There's an old Native American story. It seems to be sort of a pan-Native
American story and I've heard people from different tribes tell
versions of the same story. And I talked to Lloyd Arneach, a great
Cherokee storyteller. He said he thinks the story might have
actually started among the Cherokee in the southern Appalachian mountains.
And he gave me permission, he said that it was fine with him if I told this story.
It's a story about a man and a woman. They've been together for a long time
and they weren't getting along very well.
They were kind of fussing and bickering and
she didn't feel like he respected her. And he did respect her and he did love
her but somehow it wasn't coming through. Now Lloyd told me that this
actually was first man and first woman, but all we know is these
two were having a hard time, and one day she got so upset,
she just stomped out of that lodge and down the trail she went. She didn't know
where she was going, she had a lump in her throat,
she had a pain in her heart. She didn't know, she didn't know where she was going,
she knew she was just going out of there. And he didn't know what to do. She'd
never actually just left before. And he moped around the lodge for about
half a day and she didn't come back. He thought that she'd come back and they
could work it out, but she didn't come back, and he realized
he better go out there and find her. Now he was a good tracker. He could
follow the most subtle animal signs. He could follow the most delicate
tracks. And when he saw her tracks, he had no
trouble following those tracks. He could tell a whole lot about the tracks just by
looking at them. He could tell that the way
her heels stomped into the ground that she was stomping mad.
He could tell from how far apart her footprints were that she was
she was moving fast, So he jogged along that trail for about half a day and
every time he'd see a set of tracks he could tell how old they were
and he realized that they were the same relative age.
He was unable to close the distance between them.
So he didn't know what to do. He sat down there in the trail and he
prayed. He had a conversation with the powers and said
you don't have to make her change her mind, but could you just slow her down a
little so i could talk to her? And it seemed like maybe his prayers
were being heard because as the breezes rustled the leaves in the
trees, they kind of whispered, and they whispered her name. But she
wasn't listening to any trees whispering, she was stomping mad. She was
stomping down that trail. She was just so mad, she wasn't hearing
anything. And the birds began singing. They were singing not like they normally
sung, they were singing harmonies, they were singing melodies,
they were calling out her name. But she wasn't listening to the birds, she was
just so mad, she was just so angry. She was stomping on that trail. Soon
flowers began to burst and bloom as she passed. She wasn't looking at the
flowers. She looked straight at that trail leading out of there, it's all she
was doing. She was so upset, so angry! She was going to take special
intervention. Well then all of a sudden right where she was looking right in the
trail, she looked and there was a berry. But it
went like any berries she'd ever seen before. She stopped, she picked that berry.
She smelled it. It smelled so good. She tasted a little bit of it. Oh, sweet!
It had a tang to it, a wonderful flavor. She ate that berry. It was
delicious. And then she looked around and
there was a few more of those berries. She stopped, she picked up one after
another. She started eating those berries. And then
she thought she couldn't find any more. Then she looked and there was this
little meadow out there beside the trail, and all in that meadow were all these
little berries. So she stopped and she started picking those berries and eating
those berries, and oh that juice trickled down her throat,
started to kind of melt that lump in her throat, kind of
soften that little hard spot in her heart. And
she looked around and the flowers were beautiful, and the breezes in the
trees were just so sweet. The way the birds were singing, it
was so beautiful and she was eating those berries. And she looked up and
she saw her husband. As soon as she saw the expression on his face she said,
"You ought to try these berries, they're really good." They say it was a long time
before they got up out of that field and when they did,
they were walking home hand in hand. And all along that trail, where they'd never
seen them before, were those berries. And those berries are still out there.
They're the first berries that come on after the cold
winters are over, the cold freezes of winter are over.
And if if you talk to Native Americans and ask them what they call those
berries, it often translates out to mean a word
that sounds like it means heartberry, because they're shaped like
the human heart. And actually we can grow them in our
gardens and a lot of us do, and when we do, we usually mulch them with straw and we
call them strawberries. And that's how the first strawberry came
to be. And that story is as old as the people and it's
modern as today, isn't it? There's a song that celebrates strawberries and it goes
like this: "Strawberry picking
strawberry pickin. When you think you see some that is when there are none when
you think there are none that is when you see some."
You know it's about a lot of things in life, not just strawberries right?
"Strawberry pickin strawberry pickin when you think you see some that is when
there are none when you think there are none that
when you see some. I was walking one day with
no real reason. I had forgotten it was strawberry seasoned through the
honeysuckle clover and the butterflies all of a sudden there they were before
my very eyes. Strawberry picking strawberry pickin when you think you see
some that is when there are none when you think there are none
that is when you see some. When you stoop one way and you stoop the
other. Don't step back on your little bitty
brother. Watch your big boots in the strawberry bed
and don't pick the little ones that aren't quite red. Strawberry pickin
strawberry pickin when you think you see some that's when there are none when you
think there are none that is when you see some.
Well the wild strawberry is wonderful to eat.
Sun shines down and it makes it sweet. I can tell you've been sneaking through
the strawberry bed cause your mouth and your fingers and your ears are
red! Strawberry pickin strawberry pickin when you think you see
some that's when there are none when you think there are none that is when you
see some. Strawberries! Strawberries!"
That's the strawberry song by the rain de suite.
Thank you