Eagle Feather Goes Hunting




Front Porch Tales with Barbara Belding Gibson. Come on, pull up a rocking chair, grab a glass of iced tea and let's visit a while. The Way it Could Have Been 4 The next morning, as the sky lightens, Eagle Feather says his morning prayers to the sun, asking for continued success on his mission. While chewing some dried meat taken from another of his pouches, he goes to the stream bed below to look for berries. After filling himself on the sweet fruit, he squats down on a small hill near the stream to continue work. He takes the blanks from his pouch and works them some more, removing excess flint so more blanks will fit into his pouch. When he has finished with that task he goes up to the gravel bed above Small Cave and finds more flint nodes, intending to repeat the task of yesterday until his pouch holds all the blanks it will carry. These blanks will be taken back to his home camp and there the women, who have spent their lives learning to make points and knives, will use his blanks to keep the tribe supplied with weapons and tools. Before Eagle Feather is through, however, he sees a herd of deer moving past. He quickly reaches for his spear and atlatl by his side, intending to stalk the deer and get some meat for dinner. At the same time he can replenish his pouch of dried meat and even carry a new hide home to his wife. But before he has a chance to rise, he sees the reason for the deer's movement. There are some strangers slowly and cautiously moving the herd toward the cliff edge where they expect to trap them and kill several for their winter meat and hide supply. Moving quickly from bush to bush, Eagle Feather sees the others use their atlatls to throw their spears. They, too, are experts at the job, throwing the spears long distances with extreme accuracy. Even so, one spear falls to the side as a deer turns sharply away from it*. Eagle Feather sees no chance to get either the wasted spear or any of the venison without placing himself in extreme jeopardy, so he quickly moves off to another location to finish filling his pouch with blanks. First the hunters gorge themselves on the still warm hearts and livers, then they pick up their kills and take them to Newhome Flat*, below the ridge and just above the stream. There, while some build fires to dry their meat, others stretch their hides to begin the early stages of curing. After all the meat is dried and packed away in pouches, they roll the hides and take their bounty back to the tribe, leaving the wasted spear where it lay on the bluff. Eagle Feather finishes gathering and working his flint and returns home with his usual supply of excellent blanks. As he travels an idea begins to grow in his mind. He contemplates the possibility of moving his tribe to this great and magic land. By the time he nears his home camp he is already seeing in his mind a camp at the base of the cliff under Little Cave. He is already seeing his tribal painted trees along the creek banks. He is feeling in his heart the power that will be theirs when they can join the magic of their painted trees with that coming from the gates to the Netherworld. He can hardly wait to bring these dreams to the elders of his tribe. *This is the spear point that had been covered by dirt and remained until, some 2500 years later, a spring storm at last uncovered it just in time to be discovered by Shawn. *Newhome Flat is the location of the Gibson's home and the Gaines Bend Office. It was here that old campfire remains were uncovered in the process of digging the foundation trench. I don't know whether it was Eagle Feather's tribe who came to our part of the Brazos and started the tradition of painting trees or maybe a much later tribe. But we do know that at some point a people came into this beautiful land and gave us an intriguing riddle to build legends around - the Painted Trees. Who painted them and why.




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Possum Kingdom Lake

Fishing Report from TPWD (Mar. 27)

FAIR. Water clear; 61 degrees; 0.08 feet below pool. Striped bass are fair in 20-40 feet of water and live bait is the bestway to catch them at the moment. Sand bass are fair to good. Sandies are looking to spawn transitioning up the creeks and rivers. Look for fish in 2-20 feet of water with live shad, small slabs and jigs. White, and silver are good colors. Catfish are good on cut shad in 5-15 feet of water. Water clarity is steady at 4-10 feet of visibility. Report by TJ Ranft, Ranft Guide Service.

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