Timecachers (18 page)

“Do you have another suggestion?” asked Adam. “Did you happen to get a copy of a manual that shows how to work the LANav time machine that the rest of us didn’t? Look, Tom has a good point. We are at the mercy of a device that is using some kind of technology none of us can understand. Probably no one back home understands it either. If we get home, or rather when we get home, we’re certainly going to have an interesting test report to give to Dr. Odan.”

“The good news is,” said Tom, “the LANav is still functioning. I expect the communication functions don’t work because there were no communication satellites in 1838. It can still navigate using the stars and planets, and it seems to be indicating progressive beacons. It could be that it is showing us the path we need to take. It is a navigation device after all. Adam, you said the beacon was at our current location right now. We’re planning to stay here for a day or two anyway. Maybe it will show another beacon by then.”

“Yeah, okay, I guess you’re right,” said Sal. “There’s no choice other than for us to play along with this Native American time-window whatever gizmo. But I’ll tell ya what; when we get back, IF we get back, I’m going to go see this Dr. Odan dude and break a couple of HIS windows.”

“Sure, Sal. Just try not to break anything else before we get back,” said Alice, “especially the LANav, or I’ll be breaking more than your windows. Adam, keep that thing away from him!”

Adam was relieved to hear Alice and Sal sniping at each other; at least they were keeping their sense of humor through this ordeal. There was another concern beside their own dilemma weighing on his mind, and he decided now was as good a time as any to bring it up.

“No question that getting back home is our primary concern,” Adam said, “but I’ve been thinking about what John said, and I wonder if he doesn’t have a valid point.”

“Yo, man, what are you saying?” asked Sal. “That we’re part of some sort of mythical Indian wet-dream?”

“No,” Adam answered, “and I don’t think that’s really what he meant either. Think about it, though. To us, all of this is history. We know what is going to happen to the Cherokee in the next few weeks. Or we know as much as our history books have told us and what we can remember about the incident.”

“My heavens, do you think there is something we can do to change the outcome?” asked Alice. “Is that something we should even consider? Tom, you’ve studied more physics than the rest of us. Wouldn’t that cause a time paradox or something?”

“Who knows,” Tom shrugged. “Like I said, we’re on new ground here. But it is an interesting subject, and it’s something that’s been discussed in detail before. I’m sure you’ve had a college professor who presented you with a question like, ‘If you could go back in time and kill Hitler…’ To prevent a war and save lives, would you do it? Should you do it? What other problem would it cause?”

“I believe the question is,” said Adam, “since we know what is going to happen, can we NOT do anything? Just our being here could theoretically cause a time paradox. I think we have to let our consciences guide us, and let the universe take care of itself. It isn’t as if we TRIED to come here and meddle with history; we were brought here, and apparently can’t leave unless we follow the path of beacons the LANav is guiding us along. I believe our safest course of action is to react as we would normally—and give help when help is required. Maybe we need to think of this as a crazy time-traveling puzzle multi-cache, where we have to complete some objective at each point along the way.”

“No way, dude. You think this is like geocaching? Timecaching, I suppose?” Sal snorted.

They were all familiar with the variations of geocaches, some requiring several stops, and others containing puzzles to be solved, so Adam hoped it would be an example they could relate to.

“Chill out, Sal,” said Alice, “I understand your comparison, Adam. But how much do we really know about what happened here in 1838? It’s been a while since my last American history class, and I don’t really remember that this event was discussed in great detail.”

“Yeah,” Sal agreed, “I remember the Trail of Tears mentioned, and that it involved a long march by the Indians and that a lot of them died, but not much more. What the heck are we supposed to do about it?”

“Try being a little less cold-hearted for one thing,” said Alice.

“Hey, I’m not trying to sound cold-hearted, Alice,” he replied sincerely. “But get real. There are only the four of us and thousands of Cherokees. It sounds like they’ve already gone to extreme lengths to try and prevent this from happening. Even though we know it’s going to happen, there ain’t gonna be much we can do to prevent it.”

“You may be right,” said Adam. “It could be helpful for us to go over what we can remember about this period of time. Maybe in going over the details something we can do to help will present itself. My memory of the history is sketchy, but here’s what I remember: Back in the 1600’s, the Cherokee ruled most of what is now the southeastern United States. Initial contact with Europeans was with the Spanish explorers and later with colonial settlers as they began to inhabit the country. In the beginning, the Cherokee were friendly with the whites, but as they began to encroach upon their lands, it obviously led to wars. The Cherokee outnumbered whites for a while, but their numbers were greatly diminished by disease, specifically smallpox brought by the whites, and the number of settlers continued to increase. Seeking to put an end to the turmoil and encroachment on their lands, the Cherokee, as well as other tribes, agreed to a series of treaties that successively reduced their lands, but promised to stop the encroachment. One treaty in 1785 called the Treaty of Hopewell, between the Cherokee and the U.S. promised to end any further invasions, but the treaty was pretty much ignored by the U.S., and white settlers continued to move into Cherokee lands. In 1791, another treaty, the Treaty of Holston, contained a guarantee from George Washington himself that the Cherokee lands would never again be invaded by settlers. It even required non-Cherokee to obtain a passport before they could enter Cherokee lands. Tom, do you remember why that treaty was broken?”

“I know that by that time,” Tom said, “many of the Cherokee were pretty darn skeptical of any promises made by the whites. They called treaties Talking Leaves, which implied that the leaves withered and died when they were of no further use to the whites. I think there was hope that that wouldn’t be the case with the Treaty of Holston, since it was signed by George Washington.

“I remember that one of the problems came about because of a promise from Thomas Jefferson to the state of Georgia that all Cherokee in that state would be given land and assisted in moving west to Indian Territory. I guess they didn’t count on the Cherokees being a little reluctant to do that since they would have to give up lands they lived on for centuries. Who would of thought?” he said sarcastically.

“I believe the problem was exacerbated,” Adam continued, “by the discovery of gold in Georgia. I guess that explains John’s asking us if we were gold prospectors when we first met. After the gold discovery, Georgia was even more anxious to get rid of the Cherokee, and began passing laws to prevent them from looking for gold, even on their own land, and to keep them from organizing to contest the removal. The pressure on the Cherokee to cede even more land was immense and there were many incidences of violence. Another setback for the Cherokee was the election of the Democrat, Andrew Jackson, an expansionist president who demanded they give up more of their land to settlers. Over two million acres I believe.”

Tom added, “There was also another treaty, called the Treaty of New Echota. This is the treaty they are contending with now, which John referred to as illegal. The Treaty of New Echota gave up all the last remaining lands of the Cherokee and agreed to move them west to Indian Territory, nearly 1000 miles away, in what is now Oklahoma. That treaty was signed by only a small group of Cherokee leaders who felt that the only option left for them was to give in and go west. Most of the Cherokee did not agree, and wanted to keep their ancestral lands. This led to some of the events John was talking about—many futile attempts to nullify that treaty.”

“So where do we fit in?” asked Alice. “If anything, what you’ve said only goes to prove Sal’s point. There is very little we can do to help prevent this from happening.”

“Maybe the goal isn’t to prevent it,” said Adam. “In a few weeks, Georgia will begin to forcefully gather up the Cherokee people, remove them from their homes and herd them into forts, where they will wait to be marched to Indian Territory. Right up to the end, many of the Cherokee families refused to believe that they would be forced from their homes. Maybe the best way we can help would be to simply become part of their daily lives.”

“That could be very dangerous,” said Tom. “The Georgia militia is not going to look very kindly on anyone consorting with the Cherokee. Our intentions could also be misinterpreted by the Cherokee if it appears we are encouraging them to leave. I bet they’ve just about had their fill of white people encouraging them to pack up and leave, and sick of hearing that it’s their only option. Imagine how you would feel.”

Alice was not one to ignore the mistreatment of anyone. “We’ll have to tread carefully, but of course we have to help. We have the dubious advantage of knowing what’s going to happen, but they don’t. It will take patience and tact,” she said, with a sideways glance at Sal. “My gosh, if I can do anything to help avoid some of the Cherokee suffering, I’m going to do it. And the militia can just watch out for me.”

“Yeah,” said Sal. “Those Georgia boys haven’t seen anything until they’ve tangled with a dude from Jersey.”

“Easy, guys,” said Adam. “Remember, we’re talking about trained Georgia militia, not a bunch of coeds from Georgia State. Plus, the Georgians feel they are entitled to the land, and have been waiting many years for the feds to fulfill the promises they have made. The state has already conducted a lottery and awarded land to some of them. They believe the law is on their side, and that the Cherokee should abide by the Treaty of New Echota, signed by their representatives. Georgia is just following the example set by what others have done in the past. You know all those places in New Jersey that have Native American names?”

“Sure, man,” said Sal. “They got those names from the Indians that used to live there.”

“Well what do you think happened to the Indians? There are a few small communities, but most were pushed out, either forcefully or their land was purchased for next to nothing. Back in the 1600’s, the idea of land ownership was something most of the Indians had no concept of, and the European settlers didn’t hesitate to take advantage of them.”

“So,” Tom said, “If I may get back to the point, now that we’ve refreshed our memories about the history of this event, our plan is to do what we can to help those who will let us. Help them how, exactly? Encourage them to give up everything they own, be held in a military stockade, and then force marched over 800 miles? Anyone else think they might not consider that helpful?”

“No, that’s not the sort of help I had in mind. We might just let them tell us how best to help. You know, with the day to day stuff for a while. Once we understand their situation and needs a little better, we could possibly save lives and help make this tragedy less painful for a few of them. Getting involved in their hard lives will be challenging, and certainly dangerous undertaking,” said Adam, “but it could be the most important thing any of us has ever done. Are you guys up for it?”

Everyone nodded.

“Of course we’ll try,” said Tom. “But I’ve got a troublesome feeling we’re going to need more help from these folks than we’re going to be able to give them.”

Chapter sixteen

T
hat evening Benjamin and Billy showed the team around the stables. The Rogers had about a dozen horses, and each evening they were brought into the stables for the night and groomed. The grooming chore was usually delegated to Billy and Sally, who were thrilled to have the team help them out. Alice found that she enjoyed grooming the animals; it calmed and relaxed her, and the horses certainly seemed to enjoy it. She never considered herself an animal person, but she never had spent much time around horses before.

Benjamin explained that most of the horses were for riding, but they also had a team used for plowing. He told them that in his father’s time they used oxen to plow. In those days they used wooden plows that required strong, robust animals to break through the rocky Georgia soil. Nowadays he used cast iron plows, which cut the ground better and were easy enough for horses to pull.

By the time they were finished with the horses it was nearly dark. They headed back to the farmhouse, and Benjamin told them he’d like the three men to help him finish up the planting tomorrow, and that Catherine could use Alice’s help with some of her chores. Noting Alice’s look of disappointment at being assigned as a domestic, Benjamin explained that Catherine usually performed double-duty, both the household chores and helping in the fields afterwards, so she needed help even more than he did.

Catherine had prepared sleeping arrangements for them all. The farmhouse had three bedrooms. Catherine, Sally and Alice would stay in the main bedroom and the five men would share the children’s rooms.

They were gathered in the farmhouse living room. Catherine explained to the group that it was customary in their family to tell a story in the evening before bedtime, and asked if they would like to participate. She said that tonight it was her turn to tell the story of how the world was created. Afterward, if they wished, one of their guests could share a story with them.