Outskirts Press, INC.

I am retired and spend many hours remembering and writing stories concerning my younger life in Missouri. Since some of my ancestors were full blooded Cherokee Indian I have always felt the Indian in me throughout my life. I lived worked and hunted on my families farm from when I was 4 years old until I was 18. We raised and harvested or hunted for most of our food. My parents sold this farm many years ago but the look and feel is still i my mind clearly as if it was yesterday. In my mind I can see the Quiver River shinning in the distance as I watch for the Deer. I imagined in my story, the young Osage Brave that I wrote about, lived and grew up in the same area where I had lived on my family's farm in Missouri. The area features are the same and it has the same look today and the Deer feed in the same places. I used to sit on the bluff as I described in the story and watch the wolf cubs playing around the small cave where Mentoc got his own cub. The Indian Graves are located where I describe them on the farm. My father and I decided to never dig into the graves to desecrate them. We found many Arrow Heads and a few Axe Heads while plowing the ground in the bottoms near the Quiver River using a plow pulled by three horses prior to planting each spring. I have hunted the same areas and have traveled the same paths as Mentoc. I got my first Deer on this farm. I got my first Rabbit, Squirrel and Quail (usually for our supper) here also. I have hunted with a Bow and Arrow but was not as successful as my ancestors.