In honor of Earth Day, The Legend of Skunny Wundy
Long ago, there lived a young boy named Skunny Wundy, his name meant "Cross The Creek." He wasn't particularly large and he wasn't particularly strong, but Skunny Wundy was very clever. The one particular talent that he possessed was skipping stones across the water. Skunny Wundy could make a stone skip more times across the river that cut through his village than anyone else in his tribe.
Now, the people of Skunny Wundy's village had always traveled along this river. But they only traveled South. Children were always cautioned to never go North, because to the North was the land of the Stone Giants, large fierce monsters who loved the taste of human flesh. Luckily, Stone Giants weren't very bright, so as long as they didn't see people, they usually forgot they existed. Which is why the people of Skunny Wundy's village always traveled South and never traveled North.
One day, Skunny Wundy was walking along the river skipping stones and paying no attention to the direction he was going. He walked and walked and walked until suddenly he was startled by a Crow. He stopped, looked around and realized that he was very far from his village and traveling North!
Just as he was about to turn and run home, a thunderous voice boomed down from above him:
"A PEO-PLE! MY FAVORITE SNACK!"
Skunny Wundy looked up, terrified, it was a Stone Giant! He was huge and he was mean and, as the name suggested, his skin looked as solid as granite. Skunny Wundy knew that if he tried to run, the Giant would surely catch him, so he took a deep breath and decided to reason with him:
"You don't want to eat me, I'm nothing more than a bite to you!"
Reasoning wasn't going to work...
"THAT'S OKAY, I HAVEN'T HAD A BITE ALL DAY!" said the Stone Giant, licking his lips.
Skunny Wundy knew his only chance was to out smart the Giant.
"How about a contest?" he said hopefully. The Stone Giant looked interested, so Skunny Wundy pressed on.
"I challenge you to a stone skipping contest! We'll each skip a stone across the river and whoever gets theirs to skip the most times wins. If you win, you can...eat me. But if I win, you have to let me go free."
The Stone Giant thought about it for a moment, scooped up a boulder and said:
"OKAY, LET'S GO!!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Skunny Wundy said motioning with both hands for the Giant to hold up.
"That boulder may work fine for you. But there's not a stone here that I can even lift, let alone skip. How about I come back tomorrow with a stone more my size and then we'll have our contest?" said Skunny.
The Stone Giant looked down at him and thought and thought and thought. Skunny Wundy began to worry this trick might not work.
But, finally, the Giant agreed:
"SOUNDS GOOD!" he rumbled. "I SEE YOU TOMORROW!"
Skunny Wundy jumped up, clicked his heals, turned south and ran; laughing the whole way home.
But when he got home, he realized something- Yes, he had out smarted the Giant, but he had also made a promise. He had promised the Stone Giant that he would return.
If he didn't show up for the contest tomorrow the Giant might come looking for him. What if the Giant decided to come looking for him, headed south down the river path, and in the process found his people's village and ate up all Skunny's friends and relatives? It would be tragic and it all would be his fault. Skunny Wundy knew that he couldn't do that to his people and decided that despite the personal risk he would return the next day and compete in the stone skipping contest he had agreed to.
At daybreak the next morning, Skunny Wundy set off towards the land of Giants, checking the ground for good stones the whole way. Unfortunately, there were none and when he finally reached the spot where the Giant was waiting for him, he knew the stone he had in hand wouldn't skip enough to beat a Giant's throw; it was too light to travel any great distance.
"WELCOME BACK, SNACK!" the Giant laughed as he picked up his boulder again.
Skunny Wundy watched dejectedly as the boulder skipped out across the water once, twice, three times...gaining speed as it went, by the time it splashed into the water for the final time, the Giant's stone had skipped fifteen times!
"HA!! AGH-HA-HA! BEAT THAT, SNACK!" the Giant roared pounding his chest.
Skunny Wundy knew his throw would be hard to beat.
"Skunny Wundy!" a soft voice suddenly whispered.
Skunny Wundy looked all around, but could not find the source of the voice.
He heard it again: "Skunny Wundy, down here, down here! Pick me up and use me!"
Skunny Wundy looked down to see a tiny turtle at his feet. He picked the turtle up and again the turtle said: "You can you use me!" Then the animal tucked its head, feet and tail into its shell. And as simple as that, the turtle had become a perfect skipping stone.
Skunny Wundy smiled and whispered quietly to the turtle:
"My life is in your hands, little friend. But we can do this. Together we can do this, together we are one, we will beat this Giant."
Then he reared back his arm, took a deep breath and sent the shell skipping out across the water. Once, twice, three times it skipped, he thought with plenty of speed, but on the thirteenth skip, it turned sideways and it appeared that skip would be his last. But as the corner of the shell was about to crash into the water, suddenly the turtle kicked out his legs. The shell flattened and bounced off the water's surface, skipping again and again again!
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" bellowed the Stone Giant, FURIOUS that he had lost.
He spun and slashed a large pine tree, shattering it like a twig.
Then he roared: "AGHHHHHHHHHH!" and Skunny was very frightened, the Giant could not seem to contain his rage.
But then the Giant stopped abruptly, looked down at Skunny and said:
"GO! LEAVE HERE THIS INSTANT! BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND!"
Skunny Wundy wasn't taking any chances. He quickly blurted: "Thank You!!" and turned and ran as fast as he could until he reached his home.
Over the years, Skunny Wundy had many more encounters with the Stone Giants, but that is how he survived his first...with the help of the Turtle Clan.
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The above is an Indian legend that I reworked to fit into a historical fiction novel I'm working on about Redding and the Revolutionary War. The storyteller is Tom Warrups, a local Native American Indian that is teaching his neighbor (a 13 year old boy named Jonas) about how his people interacted with the Earth. Below is a little from their discussion after Tom tells Jonas this story:
When Tom was finished, I asked him if the story had any special meaning. He nodded and explained that his people had lived on these lands for tens of thousands of years and how they had done this had a lot to do with how they interacted with the Earth and all its creatures. Indians did not work the lands, they worked with the lands and sought harmony with its creatures. The Turtle in the story symbolizes the Earth. The Turtle helps Skunny Wundy which is symbolic of the Earth helping Man.
My people believe we are a part of the earth and it is a part of us, we are brothers working together. Skunny acknowledges this relationship when he says: "Together we are one."
"What does the Giant symbolize?" I asked.
"The Giant's ways are egotistical and wasteful, he gets his way using force. He takes from the land whatever he needs and when he has what he needs he moves on. The Earth is not his brother. That is why it was important that Skunny Wundy and the Turtle won the contest . It is a story used to teach our children that the Earth is our brother, and we must treat the Earth and its creatures with kindness."
Happy Earth Day!
p.s. Parents or Teachers that wish to receive chapters of "The War comes to Redding" as I finish them can contact me at: bcolley@colleyweb.com.
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