Photo: Badger laying on ground, by Fuentes, Jamie; Wikimedia Commons
Story by Rudolph Red Fox MT
My father just bought a house out in the country. My sister told my mother, “They should come to live with us, my grandma and grandpa.”
We were all glad when they came the other day. Grandpa must have gotten up really early because, when I got up, the pick-up was gone.
Before I went to school, I asked Grandma, “Where’s the pickup?”
“Oh, your grandpa drove away! He went to hunt,” she said to me.
It was late afternoon when he returned home. He must have killed a big buck (deer). I helped Grandpa unload it.
When he butchered it, Grandma was right there to cut up the meat that was going to be dried.
My mother started slicing the meat, and my sister helped our mother.
Grandma started to boil the deer meat. She put salt pork and potatoes.
Grandma started making a drying rack, and I went after some dry branches.
My mother used them to stretch the meat.
As I was coming back from far away, I smelled Grandma’s cooking.
My father, when he got home from work, must have smelled the deer that was cooking. He must have tried to sneak into the pot. Grandma was chasing him out. “Go sit under the Arbor. Soon we’ll eat.”
Grandpa said, “Come sit here. Let’s see how many cars will come by before dinner is ready.”
The first to appear, red. Barely, it was making it northward. The second one was yellow, the third one was purple, the fourth one was orange, the fifth one was green, the sixth one was black, the seventh one was white, the eighth one was brown, and the ninth one was gray.
A blue car came down the hill; it was going really fast. Right where we were, when it got there, it made a big noise. It went off the road.
My father said, “Someone might get hurt. Let me see. I better look.” He ran there to the car, where it was standing.
Grandpa and I followed my father. When we arrived my father said, “It must have just been a flat tire. No one was hurt.”
My father helped the man. They changed the tire. He must have been traveling by; we didn’t know him.
Grandpa and I watched them, and then Grandma called us, “Now come to eat.” Grandpa invited the man to eat. When we finished eating, “Thank you,” he told us. Then, he drove off.
I asked Grandpa,” Why did you invite him? We didn’t know him.”
Then, he told me a story about why he helped that person.
“Every time, when I go hunt deer, I tell the sacred powers, ‘Look at me!’ And the badger helps us find food. I said to the badger, ‘And now meat is ample.’ I killed the deer, I field-dressed it there, I took the liver. Likewise, what I ate tasted really good. He (badger) must be fed when there is a kill. ‘Take it!’ I told him. Long ago, the Sacred Powers told the asa worker (ehose) the badger to pity us. Likewise, this badger reminds us, we are not going to be selfish. If there is selfishness, if there is not respect for one another, if there is no kindness, the badger must turn his back on us. There surely would be no happiness, and everything would be gone.
Submitted by Yvonne Verjan Hawk
