Grandmother took her basket of story makers and sat by the fire pit in her honored place. Picking up her hot tea, she wrapped both hands around the old pottery bowl to warm them. It was cold outside. The north winds were howling and the snows were coming too soon. It would be a long winter. She would have many stories to tell. She sat and waited for the children to come after they finished their evening meal. One by one they gathered in a small group, sitting huddled together under their robes, facing the old woman. It was storytelling time and Grandmother knew all the old stories.

The children waited eagerly, trying not to show their excitement, trying to settle and quiet down, wondering what story she would tell tonight. When her grandchildren were quiet and still, she sat down her tea and took one of the story makers from her basket and began telling her story, an old story she had learned from her own Grandmother.

All through the village, in every home, a Grandmother was not only telling the children stories, but teaching them. These storytellers told about life, how Great Spirit created all life on Mother Earth. They told about the animals, the plants, songs of the people, their dances, drums and how it all came to be. They heard stories of the stars, how Grandfather Sun watched over them by day, how Grandmother Moon watched over them at night. The children learned skills and how to relate with others through these wonderful stories that Grandmother told with passion and dedication to the old ways. Each story gave the children another lesson, another clue to life and what was expected of them as they grew. From each story they learned respect for their family and people, their way of life, and they came to know Great Spirit and all He created. They learned how to walk in Harmony and Balance with Nature and all Creation.

Winter was a time of teaching. One story that every child loved was about the beginning of life, the Creation. Each tribe across the land had their own version of the Creation story and each one gave the children the knowledge of the gifts from Great Spirit. One version of the Creation story is from the Abenaki peoples of Maine.

First Manitou, the Great Spirit, made Kloskurbeh, the great teacher. One day when the sun was directly overhead, a young boy appeared to Kloskurbeh. He explained that he had been born when the sea had churned up a great foam, which was then heated by the sun, congealed, and came alive as a human boy.

The next day, again at noon, the teacher and the boy greeted a girl. She explained that she had come from the earth, which had produced a green plant which bore her as fruit. And so Kloskurbeh, the wise teacher, knew that human beings came forth from the union of sea and land. The teacher gave thanks to Manitou and instructed the boy and girl in everything they needed to know. Then Kloskurbeh went north into the forest to meditate.

The man and the woman had many, many children. Unfortunately, they had so many children that they were unable to feed them all by hunting and picking wild foods. The mother was filled with grief to see her children hungry, and the father despaired. One day the mother went down to a stream, entering it sadly. As she reached the middle of the stream, her mood changed completely and she was filled with joy. A long green shoot had come out of her body, between her legs. As the mother left the stream, she once again looked unhappy.

Later, the father asked her what had happened during the day while he was out trying to gather food. The mother told the whole story. She then instructed the father to kill her and plant her bones in two piles. The father, understandably, was upset by this command and he questioned the mother many times about it. Naturally, it was shocking and disturbing to think that he had to kill his wife in order to save his children, but she was insistent. The father immediately went to Kloskurbeh for advice.

Kloskurbeh thought the story very strange, but then he prayed to Manitou for guidance. Kloskurbeh then told the father that the mother was right. This was the will of Manitou. So, the father killed his wife and buried her bones in two piles as he was commanded to do.

For seven moons, the father stood over the piles of bones and wept. Then one morning, he noticed that from one pile had sprouted tobacco and, from the other, maize. Kloskurbeh explained to the man that his wife had really never died, but that she would live forever in these two crops.

To this day, a mother would rather die than see her children starve. And all children are still fed today by that original mother. Men like to plant in the cornfields extra fish they catch as a gift of thanks to the first mother and a remembrance that we are all children of the union of sea and land.
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