Disturbing the Bones by Andrew Davis & Jeff Biggers

Author:Andrew Davis & Jeff Biggers [Davis, Andrew & Biggers, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

36

HARRIET MOORE’S CABIN

ALEXANDER COUNTY, ILLINOIS

The sun-dappled frame was perfect for the camera shot.

Sheriff Benton and his deputies hesitated at their cars, granting the two trailing TV vans just enough time to get out first and grab their cameras. Off a dirt road, beyond the labyrinth of draping vines and branches, a cabin sat back in the woods with an overlook of a dark green valley. A cord of stacked wood framed the slumping front porch. The rest of the shot for the cameras was an idyllic portrait of the Shawnee forests. Shutting the back door of the TV van, the reporter already had the news break image in his mind.

The arrest went as planned. Benton stepped out of the front door with Earl in the middle, two deputies on either side of him, as he looked down, strands of his ponytail in his face, his hands cuffed behind his back. Benton made Earl put on his favorite T-shirt, featuring a historic photo of Apache leader Geronimo and a group of Native American men with rifles, with the text: Department of Homeland Security since 1492.

At the bottom of the stairs, Benton halted the procession for a moment. He placed a hand on Earl’s shoulder, making it seem like he needed to restrain him. The sheriff posed with the Shawnee activist—or, at least, that seemed like a good news tag to him. Earl looked up, dumbfounded, but incredibly calm.

It may have appeared tense to viewers, but to Earl it seemed like a joke. He knew all the police. Benton was hardly a stranger. Not that they were friends. But it had been twenty years since Earl’s last activist work, when he blockaded loggers from clear-cutting areas of the Shawnee forest without federal permits. While the bib-overalled image of him being arrested had remained in the minds of locals, he was mainly known for his annual Shawnee Culture Day events, where he taught kids about indigenous ways in the forests. That was a friendly image, not a violent one.

One of the TV reporters stood in front of the camera, with Benton and Earl framed to the side.

“Just a few miles outside of Cairo,” the reporter spoke, holding the microphone, “the Alexander County sheriff and deputies have taken Native American activist Earl Karnes into custody.”

The camera zoomed in on Earl’s T-shirt.

“According to Sheriff Benton, radical Native American groups affiliated with Karnes have made threats against the removal of Indian bones and artifacts on a nearby prehistoric archaeological site. Sacred eagle feathers affiliated with the group have been found at the site.”

Benton motioned for Earl to take a step as the two deputies tightened their grips, puckered their mouths with a look of serious intent, and continued their march toward the police cars. It came off as serious as a mob bust in Brooklyn. Harriet Moore, cigarette burning, emerged from the cabin.

The lights of the police sedans flashed long after their departure.

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