Full Summary:
What happens when the Cheyenne baby Lives In Hope comes back to Colorado Springs to see the black couple that raised him and the white woman who fed him? This is his story.
Lives In Hope:
Yellowstone Reservation:
Lives in Hope was told when he got older that he had been taken in by a Negro couple who couldn't have kids and that a white woman took him to her breast to feed him when he wasn't getting enough food. He had wanted to go back to Colorado Springs the minute he was old enough. The tribe he had grown up with had been forced onto a Reservation near Yellowstone, where he had grown up.
He had learned to hunt in Yellowstone and had courted his wife in Yellowstone. He was twenty-two now, and he was wanting to travel to Colorado Springs to visit the people that had taken him in after his family was killed at Washita. He was taking his family with him and had hitched the wagon up. The horses were hitched to the wagon and the canvas top was stretched over the hoops. He had gotten permission from the soldiers to travel to Colorado Springs where an Indian Agent by the name of Byron Sully was willing to look after him and his family.
He was told that he got his name from the words of his chief, Chief Black Kettle. That the words Lives In Hope had been his final words to Mr. Sully. With everything they owned in the back of the wagon and the kids on there horses, he and his wife got into the wagon and headed out. Lives in Hope had married Buffalo Woman when they were sixteen. They had had three children and were expecting another child within a month. They still used animal hides to make some of there clothing, but mostly wore the white man's clothes so not to get into trouble. There kids were taught the way of the Cheyenne at an early age and how to hunt when they came of age.
As Lives in Hope hit the horses with the reins, he thought back to the day he had met his wife. She had just been re-named Buffalo Woman because a buffalo calf had wandered onto the Reservation, injured and she had taken the calf in and raised him till he was old enough to go back to the wild. That Buffalo was coming with because he had taken a shining to hanging around the family and not going back to the wild where he was supposed to be. He was fully grown now; a bull and he had a temper that could only be taken away when he was around the family.
On The Road:
Buffalo Woman was about eight months pregnant and couldn't stand just sitting on the wagon the whole time. Yellowstone was only about a weeks ride from Colorado Springs so they would be in the town in no time and he would get her looked at by the doctor there. There children: Stands Above, Little Mare and Yellow Hawk were now in the back of the wagon. Stands Above had just turned six and he was a good rider, but still had to be kept watch upon. Little Mare had just turned five and Yellow Hawk had just turned three.
Buffalo Woman was hoping for another little girl, which would make two girls and two boys. She wanted as many children as she could have and knew that Lives in Hope also wanted many children. The horses were tied to the back of the wagon so they would not wander off. Lives in Hope and Buffalo Woman had taught there children in both the white man's school and in the Cheyenne school. Stands Above & Little Mare were the oldest of the three children and were already liking the Cheyenne language over the English language. Little Mare had said that it sounded and flowed more gracefully then the English words did.
On the way to Colorado Springs, on the breaks they would take and even in the wagon, Buffalo Woman would teach her children the many different words of the Cheyenne. And when they breaked for the night, Lives in Hope would test them on what they knew.
Cheyenne Names & Meanings:
Hotóva'a He'e: Buffalo Woman
A
He'amâhnee'êstse: Stands Above
He'ke'hame: Little Mare
Heoveaenohe: Yellow Hawk
Mahpe: Water
Eše'he: Sun
Taa'é-eše'he: Moon
Emese: Eat
Enesta: Hear
Enemene: Sing
A