- Back in the late thirties, a young girl from an Indian tribe got such good grades at school that she was sent to college and became a law student.  Instead of staying in the city and earning a lot of money,  she went back to the reservation, where she was born, to live there and support her tribesmen  in official matters. 
 

This was not something, that neither the major nor the sheriff in the nearby town liked.  They payed a tourist to report, that she had been trying to cheat him when he visited the reservation, and she was arrested and brought for a trial.
  

"Look at that little brute."
"Yeh - She don´t look so snotty now!" 
"Maybe we can make some money out of her.
I bet a lot of people would like to see a wild little thing like her!"" 


 

The next day the girl was pulled around in the streets, while the sheriff with a loudspeaker from his car advertised, that all people could come and see the wild girl for a dollar at the county jail. 

The poor girl had to run through street after street on her bare feet, trying not to step on any dog shit or broken glass. 
 

At the beginning of the afternoon, she was totally exhausted and in utter despair at being humiliated that way. The worst thing was, that nobody found it strange to  see an Indian woman run naked after a car, and some even laughed at her. 
 

At last they were back at the jail and the sheriff stopped.  The well educated young woman could not understand it.  This was very different from the big city, where she had spent 4 years studying.  There she had been a human being, had had many friends and had gone shopping and visited restaurants. 
 
 

For a whole week she was kept in a cell like a wild animal in a cage at the zoo.  
Handcuffed all day to the bars, she could do nothing to protect herself from the spectators stare, as 
they slowly passed by while making comments on her, and some even spit on her.
As in the streets, nobody showed any compassion for her. 
When she no longer could hold herself, and had to let her urine run down her legs, the mob laughed at her. They all agreed, that the only right place for such an immoral brute, was behind bars and in chains. 
 

 
After having to endure a more humiliating week, than she could ever have imagined, she, as so many before her,  had to run naked behind the sheriff´s car all the way to the prison farm to begin her sentence. 
 

The journey was long and the road hot and dusty, but the sheriff didn´t stop a sincle time,to give the poor girl a break.  

When they finally arrived to the farm, she was near collapse.  
 

After she had been fitted with legirons and an old striped dress, she met some of her new fellow prisoners. She discovered that here there was no racial segregation. Whites, blacks and herself as the only Indian woman were not treated any differently by the guards.  They were all just slave labors.
 

She also met other educated women such as Jenny Larson, who had spent several years in chains in the vain attempt to work off her late husbands debts.  After having talked with her, the young lawyer finally realised, that once in chains, there was no way to get free again. 
 

During her second day sweating in the fields, she heard the buzzing sound from an engine above her. 

 We are in the XXth century, she thought, men have invented both cars, steamships and airplanes, but they still use slaves. 
 

"Aarhh!!! - Please stop!  I will not look up again!"

"You better don´t, you lazy cow! - Now pick up your dress and you hoe, and start working again! " 

On her third day she witnessed the punishment of a black girl, who had tried to run away. 

As a lawyer she knew, this was not the state law.  The foreman and the guards, were making their own laws, and nobody out here seemed to bother. 

When the day was over, after she had spent her first week on the prison farm, she sat down thoughtfully.  She knew, escape was almost impossible, and the punishment was harsh.  But she also knew, if she didn´t try, her only prospect was to be a slave for the rest of her life! 

 What could she do?
 

Days and weeks pass by,  During this time of the year, the women had to hoe all the large fields.  Not only those belonging to the state prison farm, but also the 
 neighbouring farmers, who paid the foreman, to lease the prisoners to do all the heavy field work. 
 

The days were long and hot, and the farmers paid by the acre, so the faster the women worked, the more money went into the foremen´s pockets.  Any woman getting behind was immediately beaten with the whip. 
 

So that the chain gangs wouldn´t waste time walking the long way to the fields and back to the huts again each day, the exhausted and overworked women were made to sleep under the open sky, chained together on the bare ground on the fields. 
 

One day the Indian girl and another prisoner were ordered to run back to the farm and fetch two heavy sacks of cornstarch to feed the chain gang in the field. 

While crossing a railway track on the way the young Indian lawyer suddently felt like her heart stopped beating for a second, when she saw a large iron nail lying on the ground. 
 

Trembling with excitement she began hammering, trying to break the bolts holding her legirons.  The other woman had walked on, not seeing she had stopped.  This might be the only chance she would ever get.  She had to get it off very fast, if she wanted to manage to get away in time. 
 

Late in the evening she allowed herself to fall to the ground in a corn field.  She was both happy and totally exhausted after having been running as fast as she could all afternoon.  It felt strange not to feel  the heavy iron rings around her ankles anymore.  It was only a matter of minutes, before she fell fast asleep. 
 

-  Oh no!  I must have oversleept!  The sun is already high in the sky.  And what are those sounds?
 

- It´s the hounds!  And the foreman!  Oh no!  They are coming directly in this  direction. 
 

She had never felt so sad, as after being refitted with the leg irons, which the foreman had found lying by the old railway track, and chained together with the other girls, walked the long way back to the prison farm.
 

She knew what was in store for her. 
The stench  and the sobbing sounds from the sweatboxes, was something they all had noticed. 

"Hope you like the smell ! - The former occupant didn´t have time to clean up after her.  She had an urgent appointment with the hanging tree. "
 

The flies began immediately to crawl all over her, as she in horror looked out of the small hatch, before it was closed.  It was only opened , when she was given some food and a little water once a day. 

"Aarrhhh !" 

"Just keep screaming stinking pig.  
It´s good for the other ones to hear !"

The door was only opened once a week, so 
the foreman could give her a severe whipping. 

"Where do you think you are going - 
Get that foot inside again !" 
 

"See you again in a week."

"Oh - no, Why don´t they just hang me right away?"
 

Then finally one day. 

"Your vacation is over lazy wench ! 

You are now going to work in the mine. 
I am glad, i´ll never have any more trouble with you !"
 

The coal mine -
A place to work hard and die.  

The foreman thought it would be a waste to give her a prison dress before sending her away, so she had to go naked, except for her leg irons. 

At her arrival at the mine, she also had an iron collar, locked around her neck.

Still fairly muscular, despite the long time she had spent standing in the box, the young Indian woman begane working, dragging timber to prevent the ceiling from caving in. 
 

It was very awkward and straining to carry the heavy posts for miles, through the narrow,  dark and dusty passages. 

During the first day she often had to take  short breaks, trying to get her breath back, while she wept over her unjust fate.  She was now certain, she was going to die here, never been allowed to see the sun again. 
 

Being a strong woman, 
she manage to get her work done, and finally 
after a very long day it´s time to sleep.
 

With her leg irons padlocked to her collar, while 
allowed 5  hours of rest, she tries to make friends with the other slave girls.  Among them is Maud.  But they are to tired to talk, and only think of getting as much sleep as possible, so they can work hard again.  
 

The guards noticed her considerable strength, and 
made her do the hardest work.  

The former lawyer spent the following years hacking ton after ton of coal out of  the dark and humid underground prison.  She was beaten every time she slacked off, and sometimes also if the guards thought she was able to work faster, than she did. 

After 5 years and 4 months she finally collapsed, and end up in one of the bone pits under the deapest shaft, in which the mortal remains of Maud, Carol and several hundred of other unfortunate women lie hidden and forgotten today.