the Sackett Companion (1992) (7 page)

JUBAL SACKETT

First publication: Bantam Books Hardcover, June 1985;

Bantam Books paperback, June 1986 Narrator: Jubal Sackett Time Period: c. 1620s
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In which Jubal Sackett seeks out a way to the Shining Mountains, beyond the Great River, and beyond the wide grass plains, a place where someday other Sacketts may need to go, seeking a further refuge from the King and their enemies.

He parted from his father, each knowing they would not meet again, yet each knowing they must follow the path of destiny. And Jubal had always known his way led to the unknown lands far to the West.

And in which he finds a companion, also a seeker of unknown lands, and then a girl of the Natchez, a beautiful Indian girl but with ways and customs different than any Indian he had known.

Down the Mississippi he went, and up the Arkansas, following that river until it emerged from the Rocky Mountains, and then westward into the mountains until he found the place where he wished to put down roots and remain.

Itchakomi had been sent to the West by the Ni'kwana, seeking, she supposed, a new home for the Natchez. Yet had their wise man intended more than that? Had he seen in Jubal Sackett the man for her?

How did a woman attract a man? Who could she speak to of love? She was a Sun, perhaps even destined to be the Great Sun, or to hold the leadership until he came of age or another was chosen, and a Sun did not share thoughts with women of lower caste.

JUBAL SACKETT: A son of Barnabas, gifted as was his father with second sight, a loner and a wanderer by nature. A man of the woods and wilderness, silent when among others of his kind, skilled as any Indian with spear or bow, yet his reliance was upon the twin pistols made long ago by a superb Italian craftsman, and made by that man to demonstrate his skill to a great lord.

To Jubal Sackett, there was always another river to cross, another bend in the road, another hill to see beyond. His destiny was to be the first man west, yet was he? Had others
gone before? Was there ever & first? There must have been, yet wherever he went there were signs that others had been before him.

KEOKOTAH: A Kickapoo; one of a nation of warriors and wanderers, known for their long, solitary treks into unknown lands. He found in Jubal, the son of Barnabas, a man to walk beside--a white man, but one of his own kind.

ITCHAKOMI ISHAIA: A daughter of the Great Sun, political and spiritual leader of the Natchez Indians of Louisiana and Mississippi. She was herself a Sun and a person of considerable importance in her village and tribe. She had been directed by the Great Sun to lead a small party west and locate a new place for them to move, as their wise men had foretold an end to the tribe if they remained where they now were.

KAPATA: Half Karankawa, who were cannibal Indians, he wished to wed Itchakomi, and aspired to leadership of the Natchez. He was a strong warrior, fiercely determined, and by marrying Itchakomi, a Sun, he would be in a position to maneuver for leadership. He immediately sensed a rival in Jubal, and intended to kill him.

NI'KWANA: The Master of Mysteries of the Natchez, a Medicine Man but more than that, for he was one of a mysterious people who merged with the Natchez in the distant past. A maker of magic, a man of wisdom and kindness.

THE COMANCHE OR KOMANTSI: A fierce and warlike tribe of horse-riding Indians who came down from the north destroying all in sight. During the course of a few years they wiped out most of the Plains Apache. At the time of this story they were just beginning to acquire horses by stealing them from the Spanish, but they and their associates, the Kiowa, were to become the finest horsemen of the plains. The Commanding General of the British forces, reviewing armies around the world, said they were the finest light cavalry he had ever seen.

For more than two hundred years they waged war with their relatives, the Utes, until finally they signed a formal Treaty of Peace at elaborate ceremonies to which I was an invited guest. It was the only formal treaty signing between two Indians tribes who had been at war. A Medicine Teepee was prepared and the elders of the tribes, after being purified by smoke from a cedar chip fire, wafted over them by an eagle's wing in the hands of a Medicine Man, entered the teepee for the formal signing. It was a most impressive ceremony at which I was honored to be present.

CONEJEROS: A branch of the Apache tribe, very active in eastern Colorado and neighboring areas, until finally destroyed by the Comanche.

GOMEZ: A renegade Spanish officer who tried to buy Itchakomi from Jubal; he had broken with his own unit but was hurrying back to Santa Fe to turn in the first report, to get his story on record first. A tough, ruthless, and dangerous man. A man without scruples and without a conscience.

DIEGO: The officer against whom Gomez rebelled; a good man, a sincere man. He warned Jubal the Spanish would not permit him to trade there, yet when Jubal explained the Spanish might need an ally as well as a supply point, he listened and seemed receptive.

UNSTWITA: A Natchez who had found the leader he wished to follow in Jubal, and with Jubal, a Sun. The Indians had no such role as "princess," yet had there been such a name, such a role, this Itchakomi Ishaia would have been.

We have much to learn about the American Indian, and unhappily many of the old men and women who knew the stories are gone. Such is often the case when there is no written language, for people are vulnerable and precious knowledge may be possessed by only one man, or at best a few.

A certain rite or ceremony, a dance, or a song, may have belonged to but one man. It may have been something he created as I would write a novel or someone would paint a picture. Perhaps that ceremony existed only in his own mind and he was the only one who could properly direct it, so if he dies the ritual dies with him. Others can often remember only fragments. But there is another thing: that song, that way, that dance belonged to the dead man, so it would not be used again. Feelings about such things vary from tribe to tribe.

Often the Indian does not wish to share those things sacred to him, and this I find easy to understand. The white man, not having the Indian background or early teaching or experience, can grasp only the superficial aspects of Indian culture. He may see the color and the movement without grasping any of the meaning it has for the Indian. Little as I know, I often listen to those who believe they know, and hear them expound at great length on what Indian lore is all about, and even to me it is apparent they have no idea of what they are talking about. The meaning has escaped them, as it well might escape anyone not an Indian. Some anthropologists have made mistakes in understanding as serious as those made by early missionaries.

At one time an Indian might be known by his costume but this is scarcely true today. At the various inter-tribal ceremonies, powwows, and such they have mingled and often have borrowed ideas for costume from each other, each seeking to add beauty or interest to his clothing, his headdress, his dancing.

It was much the same in the past. During the warfare between tribes young women were rarely killed. The Indian's idea of conservation in this respect could not have been improved, and these women were taken to wife by warriors of the victorious tribe and brought with them the stories and rituals they knew. Naturally, this was what they taught their children. A story that began as a Seneca story might be found among the Sioux or Blackfeet, or among any other tribe. Good stories have a way of traveling, and stories such as Cinderella or Jack And The Beanstalk have been known in virtually every part of the world in one form or another.

We do not know the origin of all the American Indians or how much communication there might have been in times long past. Certainly many tribes migrated over the land-bridge from Asia. There is sufficient evidence for that, but many Indians have legends of arriving across the sea, and without a doubt there was much going and coming due to changes of climate, movements of game animals, and warfare, as well as population pressures.

As our archaeologists delve into the ruins left by primitive Indians here as well as in Central and South America, the picture of early American man is slowly taking shape. Pot hunters, seeking immediate profit, may destroy much that is vitally important. The particular clue that may open a door to unexpected knowledge may come from anywhere. We still are but scratching the surface insofar as ancient trade is concerned. A pot that cannot be dated according to its location has lost much of its value to the archaeologist and the historian.

We know there was trade and undoubtedly an exchange of ideas between the peoples of Central America and Mexico and those of our Southwest, and those of Louisiana such as the Natchez. How much of an exchange of ideas or what were the patterns of migration we do not know. It is at least possible that some of our Indians may have fled Mexico to escape the rising tide of human sacrifice by the Aztecs or those who preceded them.

One of the greatest joys of human life is that there is so much to be learned and gradually we are getting the tools with which to learn, and knowledge enough to know some of the questions that must be asked of the past.

The story of Jubal Sackett is but one chapter in the saga of the Sacketts, and a glance at what could have been a chapter in our history. My reason for writing it was threefold: first, to continue the story of the Sackett family; second, to explore a possible phase of our history; and last but perhaps most important, I have always wished I could have been the first man west, or one of the first to ride or walk into that country when only the Indians were there, to see it unblemished, unchanged, in all its original beauty. I came too late for that, so I wrote a story about a man who did.

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RIDE THE RIVER

First publication: Bantam Books paperback, July 1983

Narrator: Echo Sackett
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Time Period: c. 1840S-1850S (before Civil War)

In which Echo Sackett goes from her mountain home in Tennessee to Philadelphia to collect an inheritance. There are others who plan to keep that inheritance for themselves and want no interference from some hillbilly girl who has just come down from the mountains.

Echo is small, dainty, and determined. Moreover, she is a Sackett, accustomed to taking care of herself, and she comes from an area where people are accustomed to doing just that. She is not about to be put down by any city thugs.

In Philadelphia she recognizes the name of Chantry, and seeks out Finian Chantry, who had fought in the War of the Revolution alongside Daubeny Sackett and has reason to remember the Sackett name. Now a distinguished lawyer, a man of great prestige as well as knowledge of the law, he wonders a little whether at eighty-odd years he can still handle himself when physical action appears. In his youth he had walked a quarter-deck on his own ship and handled some tough crews. Could he still do it?

He comes to Echo's aid, and then sends his nephew, Dorian Chantry, to follow her and see she gets home all right! Dorian is a young man with much to learn but he learns quickly when necessity demands.

Echo figures to take care of herself but if a handsome young city feller wishes to trail along, she's willing. What follows is what might be expected, but what the thugs sent by lawyer James White do not understand is that the mountains are filled with Sacketts.

Echo's Uncle Regal has been clawed by a bear and is out of action, but there are others, and when a Sackett is in trouble.

Echo's brothers have gone west to the Shining Mountains where Ethan has become a trapper and free hunter (see BENDIGO SHAFTER) and Colborn has disappeared in the western mountains looking for treasure. Possibly he has been killed by Indians, but he has left behind a widow and several sons.

Trulove, all of six feet and six inches, with two hundred and fifty pounds of beef on him, is still around, as are Macon,
and the weird one, Mordecai. Somehow or other they will have to cope with whatever comes.

Echo is a lady and comports herself as such, whether it is coping with the clumsy advances of White's clerk or going out to dinner with the distinguished lawyer, Finian Chantry. In the mountains people did things that needed doing when they had to be done, and of course, she has her pistols and best of all, her 'pick.

REGAL SACKETT: Echo's uncle, a stalwart, handsome young man who had a way with the ladies whether in the mountains or down to the Settlements. A hunter and a fighter, he was ready for anything from a hand-to-hand fight with a mountain lion or to dance a fandango. He took to singing, as mountain folks did, but he was a hard-working man who was usually a bit better off than most.

He knew where the best fur could be found, occasionally logged some timber, and had been known to pan a bit of gold from a mountain stream down Georgia way. He'd listened a lot at storytelling time and knows where a man might find a gemstone or two.

He'd been down to the Settlements and met some fancy ladies and some aristocratic ones, and they all had an eye for Regal.

FINIAN CHANTRY: Former seafaring man and soldier, a handsome elderly attorney in Philadelphia, respected by all. In his younger years a noted fighting man, now he wondered if he still had what it takes. He had been mentioned as a possible Justice of the Supreme Court, but with all this he looked back with some nostalgia to the days when he trod a quarter-deck and fought the Barbary Pirates.

DORIAN CHANTRY: His nephew; a young man about town in Philadelphia who suddenly found himself "protecting" a very pretty young lady who somehow did not seem to need much protection. He also found himself dealing with men who had no sense of gentlemanly behavior, and surprisingly, he found himself enjoying it. He had more of Finian in him than he had realized.

JOHNNY GIBBONS: A young Philadelphia lawyer who was writing a history of that city's waterfront. He knew his way around sailors' hang-outs, and knew a bit about lawyer James White, too.

THE DUTCHMAN'S: On Dock Street in Philadelphia; a waterfront dive, located in Gaff Tops'l Corner, a part of the waterfront just coming into its own. A tough place for tough men, with crimps about, ready to shanghai a crew for a price, and not a bit particular about whom they shanghaied. Everybody sailing the western ocean knew the Dutchman's. So did the police, so they avoided the place.

PENANG LAWYER: A strip of rattan used to encourage discipline on Far Eastern ships. A vicious kind of whip that could with only a few strokes leave a man's back lacerated and bloody.

KISSING THE GUNNER'S DAUGHTER: Bending a man over the barrel of a cannon before applying the Penang Lawyer or perhaps a rope's end.

DAUBENY SACKETT: Echo's grandfather; great-grandfather to Tell, Orrin, and Tyrel, among others. Fought at the Battle of King's Mountain and before that at the Second Battle of Saratoga and Sullivan's Raid on the Iroquois Villages. There will be much of him in my book on the American Revolution.

DAVY LEWIS: An historical character; an outlaw from the Dickey Mountains of Pennsylvania. Locally famous.

DOUNE: A type of pistol created in the Highlands of Scotland. John Murdoch made those carried by Echo. Good guns were treasured and passed down in the family.