After another ten minutes of driving, they finally arrived at the village.
Such a large convoy imdiately attracted attention.
When the villagers saw that many of the people in the jeeps were their own kin—n who had left years ago to fight in the war—the entire settlent erupted into excitent.
Aldo's grandfather ruled over a large group of Navajo people, numbering over 8,000. This was already considered a large tribe—after all, the total Navajo population was only about a hundred thousand across all their tribes.
Even by 2005, the Navajo population had only reached around 300,000.
Among all the ethnic minorities in the U.S., their numbers were among the lowest.
They were the original inhabitants of this land, yet they had been pushed into the most remote corners of the country, barely surviving.
What a tragedy.
The commotion outside quickly caught the attention of the tribe's leaders.
Soon, a group of people was escorting an elderly man to the entrance of the village.
"Aldo? Is that really you?"
A middle-aged man stared at Aldo from a distance, his voice filled with disbelief.
It was Aldo's uncle. Because of Aldo's military service, they hadn't seen each other for many years. Standing so far away, he couldn't be sure if it was really his nephew.
"It's , uncle. I'm back!"
Aldo stepped forward and gave his uncle a big hug.
"Aldo? It's really Aldo?"
The elderly man beside his uncle beca visibly emotional upon hearing his na. He was none other than the chief of the Quechan tribe, Aldo's grandfather.
The old chief was already in his seventies—a remarkable feat among Native Aricans, whose average lifespan was barely forty to fifty years.
Unlike Aldo's uncle, who occasionally visited him, Quechan had not seen his grandson for over a decade—not since Aldo's mother had passed away.
Looking at the strong young man before him, Quechan seed to see his own younger self. Then mories of his lost daughter flooded his mind and tears stread down his weathered face.
Seeing his grandfather like this, Aldo was overwheld with emotions.
Although he had left the tribe at a young age, it had been more his mother's decision than his own. He had few mories of the reservation, having visited only a handful of tis. But each ti he had been there, the people had treated him kindly. His grandfather always had food ready for him, and his uncle made sure to visit every year.
So he did feel a bond with this place.
That was why he wanted to push for the tribe's migration.
As a half-blood, no one understood the plight of Native Aricans in this country better than he did.
Leaving their ancestral land and crossing the ocean was a difficult decision, but he believed that with Josh's help, the Native Aricans could have a better future in Java.
Before coming here, Josh had personally assured him.
As long as the Native Aricans moved to Java, they would be granted full citizenship, allocated land, and provided the best education to lift them out of poverty.
They would even be given powerful weapons to protect their interests.
All they had to offer in return was their loyalty.
Besides, what did the Indian reservations have?
Barren deserts, endless wastelands—natural prisons.
But in Java, in Sulawesi, there were lush tropical rain forests, fertile soil, abundant ga, and rich marine resources.
By any asure, Sulawesi's environnt far surpassed the nearly desolate reservations.
And for Josh, that was a small price to pay compared to what he would gain from Sulawesi.
At the ti, almost no one knew that Sulawesi contained nearly a quarter of the world's nickel reserves.
By comparison, even a big country like China had only about one-seventh of Java's nickel deposits.
As one of the most important tals for industrialization, nickel alone was enough to make Sulawesi's rulers imnsely wealthy.
It would be one of the main pillars of Java's future economy.
But now it would all belong to Josh.
And the number of Native Aricans was too small to be a problem. The total population of Native Aricans in the United States was less than a million.
Even if every one of them agreed to migrate, which was unlikely, they would still be an insignificant fraction of Sulawesi's population.
Josh wasn't worried that the Native Aricans would be at a disadvantage once they arrived in Java.
Though both were considered "natives," Native Aricans were far bolder and more warlike than the Javanese, and they were also more industrious.
Josh's investnt in them would pay off many tis over.
In contrast, the natives of Java were astonishingly lazy when it ca to labor.
It couldn't be helped—natural resources were too abundant, and the land was too fertile.
Burn down a patch of forest, scatter so seeds, and a bountiful harvest would follow. So why bother getting up early and working hard?
"I see...migration, huh?"
Inside the chief's big tent, Quechan fell into deep thought after hearing his grandson's suggestion.
The word "migration" imdiately brought back mories of the late 19th century, when the U.S. governnt forcibly relocated Native Aricans to create the reservation system.
They had been driven from their once fertile lands to these barren wastelands.
Famine, disease, massacres—countless Native Aricans perished in that dark era.
Even their primary source of survival—the great buffalo herds—had been slaughtered to near extinction by the U.S. governnt (A/N: regionally extinct, later reintroduced from Canada).
So when Quechan heard the word "migration," his heart was clenched with fear.
He was afraid.
But he also understood that the current situation for Native Aricans couldn't possibly get any worse.
That vision Aldo described—of fertile islands in Java—was deeply tempting.
"Aldo, it's not that I don't believe you. But this is the future of thousands in our tribe, and potentially tens of thousands of Navajo people. I can't make this decision lightly. Besides, the other tribes may not listen to … I need to hold a council eting and discuss this with them. If possible, I would also like to et with your employer in person.
After who knows how long—after smoking several pouches of tobacco—Quechan finally spoke to his grandson.
Aldo frowned.
eting Josh?
Their statuses weren't equal at all.
Aldo was well aware that Josh was offering the Indians a new life in Java largely as a favor to him. Otherwise, Austria and Germany, with their tiny populations, could easily recruit many tis as many settlers.
Still, after thinking it over, Aldo made the call.
What Aldo didn't expect, however, was that after hearing the situation, Josh agreed to the eting without hesitation.
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