Chapter 10: Victors and Refugees
At the village of Nuktala, there was great joy as the sentries proclaimed the return of the war party. Women and boys ran to and fro, across and between the houses and pathways. They were making quick preparation for the return of the braves.
Everyone was assembling in the plaza, where in the center of it had been built a huge fire. The village people made a circle around the sides of the plaza. Chief Silver Eagle and the aliktce came out and took their seats under the pavilion. The elder men took seats behind them. All waited for the first warriors to come through the entrance of the palisade.
It was not long before the first of them appeared. The column of warriors was led by Wounded Eagle and Wolf Eyes. Next came Proud Cougar, and he was followed by the rest. The warriors who were able to walk came in and made a circle inside the crowd, strutting their manliness. Last came the slow ones in the column, the wounded, the slaves and guards, followed by the rearguards.
The people were singing and waving mimosa branches in a salute to the victors. The slaves were herded to a place like a coral that was partitioned off, so that it could be guarded from one side.
The braves that were healthy danced around the fire for a while. One by one they quit the dance to retire to blankets and bear hides that had been placed on the ground in the front row of the crowd. There still remained a few dancers, and now to keep the mood going, as one brave retired another would join back in the dance. There were always at least four braves doing the war dance around the fire.
Wolf Eyes came to Waving Willow, who was by his blanket on the ground. After a warm embrace, he settled down on the blanket, and she began to clean his wounds.
Red Talon came to his blanket to be with Three Baskets. She was glad to see him, but she immediately started to take care of his wound, which was severe. She left and came back with water and started to clean around the gashed entrance point of the arrow. It was a deep wound. The arrow point would have to be dug out and the wound bled.
Wounded Eagle, Wolf Eyes and Proud Cougar met with the chief in low council, while the dance continued. They told him of the alarm that upset the surprise attack and of the many Creeks that escaped.
The chief stood up and faced the elders and motioned them to meet in the council house. All the elders rose from their seats and followed the chief and the leaders of the war party to the council meeting.
Everyone there took their seats as the chief lit and handed out the pipes. They smoked first and then heard the story as explained by Wounded Eagle and Wolf Eyes. Wolf Eyes spoke first and began with the story of the spy that they had killed, who had been watching the path to the river and the river crossing.
Next, Proud Cougar spoke. “We then proceeded up the river until about midday, when we were warned from our forward scouts that a war party of Creeks were coming down the river in canoes. We took cover in the brush until they were well within our striking distance. We ambushed them with a volley of arrows. They, immediately, turned their canoes over and tried to swim away. One did escape to the other side of the river, and we sent Little Mink after him. Little Mink did not return.”
Wounded Eagle said his part. “We made haste, but were careful not to be discovered and advanced to the hill overlooking the Creek village, before dark. We were waiting for dark to send a contingent across the river, when the village became noisy with people in alarm. We knew that we had been discovered and attacked, immediately. Some of the people escaped by swimming across the river. Our attack was successful in destroying the village and many defenders. We also destroyed all the cornfields. So the village is completely unusable. Then, the next morning, we burned the bodies of the slain Creeks. We captured many women and children that were hiding in the woods.”
Wolf Eyes added, “The old aliktce managed to escape. He was the main instigator of the war on the Nunnimingo. I also believe that he is the one who murdered my Uncle Dark Walker. He has an evil spirit that controls him. It is bad that he escaped. We need to keep up our guard and sentries, because they may seek revenge.”
Chief Silver Eagle spoke, “This is none the less a great victory, and we will keep our sentries out and be ready for an attack. We will send a party to track the survivors and try to learn where they fled. They probably went up the river to the Talituca village. It is a larger village than Yellow Leaf, but it is some distance away. We will not worry too much about a counter attack now, for we have attacked them with a much superior force. It will not be long until the time of the Green Corn Festival. Rest up, let your wounds heal, and then we will make plans.”
The council meeting was over, and the braves returned to the celebration in the plaza. There was much merriment, food and dancing.
The spirits of the Nunnimingo dead had been revenged. The firelight lit up the plaza. The silhouettes of braves dancing in the firelight were intoxicating, and all who were there were lulled into a spiritual trance. Wolf Eyes was relaxed, and after a while, he and Waving Willow made their way to her house.
Up the great river, in the Creek town of Talituca, the refugees were coming out of the woods. There were a great number of them. Chief Broken Bow was caught by surprise, as the visitors hobbled into his village. Some were wounded and barely able to walk; some on makeshift litters pulled by others. He was not surprised when he found out that the Yellow Leaf village had been attacked, because of the war-like nature of some of the braves.
There were a few principal men from the Yellow Leaf who had escaped. One of these was the old aliktce who was called Black Scorpion. Black Scorpion pretended to be very ill, so ill that he could not walk or talk. The reason for this was that he and Chief Broken Bow were political enemies.
Black Scorpion was carried into town on a litter by four young boys. The boys were a new group of his understudies. He had chosen them from other boys in the old village because they had no uncles. These boys were loyal to him and were very worried about his illness that came on suddenly.
The refugees were all helped to the plaza, where they were given medical care. The townspeople came to help out. They picked out refugees to take into their houses for care and shelter, for the time being. It was almost dark, and they would sort everything out the next morning. Black Scorpion was taken to the home of Morning Star. She had tried her best to make him comfortable, but he seemed to be in much agony.
Sometime the next day Chief Broken Bow was sitting in his summerhouse listening to stories of the refugees and how they escaped. He already knew of the attack the Yellow Creek warriors had made on the village of Nunnimingo. He was a wise, old chief and was not surprised to find out that the raid was instigated by Black Scorpion. He had been on opposite sides of many political arguments with him before. In his opinion, the old man had bad medicine. Some of the survivors knew that Black Scorpion and some of his henchmen had escaped with the rest of them, but they did not know what had happened to his group.
Chief Broken Bow met with his principal men and let them know that Black Scorpion would show up at his village, sooner or later.
“When he arrives, I want to know it,” said Broken Bow. “When he arrives, we will make like we are welcoming him, but we will surround him and take him prisoner.”
It was later that Chief Broken Bow learned that Black Scorpion was already in the village and that his condition appeared to be serious. He came to the house of Morning Star to see the old aliktce. He would judge for himself as to the condition of the man.
Upon his entrance to the house, he smelled an acrid, stinking fragrance – almost like dead, rotting flesh. He looked at Morning Star. She looked bewildered, as though she did not know what to do. She could not stand the smell of the house since he had been brought there. But she was a kindly lady and had pity on the old man. She did not remove him from her house, but rather than that, she would, regrettably, bear the stench.
Chief Broken Bow looked down on Black Scorpion with a harsh stare. He had in his hand a lance. He used the tip of the
lance and threw the covers back. Black Scorpion could see him through the slits in his eyes. Chief Broken Bow poked the old man in the ribs, and the old man’s reflexes moved with a deadened jerk, and he made the sound of a moan. Chief Broken Bow wanted to endure the stench no longer, so he turned and left the house. He was halfway satisfied that the old man had some illness and was in a bad way.
There was a meeting held that afternoon by Chief Broken Bow, his own aliktce and the chief’s trusted general. “The aliktce, Black Scorpion, is in our village at the house of Morning Star. He is very ill,” said the chief.
The aliktec said, “Is he going to die?”
“I do not know, but he looks very bad. He cannot talk and is incoherent.”
“If he dies here,” said the aliktce, “we would be haunted by his spirit, and this one has ties to the demons of the underworld.”
“I think we are already having visits from demons of the underworld, as he has a great stench.”
“Then it is bad already, he should be taken where his spirit could not bother us.”
“This one is not worth what he could cost,” said the chief. Turning to his general, he said, “ Take this man back to the village of the Yellow Leaf where he made this trouble. Place him on the ashes of the burned out village and leave him there.”
The aliktec said, “He may still live and come back on us for revenge, if he recovers.”
“General, when you leave him, send the others away, so that they will not see; take your spear and nail him to the ground, so that he cannot come back. Maybe his spirit will be nailed there, too.”
“It will be done,” said the general.
“Do this immediately,” said the chief.
The general took two braves, and they went to the house of Morning Star. They got the old man on a litter and took him to the river. They loaded him in a canoe and were on their way to the village of the Yellow Leaf.
Black Scorpion, lying lifeless in the bottom of the canoe, thought, now what are they doing with me? What should I do? I could wreck this canoe and escape, but then I would be hunted. I’m sure that no good will come to me from this. Maybe it is better to remain still and see what is going to happen. They may just leave me somewhere to die. But why all this effort? They could have moved me anywhere to do that. This is strange that they would go to this trouble. There must be other reasons, but what? Chief Broken Bow is a crazy old dog. I’ll just keep playing this game.
The canoe continued on down the river until the wind changed, and the general was getting the full force of the stench.
He made the braves beach the dugout on the bank, so that he could change places with them. Having done this, the air was better for the general, and the canoe continued on down the river.
They reached the village of the Yellow Leaf and pulled the canoe up on the bank. They took care in getting the old man out, and the two braves carried him to the spot the general picked out. There, they laid Black Scorpion on a pile of ashes, amongst the bones of fallen warriors.
Skulls and bones were everywhere. It was not where the two braves wanted to be. They looked to the woods and around to detect any evil spirits that might be lurking. The breeze came up, and there was a coolness to it that was unusual for this time of year. Night was coming on now as the sun sank down to the horizon. Even the general was uneasy.
He sent the two braves to find wood to pile on the body of the old man. They did as he said, hoping they would not have to spend the night in this place.
The general stood at the feet of the lifeless body of Black Scorpion. He took tobacco out of his pouch and put it in the nose of the old man. He raised his lance, horizontally, above his head and stretched his arms toward the sky. He looked up at the sky, which was turning a gray color with streaks of red that originated from the setting sun on the horizon. He began to chant a death song and began to stomp in place a dance of death. He prayed to the Great Spirit for the forgiveness of the act he was about to commit. And then he looked down on the limp body of Black Scorpion. He may be dead already, he thought, so he prayed to the spirit of Black Scorpion for forgiveness.
Then after a moment of silence, he raised his lance to deliver the thrust that would go through the body and into the earth, below the bed of ashes. He thrust the lance down hard with all his might. At that exact time the body of Black Scorpion rolled over. The lance went into the ground and stuck so hard that it could not be retrieved.
Black Scorpion was up on his feet and threw his blanket over the head of the general. Then he threw the general off his feet with a leg kick to the back of the general’s knees.
By the time the general got the blanket off his head, all he could see was Black Scorpion running into the woods – as fast as a deer. The general cried the alarm, and the braves came running. All three ran to the place the general had seen Black Scorpion disappear into the woods.
When they got to the woods, they stopped and looked for signs as to the direction that Black Scorpion had gone. No signs were there. They followed the stench. Their noses could lead them. They went deeper into the woods. They had gone over the hill from the old village. It was completely out of sight. And then they stopped dead in their tracks. What was that they saw? Was it some movement at the top of the next hill?
Then they could see what it was – a silhouette against the last light in the sky. It was a wolf, then another appeared and another. The silhouettes of the wolves appeared as evil spirits, dancing along the ridge top. At that point the chase was over. The three made quick time in their retreat back to the canoe.
They did not bother to rest that night in the woods, but made all speed that they could muster back to Chief Broken Bow.
The tales that were spun from this event would be told over and over in the lodges of the Creeks. It would be a long time before someone from the village of Talituca returned to the site of the village of the Yellow Leaf.