| Education of Little Tree, The |
9-10 |
"Don't feel sad, Little Tree. It is The Way. Tal-con [the hawk] caught the slow [quail] and so the slow will raise no children who are also slow. Tal-con eats a thousand ground rats who eat the eggs of the quail -- both the quick and the slow eggs -- and so Tal-con lives by the Way. He helps the quail. ... Take only what ye need. When ye take the deer, do not take the best. Take the smaller and the slower and then the deer will grow stronger and always give you meat. ... Only Ti-bi, the bee, stores more than he can use... and so he is robbed by the bear, and the 'coon... and the Cherokee. It is so with people who store and fat themselves with more than their share. They will say a flag stands for their right to do this... and men will die because of the words and the flag... but they will not change the rules of The Way." |
ecology natural selection hunting |
| Education of Little Tree, The |
61-62 |
Granma's Pa was called Brown Hawk. She said his understanding was deep. He coul feel the tree-thought. Once, she said, when she was a little girl, her Pa was troubled and said the white oaks on the mountain near them was excited and scared. He spent much time on the mountain, walking among the oaks. They were of much beauty, tall and straight. They wasn't selfish, allowing ground for sumach and persimmon, and hickory and chestnut to feed the wild things. Not being selfish gave them much spirit and the spirit was strong. Granma said her Pa got so worried about the oaks that he would walk amongst them at night, for he knew something was wrong. Then, early one morning, as the sun broke the mountain ridge, Brown Hawk watched while lumbermen moved through the white oaks, marking and figuring how to cut all of them down. When they left, Brown Hawk said, the white oaks commenced to cry. And he could not sleep. So he watched the lumbermen. They built a road up to the mountain over which to bring their wagons. Granma said her Pa talked to the Cherokees and they determined to save the white oaks. She said at night, when the lumbermen would leave and go back to the settlement, the Cherokees would dig up the road, hacking deep trenches across it. The women and children helped. The next morning, the lumbermen came back and spent all day fixing the road. But that night, the Cherokees dug it up again. This went on for the next two days and nights; then the lumbermen put up guards on the road with guns. But they could not guard all the road, and the Cherokees dug trenches where they could. Granma said it was a hard struggle and they grew very tired. Then one day, as the lumbermen were working on the road, a giant white oak fell across a wagon. She said it was a fine, healthy white oak and had no reason to fall, but it did. The lumbermen gave up trying to build the road. Spring rains set in... and they never came back. Granma said the moon waxed full, and they held a celebration in the great stand of white oaks. They danced in the full yellow moon, and the white oaks sang and touched their branches together, and touched the Cherokee. Granma said they sang a death chant for the white oak who had given his life to save others, and she said the feeling was so strong that it almost picked her up off the mountain. |
ecology forestry animism Native American |
| Education of Little Tree, The |
65 |
[Granpa] also had no patience atall with aging whiskey. Granpa said he had heard all his life this 'un and that 'un mouthing off about how much better aged whiskey was. He said he tried it oncet. Said he set some fresh whiskey back and let it set for a week and when he tasted of it, it didn't taste one lick damn different from all the other whiskey he made. Granpa said that where folks got that at was letting whiskey set in barrels for a long time until it picked up the scent and color of the barrels. He said if a damn fool wanted to smell of a barrel, he'd ought to go stick his head in one and smell of it, then go git himself a drink of honest whiskey. Granpa called such people "barrel sniffers." He said he could put stump water in a barrel and let it set long enough and sell it to such folks, and they would drink it because it smelled like a barrel. |
alcohol connoisseur |
