CHAPTER THREE

"I can't believe it," Chris said. Despite the fact that she was at work, the woman hadn't been able to keep from giving the LA paramedic a bear hug. It felt so very good to see the blond man again. Stepping back, she looked at the man more closely. "What are you doing in Canada?"

"There's a convention up at the Heritage Inn. Johnny and I were sent to represent California and Nevada. It's so good to see you," Roy responded, a huge smile on his face as well.

"Johnny's here too? Where is he?" Chris asked, looking around. Of the two paramedics, Roy had been her favourite but she still really enjoyed the younger man's company as well.

Searching the story, they finally found Johnny with the other two paramedics. They were in the men's wear department making fun of some of the styles. It was the 70's, there were some really bad clothes available.

"Look who I found," Roy said as Chris came around him. The three men were in one of the aisles. Holding up a wildly tie-dyed shirt, Johnny turned toward his partner. Shock registered on his face when he saw Chris standing in front of him.

"That's a really good look for you," Chris stated, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice. "You'd blend in with the rest of the hippies down in Los Angeles."

"Oh my God!" Johnny said as he dropped the shirt and pulled the woman into a hug. He hadn't realized how much he missed her until he'd seen her. The young paramedic still had nightmares once in a while about the trials and tribulations they'd all gone through. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I work here," Chris responded when Johnny finally put her down. "Which reminds me, I'd better get back to it. How long are you in town for?"

"The conference is over tomorrow. We head back to LA on Monday," Johnny replied. While they talked, Tobey and Oz continued to check out the clothes. Chris, however, started looking around. She was worried about getting in trouble for not working. Not that she really was, the other workers spent a lot more time screwing around than she ever did. It was just that she was being paid to work, so she felt she had to give her employers their money's worth.

"That's great! I'm off for the next three days. Would you like me to show you around a bit tomorrow afternoon?" Chris asked. It felt surreal standing in the middle of a store talking to the two men that helped her survive the most horrific thing she'd even experienced. She almost expected the shelves to start tumbling down around them and the floor to start shaking.

"Sure. We're off at 4pm. Do you want to meet us at the hotel?" Roy asked. He loved the idea of spending some time with the woman.

"What is there to see here, anyway?" Oz asked, tiring of the clothes.

"Oh, sorry, this is Tobey and Oz. They're paramedics out of Toronto," Johnny said, introducing the men. After shaking hands with each of the men, Chris looked around again.

"I'd better get back to work. I'll take you to see the Wild Animal Park and Joyner's. You two are welcome to come if you'd like," Chris responded.

"That sounds great," Johnny said, having no real idea what either place was.

"All right, I'll get at the Heritage at 4pm."

OOOOO

True to her word, Chris was waiting in the small lobby of the hotel at the designated time. Oz and Tobey had begged off. As thrilling at the two activities sounded, they'd decided to spend the evening in the bar attached to the hotel. Maybe they'd find some young locals to help them pass the time or at least spend the expense money they'd been given.

"So," Johnny said as they were headed out to the parking lot. "What exactly is a 'Joyners'?"

"Well, it's one of the earliest stores here in Moose Jaw. It's really quite cool. You'll see when we get there," Chris responded, grinning at the paramedic. It felt so good to see the two men. She'd really missed them but life had gotten busy and finding time to write letters became too hard.

"All right, lead the way," Roy said. He followed the woman to a grey jeep. "Nice car."

"I know. Not very environmentally friendly, especially with the energy crisis but when winter comes, it sure comes in handy," Chris replied. Unlocking the doors, Chris climbed behind the wheel. Yes, her jeep ate way too much gas but it sure was fun to drive! "Now, we're heading down Main Street, make sure you watch carefully or else you might miss it!"

"You're kidding, right?" Johnny asked from the back seat, Roy had climbed into the front.

"Yeah, I am. Moose Jaw is one of the three largest cities in Saskatchewan but we still only have about 34,000 people. It's small but it's just the right size for me," Chris said.

"Wow, we could fit this entire place into one of LA's suburbs. How many people are there in the province?" Roy asked. It amazed him. Even after travelling between Regina and Moose Jaw and seeing the occasional farms, he'd assumed that the place was more densely populated than that.

"About a million people in 230,000 square miles. Yeah, again, just the way I like it," Chris said. She grinned at Roy. "Kind of explains my responses in LA, huh?"

"Yes, yes, it does," Johnny chuckled in the back seat. They were travelling down a double lane street. The buildings were mostly older but seemed to be well maintained. Except for the license plates with the ridiculously long name on them, Johnny thought it looked like pretty much any small town in Middle America.

At the bottom of the street there was a large railway station that blocked the end of it. While it seemed a little odd, the two paramedics held their tongues while Chris parallel parked her jeep on the last block. Looking around, Roy saw that they were parked in front of what appeared to be a large building. The architecture alone put it from the beginning of the century.

"Is this the place?" Johnny asked.

"Yep. Come on," Chris said as she climbed out of the driver's seat and headed for the front door. The door was primarily glass and wood. The windows were tall and angled. Stepping inside they found wooden floors and walls. The merchandise was of a higher quality than at Woolco, but that was to be expected.

"Quaint," Johnny said, looking at Chris out of the corner of his eye.

"Just watch," Chris said. Selecting a bundle of socks, she headed up to the cashier. Handing the woman behind the til the socks and some money, she grinned at the two men. Still a little mystified, they watched. The cashier rang the sale up, wrote the amount on a receipt, put the receipt and the money into a small metal box and placed the box on a set of cables.

Neither man had noticed until now that a set of tracks ran all the way around the ceiling of the building. Once the cashier let go of the box, it whizzed along the tracks up to a small cubby up in the top right corner of the room. A few seconds later, the metal box came screaming back down the tracks to stop behind the cash register. From it, the cashier retrieved the change from Chris's purchase. Handing over the money, the woman also handed Chris her socks now neatly wrapped in a bag.

"Cool," Johnny said as he admired the system more closely.

"Yeah, I think it's the last running one in all of Canada. While a little cheesy, I figured it was something you'd never seen before," Chris responded. She waited until the two men had asked all the questions that had come to mind. The cashier was used to this and was very good natured about it. Finally, the trio left and climbed back into the car.

"Where are we headed now?" Roy asked.

"The Wild Animal Park. I packed a picnic lunch. We'll go look at the animals and eat or vice versa. We'll how the mood takes us," Chris stated.

Quickly, Johnny and Roy realized that Moose Jaw was actually built on two hills with a low valley in between. The valley was filled with railway tracks for the Canadian Pacific Railway yards. One bridge crossed over the tracks while a subway on the eastern edge of town allowed the tracks to pass overhead. Chris chose the bridge because it was closest.

Within ten minutes they were pulling through the gates of the Wild Animal Park. The park was an obvious favourite among Moose Javians because the place was packed with families having barbecues, kids playing on the slides, swings and a huge metal horse that swayed back and forth. Also within the park were sets of cages in which were located monkeys of various shapes and sizes, racoons, a lion, goats, sheep, miniature horses as part of a petting zoo, and a huge pond in which they could see numerous species of waterfowl.

"Not exactly the LA zoo," Roy stated as they wandered around.

"No, it's had to be kept small. For the longest time the park was run by the Optimist club here in town. Only recently has the province and city become involved. I'm just glad that we can still come here. I know some of the cages are a little small, especially the lion's cage, but I still appreciate the place," Chris said.

The better part of an hour was spent on the other side of a small river where bird cages were located and larger cages for larger animals like elk, pronghorn, White tailed deer and even a zebra. By the time they returned to the jeep, all three of them were starving. The food was taken over to the nearest picnic table in a large clearing surrounded by trees and shrubs where several other families were also sitting at picnic tables scattered around.

"Where to now?" Johnny asked once they were finished.

"Well, are you willing to listen to a kind of brief history lesson?" Chris asked as she packed up the garbage from their meal.

The two men glanced at each other before Roy nodded his head. "Sure. What is it about?"

"First, we need to go up to the edge of the valley. Bear with me, okay?" Chris said as she headed back to the jeep. The weather was still very hot for this time of year. She was enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin but at the back of her mind warning bells tried to ring. The company was too much fun, though, she ignored them.

Following the road they'd used to get to there, Chris drove them to the top of the valley the park was located. The edge of the valley was a steep slope, almost 90 degree grade. Parking the car at the top, Chris climbed out and sat on the edge. Behind them was a row of houses, in front of them was the valley, the Canadian Forces Base further to the south of the city and land for as far as the eye could see. Even the hills to the west didn't really diminish the sense of scale.

Joining Chris on the ground, the two men turned to her expectantly.

"Okay. You've both heard about the Little Big Horn, right?" she asked.

"Of course," Roy responded.

"Well, after Sitting Bull and the Sioux decimated Custer and his soldiers, they traveled around the States for a while, trying to find some place safe. Finally, thanks to desperation and the treat of starvation, Sitting Bull led his people north to the land of the Great White Mother. He'd helped the Queen of England and was hoping to get land for a reserve here in Canada. You've heard all of this right?"

"Yes," Roy said, staring to wonder where the woman was going with this.

"You also know that Sitting Bull finally had to return to the States because of pressure from the American government. The Canadian government couldn't give his people a reserve without touching off an international incident and his people were starving. The soldiers had stopped the buffalo at the American border. There just wasn't enough food for all of them to scrounge off the land." Roy nodded again.

"What a lot of people don't know is that while Sitting Bull went back to the States, not all of his people followed him. In 1881, refugees from Little Big Horn came to Moose Jaw, to the valley we're sitting above to what was known then as 'The Turn'. This valley was, at that time, the only place where fresh water was available between Wascana Creek in Regina and Swift Current to the west. Riding a horse, a wagon or walking, that was a very long way. Also available in this valley was wood. Despite all the trees and shrubs you saw coming here from Regina, back then they didn't exist. The plants you saw have all been planted by settlers that came west to find their fortune. All of this made this valley a very important place for the First Nation tribes that surrounded this area.

"So, it was only natural, when Sitting Bull's people needed a place to go, they came here. The railroad was just coming through Moose Jaw so the men could find work, sometimes, and the women could work for the townspeople or sell wares to the travellers on the trains. It wasn't an easy living and no matter how bad things got, the people in the settlement in the valley refused help from the townspeople.

"Every year the refugees would spend their winters here and when the seasons began to change, they'd head southwest to Wood Mountain and spend their summers there. There were fewer settlers there so there was more grazing land for their horses and themselves. For thirty years this cycle continued. There was a well defined trail system that they followed back and forth, on foot, on horse or in their wagons. They'd set up their tents in the valley in the fall and pull them down come spring. Finally, after years of struggling, the Government of Canada realized that while the original refugees were in fact American citizens, the two generation of children that had been born since their arrival were not. In 1913, a reserve was finally set up for them at Wood Mountain. 1914 was their last pilgrimage. Even today, descendants of Sitting Bull's people live there," Chris said. She had to pause to take a drink of water. That was a lot more talking than she was used to doing.

"Wait, are you saying that Sitting Bull has been here?" Roy asked, not really believing the woman. What she was telling him went against everything he'd learned in school.

"No, unfortunately, we can't definitively prove that Sitting Bull actually came through here. The Turn was the easiest place to cross the Moose Jaw River and had been used for centuries before the Europeans came west but there was a more direct route to Fort Qu'Appelle where we know Sitting Bull went to speak to his friend, a North West Mounted Police officer who'd befriended him soon after he crossed the border. His people were starving and he would have probably taken the fastest route. So it makes more sense that he went the other way," Chris said.

"But, we do have proof that his niece, Molly, lived here and that one of his inner circle, Black Bull, was here as was an old Buffalo Soldier named Long Dog. He went by many names but that's my favourite. There were many others but those are the names that have always stood out for me. I have a copy of a census the Government of Canada did in 1901 that says at the top of it 'Sioux Refugee Camp' and lists 81 people living in the Turn that year. Some of the names are the same as people who were known to be at the Little Big Horn or their descendents. I just can't remember them off the top of my head. Some of them state that they were Sioux while some of the other nations were also represented. Just so you know, Sioux is a very general term. They actually prefer to be called the Lakota," Chris stated. "Sorry, was that too long winded? I just really wanted you to know how our two country's histories are intertwined."

"Wow," was the only thing Johnny could think to say. It was hard to believe but Chris was so certain.

"You know that isn't what our history books say," Roy responded.

"Yeah, I know. There's a monument at Wood Mountain Regional Park that says that all of Sitting Bull's people went back within a mile of the reserve. Yeah, I know," Chris said. Even here she was finding the heat of the day a little stifling. "Damn but it's hot."

"I was going to ask if this was usual for here," Roy said. It seemed like a much safer subject.

"No, it's not. I heard on the radio when I was coming to get you that hot air from Texas is responsible for this. Usually it's at least ten degrees cooler. This is what we call an Indian summer," Chris said. Standing up, she wiped the dirt and grass off her butt. Turning to the west, toward the hills, she saw dark clouds. "I guess it was inevitable."

"What's inevitable?" Johnny parroted. Images from the past were still playing through his mind's eye. The fact that Sitting Bull's people had lived just a few short yards away absolutely blew him away.

"Well, whenever it gets this hot this time of year, a storm inevitably follows," Chris said, waving her hand at the horizon. "There're dark clouds to the west, over the Missouri Coteau."

"The what?" Johnny asked, finally pulling his eyes away from the valley.

"Missouri Coteau, that's what those hills to the west are called, or the Dirt Hills. It's a remnant of the glaciers that used to cover this whole area. Regina used to be under a lake. Anyway, that's enough school for one day. Where would you like to go now?" Chris asked.

"Could we go down there and wander around for a while?" Johnny asked, indicating the valley floor. The Moose Jaw River wound its way through the valley floor. It was where the river took the most pronounced jog to the east, just below them, that Chris had called the Turn. He just had to go down there.

"Sure. Do you want to climb down Buzzy's Hill or drive the jeep down?" Chris asked.

"Climb, definitely climb," Johnny responded, a child like grin on his face.

"Sure," Chris said. Then they were making their way down to the valley. The next two hours were spent exploring the trees, the grasslands, and the steep cliff. Buzzy's Hill was the only section of the valley face that was vegetated. The rest was all clear dirt. Chris thoroughly enjoyed herself, as did the two paramedics, as she explained more of the history of the Turn. The water level was low enough on the river that she was able to show them where the old CPR dam was, where the original trail had existed before the CPR built over top of it.

The time passed quickly. Suddenly Saskatchewan didn't seem so boring after all. Before they realized it, the clouds were closer. Too close. Their fun was suddenly interrupted by the sound of thunder.

A/N: Hi. Okay. I know this was a long chapter and a lot of history but I just had to get it out. I researched all of this, plus the Metis history of our area, which I didn't touch on, and had to share it. I admit I'm a little shaky on the dates, I was too lazy to get up and go find them again but I'm only out by a year if I'm out at all. Now that the 'sightseeing' portion of this story is over, we're heading into the action. I just hope I haven't lost you along the way. Please stay tuned for the next chapter, all hell breaks loose, honest.

Susanne