West River Eagle

Wojapi



– I –

Just like everything else in our world

there are two kinds of Wojapi the

traditional and the modern kind

I’ve made both.

 

Because I now live in today’s world

of computers, E-mail, FAX machines

and fast cars,

I can’t remember the last time

I’ve even made the modern kind.

 

I do remember that several years ago

I taught a niece how to make it over

the telephone

it’s real easy all it takes is a can of

blueberry pie filling (my family’s favorite flavor)

some water and cornstarch.

 

But to make the traditional wojapi

takes planning especially if you want to fix it

when the snow is blowing at sixty miles an hour

and it’s forty below and you want to prove

how really traditional you are to some

white sociologist who is sitting at your table

all starry-eyed looking beyond your head to 1868

trying real hard to experience the “Real Lakota Way.”

 

You can’t hardly grab a can of blueberry pie filling

and prove your a real Indian by whipping up

a batch of modern wojapi

No way—he won’t fall for the can.

 

– II –

To do it right you would have

had to go out in the middle

of a hot sweaty August day

among the flies, grasshoppers

and rattlesnakes

and find a black cherry tree.

 

You would have had

to spend hours straining

your muscles reaching up

and picking the little black berries

that stain your hands and teeth for

days afterwards.

 

– III –

Now if you were really going to do it right

so you could recount the tale to your

starry-eyed guest, you would have taken

along the proper equipment. An old lard pail

(the two-quart variety) hanging on a piece of

string to allow you to use both hands.

 

If you were a good fast strong Lakota woman,

in a very short period of time, you would have

picked several cans but if you were like me

it would take you hours.

 

Hours of sweat running down the pits of your

arms, down your torso, down the backs of

your legs and all across your forehead while

being bit by every blood-sucking insect around

for miles.

 

– IV –

Having finished the first phase of making

traditional wojapi you would now be ready

to move on to the second phase.

 

This, of course, should have been completed

under a shade assembled next to your house

because no self-respecting traditional Lakota

home went without an old-fashioned traditional

shade where all activity was conducted through

the hot summer months—from cooking to sleeping.

 

The shade was built using young cottonwood trees,

with the first Ys in their trunks, these held up

cross logs tied tightly together with more branches

added to make a loosely woven roof. On top of all

these strong limbs, willow branches were added

with their leaves in full bloom.

 

Babies were hung in their cradle boards and

drifted off to sleep to the rustling of those leaves

and all manner of gossip being discussed

to pass away the hours.

 

– V –

The tools we used had been handed down

from great-great-grandmothers, two sets of

beautifully hand-crafted mortar and pestle

made from Black Hills pink quartz. In the

center was a small indent about the size of

a small fist. This is where you would place

the berries and proceed to smash them,

seeds and all, making a beautiful purple paste.

 

If you measured just right each handful of

berries smashed would make a small flat patty

when rolled and patted out.

You would then place all of these little patties

on a flat cardboard and put them out in the

hot sun to dry. They would eventually become

flat little hard disks—easily stored for the winter.

 

– VI –

This is what you would bring out to impress

your sociologist guest that you’re

“A Real Indian – of the Traditional Variety”

and make the real wojapi.

 

But if you’re like all the rest of us who live on

the fast track. You’ll call for a pizza to be

delivered and still make him believe you’re

traditional while checking your messages

on your cellular phone.

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