The Sacred Weed
BlackFoot

For Longer Than Anyone Knows

Indians throughout the Americas have smoked tobacco
And other plants for pleasure and for praying
The smoke was the Great Spirit’s breath taking the prayers up to the Ones Above
With a pipe in his hands a man could speak nothing but the truth

Sir Walter Raleigh learned the use of tobacco from the Indians
When he first had a smoke in a London Inn
The bartender thinking that he was on fire emptied a tankard of ale over him

To the white man
Smoking became an addiction
But to the native American pipe and tobacco were sacred and smoking was a holy ritual
A man who had killed a member of his own tribe could not smoke ritually with the others
He had to smoke a mean little pipe all by himself as hard punishment

There once were four brothers
All of them spiritual men who had power

In a vision the oldest of them heard a voice saying
"Out there is a sacred weed pick it and burn it"
The man looked around
Saw the strange weed and put it in the fire
It gave off a very pleasing aroma

Then the second brother had a dream in which a voice said
"Take this herb
Chop it fine
Put it into a hide bag"
The man did what he was told
The dry herb in his hide bag was wonderfully fragrant

The third brother had a vision in which he saw a man hollowing out a bone
He then put the strange weed into it
A voice said
"Make four pipes like this"
The third brother carved four pipes out of an animal's leg bones

Then the youngest of the four brothers had a vision
A voice told him
"You four men light your pipes and smoke
Inhale the smoke and exhale it
Let the smoke ascend to the clouds"
The voice also taught him the songs and prayers that went with smoking

So the four medicine men
All born of the same mother smoked together
This was the first time that men had ever smoked
They sang and prayed together as they did so

The brothers who called the sacred weed nawak' osis
Were meant to teach its use to the people
But nawak'osis made them powerful and wise and clear minded
They did not want to share it with others

They planted the sacred weed in a secret place that only they knew
They guarded the songs and prayers and rituals that went with smoking
They formed a Tobacco Society
There was just the four of them

So there was anger
There was war
There was restlessness of spirit
There was impiety

Nawak'osis was meant to calm anger
To make men worship
To make peace
To ease the mind

But without the sacred herb
Unity and peace were lacking

A young man called Bull-by-Himself said to his wife:
"These four powerful ones have been given something good to share with the people
But they are keeping it for themselves
So things are bad
I must find a way to plant and reap the sacred weed they call nawak'osis"

Bull-by-Himself and his wife went to a sacred lake and set up their tipi close by its shore
The man left every day to hunt and look for the plant nawak'osis
The woman stayed in the lodge to quill, tan and prepare food

One day while she was alone she heard somebody singing beautifully
She searched everywhere to find the source of the music
She discovered that it was coming from a beaver house close by the shore
"It must be the beavers singing" she thought
"Their songs are lovely
I hope they don't stop"

Though her husband came home with plenty of meat
He had not found nawak'osis
The woman called his attention to the music but he said
"I hear nothing
It's your imagination"
"No" she said "I can hear it clearly
Put your ear to the beaver house"
He did
But still he heard nothing

Then the wife took her knife and made a hole in the beaver lodge
Through it they could not only hear the beavers sing
But also watch them performing a strange, beautiful dance
"My young brothers"
The wife called to them "be of a sharing spirit
Teach me your wonderful song and your medicine!"

The Beavers answered
"Close the hole you have made because it lets the cold in
Then we will come out and visit you"
So she sealed their wall up
That night four beavers came to Bull-by-Himself's lodge
As soon as they were inside
They turned themselves into humans
Four nice-looking young men

One asked
"What have you come here for?"

"I have come" said Bull-by-Himself
"To find the sacred weed called nawak'osis"

"Then this is the right place" said the man-beavers
"We are water people and nawk'osis is water medicine
We will give you this sacred herb
But first you must learn the songs
The prayers
The dances
And the ceremonies that go with it"

"There are four powerful men in our tribe" said Bull-by-Himself
"Who have the medicine and the knoweldge but keep them from us"

"Ah" said the man-beavers
"That is wrong
This sacred weed is meant to be shared
Here is what you must do
By day
Go out and get the skin of every four-legged and two-legged creature
That lives in and around the water
With the exception of course
Of the beaver

You must get the skins of the Muskrat
The Otter
The Duck
And The Kingfisher
Of all creatures like that because they repesent water

Sun and water mean life
Sun begets life
And water makes it grow"

Every day Bull-by-Himself went out for the skins
While his wife scraped, tanned and smoked them

And every night the four man-beavers came to teach them the Prayers
Songs
And the dances that went with nawak'osis

After a while the beavers said
"Now all is ready
Now you have all the skins and now you have the knowledge
Make the skins which represent water power into a bag
Into a medicine bundle
Tomorrow night we’ll come again for the last time to tell you what to do"

The following night the beavers came as they had promised
They brought with them the sacred weed nawak'sis
The top of the stalks was coverd with little round seeds
Te man-beavers put the seeds into the medicine bundle
A medicine bundle that the woman had prepared

"It's planting time now" said the Beavers
"Don't touch nawak'osis before you are ready to plant
Choose a place where there is not too much shade and not too much sunlight
Mix plenty of brown earth with plenty of black earth and keep the soil loose
Say the prayers that we have taught you

Then you Bull-by-Himself
Must take a deer horn
And with its point make holes in the earth-one for each seeds

And you
His wife
Must use a buffalo-horn spoon to drop one seed into each hole

Keep singing the songs we taught you all the while
Then both of you dance lightly over this earth
Tamping down the seeds
After that you just wait for nawak'osis to grow
Now we have taught you everything
Now we go"
The nice-looking young men left
They turned back into beavers as they went

Bull-by-Himself and his wife planted the sacred weed as they had been told

The four medicine-men brothers said to one another
"What can this man Bull-by-Himself and his wife be planting?
Their songs sound familiar"

They sent somebody to find out and this person came back saying
"They are planting nawak'osis and doing it in a sacred manner

The four powerful men began to laugh
"No
It can't be
It's some useless weed they they are planting
No one but us can plant nawak'osis
No one but us can use it
No one but us has its power"

But when it was time to harvest nawak'osis
A great hailstorm destroyed the secret tobacco patch of the four medicine brothers
Nothing was left and they had not saved a single seed

They said to each other
"Perhaps this man and his wife did plant nawak'osis after all
Perhaps the hail hasn't destroyed their tobacco patch"

Again the four brothers sent someone to find out
That person came back saying
"This man and his wife had no hail on their field
Here is what they have been growing"
He showed the brothers some leaves
"It is indeed nawak'osis" they said shaking their heads in wonder

Thus with the help of the beaver people
Bull-byHimself and his wife brought the sacred tobacco to the tribes
They have been smoking it in a sacred manner ever since