Chapter 25The winter of ‘86–‘87 was like the last one, hard and harsh. But the work we’d done the previous summer and autumn made the long, cold time easier on Rivers Bend than on many other settlements. More than once the populace, grown to better than sixty now, sought refuge in the two common houses to conserve firewood and to share resources. The remaining cattle, all butchered and stored in the cold room, helped us survive.
The freedom of snowmelt brought news that on the previous February 8, the American Congress had dealt the tribes a blow more dire and drastic than any previous policy. What was labeled the Dawes Severalty Act or the General Allotment Act, sought to do away with the communal system of the tribes and impose private land ownership such as practiced by the whites. Ind
