Where the Dust Settles: Paiute-Shoshone Against the Pony Express

Previously

…The elder’s eyes, usually alight with the wisdom of countless seasons, were clouded with pain. Kona gently wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, his own hands trembling. He looked at the ravaged face of the warrior, then at the hollow gaze of the warrior’s wife, her children huddled close, their faces etched with a fear that no child should ever know. The question, a venomous viper, coiled in his gut: was this path, this bloody road he had chosen, truly protecting his people, or was it leading them inexorably towards annihilation? The weight of that doubt pressed down on him, heavier than any mountain, a shadow that threatened to extinguish the last embers of his resolve.