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There is some man on man sex in this story, but nowhere near as much as is usual in my missives.
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Education, Wild West Style
Main Characters
Lone Arrow -- Indian Chief Running Bear -- Lone Arrow's son Luke Atherton -- ex Lt. of Cavalry. Luke Atherton Snr. -- US Senator and father of Luke. Tom Arnold -- Lt. (later Major), and Luke's Friend. Little Buffalo -- Indian Brave and lover of Tom. Michael Hudson and Brett Tanner -- Luke's ex troopers, (later promotions follow).
Part 1
Washington DC and The West
The Civil War had been over for a little more than two years. The problems facing government now were, rebuilding the South, (but in some stupid way they wanted a broken and bankrupt South to fund their own rebuild,) and the Indian question. The first didn't interest Luke particularly. He was delighted that the slaves were now free, but other than that he thought it had been an unnecessary and hugely expensive war in human as well as monetary terms. He was a Harvard graduate in finance, and money ran in his veins.
The Indian question was an all together different subject. Luke thought it was totally immoral that the white settlers were grabbing as much of the best Indian lands as they could, backed by a greedy government who were pushing the Indians on to reservations where the worst land was.
Luke's father was a senator whose God was money, and who would go to any lengths to increase his holding of it. Grabbing Indian lands and assigning the deeds of huge tracks to his own companies was how he was going about it now. Luke Atherton loathed his father's morals, and almost everything he stood for. Luke fought him every step of the way, rabble rousing at college, writing to newspapers, organising demonstrations in the capital.
By the time Luke graduated his father had tolerated enough. With no discussion he sent Luke west with a temporary commission in the Seventh Cavalry.
"You'll serve one year Luke, and then you can return to Washington and join me in government. By then all these silly notions about the Indians will be blown away I hope."
Luke had no real choice, his father controlled the purse strings, and despite being a robust and sporty young man he had been brought up in the lap of luxury and was loathe to give that up, even for his strongly held beliefs.
On completion of basic training Luke was assigned to a mobile unit as a second lieutenant, with a young lieutenant in command. Their task was to track down and capture the bands of renegades that were refusing to go to the reservations. Frequently these bands were small and usually consisted of young braves unwilling to be corralled in to these reserves. Sometimes they made life even more difficult for the soldiers by joining into groups from different tribes and transiting vast distances taking in many tribal land areas. They were also extremely efficient units, very often ambushing cavalry patrols vastly superior in numbers to themselves. Some were trying to keep tribes, or part of tribes together against the odds, and these fought even more fiercely than the rest. Of course, every patrol they successfully ambushed added to their stocks of modern weapons and ammunition.
One feature of this mobile existence that plagued Luke was the feeling of terror every time they left the fort on a new patrol. He had heard of the terrible and barbaric torture meted out to captured soldiers and prayed he would never be captured. His other problem was that in principle he agreed with the Indians. It was their land and it was the superiority of numbers and the modern weapons of the whites that had them on the defensive, so terrorising the whites was the best way they knew to wage war.
To try and learn more about these wild men, Luke studied their language, sitting for hours with the Indian scouts attached to their unit and speaking in their own tongue as much as possible. By the time Luke's unit did run into an Indian ambush he was quite fluent in one Indian dialect common to their area, and had many words in other dialects.
The ambush, when it happened was a classic of simplicity, which was probably why it was so effective. One Indian had taken all the mounts of his group, loaded with rocks to give the correct depth of hoof marks, leaving all his comrades at the ambush site. The Indian trackers attached to the patrol had been fooled completely and the soldiers had ridden into a withering cross fire cutting them down wholesale. There were only three survivors, all wounded. Luke was one of these having taken a bullet in the side.
At the Indian camp the three were left to themselves, not considered dangerous enough to even put a guard on them. The Indians were guarding the horses and proceeds of the ambush but ignored the three soldiers. Luke realised that he could dress the wounds of the two others, and his own, if he could have some water to clean them, and it would be even better if he could persuade the leader of the war party to let him have some medical gear from one of the saddle bags.
Walking badly because of his wound, and patently being in considerable pain, Luke approached one of the Indians and spoke to him in what he hoped was his own tongue. It worked, the young brave was impressed and took Luke to the leader.
Being as polite as he knew how Luke asked the leader for some water and a first aid kit from one of the cavalry saddlebags, to dress the wounds of his men. The leader was impressed as well, and amused that this little blond haired boy was not only an officer but reasonably fluent in his tongue. His request was granted and Luke returned to the soldiers camp fire with all he had asked for, and an escort of the young brave he had first approached.
While he dressed the wounds of the two young troopers, who, like him, had survived, Luke talked to the brave. They soon knew much about each other's lives, and the brave was surprised to learn that Luke was here as a punishment for causing trouble in the White man's village, (Washington), over the Indian question.
"I think it is wrong that you are being forced into reservations and I fought my father over it while at school and almost full time when I graduated. In the end he forced me into the army for a year. When I return to my home, if I am lucky enough to do so I will continue to fight him, and my government."
With the two troopers wounds dressed, Luke tended to his own wound and was surprised when the young brave took control and being very gentle cleaned and dressed it, making sure there was no residue left in the wound. He also helped Luke prepare and serve some cooked food to his troopers.
When everything was cleared away and the troopers were settled for the night Luke and the Indian sat by the fire and talked.
"I am called Running Bear and have seen nineteen summers," the young brave told Luke.
"I am called Luke, and I have seen twenty summers, Running Bear."
"I will tell my father all that you have told me, and maybe he will spare your life, but I fear the other braves will make sport of your soldiers and they will die in great pain."
Running Bear sounded sad at this and Luke looked more closely at this boy/man. He realised he was very beautiful. Not handsome like a white boy might be but truly beautiful. His features made him look gentle and with his long hair, almost girlish, but the almost naked body was definitely not girlish. It was the sleek sinewy body of an Indian Brave, brought up to long hours of exercise, running over long distances and practising the arts of war from an early age.
"I thank you for your consideration Running Bear, perhaps I may be permitted to plead for the lives of my men."
"I will ask, Luke. For now, try to sleep, whatever happens, tomorrow will be a hard day for you."
Running Bear returned to his own camp and told his father, the leader of the group, all that he had learned of their captives.
Loan Arrow, was a minor chief of his tribe and had led a breakaway group into the mountains with some of the braves forming this war party to keep the women, children, and old men fed and protected. He listened carefully to all that his youngest son had to say, before going to bed that night with much to think about. All three of the soldiers were young, the two troopers looking the same age as Running Bear and the Lieutenant looking even younger. He had a father's mind and looked at the three young men before he himself went to bed, his feelings for these young men was of compassion. They were too young to fight and die, the big white father must be a cruel man to send these babes to war, he felt the same about Running Bear, but what choice did he have?
The following morning Loan Arrow inspected the wounds of the three soldiers, deciding they were fit to ride and therefore giving him another day before he had to make a decision as to their future. As they rode, he thought about the young officer, perhaps he would be more useful retained in the Indian village for a while and then returned to his own people. The other two were more difficult. They were so young, but his men would want to have fun with them before torturing them to death. He realised that he wished to avoid that and started to consider compromises.
During the next few days Loan Arrow's braves were mystified by his ban on the prisoners being tortured. Luke spent hours sat with them talking, and the two young troopers as they came back to fitness were now guarded and at nights restrained so that they could not escape, but they were not molested.
Another ambush and Luke was fascinated at the tactics and surprised that this band covered their tracks and actions so well. Despite the hard work involved Loan Arrow made his braves, now with the help of the three soldiers, bury the dead soldiers and return the ambush site to the same state it was in before.
"When a blue jacket patrol is found heading towards our village and hunting grounds my father ambushes and hides them so that other patrols will not continue in the same direction or remain in this area. We try to give the impression that there are no Indians here."
Luke thought that was quite a clever tactic and he was surprised that these apparently simple people were anything but.
It was over a week after their capture that Luke and his troopers were led into the Indian Village having been kept blindfolded for two days prior to that. Set back in the foothills and carefully placed so as to be obscure and defensible, Luke was surprised at how clean and well organised the area was. The children all looked well fed and happy as did the women and old men.
Now life changed for the troopers and, not so dramatically for Luke as well. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Luke and Running Bear get to know each other more intimately in the next chapter