Luther rode up to the stomp dance near Wewoka, Oklahoma late
in the night. Folks had been drinking and singing for hours. Couple of Sac and Fox men with a long history
of being with the same woman alternatively had a good fight and the crowd was laughing,
taking bets. Luther had heard that one
of the Payne’s from Mexico was in the neighborhood. The Payne’s were one of the
families that rode with Wildcat and John Horse back in the 1840’s. After
Wildcat died in the mid 1850’s, a number of the Mascogos, the Seminole Blacks,
had come back to Oklahoma and made a personal peace with the responsibility of
trying to adjust to “civilized” behavior.
Luther’s wife, Maynee, was the daughter of the trader who
sold Seminole products to a wider market. Her daddy had been adopted by the
Seminoles, for his fair and honest dealings, and one of his wife’s closest
friends was Alice Brown Davis, sister of the leader of the tribe at the time. Her
mother was the daughter of the Boston missionary that joined John Bemo in
schooling the just transplanted ex-Floridians in reading, writing, and “righting”
(which meant religious instruction in a private family story.)
As Luther tied his horse to a wagon wheel belonging to C.M.
Wilson (one of the Anglo ranchers married to a Seminole woman. He was looking
for Isaac Payne who had come this time, so he had heard. The family in Oklahoma
had sent word to Fort Clark that one of matriarchs was dying. Isaac was one of
the patriarchs. Isaac had won a Medal of Honor saving Capt. Bullis’ life. The
members of the Seminole Scouts (both
active and retired) served as a dispatch service between ranchers, bankers,
army officials, and law enforcement. (a
nephew of Isaac, John, would become a
renowned fighter in the exhaustive Villa
years).
One of his cowboys was yet another Payne family member. The
Payne’s had been economically tied to Osceola’s people back in Florida,
prospered and had many children who all came to Oklahoma and eventually even
much farther beyond. Samson Payne finished
tying his horse and touched Luther’s shoulder and pointedly glanced at a lean
figure in a Seminole turban leaning up against a blackjack oak at the edge of
the clearing. Half dozen elder men and women were gathered there.
Samson pointed at some women cooking at some pots and both
went and filled up bowls and found a place to sit to watch the dancing and the
rest of the “going-ons.” His wife’s
mother wanted to see Isaac. The Mexican
government was moving the Mascogo people from Nasciemento to near Musquiz.
Families had been raised in Nasciemento, and many of their people were buried
there. The Catholic Church had even built a chapel for future encouragement to
replace the people’s Gullah roots with a veneer of Christian indoctrination.
People were contemplating moving to Oklahoma. His mother-in-law wanted to hear
how many, and be sure to encourage her husband to lay in important supplies in
case they arrived destitute.
Samson and Luther went back for seconds, and then returned
to their spot a third time after getting a small flask of whiskey from Samson’s
older brother. Some of Samson’s friends
dragged him over to where folks were talking about some folks gone bad and
taken to raiding other towns for things to sell at yet another town. Luther
stuck the flask in his pocket. Several
men stopped by to talk, wanting to hear a report on who might be needing extra
hands soon. They were farmers, looking for a few extra bucks when it was time
to ship the herds being wintered for Texas cattlemen. C.M Wilson dropped by,
saying that Bull Shannon from down near the old Fort Concho was getting ready
to go to Kansas City and start dickering for the highest price. Luther had a
few head thrown in with Wilson and helped him keep an eye on the herd all
winter, and would soon accompany the herd to the KC stockyards. Wilson agreed
to give him some money Maynee could come on the next passenger train. It might be the best chance for a truly
special honeymoon- like trip.
They had been married a couple of years. Maynee was a big
help, riding her big horse Ben would let
nobody else ride. Being and in love with no babies taking his best girl
away from him had been the happiest time of Luther’s life. Things were about to
change. Maynee had told him she was pregnant.
The stomp dance ended at daybreak. People headed home, back
to milking cows, cutting wood, back to the everyday routine. Folks would move
slow all day, but for the most part it had been a great time, exchanging news
from up and down Gar Creek and a half dozen valleys in every direction. After a while Luther and Isaac were about the
only ones left. Alice Brown Davis rode
up in a surrey (Luther had been a surrey driver for a Seminole woman with an
Anglo husband when he was a young teenager.) Both men recinched their saddles
and slipped bridles on their horses, and swung up after brief polite
greetings.
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