The Bear's Den: "This Year´s Harvest ´Yields´ Big"

Umm, the Pawpaw Moon – the beginning of the mam-ah (harvest) time – and man, what a harvest it will be out there, too. While there have been droughts and wildfires in other states, and devastating floods and hurricanes in many others, we have much to be thankful for here. We have had an excellent growing season and a splendid ni-pai-n´oui (summer). Here in the Mitten-Shaped State of Michigan, we´ve had a second straight fantastic growing year in a row. All summer long, I have been watching the growth in the wildland, and it is abundant. Everything is growing – from raspberries to blackberries, watercress to wild grapes; even poke salad has been growing like… well… like ´wild´. Oh, things usually grow well enough here, but seldom like this year, you just naturally have to accept that. Yes´um, but not this year, we don´t. We sure won´t need to yield to this year´s… ´yield´, eh.

Along the Rail Trail that my domestic boss and I walk every day, I´ve been picking and eating apples from wild-growing trees. They are as big, firm and as sweet as any from a farmer´s domesticated crop. The picture with this column is entitled "Indian Harvest" and it was taken in 1905 by Edward Sheriff Curtis. The old photo shows three American Indian women carrying fruit-filled baskets on their heads. While I ain´t as pretty as any of them, that´s been the picture of Yours Truly, lately, as well. Here on the Rez, I have two dwarf peach trees that I planted several years ago. The deer usually eat a few, and I end up with about a dozen peaches or so. But, boy-howdy, I picked bushels last week; I´ve never had a bounty like this. Yep, just like the Rail Trail, I have oodles of wild stuff also growing here on the Rez. Hither and yon are wild-growing apple trees. They, too, are laden with nice fruit, and that´s something I´ve never had happen since I built this cabin. Heck, I´ve even got poke salad growing in my side yard… in clay… for crying out loud.

The word "Poke" is derived from the Woodland Indian word pakon or puccoon. The name actually refers to any plant used for making a staining dye, and poke is one of the best. Um-hmm, and in addition to making great black, blue and red dyes and healing poultices, poke is also a form of wild spinach, and it´s as tasty as all get-out. Yet, Poke Salad doesn´t take well to domestic growing – it does its thing best when sprouting up all on its own. It doesn´t like clay, either, it prefers a sandy soil, so you seldom see it there. Still, I have it here, now, growing well in clay, all on its own, for the first time in 15 years.

While driving around on patrol this summer, I´ve also watched the crops as they grew, and have spoken with farmers, hearing similar tales from them about the harvest. So, here in Michigan, and most of the Midwest, we have plenty for which to be thankful. The Great Mystery has granted us a fine growing season, and although we usually have to acquiesce to a little less… that´s not the case this year. You sure won´t need to yield to this year´s… ´yield´, eh.

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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 his home paper The White Lake Beacon: 231-894-5356 or visit his website at: www.Walks-As-Bear.com. You can hear David´s brief "Traditional Elder´s Reflections" Mon-Sat, after the 10:00AM (EST) news on the radio. Go to: www.hometownradio.us and click WEEH-FM.