The Dragonfly Story
Long before the white man came to the land, the people were called A'shiwi and lived in the Valley of Hot Waters. There was a richness of rain and the land was replenished every year. The harvests yielded more than enough corn and the storehouses were full, with crops overflowing.
Chief Priest became swollen with pride at the great wealth of his people. He advised the elders to hold a great feast to boast of the people's richness to the other tribes in the area. Excess food would be used for a pretend war (food fight).
The Corn Maidens heard of this misuse of the blessing and visited the village disguised as hungry, ragged old women. The people were so involved in their preparations for the feast that they ignored the old women, offering them neither food nor a place to sit and rest. Only two children sitting on the roof of their mother's house handed down corn cakes to the old women. The people had not learned to share.
One old grandmother of the people lived at the edge of the village. She had no family to help her. She lived in a fallen down house, had little food and wore rags. When she saw the two Corn Maidens, she invited them to sit and offered them something to eat from the little she had. They blessed her with more food, revealed themselves and told her she would always have food but they were going to stop the rain that gave the people the plenty they enjoyed.
Drought came to the land. The grandmother offered what she had to the rest of the people but she was thought of as a sorceress and shunned. To keep from starving, the people went to stay with the Hopi's where they could work for food. In the haste of their departure, the two children and the grandmother were left behind.
The children survived by catching and eating birds attracted by food the grandmother put out. The children did not know of her presence, nor did she know the children were in the village. Little girl grew sadder with little food to nourish her and the rest of the people gone. Her brother tried to entertain her and gave her what food the Corn Maidens had left for them. Sister asked for a butterfly to play with. Knowing there were no butterflies in the midst of winter, brother tried to fashion a butterfly from corn husks and grasses he gathered. Due to poor materials and paint, what emerged was a different creature with two narrow wings on each side. He made a little cage for it and hung it over his sister's sleeping place. She loved it, named it the Cornstalk - Being - That - Flies and decided it was alive. She even asked it to bring them food.
During the night, the Cornstalk Being asked the boy to free it. The boy released it with fear that it would not return. Cornstalk Being told him, "Your heart is greater than most others. You have kept anger away from you. You have loved your sister faithfully and well." Cornstalk Being gave the boy credit for being his father and giving him a body with twin wings so he can hover. Since Cornstalk Being was made with love, he was touched with life.
Cornstalk Being flew off to find the gods who called him Grandfather. The gods promised to send corn to the children and sent instructions for creating prayer plumes and planting instructions. Cornstalk Being instructed the children to make prayer plumes and carried them off to the gods. In return, they promised to plant the corn in season and to bring rain to the land.
As the food supply once again grew low, sister became very sad and cried all the time. Cornstalk Being went to the Corn Maidens who came to the village with food and comfort for the children they remembered. They told Cornstalk Being that the people would return. When they had to leave, they visited grandmother and asked that she care for and comfort the children, which she did.
When the winter was nearly over, uncle returned. Boy had been gaining wisdom and pointed out to uncle the folly of the people. He then said that uncle would be the Warrior Priest and the people would need new leadership. The rains came. The boy became their leader.
Cornstalk Being asked the boy to make another like him and send her to him. Their offspring would be called Dragonflies.
When you see a Dragonfly, remember that he is a Grandfather which stands for the god given rains of Spring.
This little creature was chosen as our logo because of dragonflies that were observed every evening around our homes. On learning more about dragonflies we came upon the book "The Boy Who Made Dragonfly" by Tony Heller. The love and wisdom shown in this story convinced us that the Dragonfly had to be our representative.