QUADE'S QUEST - QUADE & HANNAH'S FIRST INTERVIEWS

The army was Quade’s life. He liked everything about it, with the exception of fighting Indians. So what’s he doing going to a fort on the fringes of a Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana?

 QUADE’S FIRST INTERVIEW

1.)    You’ve been stationed in Virginia City for a long time. How is it you’re being relocated to Montana? It was a misunderstanding. The commander’s wife, Grace Walters, told her husband I’d made advances toward her. He had me shipped out to the middle of nowhere. She’s apologized several times, but it doesn’t change my options.

2.)    Were you surprised when Grace got off at the same stop as you? Hell yes I was surprised. I don’t want anything to do with her. Thank goodness the people at the railhead needed a cook and let her stay on.

3.)    The fort wasn’t anything spectacular. Do you really think you can make a difference here? I’m good at getting my point across. There’s no excuse for the men living in filth. Even though I had to fight them on every point they at least cleaned up their barracks and took a bath.

HANNAH’S FIRST INTERVIEW

1.)    As a child your family was massacred by white soldiers. How did you come to be called the daughter of the missionary? Horace and Martha came on our village just after the soldiers left. They were the ones who buried the people and rescued me. They raised me as their own daughter, but they never allowed me to forget the names of my father and brothers, Crooked Snake, Growling Bear and Tall Elk. Now that my white mother has died, my white father has brought me back to the land of my birth.

2.)    You’ve been at this fort for a while. Are you afraid someone might question your heritage? Horace has told everyone I was adopted from one of the Eastern tribes, but I know too much about the Cheyenne and look too much like the children I teach at the reservation for someone not to question my background.

3.)    Crooked Snake and his sons have terrorized the soldiers at this fort for many years. Are you afraid he might be killed? I pray for his safety every day. I don’t blame the soldiers for hating him, but he carries his own hatred for the whites. From what I’ve been told, he’s been avenging the death of his people including my mother and myself for the past fifteen years.

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