We met again, via ZOOM to discuss “Follow the River” by James Alexander Thom. We had hoped that Jim would join us as he has in the past, but he had a conflict. So we went ahead with our small crew: Sarona Burchard (from Phoenix), Kathleen Angegolone, Dave Young, and Jay Carr. Susie and Bill Briscoe led the discussion. Thom, who has joined our meetings in the past, sent his greetings in an email to Bill. Those of us who have met Thom know him to be a wonderful story teller and a very accessible human being. Perhaps because he is married to a Native American, Dark Rain, he did an excellent job of balancing the negative traits of the Shawnee, their cruelty and obstinacy, with their caring for their own community and their sense of honor and dignity. Thom, who is very active in the Vonnegut Library, shares Kurt’s interest in anthropology and the importance of community in human affairs.

There was something forbidding about this 400 page tome. Tracking this brave woman who was following the Ohio River and its tributaries over several weeks with minimal resources and terrible circumstances was a grim task. Nevertheless, those of us who stuck with her to the end felt somewhat rewarded. Susie skillfully guided us through a work which she thought was written from a woman’s perspective. She was particularly impressed with the way the protagonist, Mary Draper Ingles, handled childbirth under horrible conditions and her ability to disassociate herself from her infant when she had to leave him with the Shawnee when she made her escape. Mary was motivated by the need to go home, even though she knew her home and its village had been destroyed in a massacre. While being taken away, she memorized the scenery along the river so that she could find her way back. She believed that if she could remain dignified she would win the respect of the Shawnee. The book is a study of human nature. Both Mary (who felt guilt for leaving her infant behind) , and her husband, Will (who let her be taken hostage as his resistance would have been futile) both learned to put shame and guilt behind them to get on with their difficult lives.

Mary’s dignity is rewarded when Wildcat, chief of the Shawnee tribe that captured her, is impressed by her stoic child bearing experience and demeanor and spares her from running the gauntlet to which the other hostages are subjected. Wildcat clearly wants Mary to be his squaw but does not force himself on her. Mary realizes that she would be respected and live a fairly comfortable life in terms of the tribal culture but rejects him in the hope that she can return to her husband and Draper’s Meadow. We noted that the gauntlet was not much different than the old fraternity hazing routine. It sorted out who was fit enough to join the club.

Most of the book is consumed by the long foot march along the Ohio and its tributaries from the Cincinnati area to the western regions of Virginia. She and her fellow escapee “Gretel” traversed what appears to be about 600 miles at the rate of ten to twenty miles a day surviving on what food they could find. Hunger is a major theme and Thom himself underwent a long fast so he could better understand how hunger affected one’s disposition. If you want to know how Thom prepared for this novel you might want to check out an hour long interview John Krull had with Thom on his WFYI show “No Limits.” https://www.wfyi.org/programs/no-limits/radio/hoosier-authors-james-alexander-thom-and-dark-rain. This trek is rather tedious and nasty – the thought of eating grubs, rotten carcasses, and combing through feces looking for digestibles can ruin one’s dinner. Nevertheless, it is so well-written and destination driven that it is hard to put down. Thom has apparently taken artistic license with what the human body can tolerate. How the two scantily clad women avoided hypothermia fording frozen tributaries and overcame infections and digestive problems is nothing short of miraculous. Well, people were a lot tougher in those days!

Mary’s relationship with Gretel forms an interesting subplot. Mary is in her early twenties and Gretel is described as an older Dutch woman (probably in her thirties) who came from a village of German settlers in Eastern Pennsylvania. Gretel is not as fit as Mary, but she is just as tough although completely ruled by her stomach. Their conversation is minimal due to Gretel’s limited knowledge of English. After weeks of near starvation she is ready to cannibalize Mary and puts a plan in motion. Mary manages to separate from her and they spend the last part of the trek following opposite sides of the river but staying in touch. Mary is fascinated when Gretel spreads herself out on a rock and pretends to be dead so that she might capture a buzzard coming to feed off her carcass. When Mary reaches Draper’s Meadow she convinces the men to search for Gretel although they think she deserves to perish. She is rescued and Mary, being the super human that she is, forgives her as she is carted off to join her village in Pennsylvania.

In the happy ending, Mary has a joyous reunion with Will (after he overcomes his disgust at what he thinks the savages have made of her) and they rebuild their lives. Mary has a sixth sense about Indian raids and believes that it is not safe to stay in Draper’s meadows. They leave and escape disaster. In real life, they have many more children and Mary lives to a ripe old age. Mary is a superwoman and there is little in this novel that would displease a feminist.

Jay and Dave reminisced their personal knowledge of the Ohio River watershed. Jay has hiked the New River Gorge and Dave has white-water rafted the Cheat and Monongahela Rivers. Dave also spent a few months in Portsmouth, Ohio (lower Shawneetown) working on a federal project. We don’t usually think of southern Ohio as Appalachia, but those who have travelled the region know of its grinding poverty which has been detailed in two recent novels: “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance and “Knockemstiff” by Donald Ray Pollock.

We gave this heavy page-turner an 8.6 score on the exquisitely designed KV ten point scale. Doubtless it would have been higher if Thom had participated! Our next meeting will kick off 2021 (a better year, we hope) with “In Dubious Battle,” the third novel in John Steinbeck’s dustbowl trilogy. Its all about organizing agricultural workers in California in the 1930’s – at least that is the surface story! So please join us at 11AM on Thursday, January 28, 2021 for ninety minutes of spirited discussion. I will get the ZOOM connection out to everyone as soon as it comes to hand. [Updated 1/13/21: Thanks to Jay Carr the ZOOM connection for 1/28/21 will be: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86700135643%5D.   

 

Dave Young

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Kirkus Review 1981

Fleshed out from historical accounts and records, this is a strong novelization of a true woman-versus-nature ordeal. In 1755 Mary Draper Ingles, 23, pregnant mother of two, is kidnapped by Shawnees following their massacre of Mary’s West Virginia settlement–a vivid bloodletting. She, her two sons, and sister-in-law Bettie are taken downstream on Sinking Creek–as Mary gives birth to a daughter, then next morning must ride horseback or be slaughtered. (Almost bleeding to death, she nonetheless keeps a cheerful face for the Indians, who respect strength.) They spend 17 days at a salt lick, killing and salting game for winter, then push on to the great O-y-o (Ohio) River and follow that until reaching the Shawnee village–where prisoners are stripped and made to run a gauntlet of whippers before being adopted by Indian families. Mary has a sewing basket and goes into shirtmaking for profit. But when the Shawnee chief asks for her hand, she turns him down; so he sells her to a pair of French traders to work in their store, keeping her sons to raise as braves. And when the traders take Mary and old Dutch woman Ghetel to a second lick to collect salt, Mary decides to abandon her baby to a squaw and strike out for home with Ghetel. They sneak off and endure ever greater starvation for 43 days as they trek about 600 miles, following the rivers back to Mary’s settlement. . . while her husband rides into the Cherokee nation and tries to effect her ransom. The two women fail at fishing and hunting, are skin and bone in the fruitless fall, vomiting plant fibers, chewing a rotten doe’s head or acorns and grubs. Then it’s sleet, wolves, and fording deep streams. Ghetel becomes demented and hunts Mary to eat her. And finally: a crawl on skeletal hands and knees straight up a snowy stone 500-foot bank. . . and more banks beyond. More American Heritage than commercial romance, unusually convincing and often quite moving.

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