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(funky music)

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-: Hello, my name is Fern Naomi Renville.

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I'm an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate,

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and eastern Dakota band, I'm originally from South Dakota

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but now I live in Seattle.

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I'm going to share a scary story from the Dakota tradition.

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This story is called "Iya, The Camp Eater".

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A long time ago, a long time ago on the prairie,

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a group of children were playing in the tall grass

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when they heard a baby crying.

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(imitating crying)

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The children looked around, they looked everywhere

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through the tall grass until they found a little baby

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abandoned in the grass, a beautiful child

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with quite a set of lungs,

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crying it's heart out in the grass.

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What is this little baby doing here all alone?

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We better take this baby back to our village.

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And so that is what the kids did.

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They took that little baby back to their village.

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They took that little baby to the Headman.

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Now the Headman happened to have a daughter

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who really wanted a child but could not have babies,

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and so the Headman, when he was handed this little baby,

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and heard the story of how it was found with no one around,

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all alone, we can't leave this baby

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out there in the prairie,

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we must take this child and adopt this child

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and raise him ourself.

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I will adopt this child for my daughter,

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as my first grandson, I will call him Chaske,

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which means first born son.

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And today we will celebrate, we will hold a feast

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and a dance to celebrate this child being adopted

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into our village.

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And that is what happened.

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Well, his daughter was thrilled.

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She took that little baby into her arms,

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you know how babies are.

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They're got those little rolls of fat,

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that incredible way they smell, mmm.

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She held that little baby in her arms, oh he was beautiful.

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She was so happy at the idea that a son had come to her.

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Though he was very hungry, so that all day long,

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while the village prepared the feast and then ate the feast

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and then danced and enjoyed themselves,

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the new mother was taking care of this baby and feeding him

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and feeding him, this was a very hungry baby.

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This babies big mouth was wide open

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and it just cried and cried and cried.

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(imitating crying)

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And she fed the baby and fed the baby

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all these different things they could think of

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to feed the baby.

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He was still hungry.

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But finally, finally that night,

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after the village had finished celebrating,

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after the village had quieted down

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and people had drifted off to bed,

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and the village fell into quiet,

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finally that little baby fell asleep.

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Finally that hungry little baby, Chaske, the first born son,

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was asleep in her arms, and she rocked him,

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and she drew his head close to her ear and she rocked him,

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and as she was rocking him she heard a little voice.

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Help me, help me.

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She looked around.

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Where was that voice coming from?

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She started rocking the baby again.

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Help me, help me!

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Help us!

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(gasping)

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Where are those voices coming from?

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She put down the baby very carefully.

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The young mother went out of her tepee.

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She circled the tepee but there was nobody.

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She went back in.

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It was just her parents there, they were both sleeping.

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Where did those voices come from?

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Once again she picked up her baby,

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once again she rocked him,

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and this time she pulled him close,

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cause she was feeling scared, she pulled that baby close,

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his mouth was right by her ear,

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and she heard the sounds coming out of his mouth.

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Help us!

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Help, help!

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(gasps)

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She put that baby down as quietly and carefully as she could

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and she stepped away and she went over

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to where her parents were and she shook her father.

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(whispering) She shook her father

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and when he woke up, father,

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something is wrong with the baby!

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She whispered.

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Well, the father, her headman, he knew.

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He knew what was going on.

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And as quietly as they could,

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he instructed the whole village

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to pack up, right then and there in the middle of the night

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and leave, and get as far away as they could

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while the baby slept.

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For that is no baby, said her father.

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That is Iya, the Camp Eater, who comes in disguise

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as the thing you most want.

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Iya can eat all of us up in one sitting,

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but Iya can only do this at night.

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Iya is a shape shifter, and can become his own form

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and can eat us at night.

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We must get as far away as we can.

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And that is what they did.

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The whole village packed up, they packed up and moved

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as quietly as could be,

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so quietly the baby did not awake.

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So that the morning, so the next morning

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when that baby woke up, the little baby was expecting

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that the village would still be there

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and he would have his chance to eat them, but no,

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they were all gone, everyone had left

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and the baby was abandoned.

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This baby transformed into Iya.

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Now they say that Iya was very tall,

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Iya had these boney, stick-like legs,

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and Iya has a huge red mouth that's always open

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and always hungry, and then kind of a naked, bulbous body

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with no fur or feathers, and a huge belly

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from eating villages.

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Well, Iya's very dangerous at night, as I said.

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Iya can eat a whole village at night.

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But in the daytime, Iya has no shape shifting abilities.

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Iya should've just stayed right there

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and waited for dark.

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He could've caught up with that village

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and eaten them, but that's not what happened.

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Iya was impatient and angry,

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and his fury overpowered his better judgment.

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He started after them, he went after the village.

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He went after them and when they saw him

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the headman said ah, he can't hurt us now,

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he's terrifying to look at, I know,

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but gather sticks, gather knives, and stab his belly,

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he can't hurt us right now.

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And that's true.

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And when they took their knives and their sticks

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and they stabbed his belly, his belly split open

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and all of these people came out.

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Thousands and thousands of people

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from villages far and wide,

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speaking different languages.

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Everyone was very happy to be free from Iya.

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Now that's the end of Iya.

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Iya died that day, we don't have to worry about Iya.

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There's some other monsters still around, but not Iya.

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That is the story of Iya and the Camp Eater,

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and thank you for letting me share it.

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(funky music)