Where the Lost Wander

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and sexual content.

Chapter 12 begins in Naomi’s point of view. The smaller wagon train camps by the Big Sandy River. Ma has a bad cough, and Wolfe must be fed goat’s milk with a spoon to supplement her milk. John eats with the Mays every night. He tells a story one night of the love between a Pawnee man and a Comanche woman. Though the groups are enemies, the man loves the woman so much that he becomes a Comanche. John says the story is about “Peace between people” (184). Ma later says it is the story of John and Naomi, and that in asking for Naomi’s hand, John promised William he would become part of the May family and help care for them.

The perspective shifts to John. The train reaches the Green River, where John goes to look for a good place to cross. In the distance he sees a band of more than 100 Shoshoni people, mostly women and children, fording the river. As he watches, a pack mule struggles in the water, throwing two children and a woman with a baby girl into the river.