Half-Finished People

The 'Half-Finished People' was a name given by local Lakota tribes to deserters from the Duke of Wellington's army. Many were left behind in America after Jonathan Strange transported the city of Brussels there for three hours or so, shortly before the Battle of Waterloo. Soldiers of various nationalities readily took this unlooked-for opportunity to desert. After Brussels was returned to European soil the deserters, unequipped with the necessary skills to survive in their new home, relied upon the assistance of local tribes into whom over time they were absorbed. The suddenness of their appearance and their obvious unpreparedness for their new life led to a belief among the Lakota that they had only just been created, and that their Creator had botched the job - hence their name. They were discovered by an American trapper, Pearson Denby, in 1830 [40].