Mother Earth's robe, the prairie. Mother Earth said fondly, "Yes,
dear, sweet child, I will let you go. You are so lovely and your
breath is so sweet, it may be that the Wind Demon will be charmed by
you, and that he will let you remain on his ground." And Prairie Rose
said, "Yes, dear mother, I will go, for I desire that my mother's robe
shall be beautiful. But if the Wind Demon should blow out my life my
spirit shall return home to the heart of my mother."
So Prairie Rose made the toilsome journey up through the dark ground
and came out upon the sad gray prairie. And as she was going Mother
Earth said in her heart, "Oh, I hope the Wind Demon will allow her to
live for I wish my robe to be beautiful!"
Now when the Wind Demon saw Prairie Rose he rushed at her shouting and
said, "Indeed, though she is pretty I shall not allow her to be upon
my ground. I will blow out her life." So he came on roaring and
drawing his breath in strong gusts. Just then he caught the fragrance
of the breath of Prairie Rose. "Ah," he said, "how sweet her breath
is! Why, I do not have it in my heart to blow out the life of such a
beautiful little maiden whose breath is so sweet! I love her. She
shall stay here with me. And I must make my voice gentle and sing a
melodious song, for I wish not to frighten her with my awful noise."
So he became quiet and breathed gentle breezes which passed over the
prairie grasses whispering and humming little songs of gladness.
Then the other flowers also came up through the dark ground and out
upon the dull, gray prairie and made it bright and joyous with their
presence. And the wind came to love all the flowers and the grasses.
And so the robe of our Mother Earth became beautiful because of the
loveliness and the sweet breath of the Prairie Rose.
Sometimes the Wind forgets his gentle songs and becomes loud and
boisterous, but he does not harm a person whose robe is ornamented
with the color of Prairie Rose.
THE SONG OF THE WILD ROSE
The following is a translation into English out of the Dakota language
by Dr. A. McG. Beede, of an old Dakota song. The people of the Dakota
nation, and other tribes also, think of the various plant and animal
species as having each their own songs. With these people music, song,
is an expression of the soul and not a mere artistic or artful
exercise.
Where the word "Mother" appears in the following song it refers to
"Mother Earth," a living, conscious, holy being in Indian thought. The
earth was truly venerated and loved by these people, who considered
themselves not as owners or potential owners of any part of the land,
but as being owned by the land which gave them birth and which
supplied their physical needs from her bounty and satisfied their love
of the beautiful by the beauty of her face in the landscape.
The trilled musical syllables at the close of the last two stanzas
express the spontaneous joy which comes to a person who has
"life-appreciation of Holy Earth."
The first stanza is an introduction by the narrator; not a part of the
"Song of the Wild Rose." The remaining stanzas are the song itself, of
the Wild Rose.
I will tell you of something I know,
And you can't half imagine how good;
It's the song of wild roses that grow
In the land the Dakota-folk love.
From the heart of the Mother we come,
The kind Mother of Life and of All;
And if ever you think she is dumb,
You should know that flowers are her songs.
And all creatures that live are her songs,
And all creatures that die are her songs,
And the winds blowing by are her songs,
And she wants you to sing all her songs.
Like the purple in Daydawn we come,
And our hearts are so brimful of joy
That whene'er we're not singing we hum
Ti-li-li-li-i, ta-la-la-loo, ta-la-la-loo!
When a maiden is ready to wed
Pin wild roses all over her dress,
And a rose in the hair of her head;
Put new moccasins onto her feet.
Then the heart of the Mother will give
Her the songs of her own heart to sing;
And she'll sing all the moons she may live,
Ti-li-li-li-i, ta-la-la-loo, ta-la-la-loo!
USE OF THE GROUND BEAN BY INDIANS
There is a native wild bean found growing over an area of wide
distribution in North America. The botanical name of this bean is
=Falcata comosa=. In the Dakota language it is called maka ta omnicha,
which means "bean of the earth;" in the Pawnee language it is called
ati-kuraru, which means "earth bean." The plant grows in dense masses
over shrubbery and other vegetation in some places, especially along
banks and at the edge of timber.
It forms two kinds of branches, bearing two forms of flower, producing
two forms of fruits. Leafy branches climb up over the shrubbery, but
under these, in the shade, prostrate on the earth, starting out from
the base of the main stem, are leafless, colorless branches, forming a
network on the surface of the ground. The tiny inconspicuous blossoms
borne on these prostrate branches are self-pollinated and push into
the leaf mold and soft soil, and there each produces a single large
bean closely clothed by a thin filmy pod or husk. These beans which
are formed in the earth are about the size of Lima beans. Upon the
upper, leafy branches are borne showy, purplish flowers appearing like
small bean blossoms. From these blossoms are produced small bean pods
about a half inch to an inch in length. These pods contain each from
three to four or five small, hard, mottled beans about an eighth of an
inch long.
The large beans produced in the ground are desirable for food. They
are of good flavor when cooked. The small beans of the upper branches
are also good for food, but they are so small and difficult to harvest
that not much use is made of them by the people. The large beans
formed in the earth would also be hard to gather but for the help of
certain little animals called voles, or wood mice, or bean mice. The
voles dig the large beans and store them in considerable quantities in
storage places which they hollow out in the ground and which they
cover over with sticks and leaves and earth. In these places the
little animals put away sometimes a peck or a half bushel of beans.
Through all the extensive range of =Falcata comosa=, the ground-bean,
it was sought by the people of the various Indian tribes to add to
their food supply. The people said they did not take away all the
beans from the voles as it would be wicked to loot the animals' food
stores and leave the animals to starve after they had worked to gather
them. But they would take a part of the store, in a manner making
themselves beggars to the little animals. The Omahas have a saying
that "The bean mouse is a very industrious fellow, he even helps human
beings."
But in all accounts I have had from the people of the Dakota nation
the women have always said that they never took away any beans from
the voles without making some payment in kind. They said it would be
wicked and unjust to take the beans from the animals and give nothing
in return. So they said they always put back some corn, some suet, or
some other food material in exchange for the beans they took out. In
that way they said both they and the little animals obtained a variety
in their food supply. They said they thought it very wrong to deprive
the animals of their store without such payment, but that it was fair
if they gave a fair exchange.
The people of the Dakota nation speak of the wood-mice or voles by the
designation of "Hintunka people." In the Dakota theory of the universe
they personify the maternal power and spirit by the name Hunka. Hunka
is the mystic All-Mother in nature, the mother of all living beings,
plant or animal, which of course includes mankind. For they do not
think of mankind as being apart from nature and the community of life
in the world.
The Dakotas have a moral story which is told as follows:
A certain woman went and plundered the store-house of some Hintunka
people. She robbed them of their entire food supply without even
giving them anything at all in return. The next night this woman who
had robbed the Hintunka people of all their food supply heard a woman
down in the woods crying and saying "Oh, what will my poor children
do?" It was the voice of one of the Hintunka women crying over her
hungry children.
The same night the woman who had done the wrong had a dream. In her
dreams Hunka appeared to her and said "You should not have taken the
food from the Hintunka people. Take back the food to them, or else
your own children shall cry for food."
The next morning the woman told her husband what Hunka had said to
her. Her husband said "You would better do as Hunka tells you to do."
But the woman was hard-hearted and perverse and would not restore to
the Hintunka people the food of which she had robbed them, neither
would she give them anything in exchange.
A short time after this a great prairie fire came, driven by a strong
wind, and swept over the place where this unjust woman and her family
were camping. The fire burned up her tipi and everything it contained,
and they barely escaped with their lives. They had no food nor shelter
and they had to wander on the prairie destitute.
The bean-mouse and its works are regarded with respect, admiration and
reverence by the people of the various Indian tribes which benefit by
its labor. They feel very resentful towards any seeming tendency to
meddle unwarrantedly with its winter store-houses. Upon hearing of the
desire of a white man to make a photograph of such a store-house an
old man of the Teton-Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation expressed
bitter resentment and declared himself ready to fight to prevent such
a thing from being done. He said "We have enough misfortune already,
counting the war and the epidemic of influenza, without inviting
further disaster by such sacrilege."
In the month of November, after the bean mice have harvested their
beans and laid them up in their store-houses for the winter, the
people often go out alone and sit near some such store-house in silent
meditation on the ways of Providence. At that time of the year the
missionaries and priests are often pained and puzzled because of the
absence of some of their church members from Sunday service or from
mass on Sunday morning. They do not know, and likely would not
appreciate or understand the feeling which has caused these people to
go out at such a time, not to the church but out to the quiet place
under the open heaven where they sit upon the lap of Mother Earth to
reverently and thankfully meditate upon the mysteries of nature and
the wonderful provisions of God in nature.
At such times they like to bring in to their homes or to their
churches some object connected with the bean mouse and his marvelous
ways and work. If they find some beans which the bean mouse has
spilled in transportation to his store-house, or a tree-leaf which
they suppose he has used as his sled for carrying his beans from field
to store-house, they will bring in such objects and lay them up
reverently in the home or in the church with devout regard for
prayerful meditation. Indians say that the bean mouse uses a leaf of
the boxelder tree, or sometimes another kind of leaf of suitable
shape, as a sled for gathering his stores.
At one time an old blind man of the Teton-Dakota on the Standing Rock
Reservation on the upper Missouri River went out to the vicinity of a
vole's store-house to meditate and pray. A man saw him and quietly
approached within hearing distance. As the old man was blind he did
not perceive the approach of the observer. Thinking himself alone in
the presence of the powers of nature, this devout old man, gave
expression to his religious feeling in the following prayer:
"Thou who art holy, pity me and help me I pray. Thou art small, but
thou art sufficiently large for thy place in the world. And thou art
sufficiently strong also for thy work, for Holy Wakantanka constantly
strengthens thee. Thou art wise, for the wisdom of holiness is with
Thee constantly.
"May I be wise in all my heart continually, for if an attitude of holy
wisdom leads me on, then this shadow-troubled life shall come into
constant light."
TIPSIN: AN IMPORTANT NATIVE FOOD PLANT
Over all the dry prairies of the Great Plains region there grows a
plant (=Psoralea esculenta=), which was an important item of the food
supplies of all the tribes of the region. It is a species which
belongs botanically to the Bean Family. The part used for food is the
large root, which is stored with proteid and starchy matter. The root
is about the size of a hen's egg. The stem of the plant is bushy and
branched; the leaves are trifoliate. The leaves and stems of the plant
are hairy, giving it a grayish-green appearance. The flowers are set
in close racemes at the ends of the branches, and are bluish in color
and of bean blossom shape.
In the journals of the early travellers mention of this plant is
often found under the name of "pomme blanche" or "pomme de prairie,"
the name by which the French traders and trappers called it, for they
learned to live upon the native products of the land. English speaking
people coming later, and depending not so much on native products, did
not supply names for them, not considering them of enough importance.
The name which I have given it for a common English name is an
approximation to, and an adaptation of the name of this plant in the
Dakota language.
Tipsin roots are gathered in June or early July. They were used fresh
when gathered, and they were also gathered in quantity and peeled and
dried for future use. The women gathered them by the use of digging
sticks. They had their children with them to look for the plants while
they dug them. Because of the branching habit of the plant the mother
would say to her children, "See, they point to each other. Now here is
one, notice the directions in which its arms point and you will find
others." So the children would start, each in the direction of one of
the branches, and of course, if they followed in any direction and
kept close watch they would find another. The idea of the plants
pointing to each other kept the children's attention fixed.
HOW THE PEOPLE OBTAINED THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF CORN
All the tribes which cultivated corn had legends accounting for its
acquisition. Many of these are very interesting and beautiful. In the
Sacred Legends of the Omaha, of which account is given in "The Omaha
Tribe," Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, by Alice Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, occurs the
following legend of the finding of corn:
"Then a man in wandering about found some kernels, blue, and red, and
white. He thought he had secured something of great value, so he
concealed them in a mound. One day he thought he would go to see if
they were safe. When he came to the mound he found it covered with
stalks having ears bearing kernels of these colours. He took an ear of
each kind and gave the rest to the people to experiment with. They
tried it for food, found it good, and ever since have called it their
life. As soon as the people found the corn good, they thought to make
mounds like that in which the kernels had been hid. So they took the
shoulder blade of an elk and built mounds like the first and buried
the corn in them. So the corn grew and the people had abundant food."
While the legend does not designate what tribe it was which first
obtained corn, it is probably to be identified with the following
fuller account which is also told in the Omaha Sacred Legends, and
which recites that they first learned of corn and obtained seed of it
from the Arikara. The story tells how the Arikara first obtained corn
by divine favour, and then how they gave it to other tribes, among
these fortunate ones being the Omaha. It should be remembered that at
the time the Omaha came to where they now reside and have resided for
some centuries, the Arikara were in the region of what is now northern
Nebraska, so they were then neighbors of the Omaha. No doubt the
declaration of the legend that the Omahas did first obtain corn from
the Arikara is based on fact, in that corn culture among the Omaha had
been borrowed from the Arikara, who later migrated farther north along
the upper Missouri River.
The story runs thus:
"The Arikara were the first to obtain the maize. A young man went out
hunting. He came to a high hill, and, looking down upon a valley, he
saw a buffalo bull standing in the middle of a bottom land lying
between two rivers at their confluence. As the young man searched the
surroundings to find how he might approach the buffalo he was
impressed with the beauty of the landscape. The banks of the two
rivers were low and well timbered. He observed that the buffalo stood
facing north; he saw also that he could not approach from any side
within bowshot. He thought that the only way to get a chance to shoot
the buffalo would be to wait until the animal moved close to the banks
of one of the rivers, or to the hills where there were ravines and
shrubs. So the young man waited. The sun went down and the buffalo had
not moved; the young man went home disappointed. He lay awake nearly
all night brooding over his disappointment, for food had become scarce
and the buffalo would have afforded a good supply. Before dawn the
young man arose and hastened to the place where he had discovered the
buffalo to see whether the animal might be somewhere near, if it had
moved. Just as he reached the summit of the hill, where he was the day
before, the sun arose, and he saw that the buffalo was in the same
spot. But he noticed that it was now facing toward the east. Again the
young man waited for the animal to move, but again the sun went down
while the buffalo remained standing in the same spot. The hunter went
home and passed another restless night. He started out again before
dawn and came to the top of the hill just as the sun arose, and saw
the buffalo in the same place still, but it had now turned to face the
south. The young man waited and watched all day, but when darkness
came he once more had to go away disappointed. He passed another
sleepless night. His desire to secure game was mixed with curiosity to
know why the buffalo should so persistently remain in that one spot
without eating or drinking or lying down to rest. He rose upon the
fourth morning before dawn, his mind occupied with this curiosity, and
made haste to reach the hill to see if the buffalo still stood in the
same place. Morning light had come when he arrived at the hill, and he
saw that the buffalo was standing in exactly the same place, but had
turned around to face the west. He was determined now to know what the
animal would do, so he settled down to watch as he had throughout the
three previous days. He now began to think that the animal was acting
in this manner under the influence of some unseen power for some
mysterious purpose, and that he, as well as the buffalo, was
controlled by the same influence. Darkness again came upon him and the
animal was still standing in the same position. The young man returned
home, but he was kept awake all night by his thoughts and wondering
what would come of this strange experience. He rose before dawn and
hastened again to the mysterious scene. As he reached the summit of
the hill dawn spread across all the land. Eagerly he looked. The
buffalo was gone! But just where the buffalo had been standing there
appeared something like a small bush. The young man now approached the
spot with a feeling of curiosity and of awe, but also something of
disappointment. As soon as he came near he saw that what had appeared
from a distance like a small bush was a strange unknown plant. He
looked upon the ground and saw the tracks of the buffalo; he observed
that they turned from the north to the east, and to the south, and to
the west; and in the centre there was but one buffalo track, and out
of it had sprung this strange plant. He examined the ground all around
the plant to find where the buffalo had left the place, but there were
no other footprints except those he had already seen near the plant.
He made haste to reach his home village. There he notified the chiefs
and elders of his people concerning the strange experience which he
had had. Led by the young man they proceeded to the place of the
buffalo and examined the ground with care, and found that what he had
told them was true. They found the tracks of the buffalo where he had
stood and where he had turned, but could find no trace of his coming
to the place nor of his going from it. Now while all these men
believed that this plant had been given to the people in this
mysterious manner by Wakanda for their use, still they were not sure
what that use might be nor in what manner it should be used. The
people knew of other plants that were useful for food, and the season
for their ripening, and, believing that the fruit of this strange
plant would ripen in its proper time, they arranged to guard and
protect it carefully, awaiting with patience the time of its ripening
and further revelation of its purpose.
"After a time a spike of flowers appeared at the top of the plant, but
from their knowledge of other plants they knew that the blossom was
but the flower and not the fruit. But while they watched this blossom,
expecting it to develop into fruit, as they expected it would, a new
growth appeared from the joints of the plant. They now gave special
attention to the new growth. It grew larger, and finally something
appeared at the top which looked like hair. This, in the course of
time, turned from pale green to dark brown, and after much discussion
the people concluded that this growth at the side of the plant was its
fruit, and that it had ripened. Until this time no one had dared to
approach within touch of the plant. Although they were anxious to know
the uses to which the plant could be put, or for which it was
intended, no one dared to touch it. While the people were assembled
around the plant uncertain and undetermined how to approach the
examination of it to learn its possible use, a youth stepped forward
and spoke:
"'Every one knows how my life from childhood has been worse than
useless, that my life among you has been more evil than good.
Therefore since no one would regret, should any evil befall me, let me
be the first to touch this plant and taste of its fruit, so that you
may not suffer any harm and that you may learn if the plant possesses
qualities which may be for our good.' When the people gave their
assent the youth stepped forward and placed his hands over the top of
the plant and brought them down by the sides of the plant to the roots
in the manner of giving thanks and blessing. He then grasped the
fruit, and, turning to the people, said, 'It is solid; it is ripe.'
Very gently then he parted the husks at the top, and again turning to
the people, he said, 'The fruit is red.' Then he took a few of the
grains, showed them to the people, then ate them, and replaced the
husks. The youth suffered no ill effects, and the people were
convinced that this plant was given them for food. In the autumn, when
the prairie grass had turned brown, the stalks and leaves of this
plant turned brown also. The fruit was plucked and put away with
carefulness. The next spring the kernels were divided among the
people, four to each family. The people removed to the place where the
strange plant had appeared, and there they built their huts along the
banks of the two rivers. When the hills began to be green from the new
prairie grass, the people planted the kernels of this strange plant,
having first built mounds like the one out of which the first plant
grew. To the great joy of the people the kernels sprouted and grew
into strong healthy plants. Through the summer they grew and
developed, and the fruit ripened as did that of the original plant.
The fruit was gathered and some was eaten, and was found to be good.
In gathering the fruit the people discovered that there were various
colours--some ears were white and others were blue, some were red,
others were yellow.
"The next season the people gathered a rich harvest of this new plant.
In the autumn these people, the Arikara, sent invitations to a number
of different tribes to come and visit them. Six tribes came; one of
these was the Omaha. The Arikara were very generous in the
distribution of the fruit of this new plant among their guests, and in
this manner a knowledge of the plant came to the Omaha."
A GROUP OF PAWNEE HYMNS TO CORN