Winter's Child by Margaret Coel Page A

make the women human and help us to understand them.”
    â€œHistory books get things wrong,” Wilbur said. “They make out how bad things went for captives, like all Indians were barbarians. Sure, some of the white women had it tough, especially when the warriors went on the rampage after that terrible massacre in Colorado.”
    Silence dropped over the kitchen. Shannon kept her eyes on the last piece of bread on her plate, then looked over at Father John. He had read about the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, the massacre that drove the Arapahos and Cheyennes from their Colorado homelands. “It was a terrible time,” he said.
    â€œI’m not saying the Cheyennes didn’t mistreat white captives.”
    â€œPlenty of white men mistreated Indian women,” Belle said.
    Wilbur leaned forward. “History books lump all the tribes together. Arapahos traded for white captives. They returned them or kept them with the people. Those old Arapahos knew it was a good thing to have new people and fresh blood. Good to strengthen the tribe. You see Arapahos with blond hair and blue eyes on the rez today. They come down from whites, some of them captives. Like my family. Blue eyes here.” He lifted a hand to his eyes. “I’m proud I came down from Lizzie Brokenhorn. I got cousins with hair the color of pink sand, like hers. We’re all proud.”
    â€œI’m not sure how Lizzie came to the Arapahos,” Shannon said. A comment, not a question. His niece was a quick study.
    Wilbur sipped at his coffee. Finally he said, “She wasn’t captured by Arapahos, like the history books say. My father did his own research. Talked to some of the elders that went back to the time of Sand Creek. Lizzie was captured the next summer in 1865. There were some Arapaho warriors riding with Cheyennes that day, but it was a Cheyenne attack. After Sand Creek, there was no peace. Cheyennes had been raiding on the North Platte that summer, and Arapahos joined them.”
    â€œLizzie never would have been captured if her father had used common sense.” Belle shook her head and pulled apart a piece of bread. “Tell them what your dad found out.”
    â€œJasper Fletcher, Lizzie’s father, decided to move his family from Illinois to California so he could find gold and get rich. He and Mary Ann had five kids. Jasper had joined a large wagon train that no Indians with any sense were gonna attack. He should’ve stayed with the train, but he decided to pull ahead. Stop along the river, have lunch. That’s when the Cheyenne Chief Sand Hill and hiswarriors rode down on them. Killed Mary Ann and wounded Jasper. The boys got away. The Indians took Amanda Mary and Lizzie and rode off.”
    â€œSeven months later”—Belle was shaking her head—“a trader found Amanda Mary in a Cheyenne camp and ransomed her. But there was no sign of Lizzie.”
    â€œMy father told me the old Indians he talked to said that Cut Nose, another Cheyenne warrior, gave Lizzie to his wife as their new daughter. She was a real pretty little thing, with blue eyes and light-colored hair. Cut Nose called her Little Silver Hair. He always treated her kindly, and his wife kept her dressed in fine clothing. She grew up speaking Cheyenne.”
    Shannon sipped at her coffee. Holding the cup in both hands, she said, “I didn’t realize she grew up Cheyenne.”
    â€œCheyenne, until Brokenhorn and some other Arapahos went to Cut Nose’s camp to trade. Great-grandfather always said the minute he laid eyes on Lizzie, he knew she would be his wife. At first Cut Nose refused. There weren’t enough ponies or robes or glass beads or tobacco to make Cut Nose give her up.” Wilbur shook his head and smiled to himself, a faraway look in his eyes, as if he could see the Cheyenne warrior standing firm, refusing to trade his daughter. “Brokenhorn didn’t give up. He kept coming