Hello, my name is Ashkii witch means’ boy’ I am 14 years old. I have two brothers my papa and mother. My to brothers are Ashkook, and Mahpee. Ashkook means ‘snake’. Mahpee means ‘sky’. I live in a tepee in the Midwest region. My family and I live in the Cheyenne tribe. My brothers and I like to go hunting for ma when were bored. I’m the oldest so I kill more animals. Mahpee is 12 and Ashkook is 10. Today I killed a big black bear about 600 pounds. Tonight ma is going to make that bear. It was so good and it filled me up to it felt like I gained twenty pounds. When I went to sleep I had a dream that the next day we were going to go hunting and a bears going to sneak up on Mahpee and slash him right to the ground. In other words the bear was going to kill Mahpee. The next morning ma made a rug out of the bear’s fur coat. When we went hunting today I was worried about my dream. My dream actually came true except I threw a sphere right thought the bear before it could slash at Mahpee. We took a dear, and a buffalo home with the bear. Ma was so relived that Mahpee didn’t get hurt in any way. Papa was glad at Ashkook and me for hunting so well today. I told papa that hunting is is lives. As in are lives I meant Ashkok, Mahpee, We didn’t go hunting today because we got enough food until tomorrow. I’m going to try to eat as much as I can tonight because I want to be able to go hunting tomorrow. I also bet that Mahpee, and Ashkook want to go hunting tomorrow as much as I do. Tonight for dinner we prayed that we can live all year long though winter. Praying is a part of are religion but, my family doesn’t do it for religion. For our meal we had deer with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and water from the creek. The deer tasted so good that it was juicy and the berries tasted as sweat as sugar. After are meal papa wanted to see me and my brothers outside. While we were out there he gave us all new hunting weapons! Ashkook got a sphere carved perfectly out of stone. Mahpee got a new bow with extra range and strength. Oh but I got the best thing. Papa gave me a double barrel shotgun! He told me I have to be very careful with it and if he finds me playing with it he’ll take it from me and shoot me!



When we all went hunting today we brought are new weapons. That day I shot one buffalo, one bear, and one deer. Mahpee shot a buffalo a mile away, and Ashkook snuck up one a wild buck and brought it right down to the ground. The funny part is when Ashkook snuck up on a buffalo the buffalo heard him turned around and went RRRRRRRGGGGGG! Me and Mahpee were cracking up until something horrible happened. When I was laughing it was like I had no control over my body and I raised my gun out and almost shot Ashkook.

KELE

Hello my name is Kele witch means ‘sparrow’ I am 12 years old. I live in a long house with my papa and ma. I have on brother his name is Len witch means ‘flute’ he is 6 years old. I live in the Yurok tribe in the Pacific Northwest. My favorite hobby is making a canoe. It is actually quite easy you just find a beautiful long thick tree cut the tree down and make a hollow hole long enough for two people. My brother Len hates canoe carving. My papa is the best at fishing. Once he caught 26 fish in two days. He didn’t have to go fishing the next month. The only problem though is that my family got sick of salmon all the time so we ate nuts, berries, and seaweed. We also ate ma’s acorn flower she would make. Len is more of a fisherman type of person like papa. He’s not that great at being a fisherman at all. Today Len and I went fishing. I heard from my friend Chayton, Chayton means ‘falcon’ that there was a fisher man on his boat on this river, Klamath river and that he was going fishing and saw a strange movement. H said he thought it looked like a weird fish with an oddly shaped body. I told him that I’ll would see for myself. I asked Len and papa if ever has seen anything suspicious. Len said ‘No’. Papa said ‘Yes’. Then papa told us the story of when he was a little kid he was fishing with his papa, and he felt something dive under the boat. Then again, then again, and then it stopped for a long time. After him and his papa were done fishing and walked home he saw something jump up in the air and was no fish. We asked papa what it was he said ‘I never knew what it was’. When we were fishing we didn’t see anything that except fish. The next day thought things got really suspicious.



Chayton and I went to go investigate this ‘creature’ at Klamath River. We didn’t find anything that day. The next day on the other hand we found something jump in the air just like papa did. To Chayton and me it looked like a mermaid. We saw it for sure! The only problem was we didn’t know what this mysterious creature was. On the next day we went out on the river in one of the canoes I carved out. Len wanted to come to so we let him. We all brought our nets incase we saw anything suspicious. Indeed we did we saw a creature lurking in the waters. Len was crying like a baby. Well he is only six years old. Then something hit the bottom of the canoe. SPLASH! Chayton, Len, and I fell right into the river! We panicked until I suggested we went back to shore. Len can not swim so I had to carry him on my back then swim him to land.




While we were walking back to the longhouse. Ma asked us why we were so soaked in water. Then we told her all about how the creature tipped the boat over and, how we had to swim back to land. The next day I was desperate to find something. I went out to the river by myself. As soon as I got on the river I saw a bunch of movement. Left, right, left, forward, backward, it was moving everywhere. I couldn’t catch up with it with my eyes. Then what do know it jumped up again. The first thing I said when I saw it. ‘Dolphin’!

AHIGA

Hello my name is Ahiga witch means ‘he fights’ I am 7 years old. I live in a small large house with my papa and ma in the southwest region. I live in the Apache tribe. I am an only child but, it does not feel like I am an only child ever because of I spend a lot of time with my friend Nahuel. Nahuel means ‘jaguar’. We like to perform pays for each other. Today though I and Nahuel did something really tragic, we got caught paying with my papa’s sharp hunting tools. I asked why we couldint use the tools to play something. He said I and Nahuel can use them for when we get older and, when we go hunting. I asked when that would be? He said my ceremony day. My ceremony day is my birthday. So I waited and, waited and, waited and finally came my ceremony day. When I woke up ma had my favorite breakfast on the table fresh fruit. I ran to papa’s room and woke him up and asked him if he would take me hunting. He said yes.




When I went hunting with papa today it changed my life. I shot two mountain lions, and one rabbit. Nahuel went with us as well. He hardly got anything except for the one wild turkey he shot with a bow. Papa shot one of everything out there basicly. He shot one deer, two rabbits, four wild turkeys, one buffalo, one mountain lion, and one bear. Papa caught us a whole year supply of food. While we walked home I decided to pick some berries so I could eat them for breakfast. For dinner we had one of the wild turkeys papa shot with his bow. Ma used the feathers to make a blanket for me. Hunting was the best thing that had ever happened to me.




Yesterday I and Nahuel were bored so we decided to play war. We went inside to try to get a hand on papa’s bows. Papa wasn’t home he was at a ceremony. Nahuel were the bad guys and, I was the good. Nahuel said it was boring just to a bow and convinced me to try to get the arrows. I told him someone could get really hurt from getting shot by an arrow! Then we decided that we would pretend to shoot the arrows. In the middle of are game thought things got bad. We saw a mountain lion! We ran inside the large house and told ma. She told me and Nahuel to go into my room. Me and Nahuel decide that they left the bow and arrows outside and that papa would kill us if the lion did some thing too them. So we decide to sneak out the front door and snatch those bow and arrows and run back inside. So we sneaked out my room and ran out the front door. We went to the fort we built when we played war and got the bows and arrows. On problem the lion was right behind us! Nahuel and I ran all the way back to the large house. The only problem was the beasty lion was faster than us! So I waited for it and BOOM! I shot the lion with my bow and arrow. I noticed when I cheered I didn’t hear Manuel’s voice... I checked to see if he was still in the fort. He wasn’t. I went back to the large house to see if he was there. He wasn’t. I checked to see if he went home. He didn’t. There’s only one place he could be. In the lions stomach.