Why The Bear Clan Knows Medicine

Submitted By John Kahionhes Fadden

One time an old man appeared at the edge of a village in ragged clothes, hungry and leaning on a cane. He approached the first barkhouse, of a clan, but the woman of the house turned him away with disdain. The old man went to each of the clan houses with the same result.

No one would help him in his time of need. Finally he came to the last house at the far edge of the village, a Bear Clan house. Here he was welcomed and given fresh clothing. He ate and was made to feel a part of the family.

One day he became ill and instructed the woman of the house to gather and prepare certain plants for medicines. Finally the woman undertook how to care for all the illnesses known to the people. She learned about the many plants and how they could be prepared to produce medicine.

The old man had come down with just about every ailment that was known by the people at that time, and he showed the woman how to prepare medicine for each one.

One day the woman of the Bear Clan house was confronted by a mystical being, a man whose face shone brighter than the sun and whose clothing emanated the colors of the rainbow. She was frightened. He told her he was the Creator and He had come to see if His teachings had been remembered: to be kind to the elderly; to be hospital to strangers. Her reward was the knowledge of the special powers of the medicine plants.