Respect

As usual, he just walked into the shop. A tall man, slender, dark, and with the unmistakable facial characteristics of most Native American people. Very high cheekbones. He asked if I could help him with some gifts that he wanted to send to his family 'back east'. We quickly made his selection of gifts, each appropriate for a young lady.

We returned to the counter, and I respectfully asked him if I may know his Nation. (I find it a little rude to come out with 'what tribe are you from'.) He was more than a little taken aback by this question. Not because I had asked it, but because I had recognized that he was Native American. He could easily have been mistaken for Negro with his coloring. He told me that he was Cherokee, and that he had been born and raised on the reservation in Oklahoma. His great-grandparents had traveled the Trail of Tears from North Carolina, and he was proud to be their descendant. His great-grandfather was full-blood Cherokee, and his great-grandmother was half Cherokee, and half Seminole. Keeping the Cherokee bloodline in tact was important then, and all of their descendants married to, or mated with, full-blood Cherokee. By the time he was born, the Seminole bloodline was pretty much washed out, but he still carried the genes for the dark skin. We chatted for a while about all sorts of things; his heritage, my interest in the Native people, the problems now facing people of all Nations. Finally, he asked if I carried eagle or hawk feathers. I told him it was illegal for me to do so, but that I had some feathers that he might be able to use on the feather rack. He selected some, paid for his purchase, and left.

About an hour later, I heard the bell dangling from the front door. I was a little busy in the second room, so it took me a few minutes to get to the main part of the shop. To my surprise, there was no one in the shop. But there, on the counter, was a medicine bundle. I knew it was from him. At the top of the bundle was one of the feathers I had just sold him. I do not know what 'material things' he put into the bundle. It is not good to open them, even when they have been gifted. I do know that the bundle contains his thanks for our conversation, for my not judging him because of the color of his skin, for my showing him the respect that all human races deserve, and for my recognizing him for what he was. A simple man, with a rich history.