A folk tale for children and the young at heart.
Where the animals rule and no human being has ever walked. In that distant place past the horizon it is said that the creatures converse much as you and I and have many of the same concerns. Once the eagles were free to fly in search of game and make their nests and rear their young in any tall tree they chose. Many innocent creatures shared the land of the eagles and were family to them. For thousands of years life was unchanged and unchanging and the stream of continuity wound like a ribbon throughout the generations. This was before the beaver came and cut down many trees and built dams and changed the landscape, leaving the eagle tribe in the midst of desolation the beaver called progress. Because the forests were gone there were no homes for the eagles' prey and the eagles were poor and hungry. Determined to find other forests, the eagles flew over an entire continent but found the beavers had been everywhere building beaver dens and highways so that the beaver could get around faster. The beaver government told the eagles they must not hinder further beaver progress and that they would be relocated to a place even more barren and bleak than their original homeland had become. Sadly, the eagles accepted and moved to the land the beaver government had assigned to them. Many died, some flew off on their own, but most tried valiantly to preserve eagle culture and tradition.
When eagles were small they were taught by their elders on the eagle reservation but, as they grew older, they went off to school with the beaver children. It was an unhappy surprise to the beloved eagle children to discover that beaver children often resented having eagle children attend their schools and did their best to make the little eagles unhappy by calling them names and ridiculing their appearance and their heritage. It made the eagle children sad that they were singled out for harsh treatment and the heritage they had been taught to value, subjected to scorn by beaver classmates who, for want of anything else to be proud of, had been taught to condemn any creature or culture which differed from beavers.
One of these eagle children was called "Brown Feather" for reasons you would understand were you to meet him. Anyway, Feather's parents had both been dutiful and loving in guarding their nest and bringing up their fledglings well. Feather had never known cruelty or mockery and was unprepared for what he found when he started 'real school' in first grade.
"Why won't anyone be my friend?" Feather asked his parents that first night after school.
"If you seek friendship from the beaver children, Feather, you will always be disappointed. They do not understand us and they never will. Do not hope for too much, Feather." said Brown Feather's papa.
But Brown Feather did hope. He hoped to one day join the beaver children in their playground games and sit with them at lunch and be like them for he liked the way they dressed and always seemed to be having fun. Years passed, though, and Feather, like the other eagle children, was never invited to beaver parties or to beaver homes. In time, Feather hoped for MUCH less and stopped getting passing grades. He didn't study anymore either for he was well aware that HIS father, as was typical, didn't go far in school himself.
"Listen to me, Feather,' said his grandfather, 'the world is changing. It is no longer enough for an eagle to be able to read and write. He must be educated in beaver ways that he can take his place among their people."
"But, Grandfather,' gasped Feather, 'I don't WANT to live among beaver. I want to be like you and my father."
"Get schooling, Feather, and go away to a big university one day and come back to help us when you have learned how to combat the destructiveness of the beaver tribe. We cannot fight the beaver people in the traditional manner any longer as they are too numerous. You must be a warrior after a different fashion."
"But I want to be just like you, Grandfather," protested Feather. "Why can't things stay the same?"
"Few things remain the same, little one," said Grandfather. "Just now you are small and helpless but it will not always be so. You are afraid." Before Feather could protest, Grandfather continued, "But whenever you go among those who are not ours you are not alone for the spirits of your ancestors will go with you and be there for you."
"Really, Grandfather?"
"Truly,' said the wise old man, 'and they will watch to be certain you are worthy of their protection and to be called an eagle."
This statement caused no slight degree of confusion in Feather....the idea of being evaluated by his own forebears and the thought of being found wanting worried the little eagle. Feather did NOT want to go away and live among the kind of people responsible for the teachings his classmates had at home. Nonetheless, he did decide to begin studying again. It wasn't that he wanted to be like beaver children any longer or even to better them in studies. It's just that Feather decided to take his life one day at a time and do the best he could with that day. If he failed it would be because he just couldn't learn rather than because he gave up. Eagles ALWAYS try to do what is right. It would be disrespectful to his elders and his ancestors to do less than his best at whatever was required of him.
The years passed and Brown Feather grew and became strong inside and out. It became easier to be different and to refuse to be one of the group when that group was experimenting with alcohol and drugs. Popularity at the expense of one's own values is meaningless. Besides, Feather had too much pride in himself and his people to engage in self-destructive behavior. He had found his own private center of gravity and it was to no one's surprise when Feather graduated with the best grades in his class and top honors. Beaver universities offered scholarships and, despite homesickness, Feather knew he owed it to the eagle tribe to go. It required all of Feather's courage to leave home but eagles had always been brave and Feather had learned the full importance of his heritage.
"Maybe I'll be a doctor or a lawyer,' said Feather, 'or even a teacher and teach eagle children. I could even be an eagle chief one day."
And Brown Feather might do just that for the time has come for him to spread his wings and take to the skies. If you try hard and peer into the distance you might see him one day, protecting the eagle people and kindred tribes as well.
This tale reflects only the thoughts of the author rather than that of any Tribe or organization.
Dedicated with love to all eagle children everywhere and especially to the Seminole Tribe of Florida whose beautiful land we occupy with apology for atrocities committed against their Nation.
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