The elk turned and chased the wolf.
We arrived in Cody, Wyoming about noon today.
Last night we slept at Roosevelt Lodge. Eighty tiny log cabins without toilets or showers. And no Internet. In fact, no internet for the past 48 hours.
The cabins were built around 1920 and not much about them has changed. The floor boards squeaked with every step. As did the bed with every turn of the body.
I was positive that the black bear we had seen in the field across the road earlier in the afternoon was waiting outside my door for my 2AM toilet run three dark rows of cabins away.
This morning we rose at dawn to drive through the Lamar Valley. It was amazing. Herds of bison, elk and deer.
We stopped to watch a drama unfold. A wolf stalked a herd of elk. We watched through the car window as the lone wolf pounced. The herd of elk turned and ran. Then, suddenly, one of the elk circled back.
He started to chase the wolf.
Was this supposed to happen?
After about twenty minutes both we and the wolf got tired of this game and we drove on.
A few miles farther, we stopped again.
White men named the place “Dead Indian Pass.”
We were at the point where Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce, having been chased by the US Army all the way from Oregon, stopped being pursued.
Like the elk chased by the wolf, it was here that the Nez Perce stood and turned on the US army. Although the Nez Perce won this battle, they soon lost the war.
Said the heroic Chief Joseph, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”
PS: Thanks to Ben Joravsky, the wonderful writer from the Chicago Reader for his article on me, my blog and the phony education reformers. www.chicagoreader.com
