Chiquita, an American Novel: The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter — John Shaqi
Chiquita, an American Novel: The Romance of a Ute Chief's DaughterTileston, Merrill
General
Chiquita, an American Novel: The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter
Tileston, Merrill
Indian women -- Fiction; Ute Indians -- Fiction
The next day he returned from the traps just as the last streaks of
sunlight were tipping the tops of the cañon where Rock Creek dashed by
the cabin. Yamanatz sat by the cold camp fire in the same place and same
position in which Jack had left him after breakfast, six hours before.
Of course, Jack was surprised at this and wondered what it meant. As
Jack swung into the open space Yamanatz immediately arose with hands
outstretched, the palms well up towards the comer, accompanying the
action with this eager outburst:
"Yamanatz heap glad to see white man Jack; Colorow come. White man gone.
Colorow heap mad, want to see white man. Me tell 'em white man gone,
Colorow follow white man; byme by Antelope come look for Colorow;
Antelope go back Indian village by Pony Creek. Antelope tell Utes
Colorow mean mischief; Colorow's boy come byme by look for Colorow; when
Yamanatz tell Colorow's boy 'Colorow follow white man,' Colorow's boy
heap 'fraid, say: 'Mebbe so Colorow meet 'em white man Jack.' Then
Colorow's boy go Indian village. Sun low--Chiquita come, no find white
man, go back Indian village, mebbe so white man see Colorow?"
Jack, of course, was nervous. Alone in a wild country that was alive
with wild game, ravenous wolves, mountain lions, bears and hostile
Indians, he realized what a novice, a tenderfoot, a fool he was, or
would be, to put his ignorance of frontier life against the cunning of
the old chiefs, but he answered quickly,
[Illustration: YAMANATZ.]
"Me no see Colorow." Then taking courage by the kindly look in
Yamanatz's eyes, Jack said slowly, taking Yamanatz's hands in his own.
"Mebbe so Colorow want to kill white man Jack?"
Yamanatz shrugged his shoulders but made no answer and Jack continued.
"If Colorow meet white man, Colorow got no bullets--got knife--suppose
white man kill Colorow, will Utes kill white man?"
Yamanatz evaded the question but made the reply: "Colorow heap bad
Indian, mebbe so make heap trouble. Utes 'fraid Colorow--big chief
'fraid Colorow. White man mebbe so kill Colorow, no tell what 'em
happen. Old Utes not much care. Antelope, Bennett, Douglas, Washington.
Mebbe so heap mad, kill all white men if white man Jack kill Colorow."
In this honest avowal Jack found little comfort, but Yamanatz's next
words gave him a hope that all might be well.
"Utes got no lead, no powder, no deer meat. Mebbe so Colorow take many
ponies, go Sulphur Springs, get 'em bullets, bacon, flour, then be good
Injun till all gone."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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