Place of Exile

Place of Exile

It is the year 1760, in Scioto County, Ohio and the place is a small cave in the side of a mountain, in a lightly forested area.

The cave is small, about eight feet in width and 12 feet in length. As the room deepens, it gets smaller and smaller until only a couple feet high for several feet back. It has a cold, hard-packed dirt floor with sides and ceiling of stone. Only those under four feet in height can stand upright in the room. At one time, there were some small stones, small bones and twigs, but all have since been removed. It has been swept clean with large branches used like a broom. On the left side is a sleeping pallet made of grasses and straw covered by a couple fur-lined bear skins. Nearby, is a small basket-like carrying case which contains herbs and potions used for healing and some salves and creams. There is also a crude sewing needle made from sinew and bone of a small animal, perhaps a pheasant.

On the far right side of the room is a small camp fire site, small stones in a circle to keep the flames contained within and cold ashes. A small stack of twigs rests along side the wall. What apppears to be several small flint heads lie on the ground beside the twigs. Beside the twigs is a bowl and cup, old and used, made of the skulls of deer, polished with use. Beside these is a jug-like hog bladder, reinforced with gum and resin to be water proof. It is half full of water.

Near the fire place but not too near is a small cradle made of wood and tree limbs and leather thongs. Small rabbit hides adorn the inside of the cradle. Otherwise, it is bare.

The room smells clean and slightly of herbs and partly of smoke. It is not an unpleasant smell.

Just ouside the cave, leaning up against the cave's entrance is a frame over which blankets may be thrown or grasses may be woven, the only protection from the outer elements, or animals that might be able to crawl up this high, about five feet from ground level. The ledge is bare and clean with no evidence of who or what might live inside the cave.

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It is spring time in Ohio. The trees are ligh in the forest, from pine to oak and more. There are many types of grasses, short and long. There is moss, river reeds, weeds, flowers of all kinds and just about every kind of plant life known to the northern and midwestern United States.

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There are white people, Mingo Indians and a few black slaves for purposes of this story.

The Mingoes were a small tribe thought to be a branch of the Iriquois tribe. They settled in parts of Ohio and West Virginia and Virginia and were pretty much destroyed or assimilated by the mid 1800's, although some descendents live to this day, and their language is now written down, in part. Those that had not been killed by European guns had been killed by measles or smallpox.

The Mingoes had a reddish-brownish skin tone, sharp cheek bones and thick, dark hair, black or dark brown. They were not a large people, being average in height and weight. For the most part, they were a peaceful tribe although they did participate in the battles against the French during the late 1500's and early 1600's.

The whites were like whites everywhere in the United States at the time, with immigrants for ancestors. There were a strong, proud, often devious and sometimes kind people.

The blacks were runaway slaves, dark skinned, impoverished, poorly nourished, uneducated and very afraid and in captivity.

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The story takes place in a small area of Ohio, and the characters in this story are not concerned with the 'bigger picture' or the 'outside world.' All the people involved were mostly interested in survival.