Pine Leaf: Heroine of the Crow Nation

Crow Warrior

If one were to compile a list of all the great warriors of the various Native American tribes, the list would likely stretch out to the hundred yard line at a rifle range. Each group had their heroes who earned their titles and prestige through daring and skill that many civilized men find to be within the realm of the fantastic. And yet many of these men existed and their deeds were indeed real.

The Crow Nation was never short on their heroes. But a much lesser known fighter, but one of their best, was not a man but one of their women! Her name was Pine Leaf, or Bar-chee-am-pe in Crow tongue. She was not like most women, bound in marriage to do her husband's bidding at every beck and call with no ambitions of her own. On the contrary, she was a singular anomaly, boasting one of the most heroic hearts of the frontier.

Her memory is preserved only through the glowing accounts of the autobiographical book by Jim Beckwourth when he lived among the Crow. Although even at this time he had multiple wives with them, none elicited the sensations of admiration, respect and love that Pine Leaf did.

In his own words he describes her thus: "For an Indian, she possessed great intellectual powers. She was endowed with extraordinary muscular strength, with the activity of a cat and the speed of the antelope. Her features were pleasing, and her form symmetrical. She had lost a brother in the attack on our village before mentioned- a great brave, and her twin brother. He was a fine specimen of the race of red men, and bade fair to rise to distinction; but he was struck down in his strength, and Pine Leaf was left to avenge his death. She was at that time twelve years of age, and she solemnly vowed that she would never marry until she had killed a hundred of the enemy with her own hand. Whenever a war-party started, Pine Leaf was the first to volunteer to accompany them. Her presence among them caused much amusement to the old veterans' but if she lacked physical strength, she always rode the fleetest horses, and none of the warriors could outstrip her. All admired her for her ambition, and as she advanced in years, many of the braves grew anxious for the speedy accomplishment of her vow."

"She had chosen my party to serve in, and when I engaged in the fiercest struggles, no one was more promptly at my side than file young heroine. She seemed incapable of fear; and when she arrived at womanhood, she could fire a gun without flinching, and use the Indian weapons with as great dexterity as the most accomplished warrior. I began to feel more than a common attachment toward her. Her intelligence charmed me, and her modest and becoming demeanor singled her out from her sex."

Truly, this is glowing praise from a man who was revered later on as one of the greatest of the mountain men and became a leading chief of the Crows, a man who's life was never short of adventure or bravery. One can absolutely feel the unvarnished admiration he and everyone else felt for her, and it's not surprising that he sought for her to be one of his wives.

Here we find that she was not only wise in warfare, but in games of the heart as well. After much coaxing Pine Leaf agreed to marry him when the pine needles turned yellow. Jim not unreasonably thought that this meant autumn and carried on his way, no doubt eagerly awaiting the coming season. A time after this though it occurred to him that evergreen needles don't change color with the seasons! Upon mentioning this to her she only smiled, laughed, and set another strange condition upon which to marry him.

Even with this coquettish drama taking place his desire for her grew. But juxtaposing this was frequent and bloody warfare. Always Pine Leaf was near the fore and in the thickest fighting. In one battle with the Black Feet things went poorly. Many braves and even some accompanying white trappers were killed. It looked as if the end were upon them, and what was worse, it was in the dead of winter. As Jim put it: "This was my Russian campaign."

Yet they survived, but not without a great deal of loss. In fact, in this battle Pine Leaf was reduced to having only eight fingers. She lost a knuckle from a pinky finger from a Black Foot bullet on her right hand. The other on her left hand she had amputated as a sign of mourning when her brother was killed. It was the custom among the Crow women to amputate a finger upon the death of a husband or brother.

On another excursion fate had directed Jim away from his Crow family for several years. It wasn't without reason that they assumed him dead, as was rather common at that time along the frontier, killed from frost or foe. When he returned all were naturally overjoyed, nor was Pine Leaf an exception. And yet when he was gone her fiery flame never wavered. Upon his return Jim learned that she had believed him dead, but was only biding her time trying to discover which rival tribe had killed her friend so that she might avenge him. Perhaps it was a blessing to all of those other tribes that Jim had simply gone missing. One can only imagine how many scalps she collected over the death of her brother alone.

This all sounds very centered upon Jim's relationship with Pine Leaf, but it must be remembered that all we know of her comes from his writings, so it is only natural that much of it would be from his own accounts and perspective.

The last mention of her came through most unfortunate circumstances. Jim Beckwourth was still in the employ of a trapping company and at last decided to take his leave of his Crow companions and traveled to Saint Louis. Then, for reasons beyond my ken, another group of trappers fell in with the Crows and told them that the President and others were angry with Jim because of his befriending of the tribe, and murdered him as punishment. Evidently they thought this was a most splendid joke and took joy at their horror. It was a wonder that the group wasn't slaughtered on the spot. It may easily be imagined that this did not put the tribe in a good mood. Their beloved friend, family member and chief murdered on account of being kind to them? In spite of all he had done to keep the peace between them? This boded poorly for every white man between the Crows and the Atlantic.

They set on the warpath and were ready to scalp any white man they came across and sought to start with a trapping outpost which just happened to have some of Jim's friends present inside. After a strong showing they managed to stall for time and come to an agreement: Give them a chance to prove that Jim was still alive by sending a messenger to bring him back. If he didn't arrive, the Crows could kill them all. A rather steep bargain, but it was the only one the trappers had available. And sure enough, Jim returned, much disgruntled by the whole affair, although glad that no one had been killed during his swift return.

The Crows were delighted to learn that he was alive, but were soon downcast by his depressed behavior. Nor is it any wonder. He must have felt that he had only turned his back for a week before war broke out. He had done all he could to prevent conflict and yet at the first provocation, albeit quite understandable, they were moved to aggression. Perhaps Jim felt that he was a sort of prisoner, always having to hold others in check to prevent needless slaughter. He desired to return to civilization and marry a woman there who he sought to support through his trapping. The Crows desired him to stay and continue leading them. And it is here that Pine Leaf sought to save both groups by sacrificing that which she valued the most: Her independence.

The words she used to conclude her long and wonderfully storied career were many, but here are among the strongest: "I said I would kill one hundred foes before I married any living man. I have more than kept my word, as our great chief and medicine men can tell you. As my arm increased in strength, the enemy learned to fear me. I have accomplished the task I set before me; henceforward I leave the war-paths of my people; I have fought my last battle, and hurled my last lance; I am a warrior no more."

"I am about to sacrifice what I have always chosen to preserve- my liberty. The back of my steed has been my lodge and my home. On his back, armed with my lance and battle-axe, I knew no fear. The medicine chief, when fighting by my side, has displayed a noble courage and a lofty spirit, and he won from my heart, what no other warrior has ever won, the promise to marry him when my vow was fulfilled. He has done much for our people; he has fought their enemies, and spilled his blood for them. When I shall become his wife, I shall be fond and faithful to him. My heart feels pure before the Great Spirit and the sun. When I shall no more on the war-path, obey the voice of the Medicine Calf, and you will grow stronger and stronger; we shall continue and a happy people, and he will leave us no more. I have done." 

What brave words and sacrifice from one who had for so long been a warrior of repute and independence! The woman who had tread the path of the warrior gave up what she loved most to preserve her people and attach one of its leaders to them. What gallantry and selflessness! Indeed, the two were shortly thereafter wed together. But sadly, her sacrifice was in vain. Difficulties with the American Fur Company made returning for business a financial impossibility. What was more Jim Beckwourth had exhausted himself of the life he had led. There was never truly peace. Only breaks between warfare with other tribes. Always he and others had to watch over their horses to prevent them from being stolen by the thousands. Always they were careful when traveling, for at any moment they might run into hereditary enemies and receive an arrow, tomahawk or bullet. There was never truly rest.

And so he went a different path, and left his much sought after and worthy bride adrift after only five weeks of being married. He confirms that thereafter he never saw her again. Although this event took place well over a century ago, my heart aches at this sad and inconclusive ending to the splendid legend and warrior Pine Leaf. What must she have felt when she realized that her love wasn't to ever return? How many months or years did she wait? Did she regret her decision to give up on being a warrior, to effectively live as a widow? To be left after he had fought so hard to win her heart?

It pains the soul to think of this, but it does nothing to tarnish the heroine's reputation. Whatever end she truly met, her life and deeds have lived on. I consider myself richer for knowing her story, and I hope that all of you who have read this feel the same.

For Pine Leaf: Heroine of the Crow!

Jurassic World 2 Predictions and Thoughts

Late to the game on this as usual. Had my hands full with other stuff, but predicting things is all the rage these days and I have some ideas for the upcoming Jurassic World sequel based on the trailer.

Let me open by saying that the sequels from Jurassic Park failed for their own reasons. Lost World was based off of the book which was a sequel to Jurassic Park that nobody seemed to enjoy. It was clunky, confusing and Crichton really had to pull something out of his tail end to make it work, since Jurassic Park ended with real finality. Island blows up. Animals all burned. Some may exist on Coasta Rica mainland but nothing major. So it made little sense, was confusing and overall just not that good. The movie wasn't much better save for a rather decent soundtrack and some good effects.

Jurassic Park 3 lacked any sort of imagination and made it into yet another 'oh crap how do we get off the island' scenario. Within three minutes of landing on the island things go sideways, they lose all their guns and are stranded. A few fun effects but otherwise it was creatively bankrupt.

So with that in mind the moment I heard about Jurassic World 2 I was skeptical. The first one was actually rather good in my opinion. Many claim that it was a remake or soft reboot of Jurassic Park. However I disagree. Jurassic Park was a pretty good direct adaption from the book, which had a very non-linear plot. Things really don't start to happen until the second act, and from there the characters are in two groups with two objectives. First objective is with Dr. Grant and the kids just trying to not die. The second is with Ellie and the rest just trying to get things working again. Normally it's a story that wouldn't work, but Speilberg is a deity of movie making and truly made a great adaption.

Jurassic World is very different. One very dangerous animal escapes, and the goal is to recapture it before it gets to the tourists. Very clear and concise objective. But as one plan after another fails the stakes are raised, new things are learned, and they become more desperate to stop it, trying things that they normally wouldn't dream of trying. It's a solid plot that keeps moving and ramps up. It also had enough of a brain to it that I was intrigued. Every now and then I catch myself thinking of the ramifications of the movie and some of the themes they mention.

In Jurassic World 2 the park has shut down. Where can you go from there? I thought they were going to do yet another dumb rescue mission for some dumbarse that got stuck there or something dumb like that. But now it seems that it is indeed a rescue mission, but for the dinosaurs themselves. The island's volcano is acting up and it looks as though the objective is to capture as many as they can and get them off of the island, saving them from extinction once again.

I admit, this idea is compelling to me. It's certainly one I haven't seen before. Some may think the volcano part is stupid. After all, why set up a park on a volcanic island? That seems dumb until you realize that Hawaii fits that description perfectly and regarded by the world over as paradise. Heck if I know why that makes sense. Also it isn't all that unreasonable, since it would directly provide geothermal power. Logistically that makes a lot of sense. After all, the island has incredibly advanced facilities requiring tons of power and lugging a giant power-line from the mainland would be a pain in the side.

This movie also shows Jeff Goldblum, AKA Ian Malcolm, giving a speech about life, blah blah blah. However they seem to be questioning the ideas of life itself. Do these extinct animals have the same rights as other animals that we protect? Do they pose a threat big enough to warrant letting them be destroyed? I think they cut most of that from the trailer and instead relied on his classic lines from the first movie as trailer bait. But I do like this angle. I like being prompted to think about the ramifications of cloning, extinction, life and how it's treated.

This can easily go wrong however. It might be pretentious gobbly-gook that doesn't actually make sense or to trick people into thinking that it's smarter than it really is. I hope that isn't the case. Having a bit of thought provoking themes and ideas with an action story as a back drop is intriguing to me. And that is still in the spirit of the original book.

As for most of the plot I'm not quite sure how it will shake out. It will either be innovative and really interesting, or it will be bloody confusing and make no sense. I'm for trying new plots that don't feel paint by numbers. But that comes at the risk of being confusing and nonsensical. My hope is that this movie will have some curveballs thrown in but still make sense.

And of course let's not forget the shot of some sort of new mutated raptor that makes an appearance. I confess, I'm not fond of the idea. I'm not horribly against it, but it feels unnecessary. It feels gimmicky like the first Jurassic World. I fear that this is a move from the studio thinking that we need an abomination to keep people interested. If that's the case then they don't understand their audience too well. It worked in the first movie because it served as a contrast to the natural dinosaurs and how the sales-mentality on life can spiral out of control. It was seen as something unnatural that we wanted to see the normal dinosaurs overcome.

Here? Again, it will either be hit or miss. With luck it will be used intelligently, once more serving as contrast for the discussion of life with the normal dinosaurs and mutated ones. I sincerely hope that it will be used intelligently. I strongly suspect there will be the Ingen angle once again, perhaps a team going in with their own agenda to collect samples left behind during the shut down in Jurassic World.

This is all speculation however. My hope is that it will be a smart movie, or at the very least interesting. I can see it either being just as big as the first. The new plot angle has a lot going for it and will hopefully keep things fresh. But there is a lot of risk that it will get confused and tangled.

Well, we will see. I'm going to see it in theaters. But I'll reserve judgement until after I've viewed it.

The Cold Beneath Book Review

Zombies are kind interesting, and most of America seems to agree. In the last decade and a half people have been zombie crazy. And much like zombies, everyone bitten by zombie media turns into someone producing zombie material. Shows, games, dlc, movies, books, comics, toys and every other single thing you can imagine has been zombified. Kinda ironic. After awhile I tuned out because it became white noise. Until I happened upon this little gem. If you ever wanted a steampunk story with zombies that doesn't feel like a rip off of The Walking Dead, this is for you.

The Cold Beneath is a full novel by Tonia Brown, who I mentioned once before here as the author of The Railroad steampunk books and gave this one a shot. And I'm quite glad I did.

The Cold Beneath is an epistolary novel, meaning that it's written like a journal or memoir by someone who was involved in the events first hand. This is a wonderful throwback to older epistolary novels by English authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard and others. The main character is even English as well! This might very well have been intentional, and if so, I think it worked quite wonderfully. It was nice to read something in that old style.

The story centers around an ill fated expedition to reach the North Pole via an airship, The Northern Fancy and the disastrous results of a secondary agenda by one of the crew members. The latter is very well set up but subtle. It doesn't beat you over the head and treat you like an idiot. "See? See what's going to happen? Nudge nudge!" It's nice to have a book treat you like you are intelligent enough to pick up on the clues left around.

And yet at the same time this book is extremely character driven. Our writer and protagonist, Philip Syntax, is an inventor who sadly suffered the fate of having the credit for his own invention stolen and left bereft of his so-called friends. This could easily turn into a whiny character we want to slap upside the head, but Tonia Brown weaves him very well into a character that's sympathetic, someone we want to see get his due reward. It's a very difficult line to walk, but the epistolary writing style and excellent characterization pull it off perfectly.

In fact, all the characters are a very strong sell in this book. One of the other primary characters, American globetrotter and explorer Mr. Lightbridge is the quintessential hero type character who thrives on adventure and peril, even in his old age. Being somewhat familiar and fond of such characters, I am delighted to say that the author truly understands what it means to love adventure for it's own sake, and yet Lightbridge doesn't fall into the trap of being bland or uninteresting. Quite the contrary. Tonia Brown gives him backstory bits that really flesh him out and fascinated me. I won't spoil one part of it, but it genuinely interested me on a psychological level. That's very rare.

The technology is par the course for Tonia Brown, and by that I mean excellent. The scientific principles are fictional yet very believable. This is true steampunk. It treats the concepts from a scientific perspective and not like fantasy where it's hard to distinguish from magic. As someone that likes looking at schematics and nerdy stuff like that I really appreciate this kind of effort. Yet it doesn't get bogged down in explaining all the details. The story delivers just what you need to know in such a way that you can understand it and get interested, but not hold you hostage with tons of information.

Anyway, I mentioned zombies here, didn't I? Well, without spoiling how the story goes, something very fishy is going on aboard the Northern Fancy. A few things don't quite make sense about it. But things really get odd when one of the crewmen dies of natural causes. The medical staff find that he is absolutely dead and store his body in the freezer for proper burial upon return. Until that night a horrible screaming wakes the crew. And it's coming from the freezer. They think that somehow the medical staff mistook his state and swiftly release him. But he isn't the man that they remember him to be. Violence breaks out, and things end on a very bleak note.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's when the airship crashes and they are left stuck on the icy wastes of the North that things get really bad. I don't wish to spoil too much, hence my rather vague wording in some of this, because the mystery and build up are half the fun. But the spooky atmosphere are worked up beautifully and when we finally do get zombies, they aren't the stock kind that spread through bites or stuff like that. This is a unique breed with their own origin and I frigging love it. But what partly makes them so much more spooky is the fact that these ones can slagging talk! 

And that's all I'm going to reveal at present. Hopefully I've swayed you to pick up a copy. I truly do recommend it, even if you aren't a fan of horror or steampunk. It works great as those, but it also works great as a character story. It's rare to find something like this. So go take a look! You can find it here: https://amzn.to/2E8wr7p