NARRATOR: He was a coureur du bois, one who runs in the woods,
and where he came from, no one knew.
A small, dark Frenchman who wore the red, knitted cap of Quebec
and called himself, simply, Pasquinel.
A solitary trader with the Indians,
who made his way through territory
no white man had ever traveled,
defending his trade and his life.
Pasquinel saved the life of a young immigrant from Scotland,
Alexander McKeag.
A bond was soon formed between the introspective young Scot
and the outspoken Frenchman.
At the end of the 18th century,
the Indians of the Great Plains were sovereigns of their world.
But the legendary Arapaho leader, Lame Beaver,
knew that the coming of the white man was the beginning of change.
He knew Pasquinel could protect his daughter
from whatever that change would bring.
And he told Clay Basket to go with the fearless little Frenchman when he returned.
Pasquinel, meanwhile, had accepted another proposition.
The German silversmith who financed his expeditions had a daughter, too.
And Herman Bockweiss felt Pasquinel
was the man to give Lise the future he wanted for her.
When the two traders returned to the region along the South Platte River,
they learned of Lame Beaver's death
and of his discovery.
The yellow bullets the Arapaho warrior had used
to kill a famous Pawnee Chief were solid gold.
And while the Indians didn't know the value of the precious metal,
the traders did.
Hopeful that Clay Basket would remember where her father had found the gold,
Pasquinel agreed to take her as his woman,
and Alexander McKeag accepted the decision with bitter disappointment.
In 1809, Clay Basket gave birth to her first child.
(GROANING)
They called him Jacques Pasquinel.
And the displaced Scot who watched him come into the world
knew that his cry of protest was more than justified.
So were the tears of his younger brother, Marcel, who was born in 1811.
They were grandsons of a warrior who knew no peer among the Arapaho nation,
and sons of a man who dared to go
where none of his race had ever been.
But their noble heritage would one day work against them.
For a while, the coureur du bois
could cross the barrier between two worlds at will.
The child that carried the blood of two races
was never to know a real home in either world.
The Pasquinels.
At the time of their birth, there were only two white men within 500 miles.
But in years to come, their names would strike terror
into the hearts of all white men who thought of crossing the plains.
The chain of years their father spent on the plains
determined to find the Arapaho gold mine
was a time of peace, however.
Together with Alexander McKeag,
Pasquinel and his Indian family explored a virgin wilderness,
and experienced a kind of freedom few men have ever known.
We could trap here for years.
This has to be where he found it.
Oui.
This is a place for gold.
The thaw finally came.
Oui.
Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?
Only these.
(BOTH LAUGH)
Come on, man, look around us.
Do you realize what we've got?
We can work when we want, sleep where we will, eat from the Lord's bounty.
Do you realize what gold will buy a man?
More than we have here?
Think about it.
We're moving across an empire bigger than France and Scotland together,
and there's no Highland laird making me grab my forelock,
and no Montreal banker making you bow and scrape.
We're free.
The two freest men in the whole world!
For now.
They will move on us soon. If not for the beaver, for the gold.
Gold.
Why can't you take what we have and forget about the bloody gold?
Because the gold is here
and I want to be the first man to find it.
Why?
To be more than I am.
Isn't this enough?
Is it for you, mon ami?
Aye.
And always will be.
McKeag.
Good to see you, McKeag.
The skipper on a keel boat said he thought he saw you passing by.
Where's Pasquinel, a second canoe?
He stayed.
What do you mean, stayed?
He's stayed before.
But he did not have a child before.
A child?
I thought when Lise lost the first one,
the doctor said she couldn't have any more. He did.
Then how? I'm not a doctor, I'm a father.
And at the moment, an angry one.
You would not lie to me, would you, Alexander?
Sir? Did Pasquinel go on to New Orleans?
New Orleans?
Dr. Butler moved there.
He wrote me he has a patient who says she knows Pasquinel's wife.
I said he's on the plains.
And I told you before, Mr. Bockweiss,
he's never said nothing about a wife in New Orleans.
But Doctor Butler's letter...
Said another party you know nothing about
told him something he doesn't know himself for fact.
I thought one reason this country fought for independence
was to protect a man from that kind of trial.
How's Lise?
At the moment, she could not be happier.
I sent word when I heard you were on the river.
But I do not know how she will feel when she hears
her husband chose to stay out there with the wolves and the savages
rather than come back to the home she made for him.
Then that's not what she'll hear.
Lise, you look radiant. Absolutely radiant.
Papa.
Alexander, is he all right?
Oh, he's fine. Ja.
You picked a man who is going to make you rich all right, Lise.
Where is he?
Come.
I marvel at the sacrifices
he is willing to make to get ahead.
I mean, I absolutely marvel...
Papa. I thought I was a gambler, leaving Bavaria to come here
but this man of yours, he is...
Alexander?
He stayed with the Arapaho.
Stayed? Again? Why?
He wants to trap.
What?
To catch the beaver ourselves.
That way we do not have to trade for the furs,
we just give the Indians some trinkets for safe passage.
It will double our profits.
No, no, it will triple our profits.
It was my idea.
He asked me to stay, but I told him he's the one they respect.
Of course, if he'd known about the baby, he'd never have let me talk him into it.
That's for certain.
Could I see the little fella?
It's a girl.
Oh, that's a blessing.
I will bring her down.
And then I will show you your room. Room?
Oh, no. I couldn't impose.
I told you that we would always have a room for you, Alexander McKeag,
and if you refuse it, I will find it harder to forgive
than Pasquinel's staying on the plains when he could be here with me.
And besides, I want to hear everything you've done.
He may be a year behind his daughter's life when he comes home,
but I will not be another year behind his.
Aye, ma'am.
Papa.
She's a strong woman.
Maybe as strong in her way as he is in his.
Well...
I feel better.
Especially since you say
he's never mentioned a wife in New Orleans.
You saved his life. I do not see him lying to you.
I did not save his life. He saved mine. Twice.
But he said...
Ah, he's not a man to boast.
Or to hurt a person without reason.
He's like no man I ever met before,
or expect to meet again.
You've grown to know him well.
Oh, I don't know him at all.
But I believe what the Indians say about him is true.
Indians? What is that?
Well, they don't like the most of us.
The way we act, the way we think.
But about him, they say, "Pasquinel, he can be trusted."
(BABY GURGLES)
This is Lisette.
LISE: Lisette Pasquinel.
I thought it was here.
Where else did you camp?
It's been a long time.
You were taught to remember everything.
You must know where you made camp.
I'm sorry.
Pasquinel?
Huh?
You are unhappy with me?
Why do you say that?
I know.
You will leave, yes?
You have given me two sons.
We'll raise them together.
And McKeag, too?
Oui.
McKeag, too.
I'm sorry about the yellow bullets.
You think about the places where you camped.
We'll find the right one someday.
I'm your woman.
Always I will help,
always.
Tomorrow we go to the river.
It's time for McKeag.
I will be glad to see him, too.
The blue stones? That's good.
Maybe their medicine will make him come sooner, huh?
I'll get fresh water.
I can do it. No. Women get the water.
But I always get it.
Not today. Today you learn how to dress the deer.
Your mother gets the water.
Why does he have to come back?
Because he's our friend.
I don't like him.
Jacques, let me tell you something.
I named you Jacques, do you know why? No.
Because Jacques La Ramée was my best friend.
We trapped for years in the north.
Now I trap with McKeag.
If your mother and I have another son,
I will name him Alexander.
That's how good a friend he is.
And he is your friend, too.
(BIRD CHIRPS)
(EXCLAIMS)
McKeag! McKeag comes!
He comes.
The stones are new.
Aye.
Where from?
A tribe in the south came to trade.
Pasquinel got them for me.
This is the first time I wear them.
They're bonnie.
Bonjour, mon ami. You're late.
I was with the Pawnee.
Were they happy with their profits?
They were concerned about you.
Me?
(LAUGHS)
I've never been better.
But you look even thinner.
PASQUINEL: Clay Basket,
let's feed this skinny Scotsman.
I'll make a feast.
Help your mother with the venison.
That's woman's work.
Sometimes a hunter doesn't have a woman.
He has to learn how to cook what he kills.
Allez, allez!
Toi aussi, Jacques.
Well?
You have a daughter.
A daughter?
What is she called?
Lisette. Lisette.
Oui. I like it.
I was just telling Jacques how he got his name
from my friend, Jacques La Ramée.
You would have liked him.
Did he keep two families, too?
I never asked.
Where are the trade goods?
I did not bring any.
Traps?
Sacré bleu.
You who has so many questions...
Did you ever ask what happens to des coureurs
who traps his own beaver out here?
He ends up with the arrow in the heart.
Trappers get killed, too.
When I first met you, you told me that's how we'd end up.
So you thought you'd make certain?
I had to tell Bockweiss something.
Bockweiss?
And Lise.
What do they care about trapping?
They trapped you!
And if you don't like it, you can bloody well go back and tell them yourself.
I could not look them in the eye and tell them you stayed out here
with an Indian girl so you could find her father's gold mine.
I told them the only thing I could think of:
That you stayed to make friends with the tribes
so they'd let us trap and you could make more profit.
I put you in a hard place.
Well, I've been in hard places before.
And you're going to be again. With these.
How is she?
Oh... Oh, here.
I should've told her.
What?
I can't read. Tell me what they say.
I suppose I should have told you.
You, too?
Me, too.
I know how you feel about questions,
but there is one thing I have to know.
What happens when I find the gold?
Aye.
Most men have one life to live, mon ami.
But the coureur has two.
But I will live both equally.
Do you know how to use these?
And if I don't?
We'll learn together.
(CLATTERING)
PASQUINEL: Pelt tree's stubborn as the Pawnee.
Put your weight to it, you skinny Scotsman!
I'm trying.
Jacques! Marcel! Come on!
Press, boys, press! I'll tie it.
There we are.
(BREATHING HARD)
Marcel!
(LAUGHING)
(EXCLAIMING)
(EXHALING)
It's time to go.
Oh, it's early yet.
No. We leave tomorrow.
All of us.
What?
They should see St. Louis.
And Clay Basket, too.
Think what you're saying.
It's time.
Run, tell your mother. Tomorrow, we leave together.
Run!
You cannot do it.
They're half white. They should see the city.
And your St. Louis family?
You want them to meet each other?
Don't worry.
Worry? You bloody fool.
Lise was not brought up in an Indian camp. She will not understand.
And Bockweiss, he was ready to skin you
just for hearing you had a wife in New Orleans.
And Clay Basket.
I'm telling you, you cannot do it!
Tomorrow.
Pack them up yourself then.
I'll not help a fool to his own end.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
I wish I could remember.
It's all right.
We will keep on looking.
I can still go to my uncle.
What?
You don't have to take us to St. Louis.
I said I would and I will.
It might not be good for you.
Did McKeag say something to you?
No. McKeag does not talk of you
except to say you are the best trapper on the river.
A woman knows when a man has another woman.
Are there children, too?
A girl.
How old?
Deux.
Two?
Oui.
Then you have not seen her?
Non.
Your woman there...
She doesn't know about us?
No.
There's a big fort on the river,
not quite to St. Louis.
Could you take us there instead?
Clay Basket. I have never lied to anyone.
I've never been afraid to face anyone.
I know, I know.
But the fort, it would be enough.
Where did you hear about the fort?
McKeag.
When?
This morning.
That Red Beard,
he's smarter than he looks.
Please, Pasquinel. Just the fort.
All right. Just the fort.
(CLAY BASKET LAUGHING)
Oh, Pasquinel!
You were right.
I don't know.
Ah, they love it.
These soldiers don't seem to love any of us so much.
You worry too much, mon ami.
You see how they look at us?
Looking mostly at Clay Basket.
Do you blame them?
Well, I think you've made a good choice...
Sibley! Ça va?
Pasquinel, mon ami.
McKeag.
Major. Good to see you both.
This is my family. This is my wife, Clay Basket,
and my son, Marcel, and this is my son, Jacques.
This is Major Sibley. He runs the fort.
Boys, there's something in the jar over there on the counter
that I think you might like to try.
It's all right. Two for each of you. Mangez, c'est bon.
Well, glad you're here, 'cause tomorrow's Sunday afternoon
and my wife is gonna perform a little concert.
I think you'll enjoy the music if you'd like to join us.
Music? Aye, I like music.
(PLAYING YANKEE DOODLE DANDY)
Pretty soon now.
What? Listen.
(DRUM BEATING)
(CHEERING)
You like it?
More than anything I ever heard.
Hey, Squaw Man.
Yeah, you. In them Injun clothes.
You live with the Indians, you wear what Indians wear.
You live with Injuns, you stink.
You drink whiskey, you don't smell so good, either.
You look like a redstick yourself.
What kind of Indian do you think I am?
A Cheyenne, a Pawnee?
You look like one of them bloody-handed Sigh-Oxes to me.
Sigh-Ox? No, you mean, Sioux.
I'm a Sioux. I'm a Sioux.
Dumb as they are, too, looks like.
You one of them Frenchies helped the British fighting Colonel Jackson?
No, I live with the Indians.
One squaw, anyway. Making more vermin.
Come here, boy.
You hard of hearing, you little breed beggar?
I said to get over here.
(GRUNTING)
(SCREAMS)
(GUN FIRING)
I'm afraid the lad's gonna be left with a pretty bad scar.
Here you go, mon ami.
Merci.
I think that, uh, you'd better head up north.
The others started it.
I'm sure of that.
But you can't stay here now. It's too risky.
Mary and I will make room for all of you tonight.
And I think that you better head out by sun-up.
I'm taking the pelts to St. Louis.
What?
You take them back,
and I will join you when I can.
But they need you.
You can make camp,
and Jacques can help you hunt.
Jacques most of all...
He's been scarred bad.
He's been through hell.
I want to see Lise and the girl.
Last year, you couldn't even be bothered.
I don't understand you, not at all.
Non?
Perhaps it's not so important whether you understand me or not.
It is important that you take care of them while I'm gone.
And if I do not want to?
I am not blind, mon ami.
You will always defend her with your life.
And you only use her.
For your dream of a mountain of gold, and for your own pleasure.
You don't care about how she feels.
You don't even care about the lads.
No one in my life do I let talk to me like you do.
Take your hand off.
Do you know why?
I don't give a damn.
You do give a damn.
That's why maybe you're a better man than I am.
I remember the story you told me about your sister,
and the man you killed to defend her.
I didn't think you heard me.
There is much about me you do not know.
There's much you will never know.
But I know you, McKeag.
That's why I trust you with my life,
and with theirs.
So lovely to see you. It's been such a lovely afternoon.
My pleasure. You must come Sunday,
I'm going to have the new fashion plates. We'll see you there.
Bonjour, mesdames.
Ladies, this is my husband, Pasquinel.
Mr. Pasquinel.
Well, I'll see you Sunday.
Looking forward to it, Lise.
You look lovely.
Come in.
This is beautiful, what you've done with the house.
It keeps me busy.
I can imagine. But being so far from the river,
do many come to visit?
Not just to visit. To build.
All the interesting families will live here soon.
The Presbyterians are even building their church here this summer.
The Presbyterians?
What tribe is that?
May I see the girl?
She's asleep.
Oh.
I brought her this.
Who made that for you?
Would you like me to go?
No.
Well, then?
Three years, Pasquinel.
Three years.
Lise...
How could you not come see your own daughter?
I'm sorry.
Do not lie to me.
I don't know what you think of me anymore.
But I don't deserve that.
Forgive me.
I don't like to think I've hurt you.
I never meant to hurt you.
I suppose I believe that.
But I have been hurt. Deeply hurt.
By your absence. By the gossip that circulates in the city.
The tongues of others... Can sting!
Maybe more than that arrow in your back ever did.
Do you want a divorce?
I'm a Catholic.
I thought you were, too.
But what are you now?
Osage?
Pawnee?
What is it they believe in out there?
Ja, I've thought of divorce!
I have thought...
I've thought I must be at fault,
because I did not give you sons,
because I am not attractive enough or bright enough,
or arduous enough when we're together.
There must be something terribly wrong with me
that will drive you onto the plains.
That will make you prefer to sharing a buffalo robe with a savage to my bed.
I'm sorry.
I did not mean to act this way.
You must know...
You must know how different we are.
You must know that you do nothing wrong.
It isn't you that drives me to the plains, it's me.
Something inside of me that makes me what I am.
A coureur.
But I never told you I was anything else.
I never told you I could be anything else.
I don't want you to be.
Non.
This you must know most of all.
I have lived in a hard way. I have lived in a dangerous way.
But maybe I am not as strong as other people think I am.
Maybe I run in the woods because I am a coward.
Pasquinel.
No.
I think it's true.
And I tell you.
Only you.
Because only you have made me know this about myself.
Only you have made me come back from the woods because...
Because I care.
But I don't think I am brave enough to stay.
I don't think that I am a man
who belongs here.
You belong with me.
Oui.
I belong with you.
But the cities,
the others,
the men who live in the cities...
They are different. Stronger.
In a way I don't understand.
You said we only understand what we want to.
I have tried.
Like you've tried. Like you've tried for me.
Maybe we have to try harder.
I know this about us.
Whether we're together or not,
I'll live as good a life as possible.
And I will raise our daughter to be as happy and stable as I am.
Usually am.
And you'll always be welcome here.
And more than that,
you'll always have an honored place in this house.
(BIRDS TWITTERING)
You didn't eat anything.
Not hungry.
Is something wrong?
No, I'm just not hungry.
It's been a long time.
Since what?
Since we were alone.
We're not alone.
He misses his father.
The bloody fool.
He had to go to her.
I know.
And about the girl, too.
He had to go.
I understand.
I don't.
I don't understand one thing about that man!
Does she?
Don't know.
Don't care.
McKeag,
you're good.
Here.
Sometimes I think maybe too good.
You'd better tend to the lads.
Are you angry with me?
No.
Then what?
Nothing.
You are not happy.
There was a time when you were always happy to be with me.
Aye.
Before you were Pasquinel's wife.
But I feel only good things for you.
Happy things.
Pretty things.
Like the flowers we found together that time.
Oh, Clay Basket. Don't.
Then you are not angry.
No.
No, I could...
I could never be angry with you.
I...
What is it, Jacques?
Kiowa.
This far north?
Probably came for guns. They don't have them yet.
Sizing us up.
They'll try to take my sons.
Jacques, fetch my other rifle from the canoe.
Give it to your mother. I can shoot.
Give it to your mother and get the powder horn.
Move!
Have that other gun ready!
(SCREAMING)
Jacques!
Give me the gun!
Get that other one loaded!
His hand!
Load!
Gun.
I don't think they'll be back.
But we better get started anyway.
His fingertip. The arrow took it off.
Squeeze it hard, Jacques. I'll bind it for you.
He'll be all right. He knows what to do.
All right?
There are two scars now.
One from a white and one from an Indian.
What kind of wound will that make in him?
(PLAYING PIANO)
I say thank God there's a wilderness out there
where decent white men won't ever want to live.
I say throw every blasted Indian into that desert
and let them keep it till hell freezes.
What do you think, Pasquinel?
About the wilderness?
The Indians? God?
Or the "decent white men"?
Expansion, sir.
What your government wants is going to create agony for you
and for the people who live on that land.
Indians.
Off the record, I'll go along with you on part of that.
But from what I've seen,
it isn't worth the powder and shot it'd take to clean it out.
Now we found in Kentucky,
the only reasonable way to handle an Indian is to kill him.
There is another way.
What's that?
Trust him.
Colonel, there you are.
I have some friends very anxious to meet you.
Will you excuse us, Pasquinel?
Lieutenant?
Bravo, Lisette. Bravo.
Encore. Encore.
Lieutenant, I would like to ask you a question.
Monsieur Bockweiss is the best silversmith in St. Louis.
But he must buy his silver in Germany.
Do you think this situation may change someday?
Sir?
Your expedition, did you see anything that might suggest
that there was silver in this country?
Silver, here? No, sir.
Gold, maybe?
No, sir, there's no gold in America.
Why do you say that?
When Clark and Lewis went up the Missouri, they took tests.
There's a book on the subject.
I'd be happy to lend it to you, if you like.
A book?
No, thank you, Lieutenant.
My wife and my daughter, they read books.
I trade beaver.
Excuse me.
She is good, ja?
Good? She's fantastic.
She's a Pasquinel.
And a Bockweiss. Hmm.
You have given them a good home.
It is yours, too.
And I've been meaning to talk to you.
I think
you should stay this time.
It could be good.
What is there to stop you?
My work in the mountains. My work, that's all I know.
You have a partner for that.
Leave the trapping to him, run the business from this end.
Nobody knows better than you what a pelt is worth.
I don't know...
I do.
The future is here.
There is gold in this town, Pasquinel.
Oh, not the kind you take out of the land.
The kind you make from it.
I've been putting all my profits into parcels here.
If the town keeps growing, the values grow with it.
You could do the same.
Perhaps.
It is time.
Look at Lisette.
She's getting older.
She needs a father with her.
And you,
you're getting older, also.
You're right about that.
McKeag, he knows all the tongues.
Now, he's a better trader than I.
Anything I can do out there, he can do as well.
JACQUES: I've watched you do it for years.
Watching and doing are two different things.
Who taught you to trap, McKeag?
Your father.
And his old friend, Jacques La Ramée,
the one your brother here's named after, he taught your father.
Why didn't my father come this year?
I don't know.
You'll stay with us alone?
Aye. Now, then.
This here is the secret. Castoreum.
Take it.
Smells.
Aye. That's what brings the beaver.
The female makes it,
and mixes it into the mud all around the place
she's planning to defend with her life.
The male smells it and comes here to mate.
Now then, you set the trap
four inches,
four inches below the surface.
No more, no less.
And you attach the end of the chain to a stick of dead wood.
Why dead wood?
If it isn't dead, the beaver stops here to eat.
Then you jab another stick
into the side of the bank.
So it hangs over the trap you're hiding.
Then you put the castoreum on the end of the stick.
Now no beaver can come down this stream and smell that
without coming over here to investigate.
And to reach the stick, he has to plant his feet right in the trap.
The trap snaps shut, the beaver dives for deep water...
And the weight of the trap drowns him.
Aye.
We come back next day, pull him out, get him skinned.
You think you can do it?
It's easy.
McKeag? Aye?
Why do we have to kill them?
Because the white man pays for them.
Why?
He wears the pelts.
I didn't see any at the fort.
No. They wear them in the cities.
Hats, and collars on coats. In the east, and across the great water.
Where you come from? Aye.
I wish I could see it.
We saw enough of how the white man lives at the fort.
Oh, it's not all like that, Jacques.
If it's so good, why are you here?
Well, I suppose I like it better here.
And you'll like it even better this year, won't you?
What?
You will not trap alone this year, McKeag.
Remember that.
I'm a man now.
While our father's gone, I will take care of our mother.
The truth is I could never forget it,
because your father is my friend.
And you remember about the traps.
Four inches. No more, no less.
How much difference can it make?
The difference between a good season and a poor one.
We will trap many beaver.
But it will not be a good season.
McKeag? Aye?
It isn't you.
What is it then?
The fort.
I want to stop you.
And I want to stay.
Then do. Then do.
I told you.
This is for the last time.
All right.
But I do not understand.
You will when I get back.
It is not because of someone else?
It's because I want to be more than Pasquinel, the trapper.
You will be if you stay.
I will be much more if I go.
You don't believe me.
I want to.
Look.
Gold?
Oui, gold. From the plains.
Where?
I don't know.
No one must know I have them.
Do you understand that?
Over here, Jacques.
I said over here.
It's close enough.
You'll put it where I tell you, boy.
Or what?
PASQUINEL: McKeag!
Father!
Marcel. Jacques.
Now it will be a good season.
We gave you up.
I started late.
McKeag showed us how to set the traps.
Than Jacques is right.
It will be a good season.
Another one empty.
The whole line empty.
Who set this line? Marcel? Jacques?
I set them the way he showed me.
You set them too high.
I set them right.
If they were right, they'd have beaver.
I set them right.
I did it the way you told me.
Put the knife down, lad.
(GRUNTS)
Stop it, Jacques!
What are you doing?
He's not your friend!
You put that knife away, son.
(GRUNTS)
Jacques!
Never drive it into the hilt, lad.
It's too hard to pull out.
McKeag, no!
McKeag.
Are you all right?
McKeag!
The lad is twisted, Pasquinel.
Twisted! He'll kill you all!
McKeag!
He's your bairn, not mine.
I'll not give my life for the likes of him.
McKeag!
(SNUFFLES)
We thought you would have come to the house.
Well, I'm... I'm leaving today.
What happened?
It did not work.
Did not work?
After all these years? Why?
Meaning no disrespect, Mr. Bockweiss, but 'tis between him and me.
Of course.
McKeag.
Can I speak to you, man to man?
Aye.
Did my man pay you for your pelts?
Aye, he did.
Good. Do...
Do you need an advance?
No, I keep me own money in the bank.
You were at Fort Osage when he had the trouble with the soldier?
Did you see him there with an Indian wife?
Two sons?
Please, I'm trying to protect my family.
I...
I went to New Orleans.
I saw a woman there.
She had children.
I will not listen to gossip, Mr. Bockweiss.
Not about the only friend I've ever had.
McKeag.
McKeag!
You are right, of course.
You are right.
I understand.
But am I wrong to want to know?
What if he leaves them the way he left the others?
What if he never comes back?
They are all I have, Alexander.
All my life, everything I have done,
everything I have worked for.
All my life. All.
I don't know if he'll come back.
But he gave you a grandchild.
And he gave me my life.
What if he'd never come at all?
Goodbye, Herman.
You...
Take care of yourself, son.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
OLD SIOUX: And the rain kept falling for many days.
It fell until the world was covered with a great flood.
And when there were no more mountains left
to stand upon,
no dry land anywhere,
Man Above knew there was only one creature
who could save the world.
And he called upon the creature
to dive down deep below the water
and scoop up sticks and mud
with his paws to make a great mound.
The creature worked hard and long.
Until he had made a new world.
A world with mountains,
and forests,
and plains for all the animals.
And only one creature
could have saved the world then.
One creature alone,
who can change the world he lives in.
The wisest of all animals on Earth.
The beaver.
Is it true?
It's a story.
Think about the river and the streams.
The beaver still creates a world of his own, n'est-ce pas?
The dams?
Where the fast water stops, huh? It becomes a pond.
And the insects breed. And the trout feed on the insects.
And the saw-billed duck dives for the trout.
And the muskrats come, and the mink come.
And the deer comes to eat the meadow grass.
And the moose comes to eat the water grass.
It is a new world, and only the beaver can make it.
Why was our grandfather called Lame Beaver?
Because the wounded beaver must be the smartest of them all.
He is the wisest creature in all the world.
Mother, do you know the stories about Lame Beaver?
Some of them.
The ones in the robe.
But I wish I had it for you to see.
Lame Beaver's robe? You did not keep it?
Others took it when he died.
Clay Basket. That's it. The robe.
What?
Do you remember the robe? The stories on it? All of them?
Aye.
And the places where they happened?
Aye.
Tell me about them. About the ones that happened in the mountains.
The mountains?
Oui. Because that is where the gold came from.
(CHUCKLING) Tell me.
Blue Valley. That's the place.
When we were there with McKeag,
I thought it must be, but now I am sure.
We go back in the spring.
Pasquinel?
Oui?
Could it be summer?
Non.
Why is it so important to find the gold?
Because I want to be more than Pasquinel, the trapper.
And who will my three children be?
Trois?
By summer.
We'll join you then.
No.
We will go together, you, me and the baby.
Les garçons, stay with the Sioux.
No.
But they are Indian now.
They must remain Indian.
And I, their father,
I will make them the richest Indians in the whole world.
(LAUGHING)
McKEAG: Well, I can still trap.
I can trap for a long time yet.
If the Indians don't kill me.
No, they won't kill me.
They trust me.
They know I'm here. They always know you're here.
And if they haven't tried to kill me yet, they...
They will not.
They trust me.
Maybe they know I was with Pasquinel.
Well, maybe they know I left Pasquinel!
Maybe they know I'm as strong as he is!
No.
I'll never be as strong as Pasquinel.
Nobody's as strong as he is.
Bloody Frenchman!
Bloody fool!
Oh, Lord,
how I miss them.
Both of them.
Oh, no.
Oh, no!
Oh, God!
I'm so alone!
McKeag?
Aye.
Come by to pick up your pelts.
You from Sublette?
Meeting up with him at rendezvous.
Name's Bridger. James Bridger.
This here's Jim Beckworth and Donald McPherson.
McPherson, you from Scotland?
No, I've never seen it, my grandfather maybe.
But I lived in Nova Scotia. I'm from Canada.
I'll get my beaver.
Why don't you ride along with us?
I don't care for St. Louis.
I don't blame you. We're headed west.
West?
Yeah, Bear Lake. Over by the Snake River.
You don't know about the rendezvous?
Buyers come from Oregon, British mostly.
Aye, even a few real Scotties like yourself.
Bear Lake?
The western slope. Shoshone country.
I've never been there.
Then now's the time, every tribe will be there.
And every man that ever set a trap.
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
You want to bet?
I make bet.
I bet I have best damn Hawken in the world.
That's a wager I accept.
ALL: (APPLAUDING) Bravo!
No American gun made can match an English one.
State your proposition. Scoring and rules.
Rules?
(CROWD LAUGHING)
I don't need no damn rules.
Your gun shoot, my gun shoot. Same target.
Agreed.
Jacques!
Put up your money, Englishman.
And pick someone to shoot.
I'll fire my own gun.
No, that proves who's the best shot,
not who has the best gun.
Pick someone to shoot.
We face the gun.
(CROWD MURMURING)
You afraid?
Your shot.
(SCOFFS)
(CHEERING)
Is your turn, English.
Marcel!
You must learn sometime.
Shoot!
English,
double your bet!
You're mad. The three of you.
Take your fear and crawl back from where you came, eh?
Be sure it's what you want, English.
There are no forts out here.
No walls to hide behind, eh?
Shoot!
Where do they all come from?
The hills.
Yeah, a man ain't as lonesome as he feels sometimes.
How long has this been happening?
Third year. Thought you'd seen it all, huh?
And the tribes, together without fighting?
Oh, there's fighting, but no war. Just pure hellfire.
Allez! Who wants the apron?
(ALL CHEERING)
(ALL SINGING)
(WHOOPING)
There's your St. Louis.
Comes to us now.
See anything you need?
Nothing wrong with what I have.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Somebody you know?
Aye.
He's got a knife!
Put down... Watch out for the knife.
Drop it, Pasquinel!
Drop it!
Only play.
I know how you play.
The one you tangled with?
Jacques.
(FIDDLE PLAYING)
Ain't she pretty?
(ALL WHOOPING)
(CROWD WHOOPING)
Oh, no. No, no, I cannot dance.
Oh, yes. No. I cannot. I don't know how...
I don't know how.
Hey!
No. I don't know the dance.
BRIDGER: A Highland tune, piper. A Highland tune!
(MAN WHOOPS)
(BAGPIPES PLAYING SCOTTISH DANCE MUSIC)
(SPEAKING IN FRENCH)
Aye.
Non.
(MAN WHOOPS)
(WHOOPING)
Pasquinel!
Stay back!
Let him breathe! Go on, stay back.
The Pawnee arrow.
It is worse.
(PANTING)
PASQUINEL: Cut it out.
I'm not a surgeon.
I'm no surgeon, either.
But you still have your arm.
When you saved my arm, you had no choice. I have no choice now.
The Pawnee are patient.
They will finally kill me.
Pawnee?
How long has it been in there?
Since before we met.
Thirty years?
And each year worse than the last.
Cut it out, mon ami.
Dr. Butler told you if you tried that, it could kill you.
Dr. Butler has told many people many things.
You, I trust.
Cut it out.
I'll need a chair,
and some thongs,
and whiskey. Plenty of whiskey.
(HOOVES POUNDING)
Cut him loose.
Jacques, qu'est-ce que c'est?
You'd let him put a knife in you?
For more years than you have lived,
I've put my life in his hands, huh?
If he fails... If he fails, he will have tried his damnedest!
And he'll try because I asked!
Outside.
Jacques...
Allez!
McKeag?
Aye?
I know Jacques's lied about you.
Thank you, Marcel.
Is there anything I can do?
Aye.
Just keep your brother away from me.
I will.
You saw them both born.
You tell me.
McKEAG: They're only different to us.
Not to the rest of the world.
More whiskey.
(SIZZLING)
Bring the lantern over here.
And give him something to bite on.
(PASQUINEL SCREAMING)
No, Jacques, wait.
I should have killed him before.
You've told the story wrong too many times before, Jacques.
McKeag could have killed you.
He could have.
That's one thing won't give him any more pain.
Still pumping strong.
Cut him out of the chair and lay him down.
He is all right?
Aye.
Here, Jacques.
Keep it.
So you'll remember you're not the only one this world's been rough on.
McKeag. He wants you.
Merci, mon ami.
Clay Basket is right.
You are the most gentle of men.
We'll be around.
Sit.
So how's the trapping?
Streams are losing their beaver.
Jamais! You must go higher. You must go higher.
Always higher.
How high can we go?
You don't ask about her.
Maybe I finally learned not to ask questions.
Maybe you don't want to hear how much she misses you.
Come back, huh?
Like the old days.
I don't know.
Why not?
What about Jacques?
Jacques.
Jacques rides with the Sioux. Marcel, too.
It will just be the three of us again.
Maybe that's the trouble.
It was never just the three of us.
St. Louis?
St. Louis comes here now.
I saw.
You never go back at all?
This winter I made six bales.
In Blue Valley.
Do you remember Blue Valley?
Aye.
Six bales.
And no work at all.
Blue Valley is high.
You must climb.
Climb!
That's what I mean, there's no streams above it.
And where there's no streams, there's no beaver.
You're never going to change.
You will always worry.
Let me tell you something.
As long as men wear beaver on their hat,
that's how long the beaver will last.
Come back, huh?
Come back.
You rest.
McKeag.
Aye?
I have lived my whole life alone.
It is not the way.
Alone?
Alone.
LISE: Alexander?
Alexander.
It is you.
Hello, Lise.
You remember Lisette.
Oh, it cannot be.
It's been a long time, Alexander.
They told me at the office about your father. I'm sorry.
Thank you. He had a full life.
And you must come to dinner tonight and tell us all about yours.
Oh, no. I...
I need to talk with you, Alexander.
Well, then, I'll be there.
We've not seen him in seven years.
I've stopped hurting. I think Lisette has, too.
Did he ever find the gold?
Gold?
Ja. He showed me some nuggets.
He said that was why he was going back.
And I believed him.
'Tis true.
Do not humor me, Alexander.
I only want to know how he is. No. There is gold.
I just didn't know if he'd told anyone else.
Then he has found it?
Oh, I don't think so.
He said he was going to share it with you.
We don't share anything anymore.
You never got back together?
For a while. At the rendezvous.
The rendezvous?
In the mountains,
where the traders meet once a year.
I saw him, oh, two years ago.
How was he?
He had me cut the arrow from his back.
The arrow?
I thought it could not be cut out.
Almost couldn't.
He was hurt badly, then?
Not as bad as he's hurt others.
He never means to hurt anyone.
You know that.
I don't know anything about the man, and I care less.
He's hurt you.
How?
It doesn't matter.
Oh, I think it does. Very much.
Because I think he needs you, Alexander.
He needs no one.
Aren't you proof of that? And Clay Basket?
Hasn't he shown you both he only needs what he wants at the moment?
Is that her name? Clay Basket?
It is all right.
In a way, I'm glad to know there's just one woman.
One woman there. One woman in Montreal. One in Quebec.
One in New Orleans, who knows where else?
Wherever he's been!
And he talks about freedom.
Taught me how to survive on the plains,
where there's nothing to ever close a man in.
Where no one is rich and no one is powerful.
Where you're brave and able or you're dead!
But I'll tell you something, I don't think he knows anything about freedom.
All I think he knows about is running. Running from this, and running from that.
He calls it freedom,
but it's fear!
You must love her very much.
I've never loved anyone more...
She was the girl you told me about so many years ago,
the day Pasquinel and I got married.
I'm sorry. I had no right to say what I did.
You have every right, Alexander.
And you have the right to be happy, too.
I think there's only one way.
Find him.
Find him and tell him how you feel.
Tell Clay Basket.
Do not let it fester inside of you and make you a bitter old man.
No. No.
You have to.
Do you not realize what you've shared?
You have both loved the same woman all these years.
In different ways, maybe, but you both loved her.
You've saved each other's lives.
And maybe more important than anything else,
you've gone together where no man has ever been before.
That is a bond that cannot be broken.
A bond more important than wives,
and even children.
Ja.
God forgive me, I believe that.
I believe it because none of us has shared
what the two of you have.
Few people ever do.
You and Pasquinel opened the doors of a wilderness.
You showed a whole new country how to grow.
How to be great.
Go to him, Alexander.
Go to him,
while there is still time.
I knew it! It's here!
(WHOOPING)
Pasquinel!
(CLAY BASKET SHOUTING)
(SOBBING) No!
No!
(WIND HOWLING)
When will your sons come back?
They live with the Sioux.
I'll take you to them.
You could trap here.
I have my own traps.
McKeag.
I'm alone.
No.
We'll start down tomorrow.
In the snow?
I got in, we can get out.
Together.
The little one?
She'll be mine.