Buffalo Bird Women Tended Squash with the tools (in this case, a bone hoe)her Grandmother & the Women before her used...
Her name was actually Maxi'diwiac of the Hidatsa people, but
we (as in the English Speaking, non Hidatsa people usually refer to her as
Buffalo Bird Woman.
I couldn’t help but remember literary Granny Sojourner Truth’s words which continue to inspire people today.
Buffalo Bird Woman was also a woman who took pride in her heritage to the point of refusing to go with the flow as others were: she intended, instead, to keep the traditions – and her language – alive. She was a story teller extraordinaire and for her stories to continue as they have today, they were written, and translated, and shared with many.
Her book, Buffalo Bird Women’s Garden, continues telling the traditions and will, hopefully, continue to be popular to girls and women of today. I loved her almost “post script” about squash:
Squash Dolls
There is one other thing I will tell before we forsake the subject of squashes. Little girls of ten or eleven years of age used to make dolls of squashes.
When the squashes were brought in from the field, the little girls would go to the pile and pick out squashes that were proper for dolls. I have done so, myself. We used to pick out the long ones that were parti-colored; squashes whose tops were white or yellow and the bottoms of some other color. We put no decorations on these squashes that we had for dolls. Each little girl carried her squash about in her arms and sang for it as for a babe. Often she carried it on her back, in her calf skin robe.
Her words are an important part of American Literary History we simply must keep alive. Honoring her words and her person is integral to this mission of spreading love, knowledge and curiosity about our Literary Grannies.
This post is a part of my series Our Literary Grannies from A t0 Z which was inspired by the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Find out more about the Challenge by either clicking here or on the icon.
Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)
Follow on Instagram
And naturally, on Pinterest, too!
