Red Leaves Summary

Two Indians—Three Basket and Louis Berry—walk through the forest to abandoned slave quarters, discussing the burden of the black population and comparing notes on the palatability of black flesh. The two Indians are puzzled that blacks seem to enjoy sweating, which they feel is unhealthy. The main cabin reeks of black bodies, and the Indians leave when they start to sense that former slaves are looking at them. In the main slave quarters, the two Indians pick up the scent of long-gone African slaves, their sweat, their fear. "That is black man's fear which you smell. It does not smell as ours does," Three Basket says.

The men are searching for a runaway slave belonging to the Chief Issetibbeha The Indians' "Negro question" begins with deceased Chief Doom, who buys some slaves from a slave trader and...