Native American Legends
The Story of Tanchi
A Choctaw Legend
A long time ago, before there were grocery stores, two Choctaw
boys went hunting with bows and arrows. The two Choctaw boys hunted
a long time, but did not find a squirrel or deer to kill and eat.
The boys did shoot a blackbird. Then the Choctaw boys made a fire
with sticks and cooked the bird so they could eat it.
When the bird was cooked, the two boys sat down on the ground to
eat. Before they could eat any of the bird, a woman came to them.
The woman said, "I am very hungry." The Choctaw boys were
respectful so they gave the bird to the woman and she ate it all
up. The boys were still hungry, but there was nothing left to eat.
They did not tell the woman how hungry they were. The woman said,
"Thank you", and the boys said, "You're welcome."
The woman said, "Because you know how to share, I'm going
to give you a surprise." Then she told the boys to go home
and to come back tomorrow.
The next day, the two Choctaw boys went back to the place where
they gave the cooked bird to the woman to eat.
There, where the fire had been built, was something growing that
looked like a tree. The skinny tree had yellow things growing on
it. The boys did not know what the surprise was. They pulled off
one of the yellow things and smelled it. It smelled good. They ate
some of it and it tasted good. "Let's take this home and ask
somebody what it is", the boys said.
Mother didn't know what it was. Father didn't know what it was.
Nobody in the whole town knew what it was, but they liked the way
it tasted. Someone said, "What will we call this delicious
present the boys have shared with us?" The boys said, "Let's
call it Tanchi."
And the Choctaws still call the woman's present "Tanchi".
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