Bear's Den: "Tea... anyone? Blue jays don't like these kind's of Parties."

Ah, me-loh-cak-me … or spring. It´s the time of rebirth. Yet, some things die hard. Um-hmm, politicians and their unbridled power… seem to fall into this category. I say this because I´ve been observing the citizen unrest over the abuses of the U. S. Constitution that are cropping up all over the nation. I´ve been pondering ´Tea Parties´ of late as I´ve watched nest-building wiskilo-thas, or birds. Yep, that´s because I figure that robins are very much like we American two-leggeds; our politicians… well, they´re very much like blue jays. Sure and the Constitutional get-togethers… going on all around the country, well… theses shindigs probably aren´t the politicians´… ´cup ´o tea´... at all. But, I suspect that, like it or not… that beverage... is going to be served.

Here on the Rez, we have a 20-foot black spruce that I transplanted some 11 years ago. The following spring, a robin nested there and reared her young. In many ways, robins are like us human two-leggeds. The parents rear the family together, and their young´uns, like our kids, usually settle and raise families of their own in the same general locale. Each year, consecutively, either the mother robin, or several of her offspring, has returned to build their nests in that same tree, too. But this year, I´ve watched a mom & pop team of robins have to fight, tooth & nail, to keep three pillaging blue jays from destroying their home. Uh-huh, and as I studied this, I couldn´t help but notice the parallel between the birds and our nation at present. Yessir, so what I´m about to say here will undoubtedly tick a few bird lovers off, and maybe even a politico or two, as well. But, then, when has that ever stopped me, eh?

Now, blue jays are members of the genus, Corvus, which consists of the most intelligent of birds. Crows, ravens and magpies fit this group, too. They´ve got skills that, used to be only attributed to human two-leggeds and a few other higher mammals. Now, crows, ravens, jays and magpies have a reputation for being just a scoash… on the mean and shady side. They´re smart, but I´ve known this forever.

My Uncle Chester was an old southern-born farmer. He was a man of the woods with deep Indian roots, and he viewed life simply. I grew up often hearing the crack of his .22 caliber rifle as it knocked another jay from the treetops above his little farm. He disliked blue jays immensely, and taught me that they… were yon-it wiskilo-thas, or ´bad birds´. He admitted they were pretty as all get-out, but still… meaner than bad ´corn liquor´. He said they stole and wasted more chicken feed than all of the field mice and other critters put together. The Creator, he said, gave them more smarts than other birds, and, he added, like many people, they often misused it. He said that they were greedy and bad tempered and down-right mean on most occasions. They would destroy other birds´ nests, kill their young and steal food just to drop it into small holes in trees which they know they will never be able to fetch, just… to keep it from the other birds. They did this for power, he said. And, while the hawk will hunt many kinds of birds… he believed there was a reason why the mask-nin-ye, or the Red Tailed hawk… hunted the jay most often – it was because these birds… deserved it.

And yep, I´ve seen this in the wild myself. I was bowhunting once, deep in the forest, when a blue jay came whizzing past my head at mach 4, his eyes bulging in fear, his mouth screaming "Jay! Jay! Jay!" as he beat his wings furiously. There was a mask-nin-ye right behind him, hot on his tail. After ducking to avoid the wicked chase, I watched the hawk nail the jay in midair and take it down to devour it. Now, I know that, scientifically, blue jays are slow-fliers and are easy prey for hawks. But, the Indian in me… makes me ponder why the Creator would gift a bird with higher intellect and then… allow it to be easy prey? Well, balance and harmony are always things a two-legged strives for, and, in the natural world… the blue jay´s handicap is the American Indian answer to… ´balance´, eh. Sure, this is because I´ve seen blue jays horde food for no reason other than spite and watch for humans to put food down so that when they walk away… they can swoop down and steal it, too. Yep, and they do destroy other birds´ nests and kill their young whenever, and however, they can. All of this, at least to my notion, is done just… to gain and maintain power within the aves, or… bird world, eh?

I watched this year´s robins initially try to build their nest just to have the jays fly in when they left to tear it apart. The red breasts were complacent for over a week, until finally, they got fed-up and began verbal arguments with the jays. Finally, though, they lit into the three blue jays with a ferocity that absolutely shocked the blue, black and gray colored birds. The robins, defending their nest, kicked the beeswax out of the blue jays, and those miscreants finally left the spruce and the robins alone. This allowed the robins to maintain their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness as the Great Mystery´s ´Natural Constitution´ has divined, eh. Yessum and I thought of the parallels. The robins are similar to many Americans today; the spruce is like the land we live in; and the nest building signifies… everyday pursuits. The eventual ruckus between the robins and the blue jays, well… that´s seems akin to the Tea Parties and the politicians, to me.

Americans are mainly concerned with building their life, raising their families and going about their own business. Like the robins, they may be complacent for a time, but when their very way of life is placed in jeopardy, their home and children endangered and thus… their future threatened… just to satisfy politicians´ power… then they will light into the mat-ou-oui-sah kak-ka-yuk, or... the ´bad old people´... just as the robins lit into the yon-it wiskilo-thas, or the bad birds. That ´lighting into´ seems to be represented by the U.S. Constitutional gatherings, cropping up all over the land. So, that´s why I figure that robins are very much like we American two-leggeds. Uh-huh, and our politicians… well, they´re very much like blue jays. You bet´cha, and all of these Constitutional get-togethers going on all around the country are kind'a like the blue jays… about to get the beeswax beat of them. Like I said, these shindigs probably aren´t the politicians´… cup ´o tea... at all. But, I suspect that, like it or not… that beverage is going to be served.

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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