Download BLM 4C (PDF 53KB)
Get Adobe ReaderLook at me, friend!
I come to ask for your dress
For you have come to take pity on us;
For there is nothing for which you cannot be used…
For you are really willing to give us your dress
I come to beg you for this
Long-Life maker,
For I am going to make a basket for lily roots out of you.
I pray you, friend, not to feel angry
On account of what I am going to do to you;
And I beg you, friend, to tell your friends about
what I ask of you.
Take care, friend!
Keep sickness away from me,
So that I may not be killed by sickness or in war,
O friend!
Read the prayer to the young cedar to the class and discuss. Record the answers to questions on the board:
- What do you think, “I come to ask for your dress” means? (asking for the bark)
- “For there is nothing for which you cannot be used…”
Can you list some of the things that you have learned are made from cedar bark. (regalia; including neckrings, headpieces, clothing, cedar blankets, capes, skirts, baskets, mats, etc.) - “I come to beg you for this Long-Life maker”
What do you think Long-Life maker means? (Many useful things are made with cedar and cedar bark; clothing, houses, canoes, cooking and storage boxes, which helped the Kwakwaka’wakw live on the coast since the time when the creator created all things (long life)