Storytelling Week 9: That's a Sappy Story!

A long time ago there was a people group called the Sapitun tribe. They lived deep within the forest in the eastern part of modern-day Texas. They were large in number and even larger in pride.

The hunters of the group would go out every morning with their hand-crafted arrows and tusk-mounted spears to catch that night's meal. At the time, there was a famine in the land and food was the most precious commodity- something every warrior was reminded of when they heard the deep cries of their children as bellies would rumble incessantly. 

The most respected of the hunting group was a man called Tibaro, and he led his pack of warriors deeper than they had ever gone before into the forest. Every once in a while, they would catch a bird or a spare hare, but nothing substantial enough to feed their people.

Tibaro was in the lead, and he spotted a thicket of brush off in the distance from which smoke was rising up into the atmosphere. That's strange, there are no people for miles around here. But his curiosity led him to go inside.

Immediately upon entering his head started spinning as the thick smoke filled his lungs. After a few minutes of being paralyzed by the fumes, he heard a booming voice.

"Tibaro, you have led your people well. But this famine is strong and will not end for many more moons. I have a proposition for you," the voice offered.

"Anything to spare my people," the desperate tone showed through Tibaro's voice.

"I can make sure your people are provided for every day for the rest of their lives as long as you and your warriors agree to protect my forest every day for the rest of your lives," the booming voice got louder as it spoke.

Thinking that protecting the forest is something to which his warrior tribe was already accustomed, he agreed immediately. 

"Good. Tonight at moonlight you will see the forest change in a way you have never seen," said the voice, "there will be new fruit and places for animals to come feast."

Tibaro led his group back to their home sites, going to sleep soundly knowing that when he woke up that there would be new fruits that would have appeared.

That night, however, as soon as moonlight struck, Tibaro and all of his warriors were transformed into countless varieties of trees, sprouting fruits and berries this forest had never seen. When the women and children arose the next morning they were delighted to discover this transformation!

They looked at the biggest, thickest of the new trees and discovered a thick, amber substance that leaked from around the bark. These are the tears of Tibaro as he realized he would be protecting the forest by providing it from his branches. This is where tree sap originated.

Tibaro's tears, also known as tree sap.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the Tejas Legends Unit  from the book When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends from the early 20th century. This particular story is not based on any one story from the unit, rather, I chose to follow the same style of all of the story. Each legend tells the story behind a different nature phenomenon, such as woodpecker's tails and the colors of certain flowers. I chose to use the same theme, but twist it to tell a story about where tree sap comes from!

Reading Diary A: Everything is Bigger in Tejas

Tejas Legends it is for the week! I've developed this nasty habit of skipping my first reading diary for the past few weeks, so hopefully this won't be forever. I felt obligated, and also interested, to read the Tejas legends because I am from that very state!

To give an overview, the stories (at least in the first half) give the Tejas background to all kinds of legends, such as why woodpecker's peck wood and why they have short tails. There is a story that accompanies each, so it is fun to read the creative background.

My favorite story was The Cloud That Was Lost. It is about how clouds get tired from carrying heavy rain, so they enjoy resting in the mountains at night. One cloud, though, went too far one day and had to bed down in a grassy area for the night. The flowers in the area saw that this cloud was pink and wanted its color, so they drank the cloud up that night! This is how the Phlox flower got its color!

I loved this story because I think it is just an adorable tale. I could easily see this being made into a really cute short film with a fluffy pink cloud and petite white flowers drinking it all up!

I also liked Grandmother River's Tricks. In this story, Grandmother River protects the river fish from the harmful gar fish by tricking the gar outside the edges of her banks. I liked it because it reminded me of Grandmother Willow's protection in Pocahontas!

Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas!

Image Creds: DisneyWiki