "!" "I'm goin' with you!" "Whoa!" "There's nothin' for us here, nothin' for any of us, and we can help with the children." "Well, who's we?" "Naomi's fiance went and married someone else." "She wants to disappear from the face of the earth." "We figure that's where you're goin'." "Is that Leah comin' with her?" "She wants to disappear, too." "Try as I might, my impetuous cousins could not be made to reconsider." "I wrote to ma and pa to explain things, but knew I left them bereft." "I hoped that I would prove equal to the responsibility I had undertaken." "Western Plains, 1837." "Eight muskets for four ponies." "Eight....." "For four..." "Our journey from Virginia to Independence took 3 years." "Like most other folks in the restless young America, we stopped and settled for a while, worked, then pushed on again." "Houses were built then abandoned before the trees came into berry." "Fields were planted, then left for others to reap the harvest." "On the way, we had another child, a boy, Jacob jr." "...into the deep, blue clear waters of the Pacific Ocean." "Welcome, friends!" "Is it the Golden Coast you seek?" "The shangri-la of the west?" "Californ-eye-aye?" "Have you ever been there?" "No, no, can't say as I have." "Well, I've been." "I've seen." "And what's your assessment?" "By comparison, everything else is a dung heap." "Well put!" "We're in agreement, Sir!" "Welcome!" "We can use a man who's been down that trail." "We have close to the makings of a train here." "Don't want too big a company." "We wish to travel light and fast." "And safe?" "Yes, Sir!" "That's it, exactly." "Sign up!" "Contract's there." "List your members, your intentions, equipment, skills." "You accept free men of color?" "Where are you from, Sir?" "Illinois." "They love us as a race there, but hate us as people." "We're headin' west for acceptance." "Join us." "You joining this train, Mister?" "I'm thinking on it." "There's a lot of rules and regulations here, Mister." "Hoxie's the name." "Stephen Hoxie." "I'm providing wagons, horses, cattle, stores, and doing that, I figure to captain this train." "Not to pilot, mind you." "Not our guide." "But the man in charge?" "Somebody's got to be." "Might as well be the fellow who can provide for all." "A wagon train is like a passenger ship on a lonely prairie ocean." "Always a captain on the ship." "We need rules, standards, organization, young man." "Everyone needs a task." "Jethro, they got a Members' Council." ""Report to captain"." "" $10 tax per person?"" "Moral clause?" "As the saying goes, when alien peoples meet, first they fight, and then they fornicate." "We need to preserve our dignity, our civilized ways." "Can't let savagery infect us." "We intend to sit out the rains, depart come spring." "That way we beat winter in the sierras." "Well, come see me if you have questions at Colonel Nolan's hotel and tavern." "What about Missouri?" "We're in Missouri." "The land is rich." "There are plenty of people, farms, settlements." "Why not stay here?" "It's swamp country." "Malaria, pestilence." "Don't want it, don't need it." "No fever in california." "I heard one fella talkin', said folks routinely live one hundred and fifty, two hundred years in california, the climate's so good." "Falderal." "Nobody can live that long." "One old coot, they say, was two hundred and fifty years old." "And he plum had enough, decided he wanted to die." "What'd they do, feed him Mexican food?" "There's an argument to be made for Oregon." "I mean, at least they speak English." "True." "Who's gonna talk Spaniard when we get to California?" "You, Jacob?" "Those dons are educated." "They speak English." "California or bust!" "Didn't tell me you were a cooper smith." "We're obliged to the proprietor for lettin' us use the shop." "Make another wagon for the journey." "We're wheelwrights." "That's my brother Jethro." "Next to pilots and Indian fighters, there's few things as crucial to the success of a train as a skilled wheelwright." "You hadn't come by Noland'S." "We intend to leave in a matter of days." "How many wagons?" "Eighteen." "I've hired a pilot named Josiah Bell." "He ran with Fitzpatrick, trapping beaver, fighting Indians." "He's been everywhere." "He's got two scouts with him." "Including the others, we have twenty-two armed men." "Oh, yeah?" "Horses or oxen?" "Horses and mules." "Think those wheels can handle the trail?" "I expect so." "Iron tires, two and a half inches, bolted." "Well, that's a substantial wagon." "Conestoga, we call it." "Well-seasoned wood, falling tongues, well-steeled skeins." "What about extra axles?" "Can't do without 'em." "Tires buckle, wagon tongues snap, front axles fail." "The lower half of the wagon, Mr. Hoxie, that's where all your problems all." "The running gear, we call it." "We can sure use folks like you on this journey." "I got a part-time cooper smith, and a half-assed wainwright, but no wheelwright." "Well, we sure would love to come, only we don't have eighty dollars." "I'll loan you." "Won't be indebted, either." "Then what?" "Well, you pay for the extra axles, spokes, and tongues and heavy equipment." "Me and Jethro's labor for the journey will come to about eighty dollars, I reckon." "Don't you figure, Jethro?" "Right about eighty, brother." "Yes, Sir." "And so, the Wheeler party rolled out of Independence, heading west, northwest on hoxie's train." "Wagon-master Hoxie was a regular Napoleon of the Plains, wanted everybody to call him captain, even though he'd never been near a uniform." "His hired pilot was a frontiersman by the name of Josiah Bell, and there were two scouts named Meeks and Skate." "Bonnets." "I'd seen their kind before." "Rough-hewn boys, chawbacons, come west not for adventure or riches or exploration, but for women and whiskey." "And God only knows what they were running from." "With us was Hobbes, a German preacher who claimed also to be a doctor." "He led us in prayer when we departed Independence, asking the Lord's guidance, and protection from disease, accidents, beasts of prey, and wild heathens." "When he said the last, he was staring straight at Thunder Heart Woman." "She didn't pay him no mind." "Form up the wagons as tight as possible." "Form 'em up!" "You hear that?" "!" "Tighten up!" "Come up here." "My God, Rachel." "How many do you think there are?" "Too many to count, I'll tell you that." "They're beautiful." "I can feel their breathe." "Our first sighting of a buffalo herd was a memorable moment for all." "I'd seen it before, but I was still in awe." "Sheer, dumbstruck awe." "Why'd you have to do that?" "!" "It's meat, ma'am." "You got something against meat?" "What did we bring cattle for then?" "Killing them saves cattle for the journey." "Believe it or not, ma'am, there'll be spots where game is scarce." "Even buffler." "What's that?" "!" "Wolves." "Mountain men, wolves, and buzzards, a regular jamboree of like-minded idiots." "Why don't you pretty ladies go on and collect chips for us?" "Chips?" "Buffalo chips were prairie fuel, oil of the plains, fuel for the campfire, manna from the bison, fast and plenty." "But somebody had to gather them." "Here, put them in here." "What's your name?" "Marquis jones, from illinois." "How many of these do they expect us to collect?" "That greasy-looking pig said as many as we could." "We'll show him." "Make a circle." "Circle 'em up, my friends!" "Be it ever so humble there's no place like home a charm from the skies seems to hallow us there which seek through the world is never met elsewhere" "home, home, sweet, sweet home, there's no place like home." "The wolves today, it was bad sign." "And these people you have chosen to lead us, they are bad sign." "We should go back." "Tomorrow." "These people don't believe in magical sign." "Do you?" "I can't get these people to turn back now." "You know that." "You'll not try?" "No, I won't." "The sentinels awakened the train at 4:00." "By 5:00 A.M.," "The animals were rounded up for the morning trek." "Breakfast was from 6:00 to 7:00, and at 7:00 precisely, the signal was given to advance." "Forward!" "Teams were rotated daily so that the wagons in the vanguard one day would be in the extreme rear the next, and work their way up the column day by day." "Being in the tail of the column was always worst, due to the dust kicked up by the wagons." "Captain Hoxie wanted things organized "for the welfare of all the overlanders," he'd say." "Wherever you were bound, there was one golden rule for the pioneers:" "Follow the river." "Bring 'em right here!" "Pick it up!" "Pick it up!" "Push it!" "Keep it moving!" "That's it!" "Keep it on the angle there!" "Keep it on the angle!" "Let the hold-rope pull you, Jethro, on the angle!" "On the angle!" "I know!" "You told me a thousand times!" "Easy now!" "Stay on the oblique, preacher." "Watch the current!" "Somebody!" "Help them!" "Help!" "Get them!" "No!" "Help!" "No!" "Help!" "Leah!" "She fell, Jethro!" "Stay with the wagon!" "She can't swim!" "Neither can you!" "Leah!" "Where is she?" "!" "Do you see her?" "No!" "You were to cross at the angle with everybody else to wait for the hold-ropes!" "But, no, you wouldn't listen!" "Those are grounds to cut you off, preacher, and leave you here." "Damn it, captain Hoxie!" "That's enough now." "Leave it." "No." "God, in his greatness, in his mysterious workings, has taken this child from us." "We weep for her and her family, and we know that God weeps with us." "Though we know not why, we thank thee, God, for thy blessings, and pray that you will protect this child." "Show us thy will." "Let thy mercy rest on us." "Amen." "All:" "Amen." "I've had enough of this wagon train business!" "I wanna go back, Jacob." "Me, too." "Back to Missouri, you hear?" "We're all sick of it!" "The women, anyway." "Take us back!" "Miss Rachel?" "I just wanted to say how... how sorry I am about your sister." "Thank you, Mr. Ebbetts." "You can call me James." "Or Jim, even." "Jim." "I hope it's not the case that you're planning on going back, miss Rachel." "'Cause I sure do enjoy the sight of you here in this train." "Your presence." "It pleases me." "My presence?" "The sight of me?" "I'd give anything to feel like a woman again." "Clean hair, smooth skin, wearing my sunday best." "Maybe go on a picnic." "That's as much prairie as I ever wanna see again." "And then right back home." "A place that doesn't weave and roll to the sway of the land." "Something fixed and permanent." "A place to rest." "Leah's resting now." "She's the lucky one." "Storm's a-coming!" "Better take shelter in that cover up ahead." "Trees are gettin' scarce, captain." "We gotta grab the ones we got." "Can we not obtain a few more miles, at least?" "Last thing you want in the wide open is a storm." "He's right, captain Hoxie!" "Follow me!" "Take cover!" "Get into a circle!" "Nobody run!" "Come on!" "Take cover from the storm!" "Get in here!" "Watch it!" "Women and children under the wagons!" "Hang on to it!" "Don't let it go!" "We gotta get out of the wagon!" "I got the baby!" "Hurry, Jacob!" "Come on!" "Alright Jacob, get'em out of there." "Come on!" "Underneath!" "Ok!" "It's safer under there!" "Get underneath!" "Everybody, underneath!" "No!" "I'm not going!" "Naomi!" "Kill me!" "Please, God, hit me with a thunderbolt!" "Get back here!" "Leave me be!" "I wanna die!" "Naomi!" "Good, Skate!" "Thanks!" "No!" "Cattle stomped my boy." "Ran right over him." "Come on, boys!" "Up!" "Push!" "All our corn and meal, ruined." "Might as well dump it." "Everybody!" "We are ready now." "You didn't wanna die last night, did you, miss Naomi?" "I don't know, Skate." "You were the one came riding after me." "I guess you thought so." "I'm glad you didn'T." "A woman like you has got too much life ahead of her." "Good life." "Get in the wagon." "I won't leave my baby behind." "I want to stay with him!" "Please let me stay with him!" "Why'd you bring us here?" "What kind of life is this?" "Betterin' ourselves, is that what this is?" "Why can't a nigger just know his place?" "Why can't a man just know..." "We will come back and visit him." "And place flowers?" "When?" "How?" "I could never find this place!" "I could find it for you, ma'am." "Anytime you want, I'll bring you back here you can visit your boy." "Would you really?" "Any time." "Would you dance with me, miss Rachel?" "No." "Let's just walk for a bit." "Nice moon tonight, isn't it?" "Nice enough." "I'd heard so much about the west, I couldn't wait to give it a gander." "Would you ever consider getting married some day?" "Yes, some day, I imagine." "Wouldn't you?" "That's why I asked." "What do you mean?" "Would you marry me?" "Now?" "Well, not right this minute." "Maybe in a couple days when time permits." "I know you don't know much about me." "We'll have opportunity for that." "When we get to california, I intend to farm." "I'll build you a proper house." "I heard the grass is so good, you don't need to put up hay." "All right, then." "I'll marry you." "That went easier than I thought." "Get out of the way!" "And now, with the power granted by the great creator himself," "I hereby pronounce you man and wife." "Yes!" "Excellent!" "Well done!" "Who's next?" "You have a ring?" "Yes, sir.I do." "Very well." "I need your christian name, Skate." "Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Junior." "Folks got married, people died, babies were born." "It was the wheel of life." "Something about the plains made people cling to one another, and leave the grief behind." "Hell, grief was a luxury none of us could afford." "We had to move on, toil and drive, plod and push." "Just keep moving." "And when a wedding happened, we'd all celebrate." ""Shivaree," we called it." "All right, steady." "Let's go!" "Look out below!" "Ease up on your side, Mr Harper!" "Steady!" "Rachel, look out!" "Rachel, just lie still." "Now just lie still." "Hush now." "Stop!" "Can't you see that she's in agony?" "It's a compound fracture." "I can dress it as best as I can, but it's bad." "Two, preacher." "She can't sleep, Jacob." "She says there's something crawling in there." "Crawling where?" "Rachel, Jacob and the preacher are here." "Jim?" "Just lie back." "Try and get some rest." "Gangrene has set in." "What about surgery?" "You mean amputate?" "Well, you're a doctor." " That's what you've been claiming" " Can she be saved?" "I don't believe so." "It's spread too far." "You've got to try." "There's no point to needless agony." "She's suffered long enough." "So we just let her die?" "She's my wife!" "She's my cousin!" "Shouldn't we leave this to her?" "It's her leg, her body." "Here." "Laudanum." "It's not much, but it's all I've got." "You'd better take it." "You're gonna be all right, Rachel." "We're gonna fix you up." "Bite down hard." "All right then." "It took an hour and a half for him to hack through the bone, but by that point Rachel had died." "Seeking answers, as wise men do," "Dog Star traveled to Paha Sapa, the heart of all things, a place where men prayed for visions." "There he found his brother," "Loved by The Buffalo, who was overjoyed to see him." "Hoxie!" "Hold the wagons!" "Skate, stay with them!" "That's the cholera if ever I seen it." "Preacher?" "She had bowel trouble?" "Why didn't you say anything?" "I was hoping it would pass." "You tell him, preacher." "That's the dread cholera." "As far as this hoss is concerned, all bets are off." "You'd better call a council, cap'n." "Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Jones and his daughter." "Cholera was the most feared disease on the trail, folks not knowing what brought it on, bad air, bad water, fever." "It killed indiscriminately and the only response at the time was quarantine." "Our rear guard will remain behind." "We will await your return with open arms." "The wagons that had no contact with the dead woman would leave while the remainder would stay behind for a spell, before going their own way." "We wish you good health." "And Godspeed." "To the wagons!" "Naomi, who'd been up front with her new husband, bid us farewell and no one blamed her." "We were left to fend for ourselves and wait to see who among us might be the next to become infected." "What are you doing?" "I'm gonna separate him from us, see to him." "It's all I know how to do." "Your family's here." "You are the reason we are here, why we came." "She's right." "Let me be." "If I get sick, you'd be better off without me." "But you are not sick." "He is!" "I'll know if I am soon enough." "With cholera, if it don't get you in the first day, chances are you recover." "What if you do not?" "What do we do?" "Boil your water before you drink it." "Go on without me, catch up with the others." "They will not take us back." "Then go on your own." "Find your own people." "Is that why you brought me out here?" "To find my own people?" "What about your children?" "What do you want from me, woman?" "!" "I want my husband." "Let me be, Jacob." "Go to the others." "Nope." "I lost Rachel, I lost Leah, I ain't losing no more." "I should have never let 'em come." "I should have left them in virginia." "They didn't exactly give you a choice." "I've always been envious of you, brother." "You always had that spark, that sense of adventure." "I always wished I could be like that, like you." "You are like me, Jethro." "That's the nicest thing you could say to me." "We're gonna be living in the west together, and have farms beside one another." "You gonna be raising a family next to mine." "Jacob?" "Jacob?" "Wake up!" "Jacob?" "How is he?" "Better." "Honest." "Can you stand up?" "You all right?" "What about everybody else?" "Good." "We have been boiling our water." "We'll catch up with the others then." "The way I figure it, they're about a day ahead." "I'll go ahead alone, get 'em to slow up, then come back for you." "You fought 'em hard, didn't you, Skate?" "Bet you killed more than your share of 'em." "Is it 'cause they took Naomi?" "Come on, Jacob!" "Come on!" "Did you find them?" "They're wiped out." "Now they want us." "They're Cheyenne." "I don't understand why." "The disease." "Cholera." "By killing us, it will not spread to them." "Are they gonna come or what?" "Maybe they just want to frighten us a bit." "With each circle, they come closer." "Move!" "Get down!" "Jacob!" "Pull it out, Jethro." "Pull it!" "Cheyenne Camp" "Are you sick with fever?" "No." "How are you called?" "Naomi Wheeler" "Guthrie." "Mrs. Skate Guthrie." "He was my husband." "Your warriors killed him." "He too has lost a loved one." "Come." "You will now be called "five horses"." "Thank you kindly." "What is that?" "Special oils." "Make Prairie Fire burn all night." "Am I to be married tonight, is that it?" "Hey, diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon." "Little miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey, along came a spider, sat down beside her, and frightened miss Muffet away." "Little miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey, along came a spider, sat down beside her, and frightened miss Muffet away." "Eating his pumpkin pie, put in his thumb, pulled out a plumb, and said, "gee, what a good boy am I"." ""Ole King Cole was a merry old soul, a merry old soul was he, he called for his pipe, he called for his bowl, he called for his fiddler's three." "He believes you channel evil spirits with these rhymes." "More like keeping evil spirits away." "Old mother Hubbard went to her cupboard to fetch her poor dog a bone, but when she got there, he cupboard was bare, so her poor dog had none." "I can't take it anymore!" "Stop the wagon!" "Leave me here." "We will not." "I..." "The wagon." "I can't take the pain." "I got to get out." "We will camp here until you are well." "No." "No." "Winter's coming." "You got to get past the mountains." "Take the children." "Go with Jethro." "I'll find you." "Lord almighty." "How could you ask me to do a thing like that?" "Just abandon you here?" "The trail's gonna kill me quicker than if you leave me behind." "At least here I can rest." "I can heal up on my own terms." "Please just leave me here." "Thank you for finding me." "For saving me, and for loving me." "Loving you is easy, it always has been, but I'll see you again." "I know it." "Jacob... young Margaret light shines, you mind your mother." "Ok." "And never forget who you are." "You're one part lakota, one part virginia." "Abraham high wolf, remember who you are always, and remind your brother Jacob." "I doubted I would make it." "I thought of grandfather two arrows and grandmother good path, how they had accepted death as they'd accepted life." "Now it was my turn." "I don't understand." "Hot." "Fever." "Yes." "I'm sorry about your child." "A gift from wakan tanka." "No other way to explain my wife's brother coming upon me like he did." "For 3 days, he and his band cared for me and I shared the story of my family's departure and my mission to find them." "It hurt to trade a rifle for a horse, but I knew I could never catch up to my family on foot." "Winter was in the air, and if I could not cross the Sierras, they would be lost to me until spring." "Best laid plans, people call 'em." "Well, winter did come early." "Twenty foot snow drifts closed the pass." "California 1841." "It's too beautiful to be real." "What is it, mama?" "Beyond that, as far as the eye can see, is california, just as your father said." "Will daddy ever see it?" "Twinkle, twinkle, little star how I wonder what you are" "up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky." "Nature's unforgiving tempest and my own ruins conspired to defeat my purpose, and so I became a creature of the wilderness, not a soul to answer to." "I trapped." "I hunted." "I survived." "Cheyenne Winter Camp" "The mountains claimed my company for two seasons, and eventually they claimed my mind." "The eyes of my children haunted me, haunted me because I knew their little eyes still held hope that they would see me again." "Sometimes I lost control when I remembered their faces and the life I wanted to live with them." "Those little eyes would always be looking down the road for me." "Old mother Hubbard went to her cupboard to fetch her poor dog a bone, but when she got there, the cupboard was bare, so her poor dog had none." "After that awful second winter," "I traded pelts for goods and animals and headed to california to find my family." "I inquired after them in every mission and every farm house, every town, every stranger along the road." "I lived for the moment when I could redeem the hope in the eyes of my children, but it seemed california had just swallowed them up." "Amercian River, California 1846." "War broke out between my country and mexico." "While looking for my family, I got caught up in a struggle between the californios and mexico city." "I fell in with captain john fremont and his bear flag volunteers." "We saw no action to brag about as the hot war was on the Texas border." "When it was over, america had acquired Texas, california, and the southwest, but I lost everything." "Ma'am, I'm captain fremont, and these are my volunteers." "We'd be much obliged if you'd allow us to fill our canteens." "Dismount!" "Welcome." "I'm the lady's husband." "You the hero of Monterrey?" "Some call me that." "Jacob!" "Give these to the men." "Fruit, mister?" "Pick me a good one." "Say, boy?" "Yes, sir?" "That's the best damn apple I ever had." "You picked me a real winner, so I want to give you a gift to show you my appreciation." "Gift?" "Yeah, put that down." "It's a magic necklace, and the magic's stronger if you tell no one about it." "Tell no one?" "That's right." "Thanks." "Thank you for your kindness, sir." "You're welcome." "I saw a family, a happy family." "I saw the home I dreamed of for all of us, a peaceful place with sun and rain for crops." "I saw a couple who cared for each other and looked after their children." "What more could a man want for his family?" "So I took my heartbreak to the mountains." "Only they could understand the immensity." "Jacob?" "Yes, mama?" "Where did you get this?" "One of the men gave it to me." "Which one?" "What did he look like?" "Describe him to me." "He was tall like uncle Jethro." "What did he say?" "He liked my apple." "What's wrong, mama?" "Don't you like it?" "Yes, it is precious." "Keep it." "White hide hunters came with their long guns and killed the buffalo, leaving carcasses to rot across the endless prairies." "Without it's flesh and spirit to sustain them, the people of the buffalo nation began to lose their way." "What do you want for these?" "You want pistols?" "Colt pistols?" "Pistols." "For all." "By law, I'm not allowed to sell them to Indians." "Can't help you there, but..." "Whiskey." "Whiskey." "A pint each." "How about that?" "Did you see him?" "No." "Then how do you know it was him?" "It could have been anybody." "Who else could it be?" "Who else but Jacob would bother?" "So he's alive and he knows we're here?" "And wishes to leave us alone." "I've asked myself why, a thousand times." "Does Jethro know?" "He saw it on the boy." "It eats him inside." "I should have buried it, kept it from him." "What are you going to do?" "I have to find him." "He's my father."