Chapter 1

Mid 1800's

It was a calm summer morning. I had just gotten my horse saddled and was about to hop on him when I heard something, but I wasn't sure what I had heard, but what I did know was that the crickets had stopped making their noises.

I quickly turned around scanning the land around me. I could not see anything, so I swung myself up into the saddle, still on high alert but acting as if I did not suspect something or someone was there. After walking my horse out of the barn I quickly coaxed him into a lope and we headed out across the prairie to take our daily run.

My mind was not the enjoyment of the ride like it usually was. Instead it was on what I would do once I got back to the barn.

Soon I heard a strange sound coming from behind me, I turned in the saddle and looked to see where the noise was coming from, but could not see anything. I slowed and turned my horse around looking across the prairie to see what the sound was. I had just started to head back when I saw something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and a chill run down my back. Six horses with buckskin clad men riding them. Their black hair and darker skin was hard to mistake even from this distance.

I could tell that they were Native American warriors, and that they were armed but couldn't tell what tribe they were from, because some of the tribes were on the war pat, so I had to careful and stay alert.

As soon as I got back to the barn I put my horse back in his pen and made sure that he was taken care of I headed back into the house to get my gun. I had just stepped through the door when my mother called my name from our parents bedroom. "Steven Fredrick Running Elk Jacobs! You know better than anyone not to slam the door open. Do I need to tell your father when he gets in?" "I'm sorry mother I didn't mean to slam the door open, but while I was out riding I saw a bunch of native warriors riding in our direction so I got back home as soon as I possibly could, and came in to get my gun." I answered in reply knowing full well that she could hear me because their door was not shut.

When I got done talking I went over to the spot right above the fire place where we have our rifles hanging and saw that father didn't have his also, so I grabbed both the rifles and then turned to head back out the door when I looked up to see my mother standing in the doorway to the sitting room where I had gotten the guns from and had turned to leave the house.

As I looked at my mother I could see that she was as pale as a sheet, but that she had a resolute look on her face. We all knew she was afraid of the Indians but would do her absolute best not to show it. I as I continued to look at her I could tell she wanted to say something so I stayed quiet. "I think you should go tell you're father that they are coming this way. Also go gather up your brothers and sisters and send them in to me." Replied my mother regaining her composure. As soon as she was done talking I headed back outside to go do as I was asked. When I got out the door I scanned our yard for my siblings but couldn't see them, so I looked for father, and found him out in the section we were trying get ready to plant.

As soon as I saw where father was I headed in that direction. I was about a hundred yards from the section he was working on when he looked up and saw me, and the look on my face. "Steven, what is it?" "While I was out riding Silver Spark for our daily ride I saw a group of six warriors headed in our direction, so I didn't stick around to watch and headed back as fast as I could, also mother asked me to gather up the other children and send them back to the house." I said while finishing walking the hundred yards to father, as soon as I reached him I handed him his rifle. When he heard this he was instantly alert, and had a watchful eye for anything out of the ordinary. As soon as father had his gun I went in search of the other children.

I found them down by the creek that was just off the back of our property about fifty yards or so. As soon as I saw them I called to them. "Mother wants you to get up to the house fast. Right NOW! There's a bunch of Natives headed our way." As soon as I said this I saw fear in the eyes of my sisters, because they were just as terrified as mother was if not more so. And my two youngest brothers looked excited and also a little terrified, when Edison looked at me we shared a look, because of a secret that only us two older boys, our older siblings, and our parents knew. It was that Edison and I were not full white, because our mother had fallen in love and married a Lakota warrior who happened to be the son of the chief, and as soon as grandfather died he would be come the next chief.

He had been the Chief for about ten years when they were attacked and he was killed, also our oldest brothers were from a different mother who had died during childbirth, when Šuŋgmánitu Tháŋka (Grey Wolf) was about two to two and a half years old. When he married our mother, it had been about a year or so after his first wife died. Then about two or three years after marrying our mother grandfather was killed by a Igmu' Watogla (a mountain lion) while out hunting so our Lakota father became chief. But only us four and our older siblings knew about our family secret. Not even our closest friends or neighbors knew.

When I was done talking Edison and I gathered up the other children and headed back to the house. When all the younger children were back in the house with mother Ed and I headed back out to find father and help him finish what he was doing. It was about three hours after I had gone for my ride and we were almost done helping father mend the fence to the field we were in, because some deer had broken it when they tried to get into our corn.

When we heard the sound of thundering hooves heading towards us. As we looked up we saw the six mounted natives coming into our yard, and by the looks on their faces we could tell that they had seen us and that they were not here to kill us because they didn't have war paint on, also we could see that they were Lakota Sioux. When we saw this my father greeted them warmly but still on high alert. "Hau." While saying to me. "Go get you're mother." As soon as I heard this I instantly knew who it was and ran as fast as I could to go get her, because father had asked and also because my older brothers were here.

My older brothers were here? Where was my two older and twin sisters? Instantly I knew something must have happened to them. When I realized this it caused me to run even faster. I came bursting through the back door breathless into the kitchen where mother and my younger sisters were making lunch causing them to jump and scream, because they thought it was the natives. When our mother realized it was me, also I must have scared her so bad because she used my native name in front of the other children. She started getting after me. "Steven Fredrick Running Elk Jacobs! You know better than to do that, or do I need to take a switch to your backside?" When she said this it was so loud that they heard her all the way out to where they were over by the corn field. And it caused father and Ed to start laughing and our brothers to smile. When she finally got done with her tirade. I told her. "Father wants you to come out there." When I said this I could see fear in her eyes, because she knew that the natives were here. But she squared her shoulders and gathered her self up and became the woman we knew she was.

When she was ready to head out she turned to my youngest sisters and said. "I need you to stay in here and finish dinner and make sure that it doesn't burn or scorch." And by this time Nathan and Heber had clambered down from the loft where us boys slept to see what all the racket was about and peek out the kitchen window into our back yard. As we were leaving the house they tried to follow us out but mother caught them by the back of their shirts and sent them back into the house. Saying. "Get back in that house right now and stay there until I say otherwise. NOW GO! SCOOT!" As we were heading out there to the field I could see her start to relax just a tiny tiny bit because she could see that they weren't here to raid or kill.

But I knew that she didn't realize who it was because we were still to far away from them, but when I looked at our older brothers I could see recognition in their eyes, they knew her. It was their mother. As soon as Grey Wolf saw her he jumped off his horse and came running towards us. When he was about two hundred yards or so, mother finally recognized him and broke into a run right into his arms crying.

They stood there hugging for at least five minutes or so, and crying in each others arms. Because it had been about seventeen years since they had seen one another. As they were standing there father, Spotted Eagle, Laughing Beaver, Blue Deer, Thunder Buffalo, and Fire Lance all came over to where we were standing. After about five to ten minutes of standing there waiting for them to get their crying under control. We heard in the direction of the house. "Why is mother hugging that Indian?!" When we all heard this we looked up to see Diana, Hope, Nathan, and Heber standing in the outside doorway to the kitchen staring at us in open mouthed shock. And I knew that it was Nathan who had spoken.

When father saw them standing there, he motioned for them to come over. By the time they got over to us mother had finally stopped crying, and was hugging the others. As soon as they got to where we were. Mother pulled away from Fire Lance who she was hugging, she looked at them, and then told them everything that had happened, starting from the beginning. "So I'll start from the very beginning. Some of you know my story, but I think the rest of you are finally old enough." "It all started when my fiancé a captain at the time was headed out west to join his regiment, and I being a love stuck 18½ year old wouldn't listen to my parents and wait till he had a house built for us.

I went against their wishes and went to him and begged to go with him, after about five minutes of begging he finally agreed to let me come along, because he never could say no to me, especially if I begged, I don't know why but he couldn't. So after I got him to say yes I went and told my parents and they weren't happy with me at the time, but after about two days they finally cooled down and agreed that it probably was for the best that he agreed to let me go with him on this trip, because we had just gotten word that the United States were at war with Mexico.

So because for some reason they thought it would reach our home town, they thought I would be safer with my soon to be husband, because they thought he was only going to go to Illinois, because that's where his parents live. But what they didn't know was that was the plan until right before we headed out, when a dispatch rider brought a letter for him from the military headquarters sending him to Dakota Territory, to help with the "Indian Up Rising" so we headed out west. When we were about a week or so away from our destination, the wagon train we were with was attacked by a band of Lakota.

But at the time we didn't know that, we just knew that we were being attacked by Indians, when we thought we were going to die a Native warrior came up to the wagon I was riding in and said "Get out, you come." in a really really thick native accent, and I being about 18 at the time and terrified that I would be killed I complied and got out of the wagon, and about that time your father (looking at the younger children) came riding up on his horse and saw what was happening, also complied and didn't get in the way, because he was afraid that if he did they would kill both of us, so he let them take me.

At times I still wonder how he could have let me go." Before our mother could continue talking father pipes up "Because I loved you too much to see you die and knew that if I let you go I would one day see you again. And I was right." At hearing this mother went into fathers out stretched arms crying at what he must have gone through, when she was taken from him. After about five minutes or so she regained her composure and continued her story. "After Kelly let me go with them they treated me as a captive, but with more respect than most captives, because I went willingly and they could see that Kelly and I loved each other so much, that for our protection we went our separate ways, and didn't look back.

When Flying Lance saw this, it cause him to gain some respect for us, and after that they all treated me like I belonged especially when I started taking care of you older boys. Then after about a year or so I was still in love with Kelly, because I figured he was dead I started to fall in love with Flying Lance. And was married when I was about 19 or so. Then a year or so later I had Laughing Beaver, then I had your sister Rain Robin Singing, then Blue Deer, then Thunder Buffalo and Dancing Sparrow, then Fire Lance, Steven Fredrick Running Elk and Red Dawn Shining, when they were about a year and a half the village was attacked by US soldiers, yes Kelly was with them but he wasn't one of the ones shooting at us, it was other people.

When all the women and children escaped and were hidden in the grass by the river, I noticed Kelly among the soldiers, and decided to come out of hiding, to see if I could get his attention and see if he could take us (my baby and I at the time.) out of there so that the soldiers wouldn't come back. And raid again. As soon as I stepped out from where I was hiding, when he saw me he exclaimed in shock and excitement. Because he wasn't expecting me to be there." At this, father broke into the conversation again. "I wasn't expecting you to be there, I figured you had either died or had been taken somewhere else, so when I saw you I was shocked." After hearing this mother continued her story. "Well as I was saying he was shocked to see me. After getting over his shock, he asked me why I was there, and when I told him, he pulled me away from everyone else so we could talk in private. When we were far enough away from everybody, so we wouldn't be over heard I told him everything that had happened since we last saw each other.

As soon as I was done explaining everything to him, I went and gathered up my baby, well one of my babies, because I had, had twins a boy and a girl. When I had my baby in my arms I went to find Kelly again and told him I was ready to go, also the reason I didn't take my other baby was for her own protection, because she looks like her father and her brother looked enough white to pass for a white baby." As soon as she was done talking for a minute she looked at me and explained. "It was you and your twin sister, and the reason I left her was because she had darker skin. Both of you have the same color of hair and eyes, but your skin was lighter. So for both of yours' safety I left her there and brought you with me."

When she got done saying this, I was stunned, because I had no idea that she had to leave my twin for her own safety. I couldn't even imagine leaving my children so that they would be safe. When I have children, because I'm only almost 19. Then she finished telling her story. "After hearing everything that had happened to me, Kelly helped me get everything I needed. When the other soldiers saw me they were shocked, because they hadn't seen any white women in the village so they figured that we had all been sold or traded to some other tribe or something like that. Then they saw Running Elk and they all had a look of disgust on their faces until I pulled the blanket I had on him back and they got a glimpse of his face and saw that it was pale like theirs so they assumed that he was a white baby. When they saw his face one of the soldiers asked. "Who's baby is that?" And I answered that he was mine since he arrived in camp, he was given to me to care for since I was also caring for the chief's children.

When they heard this, they were pacified and didn't ask anymore questions. Anyways after we got everything situated we got on the trail headed back to the fort where Kelly was stationed. When we finally arrived about one to two weeks later, there was quite the excitement, because the soldiers were back and because "they had rescued two white captives." Their words not mine. What they didn't know was that neither of us were captives and that Steven was my son, also that is why we (pointing at herself and father) named you Steven Fredrick Running Elk, and Edison, Edison Black Bear, and called him Edison or Ed.

Also, before we left the village, I informed Kelly that I was expecting another baby, so as soon as we got to the fort, we talked to the Colonel that was in charge of the fort that we wanted to get married right away because we had been engaged before I was taken and also because we hadn't seen each other for over ten years. When he (the Colonel) heard this he agreed that we should get married right away, so we were married about two weeks after arriving at the fort. After we were married we lived in the fort for about two months while they built our house. Yes on this piece of land, but it was only a small house at first, then when Diana was about 3 or 4 then we added on and so that it is the house we have now.

When Ed was born about six months after I left the village, I was terrified that he would look like his father, and the women of the fort and our neighbors would know that he was not full white, and also that Kelly was not his father. But when he was born he looked just like me except for his dark dark chocolate brown eyes, and I explained that, by saying that his grandfather, my father had the same color of eyes, because it's true, but I personally think that they are his father's eyes, just barely lighter, but they don't need to know that. Also I stayed away from all the socials and gatherings, until he was about a year, so that they wouldn't be able to tell that he wasn't born preemie, so when I went to my first one after he was born they didn't question me, because they thought that he was Kelly's and we didn't say otherwise.

So after Edison was born we had four more children. And I was about 38 when I had Heber. Also just after Hope was born Kelly left the military so that he could be home to help raise our children. The rest is history, we had two more children after that, Nathan, and Heber." After telling her story we (us children) all stood there stunned for a minute until mother asked, just barely noticing that our older sisters and my twin was not there with us. "Where are your sister's?" At this Grey Wolf and the rest of our older brothers looked grave and sad.

When we all saw this, mother asked frantically "What is it? What has happened." To this Grey wolf finally replied. "That is why we came to your house, we came looking for help, and we didn't realize that it was where our mother now lives until Kelly said for Running Elk to go get you, and we saw you. So the reason that we came looking for some help is because they got taken while we were going on a little family outing, and while out there we were attacked by white men, and they took our sisters, and also we were able to get close enough to their camp without being seen that we could tell that Dancing Sparrow was hurt, but not so bad that she couldn't walk. And we're afraid of what they'll do to them."

At hearing this, father exclaimed in anger. "THEY WHAT! No Man Is Ever Going To Touch One Of My Daughters And Live To Tell The Tail, Unless I Say Otherwise. And That Will Only Be If I Know That He Can Respect Her And Treat Her The Way He Wants To Be Treated!" As he was saying this he started for the barn where we knew our horses were. At seeing this, mother asked. "Kelly where do you think you are going?" "I'm going after those bastards." Replied father still heading for the barn. At seeing this I knew he was serious. "Kelly! Language." Exclaimed mother in shock at father's language, because it is so rare that we hear that kind of language from him that we always forget he even knows it.

When we all realized that he was serious all us children also headed in the direction of the barn. When mother realized what was happening, she called us children all back to her and said. "I want you to be careful and stay alert, also watch out for one another, and also your father. I Love You All Too Much to loose one of you. And bring our girls home, they're counting on you." At hearing this we all replied. "Yes. Mother." And headed towards the barn again, also Nathan and Heber thought they were going to come to until mother said. "You two get back here, you are staying with me, also you too Diana, and Hope, into the house with you lot. I don't need to be worrying over you too." When we had all gotten our horse and were ready to head out, we all met in front of the house, when we were all there we headed out. We rode for about two day when we started to see signs that we were getting close to our destination. About an hour before the sun started setting we were able to see their camp. And by the time it was dark, and we were in position to rescue the girls. When all the people that had taken them were asleep we crept closer so we could see what we would have to deal with. Then we started our attack with father walking into camp, so they would think that he was just a passing traveler. When he was in the camp, he woke them up by making a lot of noise.

As soon as they were awake they reached for their guns, but then noticed that he was white, so they relaxed just a little bit. But were still on alert. "Do you have any food or coffee, maybe even some water?" Father asked, acting as if he was hungry. And also as if he hadn't noticed the girls tied up. When they saw that he was just a lone traveler and needed something to eat or drink, they offered him a metal flask, when he took it he opened it, then quickly closed it before he gagged and threw-up. When I saw this I figured that it had some form of alcohol or some such stuff, because any type of alcohol we had in our home was used for medicinal purposes only, and that we were never to drink it. Also father never drank alcohol either.

At seeing this the creeps that held the girls' captive started laughing. When father saw this, he started to get angry, it was really really hard to get father angry, when you did you had better watch out because he got "ANGRY!" and he stayed angry at you for days sometimes even weeks. After about 2 minutes or so one of the creeps noticed that father was getting really angry, and motioned to his other companions, and when they saw father they shut up so fast you could hear their teeth clack together even from this distance. In a calm cold voice, he asked again if they had some water or food, as he had traveled a long distance and didn't have anymore.

And this time seeing as he was angry, they got out some dried meat, apologizing repeatedly they gave it to him, and saying that they just wanted to be neighborly. As he sat there eating the dried meat, he casually in a way that make them suspicious asked who the girls were, and what they were doing with them. When he asked this they didn't catch on that he was fishing for information so they told him. "We foun' 'em about two days travel that a way." Said creep #1, pointing towards the northwest, in the direction of the black hills. "So we thought we'd have us some fun seein' as they're jus' injuns, nobody's goin' miss 'em an' 'sides three less squaws means less injuns in the future we have to kill." At hearing this our older brothers we getting so angry they were ready to go ripping in there and take the creeps' heads off. But knew father still hadn't given us the signal yet so I got their attention and got them back under control so we could be ready for when father said "yes", as that was the signal we needed.

As soon as the creep got done talking father immediately answered. "Yes, I see what you mean, but that doesn't mean I like it, especially when the girls you in your camp tied up are my daughters. At hearing this signal we went back to our horses and then tore in to that camp like a bunch of angry Indians, because technically we were a bunch of angry Indians.