One last story from the old blog. This one was posted in 2000 there, and I'm resisting the urge to edit it now. You'll tell me if it needs anything, right?
He was clad only in a deerskin breechclout and moccasins, and he was hanging from a thick limb of an old oak tree a long way from town. His brown body twisted slowly in the light summer breeze that also blew through his long dark hair. His wrists were bound with rawhide behind his back, and his fingers were now curled and stiff above his ass.
The posse who lynched this Indian rode off a short while ago. I was watching them from a nearby ridge. I don't know any more about why they strung him up, except that he was Indian and the posse had it in for Indians. They stuck around long enough to make sure he was dead, then took off for town. I waited until I knew they were at least a quarter mile away before I made my way down to the hanging tree.
It was eerie quiet, which made the creaking of the noose-rope even louder. The toes of the Indian's moccasins pointed almost straight down to the ground that was about 3 feet away. He was a good-looking guy, with long straight black hair and a slender, sinewy brown body that was a little dirty from the roughing-up he got from the posse before they strung him up. His head was cocked to one side by the knot in the noose, and he was slack-jawed and staring with blank eyes at the ground. I dunno why, but it was exciting to be there, this close to the dead Indian, even though I was afraid the posse would come back, or worse, the Indian's friends maybe.