Little House on the Prairie

Pa begins plowing to create the family’s farm fields. Native Americans frequently pass by the house, using the existing trail that the Ingallses built their house next to. The natives begin to come into the house as well, and Ma gives them food and tobacco whenever they indicate they want some. The family begins to lock up most of their food to conserve it.

A wildfire comes through the prairie, and Pa and Ma quickly protect the house by plowing up the grass around it and then setting a fire on the other side of the plowed strip. The intentional fire meets the wildfire and creates a burned zone, diverting the wildfire away from the house. Later, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Scott visit Pa and speculate that the Native Americans set the fire in an effort to drive out the settlers. Pa says he doesn’t think so, and he tells the other men that the Native Americans frequently use fire to manage the prairie grasses. Pa also says that the Native Americans are gathering for their spring buffalo hunt: “By George! I’d like to go on a hunt like that, myself. It must be a sight to see” (285).

The Native Americans continue to gather in their camps and begin shouting/chanting at night. Occasionally, a loud “war-cry” comes from the camp, frightening Laura and her sisters. The whole family is watchful and guarded during those nights, and they’re uneasy during the day when the camps are completely silent. Pa stops plowing and stays near the house with all the animals locked up. He also makes more bullets for his gun and stands guard with it at night in the window of the house. On one of the nights, Pa sees Du Chêne riding alone from elsewhere toward the camps.

The whooping from the camps eventually reaches a fevered pitch, terrifying the entire family. The next day, they see two groups of Native Americans riding away in different directions. Pa goes to the creek to investigate and finds the camps all emptied, except for the Osage tribe. He finds an Osage who speaks English, who tells him that the camps were made up of several tribes. All the other tribes, except the Osage, wanted to kill the white settlers in the territory, but the Osage persuaded them not to, and the tribes all dispersed. Du Chêne is the one who persuaded the other tribes and his own not to kill the whites, causing Pa to say approvingly, “That’s one good Indian!” (301). Because of the Native Americans’ disagreement, they will not hunt buffalo together that year.

A long line of Native Americans rides away to the west and pass by the family’s house for hours. As Du Chêne rides by at the head of the line, Pa salutes him. Laura sees a “papoose” (Native American baby—note that this term is a generic Caucasian term for a Native American child) on one of the horses with its mother and begs Pa to get it for her. Pa chides her, saying that the Native American mother “wants to keep her baby” (308), while Laura insists that “[i]t wants to stay with me” (308-309). Ma tells her “you don’t want another baby. We have a baby [Carrie], our own baby” (310) but Laura insists, “I want the other one, too!” (310). Laura is so upset she bursts into tears and has trouble calming herself until Pa distracts her by telling her to look at the long line of riders. When the line of riders finally disappears off to the west, the family feels forlorn and disoriented. 

Pa resumes his farm work, and the whole family helps put in a vegetable garden for the coming year. The family’s enterprise comes to a sudden halt when Mr. Edwards and Mr. Scott come to tell Pa that US soldiers will be coming to remove white settlers from the area. Pa is furious that he received faulty information while the family was in Wisconsin, but he’s determined that he won’t wait until the soldiers come to tell the family to leave. He wants to relocate immediately, although he doesn’t know where the family will go. Pa gives Mr. Scott the family’s cow and calf, since they won’t be able to take the animals with them, and he and Ma re-assemble the covered wagon to for their journey the next morning. 

The next day, Ma and Pa quickly pack up the family’s belongings and load them into the covered wagon. They’re able to fit everything they brought with them except for the plow and the built-in furniture in the cabin. The family drives down into the creek bottoms for a while, then climb back up to the high prairie. That afternoon, they come upon a man and woman in a covered wagon who are stranded in the prairie because their horses were stolen in the night. Pa offers to take them to Independence, but all the couple’s possessions are in the wagon, and they don’t want to leave it. No amount of persuasion from Pa can convince them to leave. As the Ingallses drive off, Pa scornfully says to Ma, “Tenderfeet! Everything they own, and no dog to watch it. Didn’t keep watch himself. And tied his horses with ropes! […] Shouldn’t be allowed loose west of the Mississippi!” (330-331). Pa resolves to send the soldiers in Independence out to help the couple.

The family camps that night at an old homesite whose house has burned down, and they make camp in the familiar routine they experienced when they were travelling from Wisconsin to Kansas. Pa plays the fiddle as the girls are going to bed, and Laura drifts off to sleep, comforted by the sound and by the security of her parents nearby.