“Ma’am are you sure you’re feeling well enough? Shouldn’t you rest a while? But ma’am, where are we going to put all this?”
I had forgotten all about the crocks and jars and sacks?—?flour, sugar, rolled oats, coffee?—?that we had piled on the floor.
“The dining room table,” I told her at last. We never use it.
Next we set to taking down the shelves. A chill sweat plagued me from the effort, as I am still weak from my long confinement, but Charlotte is adept with hammer and pry bar. She hesitated at first, as if we did some reprehensible destruction, but I assumed full responsibility and I think she came to relish the task. (In fact, she spoke more words than ever I heard from her, mostly of a rough and colorful nature. “Sorry ma’am,” she said each time she cursed. “That’s why Mam’s always telling me to keep my mouth shut. She says blames Da and my brothers, but she swears just as good as any of them.”)
Dismantling the pantry took much longer than I expected, and we were dead tired by the end of day. Tomorrow, I told her, we will plug any cracks with rags.
We must get rid of the light. Every last bit of it.
Lieut. Col. Allen Forrester
May 15, 1885
The Indians have become accustomed to our presence so even the young ones do not hide from us. Though it remains cold in the shade, with patches of snow in the forest, the children run about nearly naked. They are often joined by one or two of the many half-wild dogs that live with the Midnooskies.
This midday I observed a group of boys playing a string game that reminded me much of cat’s-cradle. The string was formed from dried animal sinew which they had tied into a large loop. They wove it between their fingers to form different shapes.
When they saw that I watched them, they held up each string picture so I could clearly see. The first was of a mountain. I recognized it even before they pointed to the range to the north.
?—?Very good, I said.
My tone must have been too stern, for they frowned, whispered to each other. Once I smiled, nodded to them, they continued with renewed excitement.
Next they made a star. The horns of a tebay. Then came a complicated interlock of strings that I could not make out. When I shook my head that I did not understand, one small boy pointed to his own ribs. Evidently it was a rib cage. They continued for some time, weaving their pictures.
There was one that was my favorite. I wish Sophie could have seen it. The string & hands formed the shape of a bird. Working together, two of the children were even able to make the wings flap.
May 16
Pruitt at last sits up, is aware of his surroundings. The woman who tends him seems to be an outsider among these people. She is well taller than most of the Indians, her skin a paler shade. She carries herself proudly, although I suspect by the way she is treated by the others that she is a slave. She is gentle enough with Pruitt, assists him in sitting up to eat. Yet she expresses no emotion in her dealings with him, neither fear nor affection, but rather complete indifference.
Tillman causes me some anxiety. Already he has scuffled with some of the Midnooskies who have offended him in one way or another. This morning, he caught an Indian removing the artificial horizon from Pruitt’s belongings. Tillman yelled at him, yanked the instruments from his hands, shoved the man to the ground. The Indian jumped to his feet with ax at the ready. It only flamed Tillman’s anger. No doubt it would have come to dangerous blows had I not stepped between the two.
Tillman is not cautious enough around these Indians, but dallies with the young women, throws himself headlong into confrontation. The Midnooskies seem peaceable enough, but I remind him to check himself?—?we remain at their mercy.
Oregon Post
MURDER IN ALASKA
May 4, 1885?—?News has arrived from Alaska that Indians have murdered the local trading man on Perkins Island.
Mr. Wesley Jenson, operator of the Alaska Commercial Co. trading store at Perkins Island, was shot down inside his own bed in the early morning hours of April 30. This is not the first instance of hostility between Mr. Jenson and the local Indian population. Last month, the USS Pinta, under the leadership of Lieut.-Commander Daley, responded to an uprising on the island in which the trader shot an attacking Indian.