?—?Could be, Samuelson mumbled as if he had been woken.
Boyd groaned. —?Lord, why’d you have to go & ask that?
I offered to take first shift to keep the fire going through the night. As the other men sleep, I write here in my journal, feed branches to the flames. Beyond the firelight, the forest is a wall of darkness. I hear nothing beyond the steady roar of the river & the occasional crackle of the fire.
April 26
We discovered a crude fish camp that likely had not been used since summer, searched for any bit of food left behind, to no avail. We continue to see sign of Midnooskies, though the Indians themselves remain out of sight. Smoke rises from campfires upriver, but they are extinguished before we can reach them.
?—?They’re keeping their eyes on us, Samuelson says.
We shot seven rabbits during the day, which we ate before the meat was fully cooked. We become more like the Indians every day. Our hunger, however, is not abated. A drizzling rain turned to snow, yet still we made good time. 14 miles.
April 27
After trailing the Midnooskies up the river, today we at last caught up with them. We fired several rounds, waited for response. We were greeted with silence, which Samuelson saw as bad sign. We spied their hide-covered shelter through the brush & approached with caution, as we did not know how many Indians were concealed within, or their character.
?—?Do you think they’re man-eaters? Tillman whispered too loudly.
Myself, I was not as concerned with the rumors of neighboring tribes, but instead the reports of the fiercely territorial behavior these Indians demonstrated with the Russians.
?—?Hey, ho there, Samuelson called as we entered the clearing of their camp.
Contrary to our fears, these Midnooskies proved to be a woebegone band. The children peeking from behind the hides were rail thin & vacant eyed; the adults crouched outside, clothed in the most ragged of furs. It was just as the skilly had warned us?—?a starving land.
Against hope, we asked if we could perhaps trade for some food. The leader, a gaunt man with much scarring to his face, hesitated, then said he would trade us some dried salmon for tea & gun powder. He had a poor muzzle-loading shotgun that he said his grandfather had acquired from the Russians many years ago. He had several copper bullets that he had hammered himself in order to hunt moose. However, he said he has been without powder for some time.
When he ordered one of the children to fetch us the salmon, an old woman began to shout at him & gesture wildly.
?—?He will kill his own children if he takes this food from their mouths, the woman cried. It is all they have, Samuelson translated.
The Indian ignored her pleas, showed the dried salmon to us.
?—?Good God, I won’t touch the stuff! Tillman said.
?—?When your stomach starts to gnawing at your backbone, you’ll eat it & be glad for it, was Samuelson’s reply.
The withered flesh was moldy & putrid, looked as if it could make us more ill than not, but I took a small portion of what was offered. In exchange we gave him a sprinkling of tea, explaining that we were nearly without ourselves, & Tillman assisted with the gunpowder.
When we asked if they had seen any geese come through, the Midnooskies were vague. The leader said he, too, had heard them fly overhead recently. Samuelson had trouble translating, but it seemed the Indian was making some kind of threat about the waterfowl.
?—?Ah, he’s just trying to hornswoggle us! Tillman said. —?They’re as hungry for those geese as we are.
I was interested in gathering information about other Midnooskies in the area. The Indian informed us that a village is located up another river drainage, its confluence about 50 miles north of here.
I asked through Samuelson if the village will greet us in a friendly manner.
The Indian answered that the tyone, the Russian name they use for a kind of chief among their people, is powerful, wary of strangers, but beyond that he was unwilling to provide more insight.
Did he know a passage through the mountains to the north? We plan to follow the Wolverine to its headwaters, but will need Indian guides to find the easiest way beyond.
The man said he has never gone that far.
?—?His people go to those mountains only after they die, Samuelson said. —?They say it is a kind of spirit world. On the other side, you’re in the territory of their enemies.
The Indian went on to say that the Trail River tyone is powerful, that he has no fear & that is why he is rich. He has traveled farther than any other Midnoosky.
?—?Sounds like the tyone knows the way through the mountains, if he’ll tell you, Samuelson said.
Boyd then attempted to speak to the Midnooskies in their language. Among his broken speech, I was able to discern the words for woman & fog, so that along with his gestures, I knew he asked after his wife. The Indians had no knowledge of her.
After we left them, Tillman asked how we know they won’t follow us, kill us & eat us all.