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On this day of the full strawberry moon, Roger Kanerahtiio Jock tells THE STORY OF SKY WOMAN (Katsitienta), THE FIRST FRUIT (Ken’niiohontehsa) & THE FIRST BORN FEMALE Katsi’tson:ni (She Is Bringing The Flowers).
"I tell this story at strawberry time to remember why we do these things. And why the seed ceremony is a woman’s ceremony as well. Why? This is the reason why.
In our creation story, there was a woman that fell out of the sky. Like a raindrop, she fell from the Skyworld and was known as Katsitienta, or Sky Woman.
Before she fell, Katsitienta was planting in her world. There was a hole created by a great storm. It blew a tree over and created this hole. When she went over to take a to look, she tripped and grabbed at the roots to stop her from falling, but the roots gave way and she fell with them through the hole into our world.
When she fell from that Skyworld, there was only water covering the planet. Sky Woman was caught by birds and carried down to this planet onto the back of a turtle.
We have to understand that it was a spiritual world. It was a female energy that came and created life on the planet. There weren’t even people then, but Sky Woman was able to talk to the animals. She talked to them all and told them what she was looking for and they went and got it. A small muskrat gave up his life to bring back a small piece of dirt from the bottom of the great water.
From this dirt, Katsitienta stood on the turtle’s back and created the Earth.
And what did Sky Woman bring with her from her world? It wasn’t a person that fell. It was creation that came down, carrying the seeds of life, and Katsitienta planted the seeds from Sky World in the new earth.
It turned out that Sky Woman was pregnant, and the first daughter of the Earth was born at the time that the first fruiting flowers had started to bloom. And so Sky Woman named her first born female Katsi’tson:ni, she is bringing the flowers, or she is carrying the flowers. She was born at the time that the strawberry flowers were out. Ken’niiohontehsa. The first fruit.
And this is why only females are named at Strawberry time in our culture."
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Thank you to Purpose Earth Global for all their support and funding of the Schoharie Longhouse & Original Teachings Project.
