Page 14 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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right hand making a gesture towards the official who had been speaking. His

head was held high, almost arrogantly, the large brown eyes twinkled with
charm and his wide mouth parted to show perfect teeth and a smile of genuine
delight. He shook hands with the official then turned, his eyes sweeping around
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the gathered
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voice was mellow, soft and elegant with no trace of any accent, neither
American nor Canadian. Lee spoke in almost perfect English, with no blemish
culled from any particular education. He had neither the overstated drawl of
what used to be called an Oxford accent, nor any hint of mispronunciation

which would reveal his English to be a second language.
‘My good friends,’ he began, and Bond felt that he meant it, that every
person there was a good and known friend. ‘It is always a pleasure to be here
in British Columbia, if only because BC is my heritage. I return here from time
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to time to remind myself of that great heritage. Many of you already know the
story of my birthright, part of which I have today passed on to this museum.
Whether you’ve heard it or not, I feel obliged to tell the tale once more. For the
record, as it were.’ The eyes glittered with elation, his voice dropped slightly

as though he were passing on a long lost treasure, a secret, to those gathered
around him.
The story he had to tell was fascinating – how, in the 1840s, at the time of
the Gold Rush, his great-grandfather had come to British Columbia from the

Shanxi Province of China, where he had traded in gold. This man had been
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captured by a war party of Crow Indians who held him hostage, and during that
period he had fallen in love with a beautiful Crow girl called Running Elk.
Eventually, the couple had escaped and sought refuge with a band of Piegan

Blackfoot Indians. There, among this tribe, they were accepted, made of one
blood with the Blackfoot people, and were married.
This marriage of a Chinese dealer in precious metals and a Crow woman
began Lee’s ancestry, for the strain of Chinese and Blackfoot Indian had been

carried through three generations. Lee, himself, had been brought up in both
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traditions by his parents, Flying Eagle Lee and Winter Woman.
Bond thought that the man had an almost hypnotic power, for, though he told
his tale simply, without wasting words, the very fluency seemed to bring the

story to life. When he used the anglicised Indian names – Running Elk, Flying
Eagle, Winter Woman and the like – the words required no further description,
but almost took on flesh and became living humans. It was the kind of trick that

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