Published Tuesday, February 18, 2003
about customs
and traditions
By Joe Pinchot
A-wa-nee.
The sun has set. A storyteller waits near a campfire as a chant is heard from far away.
"A-wa-nee," it starts: Hello.
The chant gets louder and can be heard from other directions.
"A-wa-nee" starts each round of chant.
Finally, the campfire is surrounded by local Indian tribes.
The story begins.
Vicki Lingner brings this story to elementary school children in the guise of Aurora's Night Rainbow, an American Indian woman.
Ms. Lingner, who is not a Native American, mixes and matches the customs and traditions of Indian tribes to expose students to the wealth of culture that has been passed down by the Lenapes, Crees and Hopis and other tribes.
Ms. Lingner, of Brookfield, said she received the blessing of Indian friends before embarking on her Native American adventure.
"They said anything that enhances their culture is OK with them," she told a class of Farrell Area Elementary School second-graders, who were wearing necklaces they had made of beads and paper feathers.
With a chant from a naming ceremony in the background, Ms. Lingner gave each student -- and adult -- present an Indian name.
Girls got names like Swaying Meadow Flower, Golden Sunbeam and Spotted Fawn, while the boys were dubbed Powerful Thundercloud, Night Flash of Light and Fierce Hawk.
Teacher Valerie Morrison received the name Wise Owl Seeking Knowledge, and Assistant Principal Carole Borkowski was renamed Morning Spirit of the Sky.
While Indians are typically named after a natural occurrence that is witnessed after they are born -- anyone in a tribe can recommend a name -- the students picked a name from Ms. Lingner's storytelling pouch, a turtle shell with a coyote head flap.
"Coyote, in many, many tribes, is a trickster," explained Ms. Lingner, a retired speech, creative writing and theater teacher from Sharon schools. "But he also is a good storyteller."
The pouch also shows the devotion Indian nations have to all living things.
"They don't kill anything just to kill it," she said. "Every single thing that they trap or every single thing that they kill they use. They honor the spirit of everything."
Finally, the lights are dimmed and Aurora's Night Rainbow begins the tale of a baby left at the doorstep of Chief Thundercloud and his wife, Glowing Rainbow.
The chief's brother, a tribal holy man, declares that the girl shall not be named until her seventh birthday. She is called No Name until a ceremony is held. Her uncle, who creates the first butterflies in his storytelling pouch, names the girl Beautiful Butterfly Fluttering.
The chant resumes as the tribes head home. It starts full and trails off, ending each time with aqua-nee: see you soon, may your path be blessed with peace.
Aqua-nee.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot, also known as Howling Coyote, at jpinchot@sharonherald.com