Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children

Part 1

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

STORIES THE IROQUOIS TELL THEIR CHILDREN

MABEL POWERS (YEH SEN NOH WEHS)

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO

Copyright, 1917, by MABEL POWERS. All rights reserved. W. P. 9

TO ALL THE CHILDREN WHO ASK HOW AND WHY, ESPECIALLY THOSE RED CHILDREN WHO SEE WITH WONDER EYES, AND THOSE PALEFACE CHILDREN WHO YET BELIEVE IN FAIRIES, THESE STORIES ARE LOVINGLY DEDICATED

CONTENTS

PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 8

FOREWORD BY THE CHIEFS 9

INTRODUCTORY

HOW THE STORIES CAME TO BE 11

WHY I WAS CALLED THE STORY-TELLER 13

THE LITTLE PEOPLE 18

STORY-TELLING TIME 23

HOW THE IROQUOIS GIVE THANKS 27

A FIREMAKER AND A PEACEMAKER 34

IROQUOIS WONDER STORIES

HOW THE WHITE MAN CAME 45

WHY THE EAGLE DEFENDS AMERICANS 49

HOW THE TURKEY BUZZARD GOT HIS SUIT 60

WHY THE PARTRIDGE DRUMS 66

HOW THE INDIANS LEARNED TO HEAL 69

WHY DOGS CHASE FOXES 75

WHY HERMIT THRUSH IS SO SHY 79

HOW GOOD AND EVIL CAME TO BE 85

HOW A BOY WAS CURED OF BOASTING 90

WHY THE CUCKOO IS SO LAZY 95

Part 2

HOW THE COON OUTWITTED THE FOX 99

WHY THE GOLDFINCHES LOOK LIKE THE SUN 103

WHAT THE ASH AND THE MAPLE LEARNED 107

HOW THE WOMAN OVERCAME THE BEAR 112

WHY THE WOODPECKER BORES FOR ITS FOOD 115

WHY THE ICE ROOF FELL 119

WHY THE CHIPMUNK HAS BLACK STRIPES 122

HOW TWO INDIAN BOYS SETTLED A QUARREL 125

HOW MICE OVERCAME THE WARRIORS 130

WHY CROWS ARE POOR 135

WHY THE INDIAN LOVES HIS DOG 139

GREEDY FAWN AND THE PORRIDGE 145

WHY HOUNDS OUTRUN OTHER ANIMALS 152

WHY INDIANS NEVER SHOOT PIGEONS 155

HOW OLD MAN WINTER WAS DRIVEN BACK 159

WHY LIGHTNING SOMETIMES STRIKES 168

WHY THE HARE HAS A SPLIT LIP AND SHORT TAIL 176

CORN PLUME AND BEAN MAIDEN 180

HOW THE ROBIN BURNED HIS BREAST 187

IROQUOIS FAIRY STORIES

HOW MORNING STAR LOST HER FISH 195

HOW LITTLE SHOOTER LOST HIS LUCK 201

HOW AN INDIAN BOY WON HIS NAME 205

HOW THE FAIRIES WORKED MAGIC 211

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

If the Red Children had not welcomed the writer to their lodge fires, these stories the Iroquois tell their children could not have been retold. With one or two exceptions, the ideas found in the stories have been had from the lips of the Indians themselves. To ARTHUR C. PARKER--Ga wa so wa neh--for his careful review of the stories and assistance in securing authentic Iroquois illustrations; and to the following story-tellers who so kindly welcomed her to their lodges, and told her stories, the writer is most grateful.

EDWARD CORNPLANTER (So son do wah--"Great Night") Seneca Wolf WILLIAM PATTERSON (Ga reh hwonts--"Power has come down") Tuscarora Deer MOSES SHONGO (Ho non da a suh--"Keeper of the hills") Seneca Wolf CLIFFORD SHONGO (Ouhn yah dah goh--"Very dark blue sky") Seneca Wolf CHARLES DOXON (Hoh squa sa ga dah--"Woodsman") Onondaga Turtle DANIEL GEORGE (Jo ha a ga dah--"Roadscraper") Onondaga Eel MARY PRINTUP (Wah le sa loh) Mohawk Snipe DAN WILLIAMS (Oh geh rah u reh ru ha neh--"Running Bear") Tuscarora Bear ELI HENRY Tuscarora Deer HARRIETT PEMBLETON (Gah do rehn tah--"Dropping Husks") Tuscarora Turtle AMOS KILLBUCK (Har wen do dyoh--"He has forsaken early dawn") Seneca Wolf ALFRED JIMESON (Har neh a oh--"Hatchet in his hands") Seneca Heron WILLIAM HOAG (O no nah--"Very cold") Seneca Wolf ELLEN PIERCE SHONGO (Yea wen noh aih--"The high word") Seneca Wolf BAPTIST THOMAS (Sa ha whe--"Long feather") Onondaga Turtle ALBERT CUSICK (Sha go na qua da--"Made them mad") Onondaga Eel THEODORE JIMESON (Jah o yah) Seneca Snipe DAVID WARRIOR (Dwen o gwah) Cayuga White Heron WILLETT JIMESON (So i as ah--"Owner of fine cornstalks") Seneca Wolf NANCY GREYSQUIRREL (Gah gwah tah--"One who lifts") Seneca Bear EMILY TALLCHIEF (Gi das was--"Wind blowing through corn") Seneca Turtle LOUISE PIERCE LOGAN (Ga yah was--"The quivering heaven") Seneca Wolf THOMAS JONES (Gah ne yehs--"The dropping snow") Seneca Wolf

FOREWORD

Part 3

Once our fathers own these lands of New York State. Once the Iroquois were great people. Their council fires burn from Hudson on east to Lake Erie on west, from rising to setting sun. Then White man come. He ask for small seat size buffalo skin. He take larger and larger one, till Indian have but small place to sit.

Now we have little left but stories of our fathers. They, too, will soon be lost and forgotten, but a voice has come to speak for us. Yeh sen noh wehs--the one who tells the stories--will carry these stories of our fathers to Paleface. She will help White man to understand Indian, Indian to be understood. She will have all men brothers.

Indian's heart is glad that Yeh sen noh wehs, our white friend, has come to us. She have good eyes. She see right. She like things Indian. She try to preserve them. Our old men and women tell her the stories told them, many, many moons ago, when little children.

Yeh sen noh wehs write down these stories so our children and our children's children may read and know them; and so Paleface Children may learn them also. Indian tell these stories to his children to make them good and brave and kind and unselfish. May they teach Paleface Children how they should do.

Again we say, Indian is glad to have some one speak for him. He is glad to have some one write down the great and beautiful thoughts in Indian's mind and heart. We have spoken. Na ho.

Chief of Seneca Nation,

Chief of Onondagas,

Chief of Tuscaroras,

Chief of Oneidas,

Chief of Cayugas,

Chief of Mohawks,

HOW THE STORIES CAME TO BE

Out of the moons of long ago, these stories have come. Then every tribe of the Iroquois had its story-teller.

When the Old Man of the North came out of his lodge, and the forests and rivers of the Red Children grew white with his breath, these story-tellers wandered from wigwam to wigwam.

Seated on warm skins by the fire, the story-teller would exclaim, "Hanio!" This meant, "Come, gather round, and I will tell a story."

Then all the Red Children would cry, "Heh," and draw close to the fire. This meant that they were glad to hear the story. And as the flames leaped and chased one another along the fire trail, they would listen to these wonder stories of the Little People, of the trees and flowers, of birds, of animals, and men. When the story-teller had finished, he said, "Na ho." This meant, "It is the end."

The earth was very young, when the Red Children first learned how everything came to be, and just why it is that things are as they are. They told these wonderful things to their children, and their children in turn told them to their children; and those children again in turn told them to theirs, that these things might not be forgotten.

Now, but few of the Red Children know these stories that the grandmothers and old men of the tribe used to tell. The story-teller is no longer seen wandering from wigwam to wigwam.

WHY I WAS CALLED THE STORY-TELLER

Some time ago the writer of these stories was asked to speak for an Indian Society. She accepted the invitation, and that night made her first Indian friends.

Her new friends told her many beautiful things about the Red Children. The more the writer learned about the Iroquois people, and things Indian, the more interested she became. After a time she began to tell the Paleface the things she had learned.

Soon, one of the tribes, the Senecas--the tribe to which her new friends belonged--heard that she was speaking for them. They wished to honor her, so they asked her to be present at their Green-Corn Feast, and become one of them.

So when the Green-Corn moon hung her horn in the night sky, the writer found the trail to the Land of the Senecas. There the Senecas adopted her into the Snipe clan of their nation. She was called Yeh sen noh wehs--"One who carries and tells the stories."

Thus it was that the writer became one of the Red Children, Yeh sen noh wehs--the Daughter of the Senecas.

The more Yeh sen noh wehs learned of the Red Children, and their simple stories, the more she loved them. One day, Yeh sen noh wehs said she would be the story-teller not only of the Senecas, but of all the tribes of the Iroquois. There are six great families of this people. Each family is called a tribe or nation.

Once, the council fires of these six nations burned from the Hudson on the east, to Lake Erie on the west, and they were a great and powerful people.

It was at the time of the Berry Moon that Yeh sen noh wehs hit the story trail. Since then she has journeyed through all the lands of the Senecas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Oneidas, the Mohawks, and the Tuscaroras.

Continue reading Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children free in the Wunder reader →