Page 12 - 1st Anthology 2011

and he told him to look and see. He saw those bundles, that’s how we have that Beaver
Bundle.

The people that keep the Beaver Bundle they probably know the history behind it. They
should because the Beaver Bundle is our protection. The beaver, he became a man. He
asked the Tsuut’ina man who was crying, he asked him which bundle do you want to take
with you. And he looked around and he saw ten or twelve bundles around him.

There was an old lady sitting at the door and she whispered to him, take the oldest
bundle, don’t take the new ones. So that’s how he picked. He picked the one above the

door. It was the oldest bundle. Bundles are made out of hides and there was no such thing
as cloth those days. Everything was tanned skins, skins with fur on them. They used every
bit of the animals.

He picked the old bundle and the man of the teepee asked him “why did you pick an old
bundle and there’s all these new ones? ”. Well, I chose that one so I can be humble, and I
do not want to make myself a big man just because I have a bundle. That’s what the old
man Otter told him. So it’s all right that I have the bundle. That’s how he got the bundle.

Part of my grandmothers relatives, are down in the States. Long ago they used to fight
tribe against tribe, over horses. She would be my great great grandmother. They found
her and her little brother wrapped up in a raw hide. They were tied up together. That’s
how the parents would leave them when they took off when they couldn’t take them. So
they wrapped them up in a bundle and left them there. When the enemies came, they
found them. This warrior was going to kill them and the Chief of that Nation said no, we
don’t kill children. So that’s how the Otter family has relatives down there in the States.

The way Pat Grasshopper got the name Afraid of Grasshopper; some Tsuut’ina warriors
were sitting around the campfire. Anyway I guess one jumped right over and hit him right
in the forehead while he was sitting there. He fell backwards and he was yelling, “I’m
shot, I’m shot! I’m going to die! One of the other guys went over to him and said you’re
not going to die it was just a grasshopper; it just jumped on you. That’s how he got his
name Afraid of Grasshopper. Down the line Pat Grasshopper is my mom’s father and their
father’s name is Brokenknife.

I don’t know if the grasshoppers are still around. All those farmers use herbicides and all
those things. They kill off a lot of insects and animals. I don’t know if there are still those
big grasshoppers. I saw them because when my mom was sick I used to chase the big
grasshoppers.

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