?—?Maybe that, too. But Ceeth Hwya says you’ll enter a kind of spirit world up there. He says it’s a good place, but not for the living.
It seems these people believe the dead spend their days hunting strange beasts like none seen elsewhere, creatures with giant horns coming out of their mouths & legs the size of cottonwood trees. Once we pass over the mountains, according to the tyone, we will travel down to a river. Along the way, he claims, we are likely to stumble upon the bones of these mythical creatures.
From then on, as we come down out the mountains & return to the land of the living, the tyone says we should not trust the people we meet.
Samuelson expected him to say as much, as the groups have battled each for bygones, stolen slaves from each other.
The tyone claims to be one of the few Midnooskies who has traveled over the mountains of his own free will. He managed to survive, even make a few trading deals.
?—?But only by the skin of his teeth, Samuelson said.
When we have traveled that far, the tyone says we should stow away the jacket he has given to me.
Would his enemies recognize it?
?—?More than that, Samuelson said. —?It’s got to do with how things work on either side of the mountains.
I asked him to explain further, but it is only nonsense. Because Christian missionaries have traveled far into the country of the Yukon River, & many of the natives have been converted, Ceeth Hwya does not believe the supernatural protection of his jacket will hold sway.
I asked if he could at least tell me this?—?how long will it take us from here to cross the mountains? His answer was not particularly helpful: maybe 14 days, maybe two months, it all depends.
June 5
Ceeth Hwya has left us to travel back downriver. He goes in the baidarra. We no longer have use for it as the river becomes increasingly rocky & shallow. Several Indians from a nearby camp joined the tyone. I asked if we might trade them for their long-handled fishing nets so that we might feed ourselves on our journey north, but they said we won’t find salmon on the west fork. It seems the fish do not travel there but instead spawn on different tributaries. Uncured in this heat, any fish we harvest now will last but a few days in our packs. Once again, we will have to make do with what we can scavenge until we reach the village.
I repaid the tyone’s assistance with a generous amount of powder. On a more personal note, I gave him one of my pencils as well as a dozen or so pages torn from my diary. This especially pleased him. I suspect that if given the chance this young man would much benefit from learning to read & write.
After our farewells, Ceeth Hwya boarded the baidarra along with other Indians. I could hear his shouts of ‘A-to! A-to!’ (Paddle! Paddle!) as they floated down the Wolverine River.
June 6
Today we bade farewell to Samuelson & Boyd. They head to the west, into a valley the Indians say holds copper & gold. It is, too, in the direction Boyd believes he saw his wife traveling.
?—?You see that fog up that way, Colonel? That’s a good sign, don’t you think, that I might find her yet?
Tillman asked the two men how long they intend to stay in the valley, to which Samuelson said it would depend on what they find.
?—?You prefer this territory, then? Pruitt asked.
?—?It’s truly the last of the wild country, Samuelson said. —?But it won’t stay this way for long.
?—?The wildness, then, is what you seek?
?—?Gold & furs are what we’re after.
Pruitt asked if there wasn’t an easier way for a man to earn a living, which brought a laugh from Samuelson.
?—?No doubt, no doubt, he said. —?I suppose the wilderness does have its draw. She always keeps a part of herself a mystery.
Samuelson said that even after five seasons he cannot claim to know this territory.
?—?Give it time, though, he said. —?Soon enough the proselytizers & the politicians will come & sort it all out. Next thing you know, the Indians will be dressed in cotton getups, going to church, & living in neat little houses that can’t hold the heat. We’ll go back to thinking we know it all. That’s when it will be time for me to move on.
As we parted ways, Tillman asked if either man might have a drop or two to spare. Boyd said they were all out of spirits, but that they could spare some tobacco.
I paid them both their wages, wished them the best of luck. It seems unlikely that we will ever meet again. I am sorry for that. Samuelson was a particularly good guide.
He correctly predicted this: Nat’aaggi stays on with me & my men. I did not ask her to join us, nor did she make her plans known except to continue in our company, along with the dog, Boyo.
The Indian woman is capable assistance. She is always at some work or another, hunting food, gathering birch bark for fire starter. I remain, however, somewhat mystified by her desire to travel with us beyond her people’s territory.
Did she understand we are to go over the mountains? We will travel quick & light, I said, so it will be no easy journey.