Centennial (1978–1979): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Yellow Apron - full transcript
Clay Basket tells the returning traders of Lame Beaver's wish for her to be with Pasquinel, unaware that Pasquinel has just married Lise, who is now pregnant. She puts her father's desire ahead of her feelings for McKeag. Pasquinel is hoping that Clay Basket can remember where her father found the gold. In 1809, Clay Basket gives birth to her first son, Jacques Pasquinel, followed two years later by Marcel. Pasquinel moves freely between his two worlds and two families. After the loss of her first child, Lise gives birth to a daughter, Lisette, in 1816, but Pasquinel does not know of this and does not return with McKeag. Pasquinel decides his boys, being half-white, should see the city. McKeag tries to persuade him that the two families should not meet. Clay Basket, who says a woman always knows when a man has another woman, talks him into taking them to the fort just outside St. Louis instead. They run into some prejudice at the fort where Jacques is injured and left with a bad facial scar. Now he chooses to go to Lise and see Lisette instead of tending to his suffering son. With Pasquinel away, Clay Basket pours out her feelings to McKeag. Kiowa come and McKeag and the others defend themselves with Jacques, once again, being scarred with another wound. He now has two scars, one from a white man and one from an Indian. Years pass while Pasquinel stays in St. Louis and McKeag watches over the other family. Resentment is growing between Jacques and McKeag. When Pasquinel finally returns, Jacques stabs McKeag and Pasquinel persuades his friend to withdraw so as not to kill Jacques. Meanwhile, Pasquinel tells Lise this will be his last trip and he shows her the gold.
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.
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.
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."
This is Lisette.
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.
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?
I've never been better.
But you look even thinner.
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.
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.
Marcel!
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.
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.
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.
Pretty soon now.
What? Listen.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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?
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.
Stop it, Jacques!
What are you doing?
He's not your friend!
You put that knife away, son.
Jacques!
Never drive it into
the hilt, lad.
It's too hard to pull out.
McKeag, no!
McKeag.
Are you all right?
McKeag!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
You want to bet?
I make bet.
I bet I have best damn
Hawken in the world.
That's a wager I accept.
Bravo!
No American gun made can
match an English one.
State your proposition.
Scoring and rules.
Rules?
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.
You afraid?
Your shot.
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!
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?
There's your St. Louis.
Comes to us now.
See anything you need?
Nothing wrong with what I have.
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.
Ain't she pretty?
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.
- A Highland tune, piper.
- A Highland tune!
Aye.
Non.
Pasquinel!
Pasquinel!
Stay back!
Let him breathe!
Go on, stay back.
The Pawnee arrow.
It is worse.
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.
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.
Bring the lantern over here.
And give him something
to bite on.
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.
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!
Pasquinel!
No!
No!
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.
No.
We'll start down tomorrow.
In the snow?
I got in, we can get out.
Together.
The little one?
She'll be mine.
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.
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.
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."
This is Lisette.
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.
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?
I've never been better.
But you look even thinner.
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.
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.
Marcel!
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.
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.
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.
Pretty soon now.
What? Listen.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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?
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.
Stop it, Jacques!
What are you doing?
He's not your friend!
You put that knife away, son.
Jacques!
Never drive it into
the hilt, lad.
It's too hard to pull out.
McKeag, no!
McKeag.
Are you all right?
McKeag!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
You want to bet?
I make bet.
I bet I have best damn
Hawken in the world.
That's a wager I accept.
Bravo!
No American gun made can
match an English one.
State your proposition.
Scoring and rules.
Rules?
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.
You afraid?
Your shot.
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!
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?
There's your St. Louis.
Comes to us now.
See anything you need?
Nothing wrong with what I have.
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.
Ain't she pretty?
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.
- A Highland tune, piper.
- A Highland tune!
Aye.
Non.
Pasquinel!
Pasquinel!
Stay back!
Let him breathe!
Go on, stay back.
The Pawnee arrow.
It is worse.
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.
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.
Bring the lantern over here.
And give him something
to bite on.
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.
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!
Pasquinel!
No!
No!
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.
No.
We'll start down tomorrow.
In the snow?
I got in, we can get out.
Together.
The little one?
She'll be mine.