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05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0007. Imported source record; individual Elder status and tribal affiliation are not inferred.
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Interview transcript
Children, I’m going to share with you a little story about some meadowlarks. Here was this nest…a mother meadowlark. She had three little baby birds. Now meadowlark, they build their nests on the ground amongst the weeds. So here she is with her babies, and then not hearing anything, all of a sudden they find a huge snake had wrapped itself around their nest. But the mother was very calm and she says to the eldest one, “Oh, my! Son, you did not tell me that your uncle was here. My brother is here. Quickly go in…borrow! I don’t have a big enough pot to make all this food for him. I must feed him. Go and borrow a pot.” And they had not really learned to fly yet, but she nudges to one, “Go and get a pot…a big one.” And the snake is curled around there, and he’s watching them. So she’s making chit chat talking to the snake… “How are you today? These are my children. Where is that one that’s supposed to bring my pot back? You, brother, go and hurry him up, would you?” And she pushed him out of the nest and he flew away. She knows the youngest one, the littlest one is too tiny, so she cradles that one and she’s talking to the snake. And she curls that one underneath her and she puts her claw into his wing holding on. And she distracts, “Oh, perhaps the others are coming.” She looks. The snake shifts his eyes just for a moment…That gives the mother meadowlark just a split second time. It’s all she needed. Up she darts away. if you ever see a meadowlark, how quickly they can leave the ground and fly into the air very fast. And she hollers back at him, “Now you old snake, now you can find someone else who will cook for you,” she says.