A Love Forbidden by Kathleen Morgan Page B

patronizing, officious, narrow-minded boor!
    “And exactly why not?” she demanded. “You’ve lived with both whites and Indians. If you’d an ounce of brains in your head, you’d know what’s to come if the Utes remain on the path they’re currently taking. Or don’t you care?”
    He reined his horse to a halt. Startled, Shiloh did the same. Ever so slowly, Jesse impaled her with an icy glare.
    “Insult my intelligence if you want,” he ground out. “Obviously, you share Meeker’s opinion of our mental capabilities. But don’t ever imagine that I don’t care what happens to the People.”
    “Then why won’t you help me with this? Help me convince the parents to allow their children to be schooled?”
    Jesse sighed and nudged his horse back into a walk. “It’s not that simple. You don’t understand.”
    Shiloh urged her own horse forward again. “Then help me to understand, Jesse. I want to understand.”
    “It wouldn’t make any difference. You’re just like Meeker. You’ve already decided what’s best for us.”
    “Well, someone’s got to. The Indians sure haven’t been very successful dealing with the government so far.”
    “Yeah, I know. Because every time they agree to yet another treaty, the government ends up ruling in the favor of any and all land-grubbing settlers or miners, and eventually chips away at the treaty until there’s nothing left. It doesn’t matter what the People do or how educated or domesticated they become. Their needs will never matter much to anyone but themselves.”
    “If I believed that, I wouldn’t be here, Jesse.”
    “Then you’re worse than a do-gooder. You’re totally out of touch with reality!”
    This conversation was going nowhere fast. And if she couldn’t even convince Jesse, who was privy to both the white man and red man’s outlooks, how would she ever succeed in convincing the Utes of the dire danger they and their lifestyle were in?
    “So, there’s no hope. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
    “No hope of you succeeding, that’s for certain.” He expelled a deep breath. “Now, enough of this, Shiloh. I should’ve never broached the subject to begin with. Let’s just finish this trip and be done with it. The sooner I do that, the sooner I can complete this task Jack’s put on me, and be gone from this valley.”
    It was on the tip of her tongue to make mention of the fact that he wasn’t allowed to leave the reservation any more than any of the other Utes, but decided that observation wouldn’t be taken well. Especially since she still needed his help.
    “That’s fine with me,” she said. “Just one favor, if you will.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “If you won’t help me with Captain Jack and his people, will you at least agree not to sabotage my efforts with them?”
    He shot her a disbelieving look, then laughed. “Sure. I’ll agree to that. In fact, if you can manage to win over Jack, I’ll eat my saddle blanket.”

     
    The twelve-pole tepees, covered with either buffalo or elk hides sewn together, stood in neat parallel lines on the snow-packed earth. Gray smoke wafted from many of the tepees through the open smoke holes at their tops, and Shiloh suspected most of the women were inside cooking the day’s main meal. Buckskin-clad children played outside, and most of the men either stood talking in groups or sitting outside their tepees on buffalo robes, sharpening knives or fashioning various tools and weapons. A few others worked with the horses corralled a short walk from the camp.
    Shiloh counted ninety tepees. She wondered how many held children of school age. If even half did so, combined with the children of Chief Douglas and Chief Johnson’s people, she might need Josie’s help after all. But she was getting ahead of herself. First, she had to convince the parents even to send their children to school.
    She looked to Jesse as they rode into camp. “Which one is Captain Jack’s home?”
    He pointed