But in the summer of 1865, word reached them that the war had ended, and many of the former slaves wanted to leave the island, an option the Caddos didn’t feel was available to them. There were new families that were split as the blacks migrated to the land where Hopetown sits now, eventually using the Homestead Act to acquire the lakefront property. But they still ran supplies out to Gogo Island, still protected the Indians from the outside world. These were Leroy Page’s ancestors. And over time, they built a thriving community that existed outside of the white world completely. There was a school, a church, a small bank, a community garden, and small businesses. For years, they went into town, into Jefferson, only out of absolute necessity, to file papers or to purchase goods they couldn’t grow or get on their own in Hopetown. The old-timers told Marcus there was a deep and maybe not-so-irrational fear of having their lives stolen from them again. Even though the war had ended, they had committed a crime, and they weren’t sure that Penelope Deschamps and her people would easily forget that. No one likes to admit the fear that was built into Hopetown from the very start, the sense of their freedom being as fragile as the shell of an egg, something that would crack if you held it too tightly, if it weren’t handled with the utmost care.

“But how did the Caddos end up there as well?” Darren asked.

“What you got to understand is Caddo Lake, back in the day, was just buck-ass wild, a playground for all manner of criminals, rumrunners and thieves and murderers, but Texas law couldn’t really do much about it, or it simply didn’t choose to. But in the late 1800s, the state created what would eventually become the fish and gaming commission in order to stop the overfishing of catfish and bass and the men who were making a fortune harvesting oysters for pearls till there wasn’t hardly none left. Whatever started it, there were suddenly lawmen on boats, combing every bayou and strait, every island and cypress stand on the lake. It was Page’s people that got the Caddos of Gogo Island safely out of there, inviting them to make a home in Hopetown. Ain’t another bit of history like it. I believe them when they say they are descended from a band of Hasinai Caddo Indians who never left the state of Texas, no matter the white man’s laws.” Marcus slapped his knee, pleased with the outcome of his tale.

“So selling to the trust,” Darren said, “assuming it’s real—”

“Big if.”