Okwari:kowa

as told by Kanietakeron

This is a Mohawk story that was told to children.  A long, long time ago there was a village on the bend of a river.  On one sunny day, a hunter was out in the forest looking for game.  While walking along a trail, he stumbled on a hole.  He stood back, scratched his head, and thought to himself, “This wasn’t here yesterday.”  He went uphill to get a better look at the hole.  His hair stood up.  He rubbed his eyes and looked again.  That hole was not just any hole, it was the footprint of a bear.  Cautiously and very quietly, the hunter followed the trail.  It circled the village and went far into the woods.

As time went on the woods became very quiet and very still.  The animals were disappearing.  The people of the village knew that the bear who made those tracks was killing all the animals.  Because of this there was no meat on the meat racks and people were becoming very hungry.  The Clanmothers and the Chiefs called for a meeting.  At this gathering, one of the Chiefs said; “We must get rid of this bear that is killing off all of the game.  Our people are hungry and scared.”  They all agreed.  The young men, like all young men, were eager to hunt this bear and thought of it as a challenge.  They gathered their weapons and set out to kill this great bear.  The bear’s trail was very easy to find.  They followed the trail for a few days, when, over the crest of the hill they saw him.  He was huge.  He was taller that the trees and as big as a house.

The hunters wanted to run for safety.  Then they thought of the people at home who were hungry.

They attacked, and the air was filled with arrows and spears.  It had no effect on the bear, because its skin was so thick that the arrows couldn’t go through.  The arrows only made the bear very angry.  He turned and charged after the hunters.  Realizing that their weapons were useless, they ran for their lives.  This bear could run like the wind and in no time at all the bear caught up to the fleeing hunters.

Most of them were killed.

Only two hunters escaped and made it back to the village.  They told of what happened and that the rest of the hunters were dead.  Many times the men of the village went to battle with this monster bear. Each time they failed and as a result, many men were killed.  This bear continued to kill the game and the people were becoming sick from lack of proper food that the animals provided.

....Continued next week