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Dragonfly’s Tale. Rebecca Gruener Wendy Boer Heather Boyd Amy Vande Voort. Long ago, there was a tribe named Ashiwi. The Ashiwi’s village was called Hawikuh. Their houses were built side by side resembling a honeycomb.
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Dragonfly’s Tale Rebecca Gruener Wendy Boer Heather Boyd Amy Vande Voort
Long ago, there was a tribe named Ashiwi. The Ashiwi’s village was called Hawikuh. Their houses were built side by side resembling a honeycomb. There were two powerful spirits that watched over them, the Maiden of White and Yellow Corn. The maidens blessings produced large amounts of corn for the village.
One day children of the tribe were playing a game outside. The children were throwing lumps of dirt and mud at one another. The chief saw the children playing and thought it would be appropriate to have a mock battle with their abundance of food from their successful harvest. The chief wanted to invite neighboring tribes to impress them with their plentiful harvest.
On the day of celebration, the Corn Maidens visited the village disguised as old and bedraggled women. Upon arrival, the maidens saw enormous amounts of food everywhere. A young boy and his sister offered the two women some food, but the elders snapped it away saying, “Good food should not be wasted on beggars. These women are too lazy to grow their own corn. They are like hungry coyotes looking for an easy meal.”
The chief divided the people into teams and with a nod of his head, the games began. People began throwing food everywhere. The invited neighbors watched in amazement as they saw the people foolishly wasting good food. After the festivities, the maidens were extremely disturbed by the blatant wasting of food. “It is time to teach our children a lesson.” Then, like windblown smoke, they vanished.
That night as the tribe was sleeping armies of mice, gophers, bugs, and birds invaded the village. The creatures carried away every crumb of food wasted on the ground and tunneled into storerooms eating away some of their winter supply.
When the people awoke, they could hardly believe the food from the battle was gone and their storerooms almost empty. They did not worry as they thought they had enough food for the winter months. As the winter was slow to pass, the snow finally melted and they planted their corn. The rains never fell to help the corn grow. Since their storerooms were bare, they ate cactus and ground bones. When winter came again, the tribe was forced to go to their neighbors for help, leaving in the middle of the night.
In one forgotten house, a boy and sister were left sleeping. The boy awoke and saw the empty village. Even though he was scared, he knew he had to comfort his sister. So, he attempted to make her a butterfly from dry cornstalks, straw, and brittle corn leaf. When his sister awoke, and found out they were alone, she cried. To comfort her, he gave her the toy and she played with it all day. That night before bed, she said to the creature, “Please fly away and find us some food to eat!”
That night the creature came to life and flew away to the Land of Everlasting Summer where the Corn Maidens lived. The creature told the maidens the story of the hungry children. The maidens remembered the children from when they offered them food as beggars. The maidens sent their messengers to deliver food to the children. The creature thanked them and returned to the children.
When the children awoke, there were mounds of food. They danced for joy! When spring came, the boy sprinkled a handful of cornmeal onto the ground and thanked the corn maidens for their blessing. Then the boy and his sister proceeded by planting corn. That night after planting, they went to bed. When they awoke the corn had shot up through the ground.
That day the tribe returned to the village. They were amazed to see that the children had been blessed by the Corn Maidens. The chief stepped forward. “Let us honor the Corn Maidens, and let us learn from the children who have received their gifts,” he said. “Then, perhaps we, too, may share in the blessing.”
From then on, the creature that was initially made from cornstalks, hovered over the corn. Never content with his resting place, he hums from one corn tassel to the next. This creature is known as the dragonfly.
Resources • Rodanas, Kristina. Dragonfly’s Tale. New York: Clarion Books, 1992. • <http://www.lehigh.edu/~zub2/flute.au> • <http://www.lehigh.edu/~zub2/wendy.wav>
