Four Eyes and Oatmeal

Many years ago there lived a warrior named
uyotsvhi galitsadi (ooyochuhee gahleechahdee),
or that is to say Broken Bow. He was a good man
and an honest man, but he had always been a
very poor hunter.
The time came for the warriors to hunt
awi (ahwee), or that is to say deer,
so all the people would have meat and
hides and the antlers to make knife handles
and buttons. Broken Bow joined the hunt
with all the other warriors who were going.
Now when you hunt deer you must be quite and a
bit sneaky or the deer will smell you, or hear
you coming, and will run away. Because of this,
all the warriors on the hunt separated in the
forest and went to seek their deer.
Broken Bow decided to travel down into the valley
toward the place where two rivers came together.
When he got there he made a little camp near the
rivers and tied his horse to a tree and went to
stalk deer.
Later that same day Broken Bow heard a deer
coming through some brush near him. He prepared
his bow and waited quietly for the deer to appear.
The deer came out from the brush and trees
and walked toward the river, probably to drink,
and Broken Bow waited patiently for the deer to
come closer, and he hoped it would stop to drink,
as that would be when he would send his arrow
toward the deer.
The deer came closer to the river, stopping
several times to sniff the air for danger, but
the spirits were helping Broken Bow, and the deer
did not sense him being there, and so the deer
came to the edge of the water and began to drink.

Broken Bow launched his arrow and rose from his kneeling position so that he could run toward the
deer, and as he did he saw the arrow fly right
under
the deer's belly and strike the ground.
The deer bolted and ran quickly away back
into the protection of the trees and brush.
If there were any curse words in the Cherokee
language, Broken Bow would probably have used them.
So close had he come to getting his deer and
returning home with it, but once again he had missed.
He sat down and felt so alone and so sad.
You see, Broken Bow, had been named such because
of the bows he had broken. It used to be that when
he and some other young warriors would have
an arrow shooting contest that Broken Bow would
always lose, and he would always blame the bow
and would break it. His bows never
seemed to shoot straight.
Now Broken Bow stayed on the hunt and several
days passed without him getting his deer and being
able to return to the village as a successful hunter.
The little food he had brought with him was gone
and he was growing weak when early in the morning
of the fourth day as he was feeding his horse
some oats that he decided to nibble on some
himself and found that it had a good taste. But
the oats were very hard and difficult to chew.
Broken Bow thought about it for a little while
and then took some oats to the hot rocks that had
been around his fire of the night before. He used
the rocks and some coals from the fire to lightly
roast the oats and then he took a flat smooth stone
from the river and placed it on top of the
oats and began to go ‘round and ‘round until the
oats had been ground up into meal. He then placed
some of the warm oatmeal into a bowl and added a
little water from the river and ate it.
He felt much stronger when he had finished.
Several more days passed and Broken Bow ate
oatmeal and hunted for deer and nearly got them,
but finally he knew that he would have to return
to the village without a deer to share with the
people. Feeling very lonely and hurt, he started
the journey home.
When he arrived at the village many of the
hunters had already returned and a few others
were still on the way to the village. Most of
the hunters were very tired and hungry from the time
they had spent in the forest hunting. Broken Bow
arrived looking healthy and had even gained a
little weight. Some of the villagers asked as to
how he faired so well on the hunt.
He told them about how to make oatmeal and how
it was good to eat early in the morning. They listened
to him and some tried making it.
They liked it also. As time went by the
making of oatmeal was refined and it was made
and eaten by almost all the people.
Even though Broken Bow had not brought a deer
for the people, he had brought them knowledge of
food that they could eat and it is still eaten
to this day.
Several years later, some missionary people came
and lived in the village with the people.
As they tried to teach Broken Bow how to read books,
they realized that he needed spectacles,
or that is to say, eyeglasses.
They got him some of those things and it
wasn’t long before Broken Bow had become one
of the greatest hunters in the land. His arrows
seemed to always find their mark and he had not
broken a bow in many years. He always wore his
eyeglasses. The people gathered one day and when
the gathering was finished old Broken Bow had a
new name. It was Four Eyes.
Now Four Eyes lived to be very old and had a
large family and many relatives. Why even today,
almost everywhere you go, if you look at the
people, you will see some of his relatives.
They are easy to spot. They all have four eyes.

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