God has established the Allegheny Mountains from the foundation of the world that they might one day be a refuge for fugitive slaves. -John Brown

The following afternoon, Kweku heard the waters of the Patowmack before he saw them. Walking out of the woods near the point where the two rivers flowed together, he looked in wonderment at the steep ( Read more... )

Less than two months later, however, Kweku's dream of his village full of strangers recurred one night. It seemed identical in all respects to the previous dream, except that it felt different. He could not understand why the village didn't even look familiar any more. Even though he recognized everything about it, it was as though he'd learned ( Read more... )

A short while later, a crowd had gathered in the village center, surrounding a circle about ten cubits in diameter, drawn in the dirt with a white powder. Big Mose was there already, flexing his muscles and acknowledging cheers from the crowd. So this contest was to be an amusement for the people.

When Mose saw Kweku approaching, he pulled ( Read more... )

Later that morning, scrambling up the riverbank which was even steeper and slipperier than Turtle Woman had told him, Kweku looked up to see a hawk flying overhead in the direction he was going. He took it as a good omen that he was on the right course.

After he made the last turn, he entered a small clear space in the woods, with a stake ( Read more... )

On the right bank of the Monongahela, Turtle Woman sat on the high ground, facing the setting sun, overlooking the river crossing at Red Stone, the important crossroads where Nemacolin's Trail crossed at the only low riverbanks in the area. She held court in the ruins of a red stone building constructed by the People of Olden Times.

( Read more... )

"What do you call this country where we will live?"

"Alegwenink. That means 'They Came There from Far Away'. Which is just what it is."

"Who came there from far away?"

"We did. Everybody who's there did. The Lenape, the Shawnee, and the Seneca and Menkwe. "

{C} {C}

"So there were no people here before these people came?"

{C} {C}

"Oh yes, there were ( Read more... )

***

Ahsennamenshi explained: "Before, we always had either a war sachem or a peace sachem. But now? It isn't war, but it doesn't feel like peace either. It feels more like wartime. So we have a new kind of sachem. He's a we-have-to-travel-and-find-new-homes sachem. So we're kind of making up some of the rules as we go along."

"What do you call this ( Read more... )

"The best thing you can do is go west, up the far shore of the Patowmack, and find Nemacolin's Trail. Sometimes white settlers, traders, and soldiers travel on it. It's dangerous in the daytime, with them around. But at night, you can use it pretty safely, because you can hide in the woods if any of them come along. And you can travel faster to get ( Read more... )

Charity Marks and her children are another example of how my people have crossed racial boundaries ( Read more... )