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CHAPTER SEVEN The Plant World It is not enough to account for the various kinds ofpeople in the world, for the animals and birds are not the only ones who have an impact on human life. Plants are ofgreat importance, because many carry medicine power, and a few ofthem are crucial for human life. In the Native American world one of the latter was tobacco. Although it has been used recreationally in recent years, it was for many centuries in North America a crucial resource for humans in maintaining good relations with various powerful beings in the cosmos. In the Eastern Woodlands generally, tobacco was especially prized by the Above-World and Under-World powers, and humans who made offerings of tobacco to them were almost guaranteed their good humor. Early explorers in the Mississippi Valley noted that few Native Americans would dream of embarking on a river journey without offering some tobacco to the waterpowers. Tobacco was therefore important in Native American life, and we would expect to find some account ofits origin. In the Southeast, however, there appears to be a single legend, found among the Creeks, Hitchiti, and Yuchi. The Origin ofTobacco • • • YUeHI A man and a woman went into the woods. The man had intercourse with the woman and the semen fell upon the ground. From that time they separated, each going his own way. But after a while the woman passed near the place again, and thinking to revisit the spot, went there and beheld some strange weeds growing upon it. She watched them a long while. Soon she met the man who had been with her, and said to him, "Let us go to the place and I will show you something beautiful." They went there and saw it. She asked him what name to call the weeds, and he asked her what name she would give them. But 143 neither ofthem would give a name. Now the woman had a fatherless boy, and she went and told the boy that she had something beautiful. She said, "Let us go and see it." When they arrived atthe place she said to him, "This is the thing that I was telling you about." And the boy at once began to examine it. After a little while he said, "I'mgoingto name this." Then he named it i, "tobacco." He pulled up some of the weeds and carried them home carefully and planted them in a selected place. He nursed the plants and they grew and became ripe. Now they had a good odor and the boy began to chew the leaves. He found them very good, and in order to preserve the plants he saved the seeds when they were ripe. He showed the rest of the people how to use the tobacco, and from the seeds which he preserved, all gotplants and raised the tobacco for themselves. 1 Although we have seenthe arrival ofspecial medicine plants in a migration legend, here is another version ofthat important event taken down in the late eighteenth century. Giftsfrom Four Men • • • CREEK There are in the forks ofRed river (We-cha-te-hat-che Au-fus-kee), west of Mississippi (We-o-coof-ke, muddy water), two mounds of earth. At this place, the Kasihta, Coweta, and Chickasaws found themselves. They were at a loss for flre. Here they were visited by the Hi-you-yul-gee, four men who came from the four comers of the world. One of these people asked the Indians, where they would have their flre (tote-kit-cau). They pointed to a place; it was made; and they sat down around it. The Hi-you-yul-gee directed, that they should pay particular attention to the flre, that it would preserve them and let Esau -ge-tuh E-mis-see (Master of Breath) know their wants. One of these visitors took them and showed them the Pas-sau; another showed them Micco -ho-yon-ejau, then the Auche-nau (cedar) and Too-Ioh (sweet bay). (There are one or two other plants, not recollected. Each ofthese seven plants was to belong to a particular tribe (E-mau-li-ge-tuh).) After this the four visitors disappeared ir. a cloud, going from whence they came.2 Despite the importance ofbeans in the Native American diet, only one text relating to the origin ofthat plant has been collected. The Origin ofBeans • • • TUNICA Once there were an orphan boy and his sister. Every morning they...

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