As I turned to see scouts working their way down the front cliff, and maybe a few hundred yards from the two boulders that stood watch in front of the canyon entrance, Joe had closed the door, and I watched the scout's horses stop and then revolted as all hell broke loose.

The clatter was deafening.

The smoke and dirt boiled out of the canyon swallowing up the scouts and their horses. I lost sight of them and turned to see where everyone went to, but by that time the dirt and dust made me blind, and that's when the shaking began.

I thought there would be some reaction to all those rocks colliding with the floor of the canyon, but what happened wasn't that. I was on my back, confused at how I got in such a position. The shaking shook the Eagle's nest down beside me. The top of the cliff shook violently, and I tried to stand back up, and another shake prevents it and convinces me it's safer staying flat as the shaking grew more intense.

When it seemed to start, I couldn't see anyone for the dirt filling the air, but I want off that cliff, and I stood, but before taking a step, I was on my back again. This time it knocked the breath out of me. I thought the shaking had stopped, but it hadn't. It simply regrouped for an even more impressive shake.

I was stunned. I lay there trying to make sense of it. The rocks went into the canyon minutes ago. They may have shaken the cliff on impact with the floor of the canyon, but this was certainly a lot more than the result after Joe released all those rocks.

As I thought about trying to stand again, another quick shake hit. That's when I heard the coughing. I was coughing, but so was everyone else, and I knew where they were from the sound, but I couldn't see anyone.

After a last quick shake, it seemed to stop. I waited. There was nothing.

We were all coughing as the top of the cliff began to clear, and I saw the shadows of men up there with me. I found Big Joe who got to his feet, and so I decided to get to mine.

A quick shake knocked both of us back down. It started and ended in the same instant. It was as if whoever arranged for the shaking was telling us, "Not so fast. I'm not done with you yet."

This time it was more than getting the breath knocked out of me. I was dazed and I rolled over to get on my hands and knees, and it shook again, another quick shake and it stopped.

Was the world coming to an end?

On my hands and knees now, I looked toward the trail to see what the cavalry was doing. The trail was a mangled mess. It had raised twenty feet into the air, and it looked unstable at best as the air cleared more, and the shaking had stopped. There were horses without riders running on 1st National's section beside the mangled trail.

There were no soldiers chasing them. There were no scouts.

The boulders still stood protectively out in front of the canyon, but it looked different. It was higher in spots and lower in other spots. Nothing like what the trail looked like, different none-the-less.

Where was the cavalry? They were there a few minutes ago, and now they were gone, leaving a half dozen horses without riders running free.

It was eerily silent, except for a cough now and again, and without considering the consequences, I stood, reaching down with one hand to anchor myself to the ground should the shaking start again..

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Was the world coming to an end?

I stayed put for more shaking. I bent my knees and kept my right hand on the ground. There was nothing to do but wait. The shaking seemed to stop, and thinking it was over, I started to stand, and then, it took to shaking again. Sometimes it was a quick jolt, and it stopped, and at other times it took to shaking and kept it up.

I began to wonder if it would ever stop?

I stood up with my feet wide apart, and a quick shake came and went. I didn't remember the earth shaking under me before. Then, I remembered the dynamite when the rancher was blowing up a damn to get the water to his cows. I felt the earth shake from miles away. It lasted a few seconds, and this wasn't that.

I stood up to see a half dozen men in various stages of getting to their hands and knees. I wasn't the only one shaken off my feet. I felt like I was getting air I could breathe as the dust drifted up and away.

My vision started to clear like I was coming out of a fog created when I was knocked flat on my back.

When I checked the trail again, I could see a little better, but there was still no one near it, but the horses stopped running and went to grazing on 1st National's section where there was plenty of grass.

No one would be riding on that mangled trail without some major repairs being made first.

"Joe, what did you do?" I asked when Joe came to stand beside me.

He wasn't sure we were alive either. He looked like he looked before. I was afraid to touch him. What if my hand went right through him? What did I do if we were dead?

Had the world ended?

"I closed the door. Can't take no blame for that shaking. Don't know about that shaking."

Joe was emphatic. I wasn't all that sure. He knocked the main support out of the wall in the sky, and by the time the wall was in the canyon, the shaking started. That indicated some connection between the two.

There was nothing to see out front, and getting off that cliff sounded like a smart move, and we were all having the same thought, as we climbed down on to the valley floor a few minutes later.

The air was clearing, and a quick jolt hit every few minutes, and we all prepared to fall down, but it didn't shake enough to knock us down again.

People were scattered all around, but the air was clearer in the valley. People had been shaken off their feet, and they were smart enough to stay on the ground, where they still were. There was a lot less dirt in the valley to get itself tossed up in the air. Breathing was easier once we came down off the cliff.

"What happened?" Running Horse asked, as he came toward me.

"Joe put all those rocks in the canyon. That's when the shaking started," I said.

"I told him, I gots nothing to do with the shaking, Chief. That wasn't my doing."

I could see by the way Running Horse was looking at him, he thought they were connected too. It was mighty strange that the ground took to shaking as soon as the rocks fell into the canyon.

"You did that, Joe?" Herb Woman asked.

"Chief, I put the rocks in the canyon. That shaking wasn't part of what I did. No way a few tons of rocks hitting the canyon floor could cause that. That is a whole nother thing entirely. If falling rocks could cause that much shaking, the entire country would be shaking all the time. Lots of rocks being dropped out of minds off cliffs."

"Earthquake," John said. "Felt one in Alabama one time. It shook like that, but only for a minute. That was one hell of a shake, felt exactly like the one in Alabama, except that lasted a minute and stopped, except for letting off a quick jolt every once in a while for days afterward. I was told that was called an aftershock."

"Shocked the hell out of me," I said. "Whatever you call it, I had about enough of it."

John dusted himself off. He slept under the 1st National wagon the night before, and he was dusting himself off from his visit to the dirt where the wagon was parked. It shook as violently in the valley as on the cliff.

"The cavalry. Are they still out there?" Running Horse asked. "Did they find the canyon?"

"When the shaking started, the scouts were a little ways north of the two boulders. Once I could see again, they were gone. Some horses running loose across the trail," I said, telling him what I had seen. "No cavalry is out front now."

"I was busy, so I didn't know how close the scouts came to finding the canyon," Joe said.

We went back up on top to see for ourselves, and half the warriors came with us still carrying their rifles. The idea of making sure the cavalry wasn't still up front was an idea we all had, and we climbed back up top. We forgot about the earthquaking that fast. The cavalry was there to end us, and they seemed more important.

No one was letting their guard down before we were sure we were safe for now.

"Look at the trail," Samuel said.

There was no cavalry in sight. There was no one out in front of the cliff. There were a lot of us up top.

"Soldiers that lost their horses must be riding double, or they would be chasing their mounts," Riggs said. "Maybe gone back to Fort Collins. Maybe went back up the trail aways to regroup. Horses don't react to well to unexpected noise or what would qualify as a lot of shaking going on."

Riggs sounded sure of his facts.

"Might want to take the saddles off those horses. No need to have them carrying them around," Joe said.

Wherever the cavalry went, they weren't out front for the next few days.

Riggs and Joe were up top most of the time, waiting to see what would happen. No one came near the trail. No one was moving out front. It went back to little or no one going north or south beside where the trail used to be. It was plenty flat, but once the shaking was done, no one moved around much.

It wasn't easy for things to get back on an even footing, once you were thrown off your feet a couple of times. We were all well shaken by the experience, and for a week, we all stood fast when the ground gave a quick shake. No one trusted their feet any longer, but this too passed, as we wondered what was coming.

Paradise Valley had been changed by the earthquake. The waterfall that once faced east, now faced south. The western cliffs looked lower. Where the waterfall turned, there was a split that ran from beside the pond, down beyond the waterfall. It ran up where the cliffs once were connected but weren't any longer.

If you walked to the waterfall in the evening, as we liked to do, you might find yourself falling into the hole left next to the pond when the waterfall turned and ripped the two cliffs apart.

It would take a while to survey the damage, but the center of Paradise Valley was higher, and the slopes leading to the channels that drained off excess water were apparent if you stood in the center of the valley.

Everyone could see the damage, but the lay of the land hadn't changed as much as the position of the waterfall changed, and the cliffs were changed, but inside the valley, it looked much the same. Except for rocks on the canvas top of the 1st National Wagon, none of the lodges or buildings were damaged.

The waterfall still flowed into the pond, but it flowed into the north side not into the west end the way it did when it was facing east.

The horses in the pastures between the stream and the open end of the valley looked fine. They experienced the same thing the people did, but it was easier for horses to go back to what they were doing before the shaking started. That isn't to say they weren't wondering what the hell was going on.

Herb Woman went about treating cuts and bruises. Mostly it was warriors who scattered up between the rocks just below where the cavalry would appear, once they came out of the canyon. No one came out of the canyon. Rocks came down on the warriors, but besides cuts and bruises, none was seriously hurt.

Some of the people were knocked off their feet and suffered cuts and bruises. Herb Woman insisted on seeing each injury, so she could treat them to prevent infection. It was the first time I saw her in action, and she had the same disposition as Medicine Woman when it came to the health of her people.

Like with Medicine Woman, you didn't say, "No."

There were several clusters of folks at the entrance to Herb Woman's lodge. Each time someone came out of her lodge, someone else went in, and there were bandages and wounds apparent on some folks.

Once calm was restored in the valley, the word passed that Running Horse would speak at the firepit before the midday meal. Folks began to gather there to hear what the chief had to say about the events that shook things up. There had been coffee and bread passed around, but no one had a meal that morning, and the cleanup went into the afternoon.

The firepit was in good working order for people to eat and make sure everyone was okay.

"You can see the valley has undergone quite a change," Running Horse said. "It hasn't done anything that changes how we have been living here. We won't know how much has been altered until we take a good look around. We'll meet here at the evening meal. I'll tell you what I found. As for the cavalry, there is nothing to report. That shake sent them back to where they came from, or at least up the trail from here. We are keeping a watch on the front cliff, and we can't let our guard down, until we know they aren't coming back today."

"You're bleeding, Running Horse," Herb Woman said.

"Just a scratch. Shook me off my feet," he told her.

"We don't want to have our chief get an infection. Let me take care of it."

"It's nothing," Running Horse said, as blood ran down the back of his arm where he had fallen during one of, he shakes that caught him off guard.

Running Horse knew as much as I knew. He said as much as the people needed to hear. He did not say, "Everything will be okay." Who knew if everything would be okay? No matter where we went, we faced one danger or another, and now the world was shaking like it might come apart.

Herb Woman fussed over him to get the bleeding stopped, and she put some medicine on the wound.

The people drifted away, going to their lodges, not knowing what else to do. We would let the earth settle down, and once it did, we could settle down. We had a rude awakening that morning, and it only got worse as the day went along. At least the cavalry wasn't knocking on our door.

We went to our lodge. Joe, Riggs, and Samuel went to see the new positioning of the waterfall, and they would report directly back to Running Horse, and we could sit tight and wait to learn what else they found.

"I'll fix a pot of coffee," I told Running Horse.

"Not right now. I want to take a look at the canyon. I want to see it up close," he said.

I followed Running Horse into the canyon. We had to climb over rocks to get to where the canyon opened up to reveal the valley from what was now seventy or eighty feet above the floor of the valley.

It wasn't easy going and I would have turned back before Running Horse climbed on top of some rocks and looked at what he faced directly ahead of him. It was obvious we weren't getting past the tons of rocks blocking our way. Those things looked like they might fall down on us.

"No way to climb that. This is close to the halfway point, and it appears to be solid rock between here and the canyon entrance. We'll go up top and look down to see how solid this field of rocks is. I wouldn't try to climb that. Some of those rocks could come loose and bury us. I've seen what I wanted to see."

We drank coffee later that day, and I let the small fire in the lodge burn down. It was warmer in the valley after the earthquake. I wondered if the heating vents might have opened up to furnish more heat, or maybe the shaking shook open more vents. With the dust and dirt lingering in the valley, it was harder to breathe.

"What do you think?" I asked him.

"I don't know what to think," Running Horse said. "It feels like we are living on borrowed time. I don't see how we can escape from the cavalry. They won't be back today or tomorrow, but they will be back."

"Your arm?"

"Hardly feel it. Herb Woman needed to do something. She's happiest when she has something to do. It's best to let her do what she thinks is necessary. It doesn't hurt to make her feel useful."

No, it didn't hurt to let Herb Woman go about her business. She was closest to Angel, but Riggs now took up more of Angel's time. Herb Woman did her best not to be in the way, but by putting Angel and Riggs together, she had changed what had been an important part of her life.

"Herb Woman has never taken up with someone?" I asked Running Horse. "She's not unattractive. She reminds me of Medicine Woman."

"Her and Angel are close. I know that doesn't explain much, but they've always stayed to themselves. They had no interest in being returned to the white world. Herb Woman says we allow our women to have a freedom they didn't have where they lived."

"I suppose that's true," I said. "Woman must submit to the control of men in their lives. Now, my father never told my mother what to do, and if he upset her, he had to be on his toes not to make the same mistake twice, but Paw is Pawnee, and Maw defied her father to marry Paw. I don't think most woman do it that way where I came from. If a husband tells a wife to do something, it goes best if they obey him."

"Woman know as much about the village as I do, Tall Willow. Chief Lone Wolf told me, "If you are smart, right after you listen to what the men tell you, you will ask the women the same question. Woman come with a wisdom men don't have. They won't offer an opinion, unless you ask. Be sure to ask. You will make better decisions if you ask."

"Lone Wolf taught you how to be chief?" I asked.

I always wondered about the interaction between Chief Lone Wolf when he raised Running Horse. I could see the influence the chief had on Running Horse before he became chief, but I wasn't sure how it worked. An older chief was teaching a boy how to be chief, after his father died. He would have been chief once Lone Wolf died.

Chief Lone Wolf raised Running Horse with the help of Medicine Woman and other women in the clan. Running Horse was influenced by the old chief, and he knew what to do by watching him. There wasn't so much being told what to do, as it was observing how it was done. You learn a lot with your eyes.

"He spoke about how he handles himself in different situations. He never told me what to do. He showed me how he did it. As chief, I would decide what to do, but if I wanted to be respected and even loved, I needed to listen more and speak less. I learn more when I listen. I learned much more by watching him being chief."

"Took me a while to realize you learned more by watching people."

"Do white people stop to admire a field of wildflowers, or the beauty of the mountains in the distance? It seems to me they spend a lot of time going somewhere else."

"Migration is why they come here," I said.

"Why not stay where they are and make it the place they want it to be?"

"Someone talks up another place, and because their lives are remarkably unremarkable, they move. They are looking for happiness, but it's hard to find if someone is always watching for them to get out of line. There are rules on all aspects of how Europeans are allowed to move. They must work to make the things that make other men rich. They get enough to eat and live on, some of the time, but not all the time. Rich men don't like to pay the people who make them rich."

"What is this work? They cannot take their bows and go hunt? They cannot find a nice place to put their lodge and enjoy the sun as it rises and watch the moon at night."

"Mostly they live in huge villages. Too many people to depend on hunting. If they all hunted, there would be no game left in a week. No, the system is solid. Certain people benefit, most struggle, and that's another reason they are willing to go to a new land with the hopes of making their lives better, but the rules go with them, and the leaders make sure they stay in charge. They are paid to stay in charge and keep people under control," I said.

"You struggled in the white man's world?"

"No. I didn't, but I'm Pawnee. Having a lodge and hunting is how I live. Sometimes my lodge was on wheels, and I traveled, but I always had food, and where I went there were no rules, and when there was a need for rules, I made them. I met the right men. I had the right knowledge, but don't get the wrong idea, when I surveyed for the place that keeps all the money, even though I liked it, I was making rich men much richer. I was looking over the land they owned. Dividing it up for the rich men."

"You divided up land that didn't belong to them?"

"Their laws say they can buy the land. They pay money to another rich man, and they take the land."

"How can this be? They come here from far away. How is it they own our land?"

"Men in charge make laws that says they own the land. Pay them, and the land is yours."

"Make no sense. The land is Mother Earth. You no own your mother."

"No, probably not, but you're are Pawnee. You don't understand how white man's mind works. This is how it has been for a thousand years. Men who have money own everything. Everyone else must work for them. That's how they get so rich and send people to come take the land. Because so many come, they want the people on the land to move out of the way. That's how it is done."

"Crazy. Who lives this way?"

"Most of the world, I think, but don't know for sure. Leaders keep things under control for the rich."

"This rich, how can you be rich and not share the plentiful things with others?"

"Once you are rich, the only thing on your mind is to get richer," I said.

"Still crazy. Who does this work and still can't eat or hunt?"

"Oh, if they work, they can eat. It's the quality of what they can eat that makes it a bad deal."

"No food?"

"Not quite enough food, and not food that is very good to eat."

When I fell off the mountain and Lit'l Fox took me to Lone Wolf's village, I didn't know any white men. I knew the prophet and Maw, and I knew the men who kept an eye on Paw in Lawrence's store. I sat in class with a dozen other boys who spoke of what they did at home, but I didn't know any white men.

Years later, when I returned to Running Horse's clan, I knew how Europeans did things. I never knew why men let a few take everything, and they left little for everyone else, but there was no way to make sense of it. It seemed that they had lived this way for as long as I had been alive and even longer.

There were kings who claimed all the land. If you were on it, you better obey his laws, or you might wake up dead one morning. If he put you to work, you worked, and if you got fed, you were one of the lucky ones.

Because a king had an army, he took what he wanted, and the army did exactly what he said, because at the end of the day they would have food and a bed waiting for them. They made sure the people stayed in line. If you stepped out of line, you might lose your head, be drawn and quartered, or burned at the stake. The more gruesome your death was, the more likely everyone else will do what they are told. If you happened to be born on the king's land, it was a good idea to do what the king told you to do. Disobedience was deadly.

Mrs. Taylor said, "This is how it was in Medieval times in Europe."

"What does a chief do about such things that make no sense to him?"

I gave my answer the way Joe might do it.

"Not being a chief. I can't know what a chief knows, and I don't know what a chief should do. I think it is almost over, Running Horse. They are here to stay, and we are in the way. Sooner or later, they will move us out of their way and off their land for good. They fought hard to get it away from us."

"It should not be this way, Tall Willow."

"I know that, but this is how it is. We can run. We can die. Not much else left for the Pawnee to do."

"You came home to tell me this?"

"No, I came home to go the way the Pawnee go. I want to be with my people and the man I love. No one knows for sure how it will turn out, but no matter how it turns out, I want to be with you at the end."

"Our love has lasted a long time. I hope it lasts a while longer," he said.

"Me too."

"Running Horse will find a way to keep his people alive," he said. "What else can a chief do?"

"That's why they follow you."

It wasn't a discussion I wanted to have. I wasn't going to lie to Running Horse. I spoke the truth. A chief wants to know what Is ahead. I didn't know and couldn't say, but I knew the lay of the land, and I told him, since the spirits had deserted him. I ventured a small way into speculation that was supported by the facts. It gave me no pleasure to think about such things, but Running Horse wanted the truth.

His questions ended there. He knew as much as I knew, and he stood and walked away, deep in thought, none of us wanted to die, and he would like to find a way around it.

On to Chapter Seven
"Turn of the Waterfall"
Back to Chapter Five
"Visitation"
Complete Chapter Listing
We Are Still Here Main Page

Rick Beck Home Page

I'd love to hear what you think!  Leave me a comment on our contact us page.

We Are Still Here Copyright © 2026 OLYMPIA50. All rights reserved.
This work may not be duplicated in any form (physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise) without the
author's written permission. All applicable copyright laws apply. All individuals depicted
are fictional with any resemblance to real persons being purely coincidental.