Skalkaho Chapter 2: Skalkaho Attacks

A plan is hatched in front of Benjamin Skalkaho's trapper friends. Sitting around all day in camp bragging can get tedious and the other trappers were full of trade whiskey with the brag to back it up. Skalkaho's time came out of a delirious thought impulsing its way to his frontal lobe. He blurted out during a moment when all others were thinking of something else to brag about. 

"I know how to trick the Blackfoot out of some pelts," he stammered.

The whole circle of friends nearly fell off the stumps they were sitting on. The group of ruffians was thinking the Blackfoot will slit your throat because you are at the wrong place at the wrong time just on this side of the mountains. It was common knowledge by 1838. 

He had a plan and he told them how it would go, "First I have to find Otaki, the girl you call Running Eagle. She is shunned by the men of her tribe. She is eligible for wooing even from a white man. I will go hunting for a wife and soon after making a treaty with the Blackfoot for trapping rights everywhere they hunt. Who’s in?"

There was no reply only silence. It was madness. Running Eagle was a fierce warrior. She grew up as a Piegan tribal "Tomboy" of the Blackfoot nation. 

"If nobody is in on this plan then I'm starting in the morning", Skalkaho angrily snorted at the small circle of friends. 

They didn't seem to care about what seemed another brag. Skalkaho would be on his own when morning comes. Except the morning brought a severe hang-over and headache. He only remembered a brag had put him into a crazy corner. He had to go after Otaki or Running Eagle or whatever she was called as even Brown Wiesel Woman. She was as a warrior though. 

Benjamin's expectations hit bottom thinking about Brown Wiesel Woman. He'd rather think about a Running Eagle or Otaki instead. The name didn't matter. The delusion of grandeur was snuffed out by reality from some kind of Wiesel and his sobriety at the moment. He was in a pickle and the only way out was by horseback from the Blackleaf camp.

How would he face his brethren over the reality of the morning? Expecting explosive laughter, the first trapper came by and said, "good luck Skalkaho". 

That did it, he couldn't back out of the brag. He had to go get Otaki and bring her back as a wife while making a deal with the Blackfoot for his trapping territory. Then others came by as he packed his horse. 

The red-bearded Frenchman Jacques slipped behind him and uttered a quiet, "Mais oui". 

The English first-mate "smiley", from a long-ago whaling adventure, called out, "I'd rather ride on a Blackfish than a Blackfoot." 

So it began before he could even leave camp. The well-wishing became a tool for teasing Skalkaho, as he prepared his journey for meeting a woman named Brown Wiesel Woman. What else could go wrong for Skalkaho this early morning?

"Maybe Brown Wiesel has an unmarried beautiful sister", grumbled Skalkaho under his breath. 

Otaki, couldn't be so bad, no one would even marry her. She must be something special somehow. The ride out of camp was with trepidation. Even the view of the Rocky Mountain front reflecting sunrise from the east didn't help his emotion at the time. He was a goner and he knew it. All because of whiskey and bragging under its influence.

The trail wound its way up on a high bench as he plodded north with a long gun across his lap at the ready. All he could think of was the fix he talked himself into a courting for Brown Wiesel Woman. 

He didn't notice silhouettes on the next ridge two miles to his north. They were Blackfoot watching as he dipped down in the next coulee between benches. When Skalkaho climbed up the north side bench which fingered out from the continental divide, he would meet the Blackfoot hunting party, and they were not amused at his approach.

Skalkaho reigned up his mount as the horse sensed something by issuing low grunts. Looking to his right into the rising sun, he saw outlines of four Indians mounted as if waiting for his next move. Skalkaho didn't have the next move, he charged their position as if in full attack having only one shot in his musket. 

The second plan began evolving as the road about a quarter a mile towards the Blackfoot hunters. Skalkaho slowed down into a gait. The Indians saw it as a sign he was either crazy or fearless. Benjamin was thinking he was either crazy or scared. He was scared without a plan so he must be crazy riding towards the Blackfoot. The hunting party just sat there and waited. There was no reason to do anything since he was coming towards them anyways.

The whole thing was as funny as his plan last night taking a warrior bride, and negotiate for trapping territory. The attack was launched and Skalkaho had no idea what to do or how it would turn out. As he neared the hunting party he could see they began to laugh at his antics. Just like last night and his trapper friends, they laughed. As he neared the party he signed the universal outstretched finger poking his nose for "women".  The hunters laughed again but understood what he wanted and that was Otaki. They were conquered because Skalkaho was so bold and direct arousing curiosity that canceled death for this white man.

The greeting was cold on both sides, but before anything happened Skalkaho blurted out, "Otaki".

The hunters were stunned by this outburst and it was not followed by laughter as Skalkaho had just started his business with them. The Blackfoot enjoyed a good show and were curious what a Blackfoot warrior princess would do to a white man. Like all of Skalkaho's plans, he was an innovator as events unfolded.

The warriors pointed in a northern direction and for him to ride among the party going to the Piegan village. At least Benjamin Skalkaho didn't die during his attack and his haphazard way aroused a strange admiration from the warriors. Luck was truly working for him this day.

Skalkaho Chapter 3: Otaki Is Running Eagle