Thunder Rolling in the Mountains Read Online Free PDF Page A

Joseph said. "It's what I have fought against since the beginning."
    "It's war," Ollokot said.
    "A war we cannot win," my father said.
    He pointed a finger at Swan Necklace. "Remember this, young warrior. None of the soldiers will be scalped. Not one. Remember this yourself and tell what I say to your friends."
    Swan Necklace tried not to flinch. He was standing beside the two most powerful men in the tribe. His
carbine was stuffed under one shoulder. He looked like a soldier but I think he wanted to run.
    Warriors had gathered at the lake and built a fire. Two Moons rode among them, leading the roan horse that had belonged to one of the white men. He called to his son. He held a red jacket above his head.
    Swan Necklace rode to his father's side. He took the jacket and put it on. Then he shook his rifle. A cheer went up.
    "It is time to fight," said Two Moons. "We will be children no more."
    "We will never go to Lapwai," Ferocious Bear said through closed teeth. "Let the soldiers know we will kill them all."
    Women began to take down the tipis. Our camp was unprotected, and the soldiers would soon be upon us.
    "No!" shouted Joseph. "Let us stay here until the army comes. We will make some kind of peace with them."
    But no one listened.

Seven
    T HAT NIGHT our warriors were called. The old men and women packed their few things. At midnight we left our camp and started south for White Bird Canyon, the home of White Bird's band. At dawn on the fifth day, we came to the crest of a canyon of brush and rock. This was White Bird Canyon, a place where we could stay while we decided whether to fight or flee. We knew the land and our chiefs thought it was the safest place to camp.
    "If the whites follow," said Too-hul-hul-sote, "we hide and shoot them down as fast as they come."
    Streams ran through the big canyon. Water trickled against stone walls. Beyond us on the cliff we posted a warrior to watch for the soldiers. All that day and all that night we waited. My father did not sleep.
    At the first gray light a scout rode into our camp. "Soldiers coming close," he called. "Many soldiers."
    My father rose swiftly. He spoke with the other
chiefs. "We must not shoot first," he said. "Maybe they come with good hearts." Ollokot agreed.
    The chiefs sent out a truce party. Five warriors rode to meet the soldiers. One of them carried a white flag to say that we did not wish war. The other young men waited on their horses, hidden behind the buttes.
    From our camp, we heard a bugle. Then a rifle spoke. The lone shot echoed against the stone walls. There was a long silence, then the sound of guns. A warrior rode into a streak of daylight on the crest of the canyon. He waved his bow above his head.
    "War!" he shouted. "The soldiers fired on our white flag."
    "Here we stand!" Ollokot shouted. "We go no farther. First we die, then we die again." Ollokot, with his good plans and bravery in battle, was our most cunning chieftain.
    Chief Joseph disagreed. "We should hide until night and then slip away. There are too many soldiers. They will kill half our family." My father always thought of his clan first. There were not many of us.
    Ollokot divided the warriors and sent them along the hillside. I watched them go, dodging behind the huge stones. I watched Swan Necklace. He rode with the other Red Coats, no longer afraid to fight. My heart beat proudly. I wanted to ride with him.
    Instead I took a group of children into a sheltered place beside the creek, where we could play games
and forget the bullets flying on the other side of the butte. We held contests to see which ones could hold their breath longest. I smoothed off a flat rock and some of the boys spun tops, making them dance across its surface.
    Red Owl, Ollokot's son, started a game of wolf. He pretended to be a wolf and the other children pretended to be calves who had strayed from their mothers. He crept behind the bushes along one side of our sheltered place. The other children