The Martyrdom of Collins Catch the Bear by Gerry Spence

Author:Gerry Spence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2020-08-07T18:18:29+00:00

14.

James Lee “Wambli No Heart” Jones told the sheriff his new story in an unemotional, business-like manner. A youngish blond lawyer named Gary Jensen sat beside him. The lawyer wore a three-piece business suit and sat relaxed and confident, with the air of a successful litigator. He was a friend of Rodney Lefholz. A federal marshal was also present, and while the sheriff’s tape recorder was running, somebody offered Jones a cigarette, like a friend, and somebody else lit it for him. Jim Leach had copies of the tapes in a file.

Jones said that Russell Means had appointed him chief of security at Yellow Thunder Camp, and that just before Tollefson was shot, Moses Fast Horse from Wounded Knee had hollered down to Jones. Jones said he looked up to see the white man standing two feet from the flagpole there on the ridge. Jones said, “I ran up—probably on the footpath east of the cliff—and by the time I got there, some other men from the camp had already arrived. I asked the white guy, ‘What are ya doin’ here?’ And the white guy said, ‘Nothin’. Just lookin’. Just tryin’ ta relax a little.’ And then I said, ‘What are you doin’ looking down on our camp?’”

Jones said Tollefson was sitting in his pickup by then, and the driver’s door was wide open. He said Evans White Face was on his right, and Smokey White Bull was on his left, and by then there were other Indians surrounding the pickup. Both windows in Tollefson’s camper were rolled completely down. It was half past noon, and it was a clear day.

Jones said, “I told the white guy, ‘Move on out of here. This is our land, this here is our home—our camp.’”

“I got a right to be here. This is National Forest land,” Tollefson said.

“This here is our place, white motherfucker,” Jones said somebody hollered. “Get yer white ass outta here.” He said another Indian pounded his fist on the roof of Tollefson’s pickup, making the white man jump.

“Ya wanna see what this camp looks like? Well, why don’t ya come on down the right way—like a white man, and go through security,” Jones said.

“I don’t have to go through security,” Tollefson said. “This is National Forest. I got the same right to be here as you.”

“That’s bullshit,” somebody hollered. “This is Indian land.”

Jones said there were other Indians standing behind him, facing Tollefson, and some of the Indians had knives.

According to Jones, Evans White Face hollered, “Move off this land,” and everybody else was shouting obscenities. “Everybody around the vehicle was in an uproar and using ‘verbal language,’” as Jones described it.

Then Jones said Smokey White Bull got to hollering about the 1868 treaty and how the whites had broken it. “That’s what you white motherfuckers did before. You gotta get off this land. This is our land!” And the “conversation” went back and forth, Jones said. But Tollefson said he didn’t believe in the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

In black and white, the 1868 treaty had promised the Black Hills to the Indians.

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