Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey
page 59 of 378 (15%)

"Years ago, in fifty-seven, I think, Kit Carson with his soldiers
chased the Navajo tribes and rounded them up to be put on
reservations. But he failed to catch all the members of one tribe.
They escaped up into wild canyon like the Sagi. The descendants of
these fugitives live there now and are the finest Indians on earth--
the finest because unspoiled by the white man. Well, as I got the
story, years after Carson's round-up one of his soldiers guided some
interested travelers in here. When they left they took an Indian boy
with them to educate. From what I know of Navajos I'm inclined to
think the boy was taken against his parents' wish. Anyway, he was
taken. That boy was Nas Ta Bega. The story goes that he was educated
somewhere. Years afterward, and perhaps not long before I came in
here, he returned to his people. There have been missionaries and
other interested fools who have given Indians a white man's education.
In all the instances I know of, these educated Indians returned to
their tribes, repudiating the white man's knowledge, habits, life,
and religion. I have heard that Nas Ta Bega came back, laid down
the white man's clothes along with the education, and never again
showed that he had known either.

"You have just seen how strangely he acted. It's almost certain he
heard our conversation. Well, it doesn't matter. He won't tell. He
can hardly be made to use an English word. Besides, he's a noble red
man, if there ever was one. He has been a friend in need to me. If
you stay long out here you'll learn something from the Indians. Nas
Ta Bega has befriended you, too, it seems. I thought he showed unusual
interest in you."

"Perhaps that was because I saved his sister--well, to be charitable,
DigitalOcean Referral Badge