A long ago when time could not be counted the storyteller made dreams a way of life for those who search for it. For the young stories were yet to happen. For the middle aged they were what was happening now. For the old they were what could have been or were unrealized wishes. Yet for the storyteller all that is said was true, alive, unquestioned, and the reason for life itself....So I give to you your first story.

The bear is a giant of a beast, but gentle to those who see his tender loving ways. Bear did not always sleep (or hibernate). It was during the time of the first winter that Wind gave Bear the gift of sleep. All the animals of the forest thought Bear was lazy and slow. They would tease him and harass the poor soul daily. They viewed his kind gentle ways as a weakness. They would laugh at his friends, when he stopped and talked to them.

Still Bear did not hate or get angry with the animals who made fun of him. He just smiled and went on his way. He loved his feathered friends, his underground friends and his underwater friends. The only time he was sad was when he was hungry and had to eat one of them.

One day father Wind heard all the animals talking about how foolish Bear was. Even Fish turned against his friend. This made Wind very mad. In a dream he taught Bear what plants to eat and all about the bad things Fish had said. He told Bear fish was not a friend but food. He also told Bear that because he was kind he would receive a special gift. Then bear awoke wondering what gift Wind would give him.

In the next dream, Bear was sad. Winter asked him, "What is wrong?"

"I am only good because I have good friends."

"That is true," said Winter. So he told Bear to go and tell all his friends about the gift that Wind had promised him.

When Bear awoke he ran through the forest and told all who would listen. This made him very tired and sleepy so he went back to his cave and fell asleep.

As before, many creatures did not listen to Bear. They went about their business. Some even called him crazy. So Winter decided to teach them a lesson. As Bear and his friends slept, flew away, or gathered food, Winter came down upon the forest. He made sure that those who were friends of Bear were not aware of him or his brother Wind. To them it was a time of the gift.

So as Winter begins his journey across the land, one can still see who were the friends of bear.

The following is the story of creation as told by Buffalo Jim, a medicine man of the Seminole Tribe in Florida. Buffalo Jim was on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation just north of the Everglades and had been a medicine man for over 70 years in 1986 when Steve and Harvey met him.

He spoke only the Mikosukee language and what he said was interpreted by his understudy, an herbalist. It was said that Buffalo Jim eased pain through the use of sacred curing songs.

How The Earth Was Created:

In the beginning the world had no land. Only water. The Creator came down here but there was nowhere to walk. Then He saw a little bass swimming around down in the water. The bass was tired of swimming all the time. He wanted to rest. So he started diving down to the bottom, getting a grain of sand and putting it on a pile of other grains of sand. After a long time the pile of sand came up above the surface of the water and the little bass could rest on it.

That gave the Creator an idea, because He was tired of wading around in the water. So he told the bass: "You go down again and bring me up four grains of sand." And the bass did it.

Then the Creator saw a sea cow - a manatee - and He told her: "Take one of these grains of sand and hit it with your tail to the West." So the sea cow hit the grain of sand with her tail and it rolled out to the West, and where it rolled the land formed behind it, and as the land formed there was thunder and the world shook.

Then He told the sea cow: "Take the second grain of sand and hit it with your tail to the South." She did it and again the land formed and the thunder shook. Then she did it with the other two grains of sand to the North and to the East. That's how the world was started.

After the Creator made the land, He sent out the woodpecker to take a look. The woodpecker, he flapped his wings up and down sharp and hard. When he flew over the land his wings hit the ground and that was how the mountains were created. The buzzard, he flies flat with his wings out. Where his wings hit the ground that is where we had the flatland and the valleys.

Another animal was the raccoon. When the world was made the Creator told all the creatures not to walk on the surface of the earth until the ground dried and got hard. But the raccoon didn't listen. He started digging in the soft land for crayfish. That's how the swamp was created.

The Creator got mad at the raccoon and yelled at him that he wasn't supposed to do it. The raccoon started crying. His hands were black from digging in the mud and he wiped his eyes. That's how the raccoon got his black eyes.

After the Creator made the animals He decided He would make man. Just like in the Bible. He took the clay and breathed into it and created man. The Bible says he breathed into his nostrils but we Seminoles believe He breathed into his mouth. And the man started to breathe and became a living thing. Then the Creator gave him knowledge and wisdom, everything a man was supposed to have. But the man wasn't happy. He walked around the place with his head hung down.

One day the Creator said, "I know why you are not happy - you are lonesome, that's why." So He put a deep sleep on the man and he took his bottom rib and made a woman out of it, and he put the woman right beside the sleeping man.

When the man woke up he felt over with his hand and realized there was a person lying beside him. He felt some more and realized it was a woman!! So, when he realized this he began to smile. And the woman - she smiled at him too. And that was where love began.

The End.

When the white man first came to this land they saw a Brave and his woman gathering herbs and roots. They had no understanding of the traditions, prayer, ceremonies and plant knowledge that was behind the purpose of these two people. They did not know the truths passed down from one generation to another. They did not know that the animals, birds, plants and trees existed before men and were very powerful - each in his own realm.

When men were created they lived underground. The Blue-Bird freed them from the underground by finding a place where they could come through to the top of the earth. His song directed their path to the opening. As time went on, because man hunted the birds and animals, the animal realm grew antagonistic toward men. So they held a council and many of them (not all) resolved to each bring some disease to punish men.

Some chose diseases that would cause pain, others chose diseases that would cripple, others chose diseases that would ultimately bring death. But the plants and the trees favored the men who had always treated them kindly and with respect. They sought to intervene on man's behalf and they offered their juices, saps, berries, fruits, nuts and bark to alleviate man's suffering, and to heal his diseases.

These were offered only to those men who were wise and held truth, honor and respect in their hearts. For it was only these who could understand the language of the plants. While many of the birds and animals were contributing to the diseases and suffering of men, the souls of the trees and plants told men what was good for them and what would protect them from disease.

Each member of the plant tribe had a special mission to perform and they accepted their tasks with honor. There were a few renegades among the plants - the poison ivy for example.

The plant tribe's council house was under the dome of the great Mt. Katahdin (in Maine).

The underground world was similar to the upper world except the seasons were opposite. Have you not noticed how spring water is warm in winter and cold in summer?

The wise Native men used two different ways (both of equal importance to attain the knowledge of the uses of the many plants and trees.

The first was by watching animals and insects as they regulated the workings of their bodies. When spring comes the winged insects fly to the willows and use the catkin pollen for internal cleansing. Bears, after their long winter's sleep eat mandrake leaves before they eat food. Native's dogs ate certain herbs for indigestion, and others for physic. A colony of crows knew how to find an antidote for poisonous berries which their young had eaten, causing them to vomit the poison.

Almost numberless are the instances of similar cases in which animals, birds and reptiles preceeded men in the art of healing.

The second method the men used to understand the plants and trees was by prayer and fasting: In gathering the very valuable and less common plants such as mandrake, bloodroot, spotted pipsissewa the small and large yellow ladies slipper, etc.

The Medicine Man directed that the first three plants be passed by but the fourth gathered. Seeds of these were planted in their habitats "to placate their discouraged spirits."

These native people were well acquainted with difficult time they knew sickness and accidents so well, that their whole religion is based and centered on one thing,
HEALING!

Over 70% of our present day pharmaceuticals are derived from the Native American healing arts the white man looks to him for help. I want to now give you a few examples of what our ancestors used for certain ailments.

• Jaundice was treated with a concoction of the yellow bark of the barberry.
• Wounds were covered with the leaves of the geranium which turned red as it died.
• Bloodroot was used for all blood ailments (hence its name).
• Liverwort was used for liver problems.
• The red roots of the black willow were used for blood purifying.
• Goat's rue (also known as devil's thong) was made into an ointment to strengthen the muscles of young braves.
• Agrimony was used as an astringent for the eyes.
• Beaked Hazlenut was eaten as a body builder.
• Bearberry for kidney and bladder problems.
• Birthwart used in birthing and for colic.
• Bitter Milkweed used as a tonic and laxative.
• Bitter Cress was used for the heart, epilepsy and hysteria.
• Blackberry (the root) was used for dysentery the leaves and berries for a tea extremely high in Vitamin C.
• Black Cherry was used for pulminary troubles.
• Blue Vervain as a fever balm.
• Blue Violets for stomach disorders.
• Butterfly Weed was used for pleurisy.
• Choke Cherry (the bark) used as an astringent.
• Golden Rod used to stop bleeding in ulcers and wounds