Read Killing Custer for Free Online Page A

of Raps forgot the Old Time. The ancestors would’ve treated Mikey like a holy person. They would have respected and admired him because the Creator gave him two spirits. Male and female.”
    Father John waited for the woman to go on. He had counseled hundreds. He had lost track of the numbers of parishioners stopping by the office—Father, you have a minute? He could see Mikey Longshot stretching his legs for home, scoring the winning run, and the rest of the team crowding around, hoisting him up and carrying him around like the trophy they’d just won. When had that changed? When had the kids decided he was different?
    â€œYou don’t know how it’s been,” Darleen went on. “The bullying. Anything happen, the other boys ganged up and swore Mikey did it. Like the time somebody stole the seventh-grade teacher’s purse. The other kids swore they saw Mikey take it, so he ended up with a juvi record. He really wanted to play basketball in high school. The other guys tripped him, pushed him down, did everything they could to make him look like he couldn’t handle the ball, so he sat on the bench. Wouldn’t go back to school after that.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said.
    â€œTwo years ago, he got shot. You remember?”
    Father John said he remembered. He had sat with Mike at Riverton Memorial after the doctors had dug a bullet out of his ribs.
    â€œWhite guy shot him in the park in Riverton. Lied to the police. Said Mikey was coming on to him. That wasn’t Mikey’s way, but some of his so-called Arapaho friends backed up the white guy. Raps backing up the white guy, saying that’s what they’d seen, so the cops said it was self-defense. Now they can say he had a motive to shoot a white man.”
    She ran her fingers over her eyes and squeezed the rim of her nose. Then she looked at him and tried for a smile. “He can handle horses better than anybody on the rez. Been training mustangs since he was sixteen. He walks right out into the corral. Horse can be going crazy, pawing the dirt with fire in his eyes, and Mikey starts talking to him. Pretty soon, the horse calms down. Gets all gentle. Mikey saddles him up and rides him around. I’ve seen it happen a hundred times. He’s . . . what you call it? A horse whisperer. He can ride any horse and make it do what he wants. Horses love him. They have a sixth sense, you know. They see he’s special. Blessed by the Creator.”
    Darleen leaned forward and clasped her hands in her lap. “That’s why they came to the house last week.”
    â€œWho came to the house?”
    â€œColin Morningside and a couple other Raps. Said they wanted to talk to Mikey. I was about to tell them to get lost, but Mikey came down the hall and said, ‘What’s up?’ They went outside. I kept watch at the window. They hung around the pickup and talked for fifteen minutes, then Colin and the others drove off. Mikey came inside and told me they heard that Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were going to ride in the rodeo parade in Lander. They said they were getting warriors to ride. They wanted Mikey. Bad feeling came over me right then. I tried to talk him out of it.”
    â€œYou said he’s a great horseman.”
    She nodded. “They needed him. When I saw what they did today, riding around the cavalry, racing toward one another. A dare ride, like in the Old Time. Mikey knew how to keep his horse under control and get the other horses to follow. Horses know who’s the leader, and they do what the leader does.”
    â€œWhat are you saying, Darleen? You think one of the Indians killed Garrett?”
    â€œThey all killed him.” Her voice reached for hysteria. “That was the plan. Race around like an attack, dare the cavalry to do something. Scream. Yell. Make a big commotion so nobody sees Custer fall off his horse. They’ll get away with it, too. The cops