Pioneer Spirit

To get into the Thanksgiving spirit I read a book about a pioneer who became my hero. Her name is Mary Ingles, not the 'Little House on the Prairie' Mary Ingles. This Mary Ingles is the one who watched family members get slaughtered by Shawnee Indians, then was taken hostage by them, through the grace of God escaped enslavement, and walked 1000 miles home.

Mary was 23 at the time, with two young boys, and nine months pregnant- due any day. She and her boys and her sister in law were not slaughtered in the attack and were forced to walk or ride horseback over 500 miles down the Ohio river. Mary had her baby while she was in captivity on the trail. For the next few days, she rode horseback and nearly bled to death, while at the same time feeding her brand new baby girl. During her journey down the Ohio river, she suffered and bled, cared for her now three children, and memorized the terrain. She had no education about her surroundings because she was one of the first white people to explore that territory. While on the journey, one of the the leaders, Wildcat, recognized her strength and began to favor her among the captives.

When they reached the village, by custom all captives are forced to run down a line while the other villagers stand at the sides and beat them with sticks and alike objects. The purpose is to initiate the captives and find their strength. Mary and her children were exempt from this ritual because the person before her who ran down the line died and because Wildcat plead with the Chief to spare her. After the initiation, the captives are sent to work in the village. While working, other villagers are noting their skills so they can be adopted and put into Native families.

Mary was separated from her sister-in-law and put to work sewing shirts for the villagers and a nearby trading post. Wildcat came to Mary for a shirt. While getting measured, he asked her to be his wife and he would adopt her children. This was a promising offer because it was expected that Wildcat would one day be chief. Mary, hoping that her husband was still alive, refused Wildcat's offer and as a consequence was sold into slavery. Wildcat adopted her two son's. She was left with her baby and a full time sewing job at a trading post. Helping her sew and also taking turns nursing her baby was a Squaw. Mary was really sad about this, but also relieved in a way because she had much to do and little time and energy.

The trading company was planning a trip up the river (in the direction of Mary's home land) to salt some meet and prepare and gather food for the winter. Mary went because she had already been to the salt river where meat is preserved. On the journey to the river she met up with Ghtel, a large, fierce Dutch woman. Together they gathered food and prepared meals. Mary determined to escape, convinced she could not spend another night with the crew, planned her escape. She persuaded Ghtel to join her.She had to make a choice, was she going to abandon her baby? She knew she couldn't do the trek in the cold wilderness with no supplies with a baby. She left her baby in the care of the Squaw woman. Mary and Ghtel fled the company each with a blanket, one tomahawk, and a spear. They ventured out alone to gather food and hit the trail.

Mary led them to her home land according to memory. They started in autumn along the Ohio river. They ate berries, acorns, fish, and nuts. However, autumn turned to winter all to quickly and food grew sparse. Together these women traveled days without food. Their limbs were freezing, their shoes fell apart, and extreme stress led to contention. These two survived on Mary's dream to return home to her husband.

After some time with no food, Ghtel started going crazy. She threatened to eat Mary on several occasions. They were each other's survival, enemies, best friends, and warmth. With each fight they lost supplies. Soon they had no tomahawk, one blanket, no clothes or shoes left on their bodies, and no spear. They dug the frozen ground looking for bugs, roots, and worms. Naked, cold, bleeding, and crazy these women trekked until one day Ghtel bit Mary, attempting to eat her. Mary fought Ghtel for her life. Mary crossed the freezing river for safety. That night apart from each was bitter cold and unbearable. Miraculously, they both survived the night lonely and desperate. The following morning they continued trekking with a huge river between them. Usually they were in view of each other which lessened the pains of loneliness. They reached a fork in the river with a mountain to cross and hoped to see each other on the other side. Mary climbed the frost covered cliff only to find one more cliff. As her body ate itself for nourishment and warmth she slept the night and was relieved to find herself alive the next morning. She again climbed another snow speckled cliff. On the other side she saw a house with smoke leaving the chimney. She had never seen a more beautiful site in her life. At this point in her journey she could not longer walk on her bloody frosty feet. Forced to crawl, she made her way to the house. Coming out of the house was her friend and neighbor. He didn't recognize her at first because of her skeletal appearance and her hair turned bright white due to the extreme stress she endured. While re-acquainting herself with her neighbor she passed out. Luckily he nursed he back to health. Mary still had at least another day's travel before reaching her home. After only days of being cared for, she again (with the assistance of her neighbor) began journeying home. She made it home to no husband. All of this time, her husband had been having his own adventures trying to find Mary. Within a very short time, they found him and brought him back to Mary. Their homecoming was indeed emotional and loving, but something had changed in Mary's eyes. Her experiences left her separated from him in certain ways.

She tried persuading her neighbor to go and find Ghtel, but after hearing her survival story, he and the town refused to go and find Ghtel the cannibal. Mary was devastated because no one could really understand the things that they had gone through together and although Ghtel, tried to eat a few times, she was still her loving friend. Finally they agreed to go find Ghtel. They found her alive and brought her to Mary. Their reuniting was difficult and yet happy and completely normal.

Mary and her husband lived a long life together. They had more children. Eventually Mary was reunited with one of her son's that Wildcat adopted. The younger of the two sons died two weeks after separation from Mary, his mother. And she never heard of her baby girl again. She and her husband bought back her sister in law. Mary's husband died at 50 something and she died at 80 something. Her son wrote her adventures down. And she is a living legend and my new hero.

Yes, this is a long post, but think of it this way : I just saved you from reading approx 400 pages of Follow the River by James Alexander Thom, a national best seller.