2 Chapter 1 The Osage Reservation

Chapter 1 The Osage Reservation Maria opened her eyes. She had fallen asleep in the living room, and now her father was carrying her upstairs. She snuggled closer against his warm body and stared at his shiny black hair. His dark eyes smiled down at Maria.

第一章奥塞奇保留地玛丽亚睁开了眼睛。 她在客厅里睡着了，现在她父亲正抱着她上楼。 她偎依在他温暖的身体上，凝视着他乌黑发亮的头发。 他的黑眼睛朝玛丽亚微笑着。

Maria's first memory was that tender moment, waking to find herself safe in her father's arms. She was three years old, and her father seemed like a giant to her. Alexander Joseph Tall Chief was six feet two inches. He had broad shoulders and a swaggering confidence that had won the heart of Ruth Porter, a farm girl from Kansas. He was Osage. She was Scottish and Irish. They were married soon after meeting in the small town of Fairfax, Oklahoma. Maria came into the world on a cold winter day, January 24, 1925. Her parents named her Betty Marie, after her two grandmothers, Elizabeth, "Eliza," Tall Chief and Marie Porter. Maria had an older brother named Jerry. When Maria was almost two years old, her sister Marjorie was born. The Tall Chief family lived in a ten-room, red-brick house on a hill overlooking the Osage reservation.

玛丽亚最初的记忆是那个温柔的时刻，她醒来时发现自己安全的躺在父亲的怀里。 那时她才三岁，她的父亲在她看来就像一个巨人。 亚历山大·约瑟夫·高酋长身高六英尺二英寸。 他有着宽阔的肩膀和一种趾高气扬的自信，赢得了一个来自堪萨斯州的农场女孩露丝·波特的心。 他是奥塞奇。她是苏格兰和爱尔兰混血。 他们在俄克拉荷马州的费尔法克斯小镇相识后不久就结婚了。 1925年1月24日，一个寒冷的冬日，玛丽亚来到了这个世界。 她的父母给她取名为贝蒂·玛丽，以她的两位祖母伊丽莎白、“伊丽莎”、高酋长和玛丽·波特的名字命名。 玛丽亚有个哥哥叫杰瑞。 玛丽亚快两岁的时候，她的妹妹玛乔丽出生了。 高酋长一家住在山上一座有十个房间的红砖房子里，俯瞰着奥塞奇族的保留区。

The Osage hills were a magical place for Maria. The prairie grasses bowed their heads and whispered in the wind. Wildflowers bloomed goldenrod yellow and daisy white. Butterflies and the songs of meadowlarks filled the air. In summer, Maria hunted through the high grasses for arrowheads. The sharp tips of stone were bits of Osage history. Whenever she found one, she said, shivers raced up her spine.

对玛丽亚来说，奥塞奇山是一个神奇的地方。 草原上的草低着头，在风中低语。 野花盛开，黄色的菊花和白色的雏菊。 空气中充满了蝴蝶和草地鹨的歌声。 夏天，玛丽亚在高高的草丛中寻找箭头。 这些尖尖的石头是奥塞奇族历史的一部分。 她说，每当她找到一个，她的脊椎就会颤抖。

The Osage had lived on the plains of North America for many hundreds of years. Before the white settlers came, the prairie was a sea of grasses so tall that an Osage hunter had to stand on the back of his pony to see what lay beyond. The brown clouds and thunder in the distance were herds of buffalo. The Osage called these bearded animals "brothers." The white settlers, whom the Osage called "Heavy Eyebrows," changed the land and the lives of the native people forever. Heavy Eyebrows plowed under the sweet-smelling grasses to farm the land. They slaughtered and skinned the buffalo, sending the woolly hides back East on the railroads that they had built across the plains. In

奥塞奇族已经在北美平原上生活了好几百年。 在白人定居者到来之前，草原是一片草的海洋，草长得如此之高，以至于奥塞奇族猎人不得不站在他的小马背上才能看到远处的东西。 远处的褐云和雷声是成群的水牛。 奥塞奇族称这些长着胡子的动物为“兄弟”。 这些被奥塞奇族称为“重眉毛”的白人定居者永远地改变了当地的土地和当地人的生活。 浓眉在芬芳的草下犁地。 他们屠杀野牛，剥下它们的皮，用他们在平原上修建的铁路把毛茸茸的牛皮送回东部。 在

some places along the iron rails, mounds of buffalo bones rose almost as high as the ancient prairie grasses. The government of the white settlers forced the Osage onto reservations, first in the country Heavy Eyebrows called Kansas, then to a new place called Oklahoma. The Osage were hunters and gatherers. Without the buffalo, they could not hunt. Heavy Eyebrows wanted the Osage to become farmers. Year after year they scratched a living from the baked-red soil, but the crops they grew were not enough. The Osage were a proud people. Now they were starving. They had no choice but to accept the handouts of food and supplies from the white government agents.

在一些地方，沿着铁路线，成堆的水牛骨头几乎和古代草原的草一样高。 白人定居者的政府强迫奥塞奇族进入保留地，首先是在一个叫做堪萨斯州的地方，然后是一个叫做俄克拉何马州的新地方。 奥塞奇族是猎人和采集者。 没有野牛，他们就无法狩猎。 “重眉毛”想让奥塞奇族成为农民。 年复一年，他们在烤红的土地上勉强维持生计，但他们种的庄稼还不够。 奥塞奇族是一个骄傲的民族。 现在他们快要饿死了。他们别无选择，只能接受白人政府人员分发的食物和用品。

Maria's ancestors had a belief, however—an ancient prophecy. One day, great wealth would return to the Osage. At the start of the twentieth century, the prophecy came true. Beneath the whispering grasses, miles below the rolling hills of northeastern Oklahoma, was a lake of black gold—oil. The discovery of oil on the reservation made the Osage people the wealthiest Native American tribe in the country. Soon, hundreds of oil derricks were pumping the black gold to the surface. By the time Maria was born, these clanking and hissing metal skeletons had replaced the humped-back buffalo on the prairie of Oklahoma.

然而，玛丽亚的祖先有一个信仰——一个古老的预言。 总有一天，巨大的财富将回到奥塞奇族。 20世纪初，预言成真了。 在俄克拉何马州东北部连绵起伏的丘陵下，在沙沙作响的草地下，有一个黑色的金-油湖。 在保留区发现石油使奥塞奇族成为这个国家最富有的美洲原住民部落。 很快，数以百计的石油井架将这些黑金抽到了地面。 到玛丽亚出生的时候，这些叮当作响、嘶嘶作响的金属骨架已经取代了俄克拉荷马州草原上的驼背水牛。