Tag Tuesday - Soft Pink and Green; And a Story: THE WILD EAST

Today's challenge is using soft pinks and greens. I actually made the background sometime ago when the challenge was simply to make a background tag. Now it's completed and has a new life!

(click for detail)

If you would like to play along, please visit Tag Tuesday Blog Challenge Garden.

The Wild East

20th in the Tuesday Story Series

Kicking aside clumps of newly plowed ground, eyes kept downward as he walked slowly in the hot sun, the young boy spied a small point thrusting though the soil. Reaching down and brushing it off as he straightened his back, he studied his prize - another arrowhead for his collection. Painstakingly finding them in plowed fields, creek beds and areas newly washed out by rain, he had a small but growing collection of artifacts used daily in a time long before his own life had begun. 

When the Europeans settled along the South Carolina coast, there were many Native American tribes in the area claimed and named by the English settlers as Carolina, and later divided into North Carolina and South Carolina. From the Cherokee in the northwest section of SC to the Waccamaw and Waxhaw at the coast, there were many different tribes and communities. Most of us grew up thinking of the Wild West as the place of cowboys and Indians, buffalo and wolves, but before Colonial times buffalo (or bison) and wolves were indigenous to the Carolinas and the Wild West was located right here. As far as the human characters in the drama, the trapper and Indian trader stood in for the cowboy, but the Indians were plentiful. As Charleston grew and pushed into Native American territory, there were major concerns of an attack which could wipe out most of the colonists in the town and on the farms in the surrounding area.

Around that same time, petitions promising land to new settlers were being sent around Europe, bringing German Lutherans to the center of South Carolina, where many of them entered through the port in Charleston. The officials of Charleston were glad to see it, thinking that they would provide a buffer between themselves and any Native American uprising. So gradually, as more settlers came, the tribal lands shrunk and buffalo and wolves diminished until there were no more. The Wild East became the Colonial East.

Some of John's collection.

The young boy above used to wonder about the people who had used the arrowheads, their day to day lives and how they looked and what they accomplished. Each artifact he held had been shaped by hand and used for bringing in food or for protection. Chips and breaks indicated usage, chiseled points and symmetry showed an artisan's care. He held on to his small collection as he grew up, and when we married they moved to a new home.

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca