Have you ever wondered why a woodpecker pecks? Has that thought kept you up night? Even though you may have not lost sleep over such a burning question, it may benefit you to know the cold, hard truth.
Firstly, let me just tell you that woodpeckers are smarter than most birds. They have a method to their madness, and they go about their activities with immense dedication. They are also discrete in their activities. If you watch a woodpecker and they notice you, they will stop what they are doing and will go around to the other side of whatever they happen to be pecking and will only stop to catch a quick glimpse of you every once in a while.
Their big secret? They all used to be Indians.
This tribe was once a thriving and populous group of people, and their main source of wealth was their abundance of the mescal plant. This plant had certain bulbs that grew from the main stem, and when eaten, the bulbs were said to give the eater magic powers. For hundreds of years, the tribe traded these bulbs for goods and livestock. They also traded the plants themselves for something much more valuable.
The bulbs were traded for infants.
You see, because the tribe had the power to grow and trade this magical plant, they had more power than all other people on the planet. Because of this, the spirits made a deal with the very first chief long ago. The deal was that the tribe couldn’t have children from their own tribe. Instead, children had to come from all different tribes in order to maintain diversity and help with the trades.
For this reason, once a year, various tribes would bring one infant to this particular tribe in return for a mescal plant.
This way of life went on for quite some time before disaster struck. One day, the mescal plants began withering. Some say it was a change in the wind. Others claim that the harvest was somehow sabotaged by jealous tribes from the area. Whatever the reason, it quickly became apparent that the tribe would lose their most valuable commodity. As the years went on, more and more plants withered and died, until at last the Indians had nothing to trade.
Their population began to diminish and after twenty years, the tribe had shrunk from hundreds of able-bodied men and women to a group of thirty. That’s when they knew they had to get help.
The went to the tribe’s medicine man, an ancient man so old that some said he was born at the beginning of time. He contacted the spirits, who offered him a solution.
In order to fix the problem, they said, the remainder of the tribe would be turned into woodpeckers. Unbeknownst to the tribe, there were still mescal plants in the world. The spirits had changed the plants into trees in order to keep them from going extinct. The spirits said that the woodpeckers would have to peck at trees, and once they found a mescal tree, they would be able to harvest it and get a child in return.
The Indians agreed to do this and soon flew off to the far corners of the world in search of the mescal plant. They would make nests in an area of trees and would then start pecking at all of the trees in that area. When they would come upon a mescal tree, they would harvest the bulbs and would get an egg in their nest the next morning.
This is how the tribe has managed to survive and even thrive. Although life for them is much more challenging now, the woodpeckers complete their tasks dutifully and never lose sight of their goals.
Author's Note: This tale was based off of Why the Woodpecker Pecks from the Tejas Legends unit. In the original, the Indians that are now woodpeckers make the mistake of eating the mescal plant in order to feel the magical powers. The mescal plant knobs were supposed to be eaten by the medicine men only, and if others ate them, bad luck would befall them. Everyone gradually begins to eat the knobs, so one of the gods of the sky decides to hide the children inside hollow trees to keep them safe. The people go to this god in order to get their children back, but he turns them into woodpeckers so that they can find their children. For my version, I decided to change it just a tad and blame the lack of mescal plants for their misfortune.
When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936)
Web Source: UN-Textbook
Tatyana, I thought this story was great! The beginning of the story was great, and it was definitely a cool way to start the story. I also read the same unit last week, so it was really interesting to hear how you took the story and made it your own. You made the story very fun and easy to understand! Great job with the story!
ReplyDeleteTatyana! Awesome story. You captured the true meaning of a origin story and I really loved reading it. I like how you shifted the blame of the mescal plants. I was really interested to read what the original was like, I actually went back to skim the original story. I think you were able to capture the imagery and true goal of the story in the retelling. Awesome job!
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