Bears Den: "The Three Sacred Sisters: corn, beans and squash"

Here in the Mitten Sate of Michigan, the tame (corn) is growing slow this year. The month of July was one of the coldest on record. But that´s okay. The Creator will allow the corn to make and shoot; the other two Sacred Sisters are faring well and, come the Harvest Moon, there will be corn, beans and squash aplenty enough. Yessir, this is right out of The Great Good Spirit´s book of life.

The other night my domestic boss and I viewed a play put on by kids. Our daughter, Coyote Pup, is the manager of the Howmet Playhouse in Whitehall. She directed their production of the youth theatre with the play "Scarface & Bluewater". Man, it was good – the kids were great and it was a wonderful show. The drums and songs were exceptional. We enjoyed it immensely. The play was originally written about a western plains tribe, but the director adapted it a tad to fit Woodland Indians hereabouts, to make it easier for the kids to get into. Um-hmm, the alteration wasn´t totally correct, but heck, that was okay. For this production, it was all about the story and the kids telling it – not about strict cultural awareness. Now, there´s some difference between Woodland Indians and Plains Indians, and, to one in the know, they can stand out. But one thing about American Indians – be they Eastern Woodland or Western Plains – is that we´re all pretty much similar for the most part. We follow many of the same traditions and customs, and this is what was at the heart of this story.

At the request of ni-da-ne-thuh (my daughter), I stopped in to chat with the kids after their dress rehearsal, the day before opening night. They were psyched up, and man, I figured if the whole play was as good as the part of the rehearsal I´d seen, then it would be good. I brought in some Indian do-dads, stuff I´d made and traded for, like bone chokers and a breastplate, a turtle shell medicine pouch – that kind´a thing. I also picked some of the last of the wild raspberries growing here on the Rez and toted them along for them, too. I briefly told them a little about Indian culture, and, since corn was featured in the play, I mentioned the Three Sacred Sisters – corn, beans and squash.

I explained that winters were hard for Indians. I mean, not only did they have no TV… whatsoever!!! but… they also lived outside… all of the time. Food often got scarce. That´s why The Great Good Spirit had provided the Three Sacred Sisters, so that Indian people could always have what they needed during the hard and sometimes harsh winters. These sisters give elements from three necessary food groups: carbohydrates, proteins and vegetables. Sure, corn is the cereal or carbohydrate. Beans are the protein and squash is the vegetable. Yep, and dried fruits like raspberries, apples and the like provide the vitamin C. In addition to whatever fish and meat was acquired and preserved, these were the foods that supplied Indians through long winters when food would be hard to find otherwise.

Now, another nifty thing about the Three Sacred Sisters is their neat ´Creator-designed´ ability to grow together. Each plant provides and gives off necessary nutrients for the others so they were often grown together; corn, beans and squash. Pretty nifty, eh? Yep, anything that The Great Mystery does is usually that way, and the play the other night, with these fantastic young actors telling of a sweet love story and traditional lore was right out of The Great Good Spirit´s book of life, too.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" David Walks-As-Bear is an Inter-Tribal Elder and Kispoko Shawnee Indian. He works as a private game warden and detective captain, and is a novelist and syndicated newspaper columnist living in Northwest Michigan. Contact him at The White Lake Beacon: 231-894-5356 or visit his website at: www.Walks-As-Bear.com