Free Tracking Bear by David Thurlo

has to be carried out to an extreme.”
    His answer told her he was a New Traditionalist and that her guess had been right. “Tell me about the Jims, Vera and her husband. I understand that they’ve invested a lot of their financial resources in the NEED project.”
    He nodded slowly. “If everything goes as planned, they’ll be prosperous.If not…” He shrugged. “They funded a large part of the radio and newspaper ads NEED has taken out, and also spent their own money to hire a consultant—an Anglo expert on power plants and the sciences involved with that—to explain things to the council. That’s what gave the council the idea to hire the same man to attend the Chapter House meetings and explain things to the People objectivelywithout taking sides.”
    Ella realized that Samuel was referring to Delbert Shives. Neskahi had mentioned the man’s participation in Chapter House business. “But you haven’t chosen to get involved with NEED. Is that right?”
    “I don’t believe this is the right thing for us as a tribe. ’Eyónís , outsiders, promised us much the same thing before. We were supposed to have all the money we needed. Well,we don’t, and look at how things turned out. I lived my entire life on land the tribe had allotted to my family, but the sheep died, and the vegetables we grew came out tasting funny. My parents and my brother died of cancer, but the government people told us it was just a coincidence and that it had nothing to do with the uranium mines—less than five hundred yards away.”
    “So you moved becauseyou were afraid of the risks,” Ella said, nodding. She didn’t blame him.
    “I didn’t feel safe living there anymore, so I gave the land back to the tribe and moved to Shiprock. Now the tribe will give that land to another family, and they’ll suffer, but I can’t keep it from happening.” He grew quiet for a long time, then finally spoke again.
    “Now, some of our own people tell us that we shouldbuild a new, even better power plant that will use uranium taken from our own ground.” He shook his head slowly. “People like the Jims are convinced this will benefit the tribe. But I don’t believe we can afford to take another chance. I asked one of the physicists how long it would be before the Rio Puerco was safe again. He told me that the water contained something called thorium and that had alife of eighty thousand years.” He gazed at her through sad eyes. “The land is our life and our legacy. We can’t afford another mistake like that one.”
    “How far are the ones who support NEED prepared to go to get this project approved? And how do they treat their opposition?”
    “You’re worried about your mother, aren’t you?” he asked, then continued, not really expecting an answer. “Mrs. Desteais an opposition leader with a lot of visibility and credibility, so she’s a threat to them. But although NEED will fight hard, it’ll be a fair fight. They’re good Navajos and businessmen, not hoods.”
    “Vera Jim nearly shoved my mother to the ground recently.”
    “She’s young—much younger than her husband, and her temper gets the better of her sometimes. But I wouldn’t worry about Vera. She wouldback down before she ever really hurt anyone.”
    “And there’s the death of the police officer…he was against NEED.”
    Silence stretched out between them. Finally, he spoke. “I don’t know any of the details, but I really doubt that had anything to do with NEED. Either way, I guess we’ll both find out soon enough how they deal with those who stand in their way. I intend to make things as difficultas possible for them by reminding people of the past, and what could happen if we let the promise of wealth and easy money cloud our thinking.”
    Unfortunately, no matter how dangerous, Ella knew that Rose would be right there with him. And there was nothing she could do to stop her. Her mom, Dawn, Clifford and his family, and maybe even Kevin could be