Killing Cynthia Ann

1 On the Pease River, 18 Dec. 1860

• On The Pease River, .8 Dec. •860 N audah paused and looked up from stripping the flesh and striffen from 3. fresh buffalo hide. A few steps to the east, several women-friends and relatives-bent over buffalo hides pegged out among the tipis in various stages of curing and tanning. The sliced meat hung on drying racks. Nearby, Nahah Joe, subc.hief in charge of the camp, bent his gray head forward, absorbed in an aching a flint arrowhead to a shaft with a fresh, elastic piece ofbuffalo sinew that would shrink tight when it dried. His braids, wrapped in ochre and russet ribbons, kept falling forward, obstructing his view of his work. '~ren't you worried, Nobaht" Naudah called, sitting back on her heels and scanning the flat horizon to the south. Nahah grunted. A woman's idle chatter was hardly worth an answer, even ifshe was the favorite wife of Peta Nocona. He glanced around. The sun shone warmly on the camp of some twenty Comanches on the hanks of Mule Creek, a tributary to the Pease River. He muttered a little prayer of thanks to the sun; they had already endured twO snowstorms this season. I{ looked like a bad wimer approaching. He sniffed the air: a bit tOO much moisture. A chill that defied the sunshine told him another blizzard was coming. 2 1. Esa-kwita, literally, "Wolf turd," an ambiguous term. Excrement and references to excrement were negative , but the wolf's medicine was among the most powerful, so anything coming from a wolf denoted power. One of the most successful and respected Comanche chiefs was named Esakwita . 2. "Nurhmurh" is the Comanche word used to refer to all members of all clans collectively , the broadest possible translation of "all my relations." It is pronounced with very weak 'irts," almost as weak as the British retroflex '[;' H .. nel ' is a suffix that denotes "person of-" or "people of-" Thus "Nuhrmuhrne "-"people of our extended dans"-should be translated On all sides, a small grassy rise one could hardly call a hill hid the Comanches from view, but also prevented them from seeing out. A buffalo trail led south up to a low, flat ridge and disappeared. "Shouldn't we post lookouts?" Naudah continued. "Thank Gekovak for the warmth," Nobah said aloud and held up his wrinkled arms, as if to embrace the sun. "Snow and ice will hug us too soon." He looked off to the north. He could see a little blue line down close to the horizon. "You know what I mean, old esa-kwita,,,l she said, letting out a short breath in exasperation. "The Tejanos. The bluecoats. We never know where they are." Her daughter, Toh-Tsee-Ah, carried a flint scraper and toddled around, mimicking her mother's work on the buffalo hide. On the other side of the skin, her adoptive sister, Trades-It, her hand and arm permanently disfigured from a childhood fall from a horse, scraped striffen with a steel trade knife. She smiled in sympathy at Naudah, then went on with her work. "Tahuh nurhmurh-ne,2 'Our People,' is the strongest tribe on the prairies. You know that," said Nobah Joe. "What tribe would dare attack us?" "The Tonkawa, the Pawnee, our traditional enemies. The Tejanos. The bluecoats," Naudah said, ticking them off on her fingers . "Only the Mexicans at Santa Fe are peaceful, but they have been known to attack others." "Hal" Nobah scoffed, not looking away from his work. "Not even the Tonkawa would attack a camp of women. What tribe would have the courage to attack a camp of women?" "I don't know why I even talk to you," said Naudah, standing up and adjusting her medicine bag so that it hung at her side inside her dress. Her hands trembling, she walked over to the horses, thinking she had better make sure that everything was ready for the unforeseen. She wore a loose velvety deerskin garment tied with soft straps across her shoulders. A ring of pearly cowrie shells sewn to the leather formed a low yoke on her breast and identified her as the wife of an important leader, and a hem of leather fringes swished below the knees of her leggings. She ran her hand over the muscled rump of her dappled gray mare, which Peta Nocona had named Wind because she was so fast...