Running From Bears: Chapter Six--"The Three Brothers Fishing"

"...As Andrew knows from studying the Manya Loincloths, they had to prove their value to their village by what they could contribute. By the time they were fifteen they should be a man. Fifteen years is a long time to be fed by the other men when they didn't have any grocery stores to just go buy the stuff. They had women and children and themselves to hunt for. Not only that, but the ladies didn't have washing machines and stoves and stuff, so they had to wash everybody's clothes by hand down in the stream after they hauled it down there. Then they had to haul it back and hang it up to dry so they could get busy skinning the animals and building a fire to cook em on. They didn't mind doing the men's laundry and making their dinner as long as they weren't just lying around doing nothing. But if you didn't know how to bring food to the village to help out by the time you were fifteen, that was it." Jason made a cut sign with his fingers across his throat as he spoke. "Forget it! No more food for YOU. You were left to starve and watch while everybody else just chowed down on squirrel or rabbit or fish or whatever was for dinner that night. And you got to make your own clothes and wash em from then on. Does any of this sound familiar yet, Andrew? You can jump in here any time," Jason solicited.1

"Not yet. You're doin fine. YOU tell it," Andrew said. Jason thought his brother was still being smug, but actually, Andrew was enjoying the story as much as Matt.2

"So anyway," Jason continued, "There were these three brothers and one of em was about to turn fifteen. He was the oldest. And he didn't know how to hunt or fish because his dad got captured by the white man and taken away when he was like eleven, so he never had anybody to teach him. He tried to hunt squirrels, but he couldn't climb trees very good. Well, he could climb up okay, but every time he thought he had the squirrel cornered, he'd try to pounce on him like he saw bobcats do, but the squirrel would jump to another tree and the boy would fall out and land face-first in the dirt." Jason clapped his right hand down onto his left to demonstrate. "SMACK!"3

Matt giggled and Andrew smiled at the image. "What was his name?" Matt asked.4

"Um...his name...let's see if I can remember what his name was...um...Jasonbobway! The oldest brother was Jasonbobway. His brothers were...let's see...Andyrockthrower and...um...Bigfeathermattbear."5

Chuckling, Andrew asked, "how old were they?"6

"Well, Jasonbobway was fourteen, but only for a couple more days," Jason answered confidently, "And I believe Bigfeathermattbear was five and Andyrockthrower was eleven at that time."7

"They were almost the same age as us!" Matt said excitedly, apparently not noticing the similarities of the names.8

"How about that!" Andrew mocked.9

"That's really something!" Jason remarked, undaunted by Andrew's sarcasm. "You're right Matt! They were almost the same ages as we are now. But back to the legend. Jasonbobway couldn't catch a squirrel without falling out of the trees and he couldn't kill a rabbit because they were too fast. He tried, but he just couldn't keep up. He was really tall, so he probably could have run pretty good on a track or something, but they didn't have those back then. He had to chase the rabbits up this mountain right here. He practiced but never could get fast enough to do it. He even tried to throw rocks at them, but most of the time he missed. If he did hit one, he bruised it up too bad to eat, so he decided to try fishing as a last resort."10

"Why didn't he just try to trap them?" Andrew asked, more to play devil's advocate, than to try to ruin the story. Jason, however didn't take it that way.11

"I don't know," Jason quipped. "The legend doesn't say. For that matter, why didn't his brother Andyrockthrower help him learn to throw rocks better? Maybe he was running out of time and just decided he was tired of trying to catch rabbits. All I know is he decided to try fishing." He stared Andrew down for a moment to make his point. Andrew didn't fully understand his brother's vehemence, but chose to remain silent anyway.12

"So he had a couple of days to learn to catch fish. Back then, of course, they couldn't just go and buy some poles and some tackle so Jasonbobway set about it the hard way. He jumped right into that stream there and waded around trying to catch the fish with his hands. The first day he spent all day in the water. He looked like a giant prune that night when he climbed out for dinner, but still didn't catch a single fish. He was HUNGRY! Fishing his way was hard work for a boy. But he was also scared. He knew he only had one day left before the tribe stopped giving him food and making his clothes and stuff so he ate like it was Thanksgiving--trying to load up, just in case."13

"How come his mom didn't help him?" Matt wondered out loud.14

"The women-folk didn't have time to learn how to do hunting. They were too busy cooking and cleaning and making clothes, remember?. She couldn't help him much because she didn't know how. But she did sort of help him in another way when she saw how nervous he was at dinner. She asked Jasonbobway about how he was acting so he whispered to her quietly what was wrong. He was embarrassed and didn't want the whole tribe to hear.'15

"His mother started thinking about the other two boys too. She knew if Jasonbobway didn't figure out how to contribute so he could teach his brothers they would be lost just like he was when their time came. She didn't want to lose any of her three sons after she already lost her husband."16

"So what did she do?" It was Andrew who asked this time, apparently forgetting this was a make-it-up-as-you-go story.17

"She conspired with all her sons to work together. She slipped them some thread she had made for sewing and taught them through the night how to make a huge cloth with holes in it to try to trap the fish as they swam down stream. None of them was sure it would work, but it was worth a try at that point."18

"Like a net!" Andrew understood.19

"Yeah, sort of. Only it was crude and the boys were really tired since they gave up their sleep the night before to weave it together, so it didn't really work very well. It almost worked though. Bigfeathermattbear sat on the bank watching his brothers a while and he noticed that the fish would come to the surface to eat bugs off the top of the water so it gave him an idea. He figured if they could catch some bugs themselves, they could use them to lure the fish into a shallow place where they could snare them in their cloth. He went and gathered up some bugs and kept em prisoner in one of his moccasins."20

"EEeeew!" both younger brothers said with ick-face expressions.21

"Then he went and told his brothers about his idea. They thought it was a good one so they all took a handful of his bugs and tried it. The fish would come up to feed, but then they each swam off afterward. They couldn't get them to go where they wanted them to, no matter how many times they tried. Fish won't follow a trail, I guess. Turned out, they were just giving the fish a free meal! Finally, Andyrockthrower decided to try to hold on to the bug as the fish came to the surface and drag it so the fish would follow. That worked, but he couldn't get through the water fast enough to stay ahead of the fish. It always caught up, ate the bug and then disappeared again, heading down the stream."22

"Why didn't he take a piece of the string and pull it through the water?" Andrew asked.23

"Well, hold on. I'm getting to that part. That's exactly what he did eventually and it worked pretty good. It took all three of them working together, but they finally caught a fish. They all gathered bugs into Bigfeathermattbear's moccasin. Andyrockthrower squatted at the edge of the water and tied a bug on the end of the string. Then Jasonbobway would hold it over his head and wade down where the fish were and drop it. He went up to the shallow spot where him and Bigfeathermattbear would spread their cloth out over a shallow ledge and wait. They each held an end of it, standing perfectly still. When Andyrockthrower felt the fish nibble, he'd pull the string a little bit, leading the fish over to the cloth. If the bug was big enough so that it took enough bites to eat it, Jasonbobway and Bigfeathermattbear would yank the cloth up out of the water and toss the fish up on the bank for Andyrockthrower to pick up. Eventually they caught so many fish they had to dig a hole and fill it with water to keep from stinkin' up the place while they were still fishing."24

"But fish won't come right up to you like that," Andrew reasoned. "It would have to be a really big cloth so the fish didn't see them standing there. How could they get it out of the water fast enough to keep the fish from swimming off first?"25

"I'm glad you asked that Andrew..." Jason said, trying to think quickly. He honestly wished his brother hadn't asked. "The trick only worked for a while for just that reason. It was a small cloth to start out with. But the fish got smarter and stopped going where they saw the boys. That's the reason fish are skiddish of people in the water today."26

Jason impressed himself with his own explanation.27

"So what did they do to contribute after that happened?" Matt asked, concerned for the poor little Indian boys.28

"I know!" Andrew said, taking over. "Andyrockthrower would lure them to the shallow ledge with the bug-string and Jasonbobway and Bigfeathermattbear could spear them from above. That way they didn't even have to get wet!"29

Grateful for the reprieve, Jason congratulated him. "Exactly, Andrew!! And that's just what they did! They became the expert fishermen of the tribe and developed many methods of catching fish which we still use today. Later on, Jasonbobway made the first fishing pole out of a tree branch so they could throw the bug-string further into the water. All because he was tired of having to wade out into the stream when it was cold outside."30

"And they all lived happily ever after," Matt said, adding his two cents.31

"And they all lived happily ever after," Jason repeated. "And now, it's time to unroll the sleeping bags and get some shuteye so we can get up early tomorrow and go fishing too. Okay, buddy?" he said to Matt.32

"OKAY!" Matt agreed enthusiastically, getting up to head for their tent. Jason was quite relieved to find his littlest brother so amenable to letting him get some rest. He was beat!33