Lovely in Her Bones Read Online Free PDF Page A

your pottery and other artifacts, and we could—”
    “We can’t do it that way. We need you to do some digging to find evidence that this was our land. There’s a cemetery in the valley where our people have been buried for at least a hundred and twenty years that we know of. That ought to count for something with the government, shouldn’t it?”
    “I suppose so, but wouldn’t it be simpler to get someone to do a study of your cultural patterns and link you up with the Cherokee or the Iroquois, so that you can get tribal status by association?”
    “Wouldn’t work.”
    “I seem to remember it being done that way once.”
    “Yeah, but it wouldn’t work for us. We don’t do pots, ner tomahawks, ner any of that craft stuff. Never have. And the only tribal language we got is the one I’m a-talking right now.”
    Lerche digested the information. He had no experience with Eastern Indians, but his work in the Southwest had led him to expect some vestiges of original culture, regardless of the years of exposure to white customs. How could they have lost all of it and still keep together as a tribe? It had the makings of an interesting study.
    “Do you know anything about your origins?”
    Stecoah leaned forward and put the knife back on the desk. “Now personally, I don’t hold much with the origin stories,” he drawled. “I reckon it’s enough that we’re Native Americans without having to put on some kind of dog-and-pony show about where we came from. But I know that if we’re goin’ to run this one by the Department of the Interior, that’s the kind of damnfool thing people are going to be asking.”
    “I would imagine so,” Lerche agreed. He was listening to the man’s rounded vowel sounds, hoping for some sort of distinctive accent, but to Lerche’s unpracticed ear, Stecoah sounded just like the few Appalachian people he had met.
    “The trouble is can’t nobody agree on where we came from. Some people want to think we’re descended from the Indians and settlers of the Lost Colony, but I don’t believe it. That was all the way across North Carolina on the coast. We’re mountain people. My mother claims we’re descended from a tribe called the Unakas who intermarried with some Moravian missionaries from Salem. Then there’s folk who claim some of Daniel Boone’s people left the party around the Cumberland Gap, and that they moved in with the local tribe, and that we’re thedescendants of that mixture. It don’t matter a hill of beans to me, as long as we get the land. Which story do you reckon they’ll like the best in Washington?”
    “I really couldn’t say,” murmured Lerche. “Perhaps I could recommend a qualified anthropologist who could study the matter for a few years and produce some kind of a theory based on more evidence.”
    The door swung open and Milo, shrugging off his white lab coat, shouldered his way into the room. “Hey, Alex, I don’t know what—” He looked up and noticed the visitor. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were in conference.”
    Alex smiled. “Milo, Mr. Stecoah is a representative of the … ah … Cullowhee Indians.”
    Milo looked impressed. “Pleased to meet you, Chief.”
    “Thanks. I’m not a chief. We don’t go in for that stuff. I was a master sergeant in the Army, though.”
    “Mr. Stecoah wanted to consult us about a dig on his people’s land. He needs some authentication so that his group can apply for tribal status with the government, but I was telling him—”
    “You been stonewalling me,” Stecoah growled. “Talkin’ about some kind of fancy study taking a couple of years. We don’t have that kind of time. The government’s about to turn our land over to some damned coal company for strip mining! We need help in a hurry, or we’ll have us a Trail of Tears, just like the Cherokees.” He grinned. “I’d rather have an outdoor drama like their’n, if it’s all the same to you.”
    Alex Lerche hesitated. He was as