1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 44 [Becoming a Chief]

Looking at the huge team in front of him, the old Chief Sleeping Bear was too shocked to speak. He is an elder, so he has seen some scenes, but he has forgotten the last time he saw so many people.

"Hey, what's going on here?" He looked at the stone crow and horse whistle in front of the team.

Stone Crow smiled and said, "Chief, we defeated the Arapaho in the south of the plateau. I think you already know the news."

"That's right, and I also heard that... the horse post led you to win the war?" The old chief asked again in disbelief.

While Whistle was undeniably a brilliant teenager, leading the Apache to defeat the Arapaho sounded a bit unbelievable.

Shi Ya went on to say: "That victory is definitely more exciting than you imagined! Because of this, many clans are willing to follow the horse post and become a part of the Sleeping Bear clan."

The old chief was stunned for a while.

Immediately, as if he had thought of something, he patted Ma Shao on the shoulder without hesitation, and said with a smile on his face: "In this case, Ma Shao, now you are the chief of the Sleeping Bear Clan! I knew that you would definitely become our hero !"

As soon as this statement came out, everyone looked at each other in blank dismay.

Although anyone with a discerning eye can see that the current horse whistle is more suitable to be the leader of the clan. After all, so many people who joined the Mianxiong clan came for him.

However, it is hard to avoid the surprise that the old chief abdicated so quickly.According to common sense, you should think about it for a while, right?

Even, Ma Shuo faintly heard a trace of impatient and inexplicable implication from the old chief's tone...

How is this going?

The old chief didn't explain the reason, but happily organized the clan union ceremony and succession ceremony, and officially handed over the chieftainship to the horse post the next day.

At the same time, the name used by the previous chiefs was also handed over to the horse post, that is, "Sleeping Bear" with the same name as the clan.

"Every chief of the Sleeping Bear Clan will inherit this name, and now he is yours." The old chief said at the ceremony, while handing over his own cigarette stick, "and this one."

Ma Shuo hesitated and said, "I don't think there is a need for a name, I'm already used to the current name."

"No, this is the tradition of the clan. You can continue to use the name 'Horse Whistle', but as a chief, you must inherit the name of Sleeping Bear." The old chief insisted.

"That's good." Ma Shao had no choice but to accept the name as a title.He also took the rod, thinking it would encourage the old chief to quit smoking, until the old chief brought out a brand new one.

The old chief gave himself a new name, and said with emotion: "From now on, I will be called 'Old Bear'... Oh, I am old."

"Let's cheer for the new chief!"

"Chief! Chief!" people shouted around the campfire.

Those warriors who had defeated the Arapaho people under the leadership of the horse post were even more encouraged by the appearance of such a brave and skilled chief.

They shouted the unique slogan taught by the horse post.

"Ula!"

"Ulla-Ulla!"

Although the others were baffled, they couldn't help shouting after hearing the strong and rhythmic shouting.

"Ulla! Ulla!"

So after a while, everyone was shouting "Ula", the sound shook the night, and the burning flames in the center of the camp seemed to be dancing with the rhythm.

Thousands of people called "Ula", and the atmosphere was unprecedentedly warm. Many Apaches have never seen such a scene in their lives.

The horse whistle also presented a few songs for the clansmen, and then ate roast beef with everyone.

"Brother Whistle, did you really defeat a thousand Arapahos?" The little beast felt like a dream. After not seeing him for a few months, the Brother Whistle he was familiar with turned into an Apache hero admired by thousands of people.

"Now call the Chief." Thick Shoulders corrected.

"Oh... chief, chief." The little beast felt very uncomfortable.

"No need." Ma Shao didn't care about this, and waved his hand, "Except for formal occasions, you can call me like before."

The little bastard showed a mean smile, and called out again: "Hey, Brother Whistle."

"..." Ma Shao looked at his expression and suddenly felt a little regretful.

Thick shoulders continued the topic just now: "Is there any doubt about this? Look at the chief's head—hey, chief, why do you still have nine eagle feathers on your head?"

"Nine can be nine, and it's troublesome to make up a battle crown." Ma Shuo liked the eagle feather battle crown at first, but he has no interest since he captured the crow alive—isn't this thing attracting firepower on the battlefield? ?
It is troublesome to wear the battle crown at ordinary times, so he simply continued to wear the nine feathers, which made sense.

Everyone was chatting while eating barbecue, when the red girl came to this side.Since joining the Sleeping Bear Clan, she has gained a lot of prestige among women.

"Chief." She smiled, as if she had something to say.

"what happened?"

"Chief, are you 14 years old this year?" Red Girl asked.

"En." Ma Shao nodded. In fact, he was only a few months away from turning fourteen.

The red girl said slowly: "14 years old, this is almost the age of marriage..."

Suddenly, the little beast's eyes lit up, and he interjected: "Auntie, are you going to marry my sister to Brother Whistle? That's great, now she can't come out to be annoying!"

The red girl was silent for two seconds.

Ma Shao said at this time: "14 years old is too early, it is not the time to think about getting married. Not only me, but everyone in the clan must reach the age before they can get married and have children."

Population is of course very important, but childbirth is not the best way to obtain population, let alone early marriage and early childbearing.

For savages who are closer to animals, procreation may be their only option - they won't assimilate anyway.

But Ma Shao is not an ancient or barbarian. He is a teacher of the 21st century, and he is also a teacher with excellent professional ability.

For him, assimilation was a far better population strategy than procreation.

And even if he chooses to encourage childbearing, he will never encourage early marriage and early childbearing.

From a scientific and utilitarian point of view, the best childbearing age is around 28 years old. If you choose to give birth at this period, the risks to mother and child will be minimized, and the baby's development will be better.

This has nothing to do with life expectancy.

After all, no matter what the optimal age for childbearing is, there are bound to be people who will not live to that age.

Moreover, the average life expectancy in ancient times was 30 years old. This statement is actually a typical misunderstanding.

Numbers like 30 and 50 years old are calculated after counting premature deaths.If premature deaths are not counted, the average life expectancy is still [-] years old.

An important reason for premature death is precisely early marriage and early childbearing.

It is now the middle of the nineteenth century, and a series of technological innovations and social innovations are about to come. Mashao is confident that this process will be greatly accelerated to quickly reduce the death rate of the population.

Anyone who took a high school geography class knows that a decline in death rates leads to a rapid increase in population.

"You just got married?" The red girl said in surprise, compared to the early marriage tradition of the Indians, it was indeed too late.

"That's right, remember one sentence - early marriage to weak breeds. This matter is settled like this." Ma Shao didn't intend to continue to compromise.

This became his first order after serving as Chief Sleeping Bear.

On the second day, Horse Whistle finally understood why the old bear was so eager to give him the position of chief.

In the early morning, he sat in his tent, thinking about how to arrange the division of labor among the tribe, until the old bear came to him.

"Chief." The old bear entered the tent and sat down, frowning and hesitantly said, "There is one thing I have to tell you about the Comanche."

"Comanche?" Horse Whistle asked in surprise.

"It's the Shuanglang clan in the south." The old bear reminded, "During your expedition, we had some... well, complicated disputes with the Shuanglang clan and the white people."

"Specifically, the Twin Wolf clan sold our land to white people."

The horse whistle was confused.

The Comanches sold the Apache land to the whites?
What the hell?

"You know, although we have lived in peace with the Shuanglang clan for a long time, without any conflicts." Old Xiong said slowly, "But we are latecomers, and the Shuanglang clan is the clan that has settled here the longest. So they claim that the land here is theirs." The old bear said slowly.

"They've been struggling recently, and as a result they've sold a lot of land to white people, including large swathes of our area."

Finally, he sighed: "If I had known earlier, I should have listened to your advice and provided some help to the Shuanglang clan, alas."

(End of this chapter)