Our Sacred Leaf Chapter 18 Sacred Wisdom of the Ancient Grandmothers
The origin tale of the Blackfoot Tribe's special plant
Pretty Wolverine Woman and Sixapo recalled traveling to the North Blackfeet Reserve near Gleichen, Alberta Canada by wagon alongside Chief Shot Both Sides and Long Time Pipe Woman to a sacred tobacco ceremony. The area is called the Blackfoot Crossing, where Treaty Seven was signed close to Cluny.
After the tobacco harvest, the medicine people created camp fires and surrounded the fire with approximately four foot high railings. The large leaves were hung by their stems in small bunches from the railings to dry. The medicine people were involved in praying and ceremonies for all aspects of the tobacco harvest, including the planting. The ground was blessed, as were the seeds, then carefully observed and prayed over during the growth season and pre-cutting, harvesting and during processing. The fire dried leaves were put in hide or cloth bags and crumbled into sizable portions. Often it was ground even finer for smoking with a mortar and stone.
The clans sent their medicine people or bundle holders as representatives to obtain the blessed leaves from their kinsmen on the Siksika Reserve. They would obtain enough bags of tobacco to last throughout the season. This tobacco was used in ceremonial pipes as well as lodge pipes for welcoming and hospitality. In some Blackfeet ceremonies, ten to fifteen pipes had to be filled, (such as sharing the pipe ceremonies) so there had to be an ample supply for the tribe to use for such a lengthy period of time. This was another time of feasting and celebration for those who gathered for the tobacco harvesting and processing ceremonies. It was a way of life for the sacred elders.
Long Time Pipe Woman's Tale
Long Time Pipe Woman told the tale of how the White (Ermine) Weasel People came to be blessed by the sacred leaf we today call tobacco by her elders. It was told that there were four visionaries who were all of the same family. The oldest of the four brothers was on the plains hunting one sunny day and he heard a disincarnate entity speak, "See this beautiful leaf before you? This is a sacred plant; ask the Earth Mother if you may gather some of it. If agreeable, then allow it to dry in the sun and put it in the fire for sacred smudge." The eldest visionary did just so and found the smoke to be very pacifying and enhanced his visions. The spirit of the sacred leaf told him that when all was known to the four sons of the same mother, they would share the knowledge, which would pacify men and unify the tribal people.
Holding up the pipe to the visionary the spirit said, "This is a pipe for smoking the sacred leaf. You must create four of them." The third brother immediately located four good, strong bones and began carving. Within a day, he had created exact replicas of the new contraption he had seen in his vision.
The youngest of the visionary brothers began to spend more time than usual on his favorite rock ledge overlooking the Old Man River in his meditations. He eagerly anticipated his vision to come regarding his part in these exciting sacred events. One evening, as he sat in awe of a magnificent sunset over the grassy plains, the spirit of the sacred leaf appeared before him just as if he were flesh and blood. He sat across from the brother and showed him how to smoke the pipe and shared it with him. He revealed that the name of the sacred leaf was Nawak-osis.
The spirit being spent the following three days and nights teaching the youngest brother the songs, prayers and ceremonies required to participate in the sacred smoke. After the three days, the young man eagerly went to his camp and told his mother to call together her three other sons. There, they followed the instructions and each lit their own bone pipe full of the sacred leaf and inhaled the sweet smoke. Then they exhaled together sending their prayers with the smoke up into the clouds for the Creator to see and hear.
The Nawak-osis Sacred Society
The Nawak-osis gave the four brothers enhanced visionary powers and made them more clear minded than they had been before. They knew that the spirit of the sacred leaf had intended the Nawak-osis to be shared with all the people, but they became over protective of it. They created their own Nawak-osis Sacred Society and kept the membership exclusive to themselves. They planted the seeds that the spirit of the sacred leaf had given them in a secret place, tending and harvesting it with the utmost caution so as not to be discovered.
But in clan life, it is impossible to keep a secret from the others for a very long time. The others sense of smell could identify a new herb smoke coming from the tipi of the brothers from time to time. Their attempts to perform the songs and prayers of the Nawak-osis very quietly were in vain. A young warrior named Bull By Himself had observed enough to come to the conclusion that the visionaries were not doing their sacred duty for their people and had become greedy in their ways. He said to his wife, "Our medicine men think they are hiding the new sacred leaf, but they are not. I will find a way to obtain some of the seeds of the herb and we shall plant them ourselves." So, as was the way with the Weasel People, they trusted the spirits and nature to provide the answers.
Bull By Himself and the Beaver People
A young couple took their lodge and set it up by the shore of a sacred lake so the medicine spirits of the lake could direct them in their search for a sacred gift from the spirits. Each morning the young husband would go out to hunt for food, always his nose focused for the scent of the herb he had smelled coming from the lodge of he four brothers. The young wife stayed by the lodge to prepare food, tan hides and quill beautiful designs on selected items for decor.
One afternoon, the young bride took a break from her chores and put her bare feet into the cool waters of the lake. She closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the sun upon her face and said a silent prayer of gratitude for the loving life she was living. She thought she imagined a beautiful tune being sung, but when she opened her eyes and shook her head, it only became clearer. She was drawn to the music irresistibly and found herself wading through the shallow waters at the edge of the lake and up a little river that ran into the lake. She continued up the stream, beginning to hum along with the songs, laughing and skipping in the water, overcome with the magic of the melody.
Most unexpectedly, the young woman came upon a large beaver lodge in the crook of a stream where they had formed a small lake. She hurried up to the lodge and called out to the beavers to allow her to join them, but they did not hear her from inside. So she began to carefully remove sticks and branches from the beaver lodge until she had made a hole large enough to view the interior. Through the hole, the sweet music resounded and she beheld the beaver tribe joined together performing a strange and exotic dance.
Overcome with glee, the woman called through the hole, "Oh beautiful Beaver People, allow me to know your songs and dances, for they give me such great joy!" Chief Beaver told her to repair the hole she had made and they would join her outside in the water and accommodate her as best they could. Chief Beaver agreed to visit the lodge of her husband and speak to him regarding their medicine songs and dances.
The ecstatic young lady rushed home to find her husband just returning from his day's hunt and explained what had occurred that day with the Beaver People. They discussed the events together in detail that night during supper and came to the conclusion that perhaps the water spirits had led her to the Beaver People to reveal to her the answer to their quest.
Indeed that night, just before they bedded down, four Beaver People announced their presence outside their tipi. Bull By Himself lifted the flap of his lodge and asked them to be his guests. Quite unexpectedly as the beavers entered the lodge, they shape shifted into human form. They sat by the fire as four handsome warriors and spoke to the husband, "What have you come to our land seeking, friend?" Bull By Himself told them the story of the sacred herb that the four medicine men had discovered and how they had kept it to themselves. He told them he believed that he had heard the name of it in their songs, believing they might have called it Nawak-osis".
"Then you have been directed here by the spirits, friend," the new friends replied, "For that is a water spirit herb and we are water people and we are familiar with this." They were dismayed at the behavior of the four medicine men and said that must be rectified.
The Beaver People invited Bull By Himself to their lodge where they transferred a sacred medicine bundle to him. The bundle contained the hides and feathers of all the creatures of the water. Each item of the medicine bundle had a ceremony and song which they taught to him. They spent three days and nights teaching him these things and on the fourth day they taught him the dances that were to be performed with Nawak-osis. Then they gifted him with a large pouch of the sacred leaf and a beautiful pipe carved from wood with a rock bowl. They explained how to put the leaves in the bowl and light them with a glowing twig from the fire, how to in hale and exhale the smoke up into Creator's clouds.
Bull By Himself thanked the Beaver People and pledged integrity all his days as a holder of the bundle and expressed to them that he was honored to teach his people about the use of the Nawak-osis. Before he left, the four beaver medicine men each handed him a small bag of seeds. "These are four different varieties of the sacred herb, the medicine spirits will tell you how to plant and harvest them when you perform the songs and ceremonies in the opening of the bundle," they explained.
The Sacred Crop
The couple did exactly as instructed, but did not advise the four visionary brothers of what they were doing. They planted the seeds with prayer and ceremony and carefully watched the tiny seeds sprout and burst forth into the sun forming into beautiful wide, green leaves. A soft rain came upon their blessed crop as needed and the sun shone gently upon it as if it knew how important it was to the real people.
Upon the secret crop of the four visionary brothers there came a huge hail storm, totally destroying every leaf of their harvest. It took no words for them to learn the wrong path they had taken, for they knew that the nature spirits had shown them the err of their ways. They were forgiven by Bull By Himself and his wife and included in the great feast and ceremony that revolved around the opening of the medicine bundle after the harvesting of the Nawak-osis crop.
The people learned the ways of Nawak-osis, just as the Beaver People had taught the young warrior and his wife. They treasured the knowledge and the gift that had been given them. They became more peaceful in their ways and honored each other more greatly than they had in the past. The sacred leaf had brought unity to the Weasel People and since that ancient time they have held true to the ways and practices of Nawak-osis.
