The Story of the White Madman

A white settler advanced deep into the Native American territory because he knew that the Apache tribe happened to be less war-prone than their neighboring tribes, and he also knew that they had access to incredibly fertile farm-land. He arrived with loads of guns in exchange and the chief was happy enough to grant him that trade. He promised our settler that he could pick land on their territory and whatever distance he could travel by foot from dawn to sun-set would be his. Our settler was excited and given that he was a good walker started marching with a speedy step at a location of his choosing. The Indians were observing the march of the settler from a shady, comfortable spot up on the hills and they were amused how he tried to carve out land from that limitless abundance. The settler made good progress, but some time later in the afternoon he realized that he had miscalculated. While he had already staked three quarters of the plot, the crucial river access was still missing. As he was short in time he had to drop his water bottles and had to start running to make the remaining distance before sunset. When the Indians saw the desperate attempts of the settler they started laughing. "The Great Manitou has given us these abundant hunting grounds and that idiot runs for his life to steal them from others", the chief said. Well, it turned out that he ran for his life, but didn't make it. Four hundred yards before his target the settler collapsed. The Indians were nice enough to bury him on his new property.