Where the Lost Wander

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child death, animal death, and sexual content.

Chapter 20 begins in John’s point of view. Two days after John kills Magwich, Pocatello and his people leave, taking Wolfe. Washakie decides that after the buffalo hunt, his band will winter near Pocatello’s so Naomi can be near the baby until she is ready to “go home.” Both John and Naomi weep with gratitude. John trades three of his new horses for clothing and builds a wickiup (dome-shaped dwelling). It is September, and John hopes the wagon train crossed the Sierra Nevada before snowfall. Now that he and Naomi have stayed behind, they cannot possibly cross until spring.

The band travels east to hunt before cold weather sets in. They approach Crow territory and steal some horses from a village that stole from Washakie’s band previously. John learns that Naomi’s menstrual period has come again, proving that she is not carrying Magwich’s child. She sadly tells him she didn’t fight Magwich because she was afraid he would trade her and she would never see Wolfe again. He tells her there are many ways to fight. She was fighting for her brother and for her own life, and endurance is “a whole different kind of battle” (297), a harder one.