Jerry Young Bear, Jr: Transcript

Meskwaki storyteller, Tama
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My name is Jerry Young Bear, Jr. I was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. My mother is a member of the Eagle clan. My father is a member of the Bear clan.

Here’s a story I heard one time. There was this one medicine bear, and he was very powerful. The Creator gave him all the medicine he would ever need in his life to heal people or heal anything. Then all of a sudden, you know, he seen this European guy with a musket, shooting things. And all he had to do was just load it. And all he had to do was point it and pull the trigger, and they would die, you know.

So now all of a sudden, you know, this bear got jealous because he had more medicine than anybody else, he thought, because the Creator told him that. So then he went to the Creator. And the Creator was just sitting there and, you know, he was smiling. He knew what he was going to ask. He knows everything, you know. He was just smiling, and he says, “I’ll hear your story.”

“Well, how come you gave me all this power when I got to do the ceremony, and I got to do this, and I got to do that?  By the time I get done, sometimes I can’t even catch it or shoot it, you know, and kill it.”

Then he says, “Well, so, what do you want, then?”

“Well, I seen this furry thing with long hair, standing on two legs. And he had this long stick. And he just pointed at people, and thunder came off from it. And it was dead, you know. Geez, I want to have that kind of power. That’s more powerful than I ever had, ’cause it didn’t take him that long to kill that thing he was hunting.”

So then the Creator just said, “Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll give you four years, and you can be a human being for four years. Then after that four years is over, you can think about where you’ve been and where you’ve came. Then come back to me, and we’ll talk.”

So then all of a sudden, poof, he turned into, you know, a human being. Then he got himself a musket. Then he had to learn the value of life, and stuff like that, and how to get stuff and, you know: how to hunt and stuff like that. Then all of a sudden, you know, the second and third year came around, and he was becoming a real expert hunter. And he could just about kill anything he wanted, you know. And he heard about this chief who had a beautiful daughter. And everybody, even the animals, admired her, and they wanted to marry her. And he—he wanted her too.

So then all of a sudden the chief said, “There’s only one way you can get—or marry my daughter, and I’ll give her to any—I’ll give her to any man that comes along. I want the sacred bear’s hide.”

So then he thought, you know, it was his fourth year. He was getting towards the end, and he forgot who he really was. So then he was—he wanted that, you know, just that male human thing going on type of deal. So then he went over there, and he was hunting that bear. He didn’t even think about it. Then all of a sudden he seen it. And all he thought about was the glory he could have and the gifts he can get from the chief. He can get his daughter; he can get his money. He could have everything he ever wanted in his life for this one bear. And everybody had been trying to hunt it for a long time, but nobody could ever get it.

So then by the time it came to the end of that fourth year—it was almost time to go see the Creator again—he got that bear, and he shot it. And he killed that bear. And the second he killed that bear, Creator came down and grabbed him by the head, lifted up in the sky and said, “You have just ruined the thing I gave you the most. And that was yourself.”

He ripped him in half, threw one side of his body to the bear and threw one side to the human being. Now his soul is ripped in-between two worlds. When that bear sleeps, he dreams he’s a human being. And when the human being sleeps, he dreams he’s a bear. So now he’s ripped in half, and his world ain’t whole.

And that’s why we should appreciate the things we have in life, not worry about what’s on the other side of the fence, ’cause what’s on the other side of the fence isn’t what you really need. The Creator gave you exactly what you need right here in this time and this space. And it helps children to realize that, ’cause I told my kids that. They were just so amazed, you know. And that’s the kind of stories we need to tell—things that come from your heart.