wasn’t like Miss Evans taught us, so they could get the Chief to do what they wanted. She says back then a lot of white folks held to a notion about converting
the Indians to Christianity and marrying them. They thought that was the way to
have peace between them. America would be colonized by whites and Indians
all mixed up together.”
“Like to see that happen ’round here,” Jettie said. “First the Protestants gotta
kidnap a slew of Catholics and marry them. See if they can get along together,
’fore they start hobnobbing with the Mohicans.”
“Pocahontas was supposed to be the first example, so they got her married to
one of the men who kidnapped her. He took her back to Europe to show her off,
show folks back there how the Americans were Christianizing the wild Red Man
and spreading the word of God. But a few years later poor Pocahontas got
murdered and then some whites massacred a whole lot of Indians and after that
the idea of marrying them and making peace that way sort of petered out.”
“Yes, well, I can see where slaughtering the families of the brides and grooms
could put a damper on wedding plans.”
“But look at what it means. It means that back then there were a lot of white
folks who didn’t think a man and a woman couldn’t be together unless their skin
was the same color. They thought children who had one white parent and one
Indian parent were going to be the new Americans, not mongrels. And those
people were the Pilgrims. The people who started our country. Who came here because they believed in freedom.”
Jettie looked up from her needlework and studied Olivia over her spectacles.
“Old Mrs. Steadman sure got your dander up.”
“A bunch of stupid, selfish men ruined everything. Taking all the land from
the Indians and then kidnapping African people and making them slaves. Out in
Detroit I was always hearing about the things white people learned from the
Indians, about medicines and hunting and trapping and farming. We’d have a
much better country if congress had passed a Greedy White Men Removal Act
instead of an Indian Removal Act.”
Jettie shook her head and smiled. “Probably so. I think I’m about ready to
turn in.”
Olivia idly picked up one of the newspapers Jettie had brought home and her
eyes opened wide. Congress had passed the law Jeremy had told her about, the
General Pre-Emption Law. Squatters could purchase 160 acres of land, at a
dollar twenty-five an acre, and not pay for it until later. Mourning could have had his own place right now, if she hadn’t meddled in his life.
The following evening Jettie set her needlework aside and made a show of
studying the calendar.
“It’s September 5th. Far as I recall, you’ve been here forty-six days. And you
must a spent at least three days on the boat and what … two days in Michigan
after they let you go? And the week that they …” She raised her eyes to look at
Olivia. “I’d say that, all together, it’s time you saw a midwife.”
