The guide yelled out “Dr. StalkingWolf! Can we substitute this gentleman for one of your cancellations?”
She yelled back “I don't know, what's his interest in the dig?”
“He says that he is particularly interested in this era of our local history. He has some fascinating viewpoints on some of the artifacts that you have displayed.”
Dr. StalkingWolf’s body language signaled the guide to stop shouting and speak privately. The guide took the clue, walked up to Dr. StalkingWolf, and whispered in her ear. “Linda, he knows about the massacre and that the stakes used to kill the Nanticoke; He also knows that the remains of one of the boys are missing.”
Dr. StalkingWolf blanched and replied. “Yes, we would be pleased to have him along. What is your name sir?”
“Thank you, I am known as Oria that is Oria
Stoneax.”
Dr. StalkingWolf looked stunned and swallowed hard. Engraved in Scandinavian writing on a long two-edged sword discovered in the dig was the name
Stoneax. With a fixed smile, she replied, “Well Mr. Stoneax, we would be happy to have you on our tour.”
“Thank you again, you can call me Oria, I have not used the name
Stoneax in many years.”
“Ok Oria, please join the rest of us and let's all board the vehicle.”
The seven visitors boarded and Dr. StalkingWolf climbed in the driver’s seat. It took about 5 minutes to reach the dig site. Once there, everyone got out of the SUV.
Dr. StalkingWolf started the tour off by gathering everyone together at the entrance to the site. She said, “I want to thank everyone for coming out today. I hope all of you are as excited about this site as I am. First, some ground rules. Everyone is informal at the dig so please feel free to call me Linda. Also, please stay on the marked areas and don't touch anything. I know many of you already know these rules, but for those of you not versed in archeology, please refrain from touching anything. Great, are there any questions?”
One man towards the front of the group spoke up and asked “Linda, thanks for inviting us out here. I am really excited about something you found describing the relationship between the natives and the Vikings.”
Linda smiled and responded “Good point, as some of you know we have found a number of Viking artifacts at this site. It appears that a band of Vikings settled down towards the river in our dig. We’ll touch more on that topic later. Again, I request all of you to keep most of what you find out today quiet until we prepare a formal announcement. We don’t want to fuel any new and false theories prior to getting all of the facts.”
A woman towards the back of the group asked, “Linda is it true that you believe the Vikings held some of the local Indians captive and were eventually freed by another tribe?”
“I don't want to jump to any conclusions. However, there is some evidence to support that theory.”
Oria kept a poker face throughout this discussion. He was the only one in the group who knew the real fate of the slaughtered family and the local people. It took Oria a fair amount of self-control to refrain from pointing out the errors in Linda’s theory of the Vikings holding the local people captive and their rescue by another tribe. After all, Oria was a member of the slaughtered family and he knew the Vikings and local Nanticoke people had intermixed for several generations prior to his birth. In fact, they had become one people.
After several more questions, the group proceeded towards the massacre site. It was the first site on the way to the village remains. As they reached the clearing, Oria could see the petrified remains of his father and brother near their stakes. Their skin and facial features were intact and etched in stone. Oria stared at the location where the Susquehanna had bound and burned him. His stomach turned as horrible images ran through his mind. He couldn't believe that his father and brother's remains were still intact
after 500 years and that no one had properly cared for them. He looked closer at the remains. The look of shock grew more pronounced on Oria's face.
Linda seeing Oria's discomfort said to him “Oria, are you Ok?”
Oria took a deep breath and replied, “I think so. This site brings back some bad memories. Those remains appear petrified while others aren’t.”
“Yes. That's puzzled many of our team. This father and son must have been quickly petrified as they were burning at their stakes while the others left at the stakes were not. We have no idea how that is possible.
We did not find anywhere else at this site any petrified artifacts or human remains”
Oria knew how the remains must have been petrified. His alien captors must have scared off the Susquehanna and fired an alpha-K beam at his father and brother to save them from the agony of death. The others were already dead. Oria partially regaining his composure looked up at Linda and replied, “It certainly is a mystery. Maybe it was an extra-terrestrial being that intervened.”
Linda chuckled to herself thinking this guy must be another one of those alien chasers. “Interesting theory Oria, I'm glad to see you're recovering and have a sense of humor.”
Linda then returned her attention back to the group and started speaking. “As you can tell from Oria's and my conversation, we have uncovered some phenomena that we can’t readily explain. What you see here is evidence of more brutal times in our history. As you can see, evidence shows that our ancestors bound to stakes, scalped, and set afire many people. We’re not sure why one of the stakes had no remains. We also don’t understand why we found petrified remains on only two stakes and not any of the others.”
Linda paused for a moment; the horror of this scene still angered her. She felt that the white man had frequently wronged Native Americans, but still she did not agree with some of the methods of her ancestors. She continued, “Most of what you see here was buried under a mound of sand and stones. Whoever put these people to death must have fled quickly. It looks like friends of the slain family buried the entire site. This is not a traditional burial by either Vikings or Native Americans. We can only guess that whoever buried this site must have been gravely frightened yet concerned that some attention be paid to the deceased.”
Linda paused, and then pointed at a location away from the stakes and said, “Over there we found some Susquehanna arrow heads and other artifacts. Also, we have found many Nanticoke artifacts at this site. Of course, we expected to find Nanticoke artifacts since they are indigenous to this site. I say we, since I too, am a member of the local Nanticoke people. Our tribe has been located in this vicinity for many hundreds of years.”
Linda surprised Oria at her revelation that she was Nanticoke and a decedent of his tribe. He wondered if she might even be a relative of his. However, it saddened him that she had no idea of the strong link between the combined Viking and Nanticoke heritage of her people. Oria raised his voice and asked Linda, “Linda, are you suggesting the relationship between the Viking and Nanticoke people was not a mutually beneficial relationship. How do you know it wasn't the Susquehanna that came down and killed this family and their local Nanticoke tribe?”
Linda appeared a bit flustered. There was no way she could accept that anyone of European descent could have been decent to her people. She replied very sharply, “I believe history speaks for itself. For hundreds of years, Europeans have come to America and stolen land from the rightful owners. I don't see any compelling evidence to see where this group was different. Besides, Vikings weren't known
as peace lovers. Most recorded encounters between Vikings and Native Americans ended in violence. For the most part Vikings, unlike other Europeans, weren't able to come over in sufficient numbers to defeat the local people.”
Oria was amazed at the depth of Linda's conviction. He knew there would be no quick changing of her mind. Therefore, he responded in a neutral voice “Thanks for your answer. I believe I know where you're coming from.”
Linda replied rather tartly. “You’re welcome.” She then glanced at the entire group and realized that she just slandered almost everyone there. Fortunately, most of the current lists of invitees were used to Linda's strong feelings. She was a well-known activist of Native American rights. Most of them agreed with her and contributed money to her cause. One of the reasons they came along on this tour was to see firsthand older historical evidence that supported Linda's assertions. The only one in the group that Linda was unsure about was Oria. She was starting to regret her decision to let him come along. Linda decided they had spent enough time at the massacre site. She feared Oria might come out with another remark that might have brought her current assertions in doubt. She got the group back into the SUV and headed back towards the dig around the old Viking village.
The SUV pulled up just outside of the village and parked next to a roped off area. Oria climbed out of the truck and scanned the site. The memory of his old self started to come back to him. It was much prettier back then. His people had kept the field trimmed and low right up to the village wall. They kept the field clear to make anyone approaching the village more visible. Inside the village, they built the buildings with a mixture of both Viking and Nanticoke architecture. The Viking designs were more permanent than typical for the Nanticoke designs. The Nanticoke's were more nomadic than the Vikings.
Linda led the group up a walkway towards the outside wall of the village. She was describing various artifacts found along the way. Once the group reached what used to be the village gate, she stopped the group and started speaking.
“You are standing almost on top of where the gate to the village used to exist. We have plans to rebuild this village as closely as can be determined how it existed 500 years ago prior to its destruction by the raid. When you get inside you will find a mixture of Viking and Nanticoke architectures. The two groups must have co-existed for a long time. We have found signs of buildings that existed and someone destroyed long before the destruction of the village during the final raid. The Nanticoke people on the Eastern Shore of Maryland mostly fished and farmed. The evidence showed that the Nanticoke were a peaceful people and avoided war. The Vikings probably had an easy time making slaves out of the local people.”
Oria interrupted with several statements. “Linda, I agree from what we know of Viking history it is logical to conclude that the Vikings must have enslaved the local people. However, several things confuse me with this site. The newer buildings at this site appear to be of the same style. From the diagram you passed out, it does not appear that any slave quarters existed. In a typical Viking village, the leader always had the largest house with a great room that the entire village used. What I see, looks like a standard village with a mixture of Viking and Nanticoke customs. I don't see anything to suggest that there were two groups, but one group that had a hybrid heritage from both Nanticoke and Viking cultures.”
Linda was thinking to herself
; if this guy keeps bringing up these points, I will never be able to use this site to bolster my arguments that the local people have over a 500-year history of receiving abuse from the Europeans. Linda needed more evidence to bolster her work at gaining funds and land for her people. This newcomer, Oria, was becoming a problem. Linda decided that her best bet would be to discredit Oria. She then looked at Oria and replied, “I can tell you studied your history books. The charts that I passed out don't tell the entire story. If the only information I had to go on was those charts and the finds at this site, I might be inclined to agree with you. However, I've been studying the history of my people since I was a little girl. History books do not adequately record most of the older history. It is very likely that the structures used by the Nanticoke people were not as permanent as the Viking structures. After 500 years it would be difficult to determine if any other structures existed which were exclusively made from vegetation or animal hides.”
Oria had several images from his childhood brought to mind. It was true; some of the Nanticoke people stuck to traditional customs and never adopted any of the Viking customs. However, that was not the norm. Oria remembered there was no distinction between those partially descendant from Vikings or those that were of pure Nanticoke descent. In
fact, after 400 years and many generations of people, any significant traces of Viking blood had long ago disappeared. Oria thought Linda’s cause blinded her such that she could not see the truth when it was staring her in the face. He decided to just nod his head ok and not pursue the subject any further.
Linda seeing Oria's tacit acknowledgment, continued on describing several of her findings at the site. She led the group towards the largest building on the complex, Oria's childhood home. The group stood at the doorstep of Oria's old home. As Oria stood there, he was coming to come to grips with his past. One of the reasons he wanted to return to the Eastern Shore was to put the torment of his last days on Earth behind him. He knew he would need to accept his tortured past if he was ever going to lead a contingent from Earth into battle against the Creytes.
Linda began speaking about Oria's old home. “This building most likely served as the home of the leader of the local Vikings as well as the 'town hall'. You can see there are very few rooms off the grand hall. Mostly, the other rooms were the living quarters for the ruling family. We have uncovered a wealth of artifacts from this site including an old ax head, a two edged sword, pottery, cooking utensils, and a host of other family items.”