Book Review: Story Of One True Leader

It is 1829 the colonies have won emancipation and are in search of more land to expand (Manifest Destiny). A young native American woman has to choose between a marriage that will strengthen her tribe or tell her father on the plans of her soon to be husband and how he plans on betraying his own kind.

Calfuray is a Native American, whose name meaning violet. She is part of the tribe Mapuche, which was located in the area now known as Kentucky. She is a part of a higher rank in her tribe. Her father is the chief of his tribe and has kept her protected for as long as she can remember. In that tribe it is only her and her father due to the fact that 3 years ago her mother died because of the small pox that was brought to the new land. She is 18 and will some be having to take an important part in the tribe soon. She has also been set to marry her neighboring tribe’s chief’s son, Anoki, in order to unite both tribes in the time of war with the colonist.

Though she does not love this man she does love her tribe and is more than willing to marry any one in order to protect her tribe. Tonight her along with other important tribe leaders will meet with the chief leader on the Cherokee tribes to socialize amongst each other and find a way to contribute to each other’s tribe and make the transition of both tribes as easy as possible. Calfuray is nervous in every way because if she and Anoki don’t connect it could stir up even more trouble amongst all the native tribes left.

After coming back from searching for berries, as she did every morning with other women of the tribe, she prepared for the feast. Calfuray was preparing herself to be as liked as possible. When she arrived with her tribe to the Cherokee plains she was greeted with gifts of all sort. Most of which she had not seen nor heard of, because they all seemed to be products by the Europeans. She had known this because for a while she had been learning English for the Squanto. Her first impression of her soon to be husband was that he was arrogant and seemed to have no interest in getting to know her whatsoever.

Though it caught her off guard she did not mind so she decided to instead get her knifes prepared to skin the buffalo that the tribe leaders were preparing to hunt. Seeing that her knifes were dirty from last times skinning she thought that she could head to the nearby river and wash them up. As she barely began to head to the river she heard some whispers in the nearby bushes. Though she was always told to never listen in on stranger’s conversations her curiosity had got the best of her. To her surprise to was her soon to be lover alongside to a strange looking man. He had on a soft looking clothe. She had remembered that she had seen that type of fabric before. Squanto had brought it along with some other materials from the Europeans. It was called cotton. The man was pale looking and the both seemed to talk in secrecy. She had made the decision to get closer in order to listen in on what they were saying. By doing so she caused for her to make the biggest decision of her life. She was able to hear the last parts for their conversation, but had heard more than enough. Both men were planning on betraying neighboring tried all over in order to save themselves from the expansion of the “Americans” moving west. In hearing this she felt frozen in her play, felt as if her heart had just fallen to the bottom of her gut. After staying there for ten minutes she realized that she had to return to the grounds so that her father would not worry as to where she went. She quickly dipped the items in the water and walked fast while still in disbelieve as to what she had heard. When she arrived to the grounds all the women had already skinned the buffalo and were preparing the rest of the food. When her father saw her he knew that something was wrong and thought that it was best if she stayed in the tipi for the rest of the day. As she laid down she contemplated every outcome. If she were to stay quiet she would have to bear with the fact that she would be the cause for the death of many of her kind. If she did say something she would be risking her marriage and disappoint her father for making the marriage fall apart. She had to choose between her people or her marriage and though it was not an easy task she knew what she had to do.

The next day she woke up before dawn and entered her father’s tipi. She explained to him what he had heard and, though he could not believe it at first he understood that he raised his daughter to only say the truth. He told his men that the wedding was off and that they would have to find a way to turn in the man who traded his people. All the tribe leaders gathered in a meeting to discuss the punishment of Anoki and try to figure out the outcome of their tribes.

A month later, Calfuray was the right hand of her father and was amongst the rest of the leaders in the tribe. While all of this was occurring, Anoki was casted away from his tribe and to never return to any tribe for the rest of his life.