"Tell me about him. I want to know how he was born, was he like you?" I asked Jacob. Jacob and I were surrounded by a small fire close to our eastern swamps, the one created by the river that is by grandma and grandpa's house in Olympia.
"You really want to hear about Eweete? The man that could change the world?" I just nodded to him and looked into the fire, feeling its warmth and power.
Jacob took a deep breath and moved closer to me and swung his arm around my ten year old shoulders. "Two sisters, working together, dug the fern roots for their family. Often when they were digging roots at some distance from home, they would camp overnight. One evening as they lay looking at the sky, the girls wondered what kind of people the Stars were and how they lived up in Star World.
"Which star would you marry?" Asked the younger sister. "The big bright one or the little red one?" Jacob's voice slightly got higher as he spoke for the girls. It made me giggle and he just smiles at me and continued.
"Oh, don't be foolish!" answered the older sister. "Why do you talk that way?"
But her sister was not silenced. "I want to marry the big bright star. You may have the little red one." She stopped talking, and the two fell asleep.
Next morning, when they awoke, they were surprised to find themselves in Star Land. The younger sister was married to the little Red star, a handsome young man. The older sister was married to the big bright star, a white-haired old man.
Just as in the earth world, the sisters spent much of their time digging fern roots. "Do not dig the very long roots," Their husbands told them. "They are not so good to eat as the others are."
For a long time the women obeyed their husbands, but one day they decided to dig up the very deepest roots. They knew that on earth the longest ones were best. They dug and dug until at last their digging sticks broke through the ground and made a hole. Looking through it, they saw the earth spread out below them. Then they knew that they wanted to return home.
Quickly they made a plan. While the older sister dug fern roots, the younger sister quickly twisted cedar branches into a rope long enough to reach from the sky to the earth. Both worked hard and fast, the older one digging as many roots as the two girls had been digging.
At last the rope was long enough. They fastened one end to Star world and climbed down. Their family was made happy by their return, and people from far and wide came to swing the rope which hangs from the sky. They swung so much that they made gullies on the sides of the near-by Mountains, were their feet touched.
Soon after their return to the earth, the younger sister gave birth to a son. Whenever she went out to dig roots and camas, she left the baby in care of her blind grandmother, Toad. All day the grandmother worked and sang. All day women came to hear the grandmother sing and to see the baby, the wonderful child of the Red star in Star Land.
One day some neighbor woman found that the child was gone. The blind grandmother was singing to a swing that had a piece of rotten wood in it. Two women from the north had stolen the baby."
"Oh no! How could such women do a thing to the child of the Red star?" I squeaked it out. Instantly became quite for remembering that if Jacob found that rude he would not tell me what would happen next.
"Remember the women thought he was a wonderful child, because he was the son of the Red star." He answered.
"Oh, ok. I get it now." Jacob continued after that.
"All the family and all the other people of the village looked and looked for the child for months. At last they gave up the search and made a new child from the cradleboard. The new child was thought of as the brother of the stolen baby.
Many years later, Blue Hay, on his travels, reached the edge of the world, far in the northland. There he saw a land beyond the edge of the world. To reach it, Blue Jay saw that he would have to fly below a shelf of land. This shelf rose and fell all the time, and shook the earth with its movement, Blue Jay hesitated, but gathering all his courage, he dashed through, feet first. The shelf of land caught his head and flattened it on both sides. That is why blue jay today has flattened heads.
In the land beyond the edge of the earth, Jay saw but one house. In it he found a man chipping arrowheads from stone. Somehow Blue Jay recognizes the man as the child who had been stolen from his grandmother in his babyhood.
"I came to find you," Said Jay. "Your mother has been mourning for you for many years."
"I am getting ready to go to your people," replied the man. "I have been making bows and arrows and other things to take with me. Go home to your people and tell that I am coming. I will teach them how to use the things I am making. Then live will be easier for them. And I will change the earth so that it will be less cruel and more beautiful. People will call me the Changer."
Blue Jay returned with the message for his people. In time the changer came, bringing with him bows, arrows, war clubs, baskets, moccasins, leather garments, and other things which he had made. He showed the people how to use them and how to make them.
He brought seeds of many trees and shrubs. He brought roots and berries and grasses of many kinds. All these he planted on the earth, to make it beautiful and fruitful. He placed animals and birds on the land, and fishes in the water. He made canoes and fish traps and showed the people how to make them.
Up to this time, stones had had life; bee's flies and other insects had been giants. The Changer removed life from stones and made the insects small and less harmful. Crane had been troublesome to many people by tripping them whenever they tried to cross the river. The Changer transformed Crane into a bird that could do nothing but wade around in the water looking for fish.
As the changer passed across land, he came to the house were lived a bad man who sometimes set the earth on fire. "I am the son of fire," the man kept singing. "I am the son of Flames."
As he sang, his house caught on fire and the flames spread. Soon they reached the changer. He ran, but Flames followed. Alarmed, he asked Boulders to protect him.
"We cannot," Boulders replied. "If we should try, the heat will break us."
The Changer asked Trees to help him. "We cannot," Trees replied. "If we should try we would be burned."
As he ran toward the River, he asked River to help him. "I cannot," Replied River. "Fire would make my water boil."
At last he came to a hard- worn path. "Lie down on me," called Trail. "Lie down on me, and fire will pass over you." My heart beat became faster. What was going to happen to the Changer, will he burn alive?
"So the Changer lay down, and Fire passed over him. Then he returned to the man and the house where Fire had started. All around him were many snakes. When asked about them, the man mocked him. So the Changer killed the man and split him open. From the man's stomach and from every corner of the house, angry snaked jumped at the changer. But he killed them or made them weak. That is why there are few snakes in this country." I smiled widely at knowing why there are no poisonous snakes around to harm anyone. I showed him this with my gift, this made him look away from the fire and look at me.
"Will you stop interrupting, I'm almost done." I cringed a bit into his shoulder and answered yes into my hand. He let out a gulp of air and once again continued.
"Thus the Changer traveled over the land, helping the people getting rid of evil creatures. He taught the people how to make all the things they needed, how to play games, how to cure the sick. He showed them how to get power from the spirits.
One day as he was traveling along a river, he became hungry. He saw a salmon jumping, calling to him, put it on a spit, and placed it beside his fire. While he was cooking, the Changer fell asleep. A wandering creature came and ate all the salmon. Before he slipped away, he rubbed some of the oil onto his lips and fingers. When the Changer awoke, he knew he had been tricked. He followed the tracks of the creature and soon found him looking at himself in the water. The Changer transformed into a Coyote.
When he went to the home of the blind grandmother, Toad. He saw a mountain of rock. The mountains had been from the coils of cedar rope which his mother and aunt had made in Star World. As he looked up at the sky, the Changer thought that there should be more light. So he went up to the Sky World and traveled across it by day in the form of sun.
But he made the days so hot that the people could not stand the heat. He called his brother, who had been made from the cradleboard, and made him the sun.
"I will be the night sun," said the Changer. "And I will take with me as my wife the maiden who can lift and carry this great bag of things which I have made."
Only the daughter of Frog could carry such a load, and so she went up to the sky with him. Today the changer, the frog and the bag she carried can be seen in the full moon." He finished it with a soft whisper, then clearing his throat multiple times.
I turned around and handed him the canteen that we had. "Here" He took it and drank from it, soon giving me a wet kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks buttercup." He re-screwed on the cap and set it beside him. He wrapped his other arm around me and set his huge head on my tiny one.
"Did the Changer change your people? Is this why you are wolfs?" He laughed.
"What's bringing in all these questions?"
I stayed quite; I didn't want him to know how much I wanted to learn about his culture. It didn't quite feel right for me to want too. Yet at the same time why not?
Jacob nudged me with his shoulder. "Come on, spit it out." I shook my head, still not ready.
Jacob sighed, and grabbed my hand and placed it in his. "Come on buttercup. Don't be such a skunk Cabbage." I laughed, but kept silent on my thoughts. He sighed. "Alright, another day then. Maybe when I tell you how the Changer changed my people." He lifted an eyebrow, and his lips turned slightly like a duck. This made me giggle.
"What if you just told me now?" I asked. I felt his head leave mine as he checked his phone for the time. The light shown on his face. I could see his dark brown eyes, his high cheekbones, and the big nose. It always remained me of an eagle. His round boyish head. He looked like an Indian; well he would look more like one I bet if his hair was long all the way down to his shoulder, people wouldn't get him mixed up with being Mexican or Asian.
"No, we should be going. Bed time in thirty minutes." He got up and grabbed a huge handful of dirt/sand from the backpack that we brought with us. And dumped it onto the fire. I could hear the sizzle go quite and smoke lifted up to the tree tops.
I got up off the blanket that he set down on the moss covered ground and looked around, seeing ferns and current bushes, filled with black fruit. I walked over to them and plucked a few and gulped them up.
I continued to eat them when Jacob picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. My face slammed into the backpack. I screamed with delight, playfully kicking at the air. Asking him to let me down.
"Nope, buttercup. It's time for you to rest your head and close your eyes." He started to walk the small deer trail that we took to get to our berry spot.
"But I'm not even in bed yet." I cried. From behind him. I let my arms hand down and every few steps he would make. I would reward him with a pat on his butt. He started to run, and my eyes started to get glassy with the speed. I can see just fine in the dark and with the speed but they still water when the two intermix each other.
"You will soon." He ran to my mama's and papa's cottage and busted through the doors. Both of my parents were there on the couch reading their huge books. I smiled at them and started to wiggle and kick so then I could get to them. Jacob twisted be around so then I could be on my feet. I ran to them and jumped into papa's lap and snuggled into his cold shoulder. I shivered for a bit. Getting used to the change in temperature between Jacob and the two of them. Jacob headed to the closet to place the pack into it, then too the kitchen for something to eat.
"How were the swamps today dear? Not too wet like last time?" Mama chuckled. I blushed slightly remembering that I was jumping thought the fir trees and one of the branches didn't hold me so I fell into the wetlands and lost my new purple flats.
"No mama, they were the same. The sprinkling has been as steady as usual." I showed her that I was starting to remember the plants around me and she smiled.
"That is a smart girl." Mama kissed my head. "Now go get you p-jays on and head to bed. We will tuck you in, in a bit." Pappa pushed me off his lap and I headed towards the kitchen first and kissed Jacob on the lips for bedtime before leaving to my room.
I skipped towards my massive closet and went to my p-jays section and got into a pink night gown. I brushed my teeth and my hair before getting into bed with a Sherman Alexie book in my lap. The side lamp on and the chair ready for when papa or mama gets in to tuck me in.
When I heard the door open I sat up to see Jacob there with a plate of pasta in one hand and a fork in the other. He walked over to me and set the plate on the night stand and grabbed a tiny chair to sit it, his legs bent up to his chest.
"I thought Mama and Papa were going to tuck me in?" I wondered If Jacob talked them letting him do it this time. It wouldn't be the first.
"No; they will be in, in a moment." He shuffled his weight a bit in the child sized chair to get more comfortable. "I'm actually here to tell you that story" My eyes lit up and a smile went across my face.
"Really?" I asked with pure excitement.
"Yeah of course buttercup." He said smiling at me. He twisted his body to re-grab his plate and took a bite of pasta. All I could do was make myself not jump up and down.
"What maybe you change your mind?"
He looked at my small clock that I had on the night table. "We still have twenty minutes." He said though a mouth full of food. I continued to look at him, waiting for him to start.
"Well…?" I elongated the word. He stared back at me taking a few rushed bites of his food, chewing it loudly of purpose.
"You shouldn't rush the story teller. You always have trouble with that." I saw bits of tomato fly across the room onto the floor when he spoke the word 'trouble'.
I pouted falsely folding my arms across my chest and humfted. One of Jacob's eyebrows rose at the action. "Maybe I should not tell you the story miss pouter. You know you're not going to get anything with that attitude." I let my pout go and released my arms to the sides of my body.
Jacob set down his plate and cleared his throat a couple time and then opened his mouth to tell the story I've been waiting for two months to hear.
"Eweete was walking one day to discover a man who was making a spear. Eweete went to ask the man what he was doing.
"I am going to kill the changer, for he is changing the earth." He said as he continued to make the spear.
"Is that so" Said Eweete. So Eweete took the spear from the man and placed it on his back side and changed him into a beaver. "You will live in the water and slap your tail making dams." The beaver soon crawled over to the water and swam away.
"The changer continued on his way until he came to a river which it known as the Queets River today. He noticed that there were no people around so he grabbed the red dirt from the river and rubbed his hands together and the people came out of the river, who is now the Quinault.
"The changer after helping the Quinault people into settling he went north to our river and saw that there were no people but in fact two wolfs. So he changed those two wolves into people and that's where my tribe's power comes from." I looked at him amazed. "The changer told my people to be a proud and strong tribe for we were from wolfs."
I snorted softly. "And you've stuck too those words, haven't you."
Jacob puffed out his chest to look strong. "We defiantly have." I yawned soon after and Jacob looked at me with soft eyes. "Tired kid-o?" I just yawned again and nodded. He chuckled a bit and kissed my head before taking his plate and saying goodnight. I laid my head down on the pillow as I re-waited for my parents to tuck me in.
Lucky for me I didn't have to wait long for both of them walked into the room with a warm smile and I sat up waiting for them to sit down and read to me. Papa sat into the chair that was next to the lamp and mama sat next to him but on the bed. Papa opened the book War Dances to a poem and read it. The poem was strange, as strange as the writer himself. But it soon made me drowsy. Mama and papa kissed me goodnight and I soon fell asleep, dreaming of the changer and how he changed the world.