Medicine
Credit: Simona Rosenfield
STORY TOLD BY JOE MCGREGOR
"I became a medicine man. I used to go get the plants and the roots for my grandmother. My great, great grandmothers, they were all medicine women. So they handed it down to my grandmother. Being a boy, my grandmother used to ask me to go with her to pick up the medicine, wild medicine, like our ancestors used. We’d dig out sometimes.
Eventually, she started to age, so she’d send me.
“Why do you always want me to go pick the medicine?” I said one day. “My sister, she’s two years older than me and she’s a girl.”
“No, it doesn’t work that way,” she said. “We pick a boy because he doesn’t get his menstruation. When a young girl menstruates, it’s too strong. She’ll spoil the medicine because the woman is too powerful. There’s a lot of power in women. Women carry all the power that the men don’t have.”
So she always chose a boy to go pick the medicine. It’s not that he’s better than anybody. The woman does everything.
When I knew I had the fingers and the heart and the mind, I started to look after the people. I would get them medicine, what my grandmother showed me.
Onónhkwa’
Joe McGregor Roká:raton
Takatáhsawen’ akhetsèn:thake’. Kaienthóhsera’ tánon’ ohtehra’shòn:’a shes iekhekwén:nis akhsótha’. Akwé:kon ionkhsothokòn:’a, akwé:kon iakotitsèn:thahkwe’. Né: ká:ti’ saiakonohétsten’ ne akhsótha’. Shikeksà:’a, akhsótha’ ionkeri’wanontón:niskwe’ skátne aiakeninonhkwa’tsherakóha’, thikontatewenní:io onónhkwa’, tsi ní:ioht ionkhihsothokon’kénha róntsthahkwe’. Sewatié:rens eniakenó’kwate’.
Kháre’ ki’ ó:nen, taiakoién:ta’ne’ sok ki’ í: ia’onkwaténniehte’.
Sewenhnísera wa’kì:ron’, “Oh nontié:ren tió:konte tesatonhontsó:ni í: akenonhkwa’tsherakóha’? Akhtsì:’a, teiohserá:ke ísi’ nón: nitiakó:ien tsi ní: ní:ioht tánon’ tsakothonwí:sen í:ken.”
“Iah, iah tho tekarihò:ten’,” wa’ì:ron’. “Raksà:’a shakwaia’tarákwas ase’kén iah tehononhwáktenhs ne sewenhni’tátshon. Nó:nen ken’ nitiakoién:ha eniakawenhni’táhrhahse’, só:tsi nè:’e ka’shátste’. Enienonhkwa’tsheráksa’te’ ase’kén só:tsi iako’shatstenhserowá:nen. É:so tsi ioti’shatsténhsera konnón:kwe. Akwé:kon tsi nika’shatstenhserò:ten’s iah tehatihá:wi ne ronnón:kwe, konnón:kwe nè:’e kontihá:wi.”
Né: ká:ti’ tió:konte raksà:’a enhonwaia’tará:ko’ ahanonhkwa’tsherakóha’. Iah né: té:ken tsi sénha thótte tsi ní:ioht nakò:ren. Akwé:kon konterihwahtentià:tha’ ne konnón:kwe.
Shonktó:kenhse’ tsi tho nikehsnonhsò:ten’s, tho nikeriahsò:ten’ tánon’ tho niwake’nikonhrò:ten’, takatáhsawen’ onkwe’shòn:’a akheiata’nikòn:raren’ . Ienkhenonhkwa’tshererákwahse’ shes, tsi niká:ien akhsótha’ wa’onkena’tónhahse’.
Translation by Sahawisó:ko’ Arquette