BITTER HARVEST

A Short Story

This is a story of pure fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

By: J. Bryant Ray
© 2009 The Internet Group

[-BITTER HARVEST-]

It was the summer of 1880. I shall try and remember the story as it was told to me as a young boy…

There once lived an Indian chief in the foothills of the nearby mountains, his name was Oliwagga; translated it means ‘One Who Listens’. He was not always the chief. As a young boy he hunted the woods around his home just as his father had taught him. Early on it was small game with a sling and smooth stones. His father would take him out into the woods and fields and show him the squirrels and rabbits; teaching him their nesting patterns, of how they came to feed.

The pair would sit very still observing the sounds around them; the boy listening for even the faintest signs of wildlife. There, on those early forays around his village, he eventually mastered the taking of larger animals, with bow and arrow and the long spear of his forefathers; the boy learned the skills that would serve him well into manhood. Later, once he became proficient in the act of taking game, his father began to teach him the ways of his people, those ways that had served them for centuries, many moons before the coming of the white settlers.

The planting of crops, the harvest and the storage of food for winter were among the earliest memories the young boy could recall. There was an old woman in their camp, some spoke of her in hushed tones, for she was blind; her eyes an eerie shade of blue-gray with a scaly covering that looked as if they had been burned by fire. Others said she was an old Spirit, from many years in the past. The older ones spoke of her as a child, recalling that day when she was in the field gathering grain with her mother; a summer storm quickly came up, catching them away from shelter. The two huddled under the protection of a lone oak tree at the edge of the field. They were trying to stay dry but the wind was blowing, the rain falling heavily, coming sideways so that the drops from the force of the wind were stinging their faces.

The little girl was afraid and wandered away from her mother; she looked to the sky and cried out! Just at that moment a large bolt of lightning came from the clouds striking the ground nearby; the falling rain immediately turning into a fine mist tasting of bitter salt, the mother’s skin felt cleansed of all impurities, as if she had taken a bath in one of the hot springs she had once visited.


Instantly the little girl was rendered unconscious; she lay there for a time before her mother rushed to see if she was still breathing, if she was in fact still alive. Sensing a faint heartbeat and listening for her shallow breathing, her mother picked her up and ran back to their village. There, for the next several days the little girl lay unconscious; the tribal medicine man and the woman of herbs prayed over her. Her mother and father wept uncontrollably as this was their only child. Others in the village offered up prayers for the awakening of the little girl.


On the fifth day, in the early morning somehow a miracle happened. The little girl awoke and asked for a drink of water. She told of the dreams that she had; she had seen a great famine of her people; a vision of hot, dry summers and failed harvests, of brutally cold winters with no game. She had also been visited by a spirit from many years past; this spirit spoke to her of how the rains could be summoned, but warning the little girl that misuse of the gift she was to receive would cause much pain and hardship to both she and her people.

Later that night, in the comfort of her family’s hovel, she told her mother and father that the spirit had also spoken to her of ways to cause the rains to come. She was given a simple prayer that could be offered with rain to follow in 3-days time; however she was never to reveal the prayer to anyone, not even her mother and father, not to the elders of her village; she should never utter it aloud; it was hers and hers alone.

The following spring brought new life and soon it would be time for planting. The men and women of the village were preparing the fields for sowing the seeds of corn and beans; planting the root crops of carrots, potatoes and beets and of course the grasses for their animals and the grains of wheat and barley for baking. They would till the fields making sure that no weeds were present; hoping for the rains of spring that would provide the moisture necessary for germination and young plant growth. Somehow this year the rains had not yet come. The young girl would hear talk around the campfire, the older men speaking of the need for rain but seeing that none was in the sky.

That night the little girl, lying in her bed, quietly recited the rain prayer she had been given in her dream. Three days later the rains came, not in a rushing downpour but in a gentle falling rain, lasting off and on for several days.

The villagers were excited and prayed to the heavens in thanks for the gift of the rain. All thru the growing season, whenever she heard the elders speaking of the need for rain, the little girl would offer up her prayer; each time the result was the same, gentle rainfall, lasting for several days, followed by growth of the crops. In the fall the harvest was very abundant, so much so that the village had to construct additional areas for storage of the grain and vegetables for the winter.


This went on for several years with each season being the same; regular rainfall with abundant harvests, followed by the offering of prayers of thanksgiving for the rainfall. Several days following the most recent harvests, she actually overheard her mother and father speaking quietly of their wish to reveal their daughter’s secret. The little girl begged her mother and father not to tell of her gift for fear that the prophesy might come true; that somehow famine and hardship would fall upon the village as she had seen in her dream. Her father was ever so insistent on telling the elders that it had been her and not the rain gods that they should be giving thanks to.

Finally, one evening around the campfire with the elders of the village, her father spoke of his little girls dream. He honored her wishes by not telling them of her ability to offer the prayer, but just that she had a gift that had possibly resulted in the rainfall the village had received for their crops.

The next day the tribal chief called the elders into council. It was decided that the little girl would henceforth be called “Wuti-Yoki” which translated means ‘woman of the rain’. It was not long before word spread across the territory of the existence of this gifted young girl, of this so called Wuti-Yoki; thus began the offering of gifts to her family in return for her bringing rain for their crops as well.


The years that followed were quite busy for Wuti-Yoki; she traveled throughout the territory, visiting village after village. She would stay for a few days, and in the solitude of her surroundings offer up the prayer she had been taught. As before 3-days would pass and the rains would come, followed by bountiful harvests. As the young woman advanced into adulthood she grew weary of this gift; she wanted a life of her own, she wanted children and a family, but to date no man had asked her to be his wife. She had not received even so much as a second glance from the young men she would meet during her travels.

One day she had just completed a visit into a remote area of the territory, when she came upon a wagon train headed west. There was a guide, a young man named Billy Spence, who assisted her, providing repair to her horse’s shoe that had become loose. During this brief encounter the pair struck up a conversation. She learned that Billy was to leave the wagon train in the next town, giving them over to another guide who would take them on to their destination. Billy learned that she was called ‘Wuti-Yoki’; she was so taken with him, and he with her that Billy agreed to come to her village to ask properly for her hand in marriage.

The next month, at the beginning of September, Billy Spence rode into her village. Every one came out to meet him, the young boys excited to see this tall white man with the beautiful horse and the hand-tooled leather saddle. His dual six-guns hanging from his belt and his fair hair and blue eyes were quite a novelty in the village. His skill with six-guns amazed even some of the elders as Billy gave demonstrations of his prowess with both gun and knife.

He challenged the young men to knife throwing contests, beating them every time. After a dinner meal, around their campfire, Billy formally asked Wuti-Yoki’s father for her hand in marriage. Amidst the cheering of the village, her father agreed; this made Wuti-Yoki very happy, at last she could have a family of her own; no longer would she travel from village to village feeling used and lonely.

The wedding was planned for three days following; it would be a tribal affair and Billy had much to learn before their wedding day. The next days would be spent in talks with the elders and the medicine man about the ways of their life, that Billy should not wander too far away from the village as Wuti-Yoki was a key to their survival. The elders agreed that she should be able to return each spring for the planting ritual and to assist with the rain that was needed.

Billy insisted that he had plans for the couple to live in the next town, only a half-days ride from the village. There he would become the proprietor of a feed and seed store; the couple would welcome family visits at any time they wanted to make the journey. On their wedding day the village was decorated in the traditions of the clan, food of every description had been prepared, the bride had a new dress made by the women and Billy wore his best suit and a new pair of boots. The celebration lasted all day and well into the night, as dancing demonstrations and singing of the old tribal songs were given by most all of the women. The men sat around the campfire, passing a pipe containing a smoke so potent that Billy was near intoxicated from only a few turns.

On the fourth day the couple bid farewell to the village and rode away toward the town of Sweetwater. In the weeks that followed, Billy set up his store while Wuti-Yoki provided assistance to their customers. Billy was amazed by her ability to help with the chores around the store. While she could neither read nor write she was quite adept at calculating measure and controlling the inventory so that they were not long without adequate supplies to meet the growing demand from customers in town.

There was a school in the town and with a bit of coaxing Wuti-Yoki agreed to attend long enough to learn how to read and write. It was then that Billy suggested she take a ‘Christian’ name. Wuti-Yoki agreed and the couple decided she should be called Sally; of course she would always remain ‘Wuti-Yoki’ to her village and her family. The following spring Sally became pregnant and immediately made plans for the arrival of their first child. It was early enough in her pregnancy that Sally made the ride out to her village to provide a prayer for the needed rainfall. As in years past, the rains came on the third day.

After a week or so Sally was making plans to return to Sweetwater when her mother asked whether she planned to have the baby at home. Discussing the plans her mother insisted that she return to the village to have the baby there; Sally feared this would not sit well with Billy and she and her mother quarreled about the decision.

Leaving her village Sally wondered if she should take her mother’s advice and plan to have the baby in the village; after all there was no doctor in Sweetwater and the nearest mid-wife was a good days’ ride to the West. She would discuss this with Billy when she returned.

As she suspected, Billy was not happy with any discussion about her having the baby in the village; no amount of pleading would change his mind. Sally told him that she had observed lots of births and not one time had a child been stillborn, or had the mother developed complications during childbirth.

The two argued for days with Billy insisting that he would ride to the next town and fetch the doctor in plenty of time; Sally reminding him that childbirth was quite un-predictable and that he could not foretell when the birth would be upon them. Billy also reminded her that she would not be able to make the trip to her village after she became 6-months pregnant and that he would forbid her to ride a horse all that distance.

Soon the time was near for the birth of their first child. In the middle of the night Sally went into labor; Billy was away on a trip acquiring additional inventory for the store. Sally would have to give birth alone; she labored for 6 hours with no result. Early the next morning, a neighbor came by their cabin. Finding Sally near exhaustion and in a lot of pain, the woman assisted Sally with the birth. The child, a girl, was stillborn, the result of a difficult labor; the child’s cord had become wrapped around its neck choking off the oxygen supply.

Sally was overcome with sadness, weeping and crying uncontrollably; throwing things around the cabin and cursing the very god that had once saved her own life. She began chanting the rain prayer over and over; the rains came with such fury that the town was flooded beyond anything in the past. The thunder and lightning so fierce that several buildings were set ablaze; Sally ran into the street looking skyward, cursing the death of her child. Again a bolt of lightning struck nearby, only this time it was so severe, so powerful that she was blinded by the flash, her hair singed and her flesh reddened.

Sally walked aimlessly for hours into the forest and across the fields, trudging thru mud and undergrowth. After 2-days of her wandering she finally came upon her village. The women and the elders rushed out to meet her. Taking her inside, they prayed for days over her shriveled and burned body as Sally, the one once known as Wuti-Yoki lay in a case of semi consciousness. The medicine man used all his powers, the woman of herbs applying all her skills but to no avail.

After a time Sally slowly grew stronger. Still blaming Billy, she refused to see him even though he tried repeatedly, begging her family but she would not even speak to him. Sally would never again be called Wuti-Yoki. Because of her actions that night, in her grievous state, she had lost the gift she had been given.

In the years that followed, famine and poor harvests beset the village, many moved away from the clan, taking refuge with other tribes far away. The remaining families struggled with their meager crops and little to no game for the harsh winters. Slowly they lived a meager existence, however never again would the great harvests or the abundant game come to their village.

To this day Sally resides in her village, a blind old woman, with no purpose in life but to provide the stories as told by the elders

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 17.09.2009

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