Why People Got Disease

Why People Got Disease

This is not a Mohawk story.

This is a Cherokee story.

It’s a good story though. An important story.

It’s about when the first People showed up on Turtle Island.

It’s about why we have disease and sickness.

How when those first People showed up they got on the other animals’ nerves. How they didn’t respect the other animals and didn’t respect the earth, so the other animals got together around the sacred fire and decided to do something about it.

We like to think that some People are better than other People but as far as animals are concerned People all have to be taught respect. People have to be taught how to behave. People need something to keep them from crowding the planet and doing nothing but harm.

Back near the beginning of People they hadn’t learn to respect the earth or respect their animal cousins so all the other animals got together and decided to do something about it.

They gathered in a circle around a sacred fire and passed the talking stick around. 

First Turtle took the stick and said – Ho. My brothers and sisters. My cousins and uncles and aunties. I have been carrying you all on my back for a very long time now and you have always treated me with respect. But these new things, these Human Beings, they do not respect their Elders and they do not respect those who were there before them. They throw garbage on my back and they foul the air and they act like spoiled children. I have been very patient for a very long time but these Human Beings have greatly tested my patience.

Then Bear took the stick and said –Ho Turtle. I have heard what you said and I know what you say is true. These Human Beings hunt me because they fear me and they do not know that is necessary and right to fear some things, to be in awe of something. Because they fear me they seek to remove me from Turtle Island. Once I could walk the earth in peace. But now I can find no peace at all since these Human Beings have come.

Then Eagle took the stick and said –Ho my brothers and sisters and all my cousins. You all know me and know that I fly high above and see many things. Once upon a time I could fish in peace and fly in peace but since these Human Beings have come I look down and see them making such a mess of Turtle Island that the fish are all dying and the air is filled with filth and even the sky has broken apart and is sick with their smog and dirt.

Next Coyote took the stick and said –I have always been very fond of trouble. You all know this. I like to make trouble and break things and push them over. That is why I helped make People. I thought it would be very funny to have them running around thinking that they were more important than anything else but now I see that they are making all of Turtle Island sick and that they are making so much trouble that I can’t even run free and howl at the sky without them hunting me because they are afraid of my tricks. I am very sorry now that I helped make them. I have never been sorry about anything. But now I am very sorry that I did this.

Then Crow took the stick and said –Haw. I like to make trouble as much as Coyote. And I helped make these Human Beings too. But they are more trouble than even I would want. We need to do something to keep these Human Beings from becoming too many and we need to teach them a lesson. We need to teach them to respect life and understand how precious a thing that it is. And I know exactly how we can do that. I will create the first disease. I will make them sick and show them what it is to cling to life and to lose the things that matter most. Haw. That may not be as funny as most of the things I like but even I have had enough of the trouble that they are making.

The stick was passed around the circle and all the other animals agreed that Crow’s idea was a good one.

The stick came to Turtle again and she said –Ho Crow. That is a very good idea. I will also create disease and show them what it is to get sick and die. Then maybe they will understand why they should not make the rest of us sick. Then maybe they will learn to respect the life that they have been given. Then perhaps they will respect the Elders as the rest of us do.

Each of the animals took the talking stick and one by one, each and every one agreed that they would each make diseases so that Human Beings would learn to respect and value Turtle Island and everything on it, over it and around it. There would be so many diseases and so many sicknesses that Human Beings could not avoid or stop all of them. Though they might go a time without disease there would always be one that would come along and remind them that life is fragile and precious and without respect and fear and awe it is too easy to forget the things that are most important.

And when they were done, when every single animal had held the stick and invented a new disease they bowed before the sacred fire and smudged themselves with the sacred smoke and it was done.

And that is the story of how disease came to Human Beings.

It is not a Mohawk story.

It’s a Cherokee story.

It’s a good story.

It’s an important story.

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