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This story takes place in the year 1856 to 1860 in the states of Missesota and Iowa. The Daniel Whitesell family had moved from Detroit, Michigan, ten years before with their family of four, whom Levi was the eldest to the Nora Springs area. The years involved here were very difficult years for the first settlers moving in, both economically and because of the Souix unrest in the Black Hills and surrounding areas.

The difficult times experienced by the real early pioneers, made it necessary for every penny to be earned and saved to survive with a bare existence. Levi ( or Lee as he preferred to be called ) took on some work with a near-by neighbor as a boy and in return was given an old sway-backed horse as wages.

Lee was happy with his horse and rode it to school, but one of his younger brothers, that was somewhat crippled was also attending school and had trouble walking that far. Daniel instructed Lee to let the crippled brother ride with him on the horse. Lee resented this and one day rode off and left his brother to walk. The father on hearing of the crippled son having to walk, gave Lee a good thrashing and sent him to bed without supper.

Lee resented the punishment because he felt it was his horse and didn't need to be shared, so he planned his actions for the next morning. At daybreak, he slipped out of the house with his clothes and his dad's muzzle leader gun and powder horn and took his horse and left.

We don;t know which direction he rode, but eventually he met up with an older fellow by the name of Charlie Hillman who trapped and hunted and lived off the land. The two decided to live together in a cabin dug into a hillside above a lake.

All went well for a while. Ithe Indian unrest was occuring in different local areas at the same time, as the U.S. government wasn't bringing in the supplies of food that they had promised in the treaty. Inkapuda, a Aouix Chief and his warriors were really hostile because of the food shortage and revenge for his brothers tragic death previously. Charlie and Lee had just returned to the cabin after a days hunt and were ready to prepare their supper. Each had put his gun inside and had hung up his powder horn on either side of the door on the wall inside. They heard a small band of Indians coming, so decided they had better hide out of sight.

The only safe place to hide was to wade out into the lake and hide behind some rat houses. They waded out through the wild rice that was growing about four feet high in the water and hid behind the rat houses. They thought the indians after finding no one home, would move on, but instead they went down by the lake shore to water their horses and prepared to camp the night.

I suspect the Indians may have seen them going into the lake and decided to just wait for them to come out themselves, as it was quite chilly and ice would form during the night. Also the dog that was with them kept barking and running down to the edge of the water, although the Indians didn't seem to pay any attention. Lee and Charlie were soon very cold and their teeth started to chatter and they were afraid the Indians would hear them.

After dark the Indians went back to the cabin and found no one home yet, so they set the cabin on fire and danced around the cabin as it burned. After the roof caved in, the fire got down to the powder horns. One horn let out a spew of sparks and hissed for a minute or two. This frightened the Indians and they were suspicious. In a few more minutes the other powder horn let go with a bigger spew. The Indians took off and then disappeared in the dark over the hill.

Charlie and Lee were still afraid to come out of the cold lake because the Indians could still be there up the hill in the dark, so they waited until day light. When it was late enough to see no one was in sight, the came out hungry and so cold their teeth were chattering.

Charlie went down to where the Indians had camped to see if they left anything that could be eaten. Lee got a long pole and tryed to fish out some elk meat he knew was in the burning ruins of their cabin.

As Charlie was returning to the burning cabin, he looked up and saw Indians coming over the hill and started running back to the lake. The Indians started shooting at Charlie with their bow and arrows, filling his back like a pincussion.

Lee, finishing with the pole in the fire that had burned the cabin down to a large bed of coals, but still making a bit of a roar didn't hear or see the Indians coming, He only had a choice of jumping into the fire or just standing there.

One brave scalped Charlie and came to the fire carrying his scalp by his long hair with the blood dripping from it. The braves wanted to kill Lee too, but the Chief told them not to harm him. They took him prisoner instead. We don't know for sure why they didn't kill him, but it is known that the Indians did admire bravery and they usually spared children.

The chief of the band that had saved Lee's life, was known as Big Eagle and was of the same tribe as Inkapuda who was making raids on the settlers in the Spirit Lake area of Iowa.

Lee was taken to the Indian's main camp and was held as a prisoner. He was not mistreated, but was confined to the camp and wasn't allowed to be with the braves on any of their rading parties.

Lee told of many of the escapades in his life with the Indians and in particular the raid on the Gardiner family, who he knew quite well and their daughter Abby who was about his age. He did not see the raid on the Gardiner family, but was within hearing didtance of it on March 8, 1857. Abby, who was 13 at the time, was taken prisoner, but the rest were all killed including the young children. Lee did tell of seeing the remains left after the raids on the Thatcher, Howe, Mattock, and Granger families, when the Indian braves wend back to look at the havoc they had done and to see if anything was left that was usable.

As time went on, Big Eagle took a liking for Lee and made him one of the family. We don't know whether he was adopted with a ceremony or not, but when the U.S. army ordered the Indians to release the prisoners or captives, Big Eagle gave Lee a parting gift of a wooden spoon that was cut from an ash tree with his tomahawk and finished with a knife.

The bowl of the spoon was decorated with intricate pattern and finished with a high gloss finish of some kind. The handle was engraved with a pattern and twenty two wooden links of chain hanging from the handle all carved from one piece of wood.

On parting, Chief Big Eagle gave Lee the spoon and said "Keep this spoon for as long as you live and it will provide safe passage through any Indian lands you might travel". Lee never had a bad word to say about the Souix Indians as he understood them and knew the situation they were in with the buffalo gone, the U.S. government not honoring the treaties, the settlers coming in and taking over the land etc..