Metis America - The Foundation: An Alternate History

By Dewey Wayne Dempsey

Qua Nie is a Cherokee warrior, medicine man and trader. As Benjamin Franklin Goss Adair, the name given to him by his Scottish and English grandfathers, he passes for White and makes a fortune in the California Gold Rush. In the summer of 1850 he is chosen by the Metis, descendants of the French-Canadian Voyageurs to lead them against the Whites who would destroy them. They decide to attack the bloodthirstiest Whites with spiritual, economic, military and technology weapons.
Uriah is a Samoan who was named by missionaries. He becomes the War Chief for the battle and a spiritual leader. He marries Susan B. Anthony.
Con Man George Seymour and his thuggee cohort lead one prong of the attack by posing as an agent of Lord Palmerston and provoking the Cotton Wars.
Qua Nie and the Metis are aided by Benjamin Speyer scion of the third largest Jewish banking family that is determined to become the largest bank in America.
Willian T. Sherman creates a protective agency and runs the military arm.
Millard Fillmore is elected to a second term with General Winfield Scott as his vice president
Sam Houston breaks away from the plantation owning east Texans and creates the state of West Texas.
Ian Sangster, Captain Smith of Tomales Bay, George Zins and Waine McGalvey lead the technical assaults in California, Wisconsin and Arkansas. They build railroads, telegraphs, ships and advanced weapons.
Dred Scott wins his appeal before the US Supreme Court and slavery is abolished in August of 1854.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9780984905171

Book preview

Dempsey

CHAPTER ONE

May1850

Cotter’s Hell

Qua Nie was sitting mesmerized on a rock near the geyser that erupted with a discernible pattern. Uriah had grown bored and joined Lone Deer and Standing Wolf several hundred yards away at the campsite. When he found that was also boring he walked quietly back up to stand on the slope above Qua Nie. They were both dressed in the motley kind of outfit that some of the plains Indians had adopted that was a mixture of both white and Indian garments. They wore a beaded headdress with three eagle feathers pointed down, which indicated that they were medicine men on a spiritual mission. Uriah was a Samoan, over six and a half feet tall and weighed over 300 pounds, which was nearly all muscle. He was bronze in color with tribal markings indelibly died onto his skin. Qua Nie stood six foot two inches tall and weighed 195 pounds with a strong, mobile, chameleon face which could be taken for anything from a dour Scotsman to a plodding Englishman or a playful Cherokee.

Without looking up Qua Nie said, Dancing with the Burning Water is the next ritual.

Dancing with the Burning Water sounds nice. What does it mean? Uriah asked.

Simple. I’ve been timing the way that boiling water behaves. If we time it right, we can be standing at the lip and will have the count of 120 to dance our way back out of range before the full blast of the water hits the edge there.

We? Uriah laughed. You’re the medicine man. It’s your dance. He looked at the almost polished surface of the splash plain. That looks slippery. What if you fall? You could be boiled alive by that water.

Qua Nie laughed. My teachers told me that if there wasn’t the real possibility of being injured or killed, it wasn’t a real test.

So now you’re calling this dance a spiritual test?

Isn’t a lot of life some sort of spiritual test? We’ll come out of the dance different in some way.

I just told you that you’re the medicine man. It’s your dance.

Come over and sit on this rock and let’s talk. When Uriah had settled, Qua Nie continued. You may decide that you don’t need, or want this dance, but you are a medicine man.

Since when? I don’t remember being taught medicine lore.

When I was still fourteen and hiding out with my uncle I met several medicine men from other tribes and they always addressed me as a medicine man. I was perplexed. Later I did go through some training and decided not to do the final ritual. Other medicine men that I have met have still addressed me as a medicine man. I asked one of the medicine men at the Wapanum and he said that medicine men and women can always tell when someone has the power, or spirit, even if they have not been trained or claimed the power.

Uriah nodded. What does that have to do with me being a medicine man?

You were presented with that headband by a Nez Perce medicine man.

I thought it was simply a way for us to pass through the other tribes without being attacked.

It does help with that. But, if a medicine man saw you with that headband and did not feel some power or spirit in you, he would kill you. Qua Nie waited for that to sink in. You have participated in two major medicine rituals and coupled with two different medicine women. Brother Jerome talked as directly to you as he did with me. What other sign do you need to accept that you are a medicine man?

Uriah seemed to be almost asleep and then shook his head. I don’t know what to say. I’ve simply never thought of myself that way. Then he laughed. So that’s why you think we both need to dance with that burning water?

The next morning Qua Nie and Uriah watched the eruption die down and started painting their faces in light blues, rose and yellow. They stripped off their clothes and put on moccasins with shells sewn in them. Each attached a round frame drum to his left wrist and a padded drumstick to his right. Lone Deer and Standing Wolf were standing near the rock that Qua Nie had been seated on the day before. They were six inches shorter than Qua Nie and looked the full-blood Cherokees they were. Qua Nie and Uriah did some loose steps and stomps and then slowly danced their way to the lip of the geyser. They didn’t need Lone Deer’s whistle to know that an eruption was building. They could feel and hear it. With the first puff of water Qua Nie started a timing chant and they began dancing away from the lip towards the southern edge of the splash plain. Suddenly he increased the tempo and they were almost running as the drops of scalding water sprayed lightly on their calves. They stopped and bowed in the directions of the continuing discharge. The bowed to each other and then became aware that they were not alone.

At the eastern tree line were seven mounted men. They had no weapons in evidence and it took Qua Nie a moment to realize that they looked like whites dressed as Indians. Qua Nie and Uriah looked at each other and at Lone Dear and Standing Wolf and just shrugged as if to say they couldn’t put up much of a fight with a drum and drumstick.

The riders walked their horses down level with Qua Nie and Uriah and dismounted. The leader bowed to Qua Nie and Uriah but talked to Qua Nie. You are the one. He made a formal gesture of welcome to a medicine man. I thought the prophets were crazy when they said that I would find you walking naked from the burning water.

What does that mean? That I am the One? Qua Nie asked.

You are Benjamin Franklin Qua Nie Goss Adair? You are to be the leader of our people. Isn’t that why you came to this place?

Uriah and Qua Nie looked at each other again and then Qua Nie spoke. How did you know my full name?

Brother Jerome sent a message to our medicine man and named you. It was one of our prophets who sent us here.

What tribe are you? Your faces look white.

As does yours in certain lights. We are called the Metis. Our fathers were voyageurs or English, Scots or Irish trappers and traders. Some of us can pass for white. Others cannot. We are here to lead you to a meeting in Wisconsin to meet with us and our Iroquois partners. We have sent messengers to find Adoni and Albert and invite them. He laughed. You can call me John Smith.

Qua Nie and Uriah looked at each other again and Uriah laughed. Is this some kind of shared dream? We just danced with a burst of burning water and now we are being told that, naked and defenseless as we are, that you have been chosen to be a leader of a tribe you’ve never heard of. Why don’t we get dressed and see if that wakes us up.

The man who had spoken before looked at Uriah. Do you still have that battle axe? We were told that you would be war chief for us.

Getting dressed might be the first thing we need to do. Qua Nie walked over to where Lone Deer and Standing Wolf were standing near their stacked clothes. He motioned towards the campsite and the Metis walked their horses in that direction while he and Uriah put on their clothes.

Uriah nodded. Do you know where this Wisconsin is?

Not really. Somewhere north and east of here on one of the lakes that the voyageurs used. I think the Mississippi River starts somewhere near there. He looked at Lone Deer and Standing Wolf. Do you want to go the long way back to Tahlequah with us?

They looked at each other and smiled.

Lone Deer slowly nodded. You’ve been full of surprises since you were a little boy. But, we’re full blood. Do you think those Metis want us along?

Qua Nie gave it some thought Uriah is a full blood Samoan. I find that it’s the whites who have a problem with this mixed ancestor stuff. If you want to go with us, it’s our decision not theirs anyway.

When they joined the Metis at the campsite the leader looked a little embarrassed but asked, Do you need to perform another ceremony here before we leave?

Qua Nie and Uriah laughed. One dance with the burning water ought to be enough. Are we in a hurry to leave?

Few of us live in Wisconsin. The sooner we get our meeting there over the more likely we are to get back to our homes before the bad freeze settles in.

Makes sense. Qua Nie looked at Uriah, Standing Wolf and Lone Deer. Do we have any real packing to do?

They shook their heads.

Then let’s round up the horses and get packed then.

That night after making camp and eating, one of the Metis brought out a drum and another a fiddle. They played some music that was alternately playful and somber. The music put Qua Nie into a light trance. He had a powerful vision and came out of the trance to find the drumming had stopped and that the others seemed to be waiting for him to speak. He recounted his vision.

Qua Nie’s Vision

I am wearing only moccasins and war breeches and am running on a broad trail through some woods. I change into a coyote and overtake a white man on the path. I absorb him and keep running. I change back to being me and see a railroad track and strange engine a short distance away. I become a coyote again and overtake and absorb a man from another tribe. I become me again and see men digging trenches in the ground and burying wires. I become a coyote again and this time I devour a black man before changing back. On the side is a battle with strange weapons. This is followed by scenes of men with long rifles shooting others at incredible distances. I become a coyote again and rapidly consume a Mexican and a Chinese man. I become me again. The scene on the side is the bustle of a city with banks, newspaper offices and strange vehicles on the road. This changes to become a huge theatre with what seems to be a preacher talking to the multitude. I feel aware the vision is ending and see flashes of woods and desert from Georgia to California and strange boats and ships. One, then two, then four and more join me as I run, each devouring all that are overtaken. We become a pack of shape shifting coyotes. As I leave the vision I am aware of absorbing men and women from many countries. I always return to being me as does everyone else in the pack.

Over the next few days, as they traveled, they discussed the meanings of the vision.

CHAPTER TWO

May 1850

Wisconsin

The Metis had arranged for relays of horses to meet them along the route and they rode as hard as the horses would allow them. Qua Nie was struck by the difference in the way the hills and lakes were formed from what he had seen before. The western mountains had taller trees, but this mixture of hardwood and evergreens was vivid to the eye. John Smith explained that the timing was very important as there would be representatives from England and France as well as New York, Pittsburgh, Boston and Washington who needed to return quickly. The meeting was really a series of meetings. John Smith, Qua Nie and Uriah would go to Green Bay and meet in seemingly casual gatherings with those men who were passing for white. They and a select few would then travel back to Oneida for the secret meetings. He and Uriah would assume their Benjamin Franklin Goss and Uriah Boris Rezanov roles in Green Bay. They would claim to be on their way to Canada to put together a group of the French Canadians who wanted to emigrate to California and use the old voyageurs route. The British were treating the French Canadians harshly and encouraging them to emigrate. The Metis were being treated even more harshly, which was just one of their motives for finding a leader.

The stay in Green Bay turned out to be an education for Benjamin and Uriah. Among the people they met were engineers, mining and construction workers, ship builders and weapons specialists. There were others with experience in railroads, telegraphs, farming and steam engines. He was surprised at the number of clerks and bookkeepers represented until he remembered how essential, and essentially unnoticed, they were in businesses. He learned some of the intricacies of banking as practiced in New York, Paris and London. Most of these men had arranged to bring monies form their previous business with them, so there was a solid financial base for the new lives they hoped to set up. After five days the various gatherings were completed and the participants had departed.

Benjamin, Uriah and John Smith were joined in Oneida by Warren Chase from the Ceresco community near Ripon and two men who had been managers at Lanark Village. There were fewer than twenty men present at this meeting. Adoni had declined to make the trip to Wisconsin but Albert was there along with medicine men from the Oneida, Fox and Huron tribes and two Jesuits. The railroad, telegraph and mining men from Green Bay were there and another Englishman who called himself George Seymour. Both Albert and Benjamin were startled by his resemblance to their cousin Frank. The physical resemblance was slight but the attitude and swagger were almost the same. His companion was one of the banking clerks from New York.

The first evening was mostly social although at the end there were prayers and purification rituals. At the end of the evening the Oneida medicine man had told Benjamin that he would be expected to lead the next day’s meeting. Benjamin had a restless night. He reviewed the visionary dream and tried to see a pattern between it and all of the information he had received in Green Bay. By dawn, he was not sure that he understood what he should be leading the group towards. He fasted and did the Cherokee morning scratch ritual by the creek before the meeting.

The Oneida medicine man and one of the Jesuits gave brief prayers and then sat down. Benjamin stood and surveyed the diverse group. I am surprised to be here. I am awed by the range of wisdom and experience gathered here. He took a deep breath. "From the time I was able to talk I have been involved in spiritual and religious debate. I have been an active seeker of the truth. I have come to believe