Crabapple and leaves

Forgot today is Columbus Day.  (I'm in the camp that Leif Erickson was the first European to set foot in the New World anyway). It is Indigenous Peoples Day so to celebrate that I'll tell you a tale from the Chippewa.

There was a man who was a very good hunter but had a very bad temper.  He would always yell at his brothers and other men whenever they made a mistake.  Soon no one wanted to hunt w/ him anymore.  

Eventually the hunter got married so he and his wife went off on their own.  She was a hard-working woman and he was a good provider so they were happy together by themselves.  But one day he lost his temper w/ her too.  He really yelled at her.  His wife ran back to their home and took their son.  She sang a song but I don't know how it goes.  It had the same idea as "Your father doesn't want us anymore.  Your father doesn't want us anymore."  They went away.

That night when the hunter returned home he saw that they were gone.  He felt bad because he knew he shouldn't have lost his temper.  He decided to follow them and found their tracks in the mud.  He was good at tracking and felt he would soon catch up w/ them.  As he went he saw the tracks were changing from moccasin footprints to something that looked like skunk tracks.

The hunter arrived at a marsh and the tracks ended.  Suddenly he was surrounded  by skunks but he couldn't tell if any of them were his wife and child.  He gave up and sadly went home.

After awhile the hunter remarried.  He changed his attitude and didn't yell at people anymore.  He always told his children, "Don't eat skunks.  You must never eat skunks because they might be your brother."  None of them ever did.