Bear's Den: "Bootlegging... A Race That's Sometimes Lost"

Well, we got it, eh – the brunt of Papoon-wi (winter). When the snow hit the other day, I was still racing and chasing, trying to get stuff accomplished beforehand. Yep, and I knew that if I didn´t get this stuff done, then I´d be paying for it in the ´aftermath´. Well, sadly… I didn´t win the competition. But, then, there´s nothing new in that one – I mean… I come from a long line ´bootleggers´ and we don´t always win the race… nope.

Yeah, the blizzard hit, and schools, along with many businesses, shut down tighter than a skinflint´s penny purse. A library called to reschedule an author talk that I was going to do; they were closing early due to the weather. Uh-huh, it was winter storm-i-tis – everywhere. And here on the Rez, Murphy, that tired old Irish counselor, had applied his law to my hair-brained and hairied little frenzy. Um-hmm, for instance, I know that I have two garden hoses buried underneath the oodles of wa'kanakya (white). Oh sure, and numerous other odd doo-dads that will now have to wait until Melo´kama (spring). And to top it off, the plow jeep that I´d paid scant attention to because I was hustling on other stuff, decided not to start when the conee (snow) began falling like there was no tomorrow. Thus, goofy old me… is stuck with the aftermath of tons of procrastination.

Now everybody probably knows what it means to be a procrastinator – right? Most two-leggeds have this trait in their make-up, to one degree or another. Some, such as moi, have plenty of extra… in case any of ya´all need some? But aftermath, that´s an old word that originates from the rural environs. It began as an old farming term that referred, specifically, to the later effects of double cutting crops. Yes´sir, it´s an expression no longer in use for its original and specific meaning, and has taken on generalality. Now in the old days, "math" wasn´t some kind´a onerous and scary thing that they did to you at school – nah. It meant a cutting, or mowing, usually of hay. Aftermath was the word applied to a re-cutting after the first crop had already been cut. This led to the field taking a lot longer to regenerate itself – the effect then… of this double cutting. It´s rolled into the vernacular today to simply mean the consequence of some action. Yes´um, and some of my past relatives knew all about consequences… especially those of getting caught… while bootlegging.

Now bootlegging is a word that dates back a ways, too. Indians have always had a penchant for alcohol, and my folks were no different. Heck, until the Europeans showed up, we had to make do with them silly little mushrooms – know what I mean? It was hard to go to a lacrosse game and guzzle mushroom juice while cheering on your team. Okay, okay – enough of trying to be funny. But the fact is, American Indians and booze don´t mix well. Indians are more easily addicted to the stuff than other folks, and, back in the day… this was pretty noticeable, too. In fact, the U.S. Government made alcohol sales to the Indians illegal. Yeah, and they did this because of the Indians´ low tolerance to the drink. They said it made us dangerous. Maybe not as dangerous as when they tried to pry a bottle from a brave´s hand, but… you know what I´m saying. Still, a whiskey maker is a businessman, and commerce had to go on. So booze manufacturers did what speak-easy owners would later do during prohibition – they sold their brew illegally. And one of the primary ways of doing this was to smuggle the bottles of booze to the Indians by hiding the alcohol in the legs of their boots, aka: ´bootlegging´, eh. That's how bootlegging got its name.

Now, this grew into quite an illicit industry and remains strong to this day, especially in the southern states. It´s a fair business to be in because the product line is simple, the market is always there and, since you´re dodging taxes, the money´s decent. My folks hail from Tennessee, where the art of whiskey making is still practiced. Many of my distant kin were consummate ´art-eests´… if you follow… and they were always watching out for the ´T-Men´ (Treasury Men) and Revenuers. That´s because ´Guv´ment men´ were always after a moonshiner. Yeah, and getting caught meant a family´s loss of income. So, hopped-up cars were a bootlegger´s transport vehicle, and making ´lighting´ by moonlight was the manufacturing routine. Sometimes they didn´t win the race, and I have family stories of several such contests where the aftermath… equated to jail time and the loss of a still… the consequences of the lost race.

And for me, it´s akin to my lost race with Papoon-wi. But, then, there´s nothing new in that one, eh. I mean… I come from a long line ´bootleggers´ and we don´t always win the race… nope.

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David Walks-As-Bear is an Inter-Tribal Elder and Kispoko Shawnee Indian. He works as a private game warden and detective 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