From Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back: A Native American Year of Moons:
"Many Native American people look at Turtle's back as a sort of calendar, with its pattern of thirteen large scales standing for the thirteen moons in each year."
These pages from the book are perfect for this time of year; we are bridging from one time to another and noticing that many things are happening in our natural world. I am grateful for the work of both the original tellers and the people who have more recently recorded these ideas in a poetic format.
Moose-Calling Moon (Ninth Moon – Micmac)
In this season when leaves
begin to turn color,
we go down to the lakes
and with birch-bark horns
make that sound which echoes
through the spruce trees,
the call of a moose
looking for a mate:
Mooo-ahhh-ahhh
Mooo-ahhh-ahhh.
If we wait there,
Patient in our canoes,
The Moose will come.
His great horns are flat
Because, long ago,
before people came,
Gloos-kap asked the Moose
what he would do
when he saw human beings.
"I will throw them up high
on my sharp horns," Moose said.
So Gloos-kap pushed his horns
Flatter and made him smaller.
"Now, Moose," he said, "you will not
want to harm my people."
So the Moose comes and stands,
Strong as the northeast wind.
He looks at us, then
we watch him disappear
back into the willows again.
Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London
Illustrated by Thomas Locker
Moon of Falling Leaves (Tenth Moon – Cherokee)
Long ago, the trees were told
They must stay awake
seven days and nights,
but only the cedar,
the pine and the spruce
stayed awake until
that seventh night.
The reward they were given
was to always be green
while all the other trees
must shed their leaves.
So, each autumn, the leaves
of the sleeping trees fall.
They cover the floor
of our woodlands with colors
as bright as the flowers
that come with the spring.
The leaves return the strength
of one more year's growth
to the earth.
This journey
the leaves are taking
is part of that great circle
which holds us all close to the earth.
Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London
Illustrated by Thomas Locker