Native American Stories

Memegwesi and nawus

Growing up in a Native family, you're taught the traditional ways of your ancestors. So it wasn't unusual when those ways were passed onto my siblings and I. My sisters were not drawn to it like the way I was. I found it interesting and beautiful. My mind was more open to the spiritual beings around me.

 Like most young children, I often played with the memegwesi. For those of you who do not know of the memegwesi I will share with you what I know and what I've also seen.

 People have told me that the memegwesi are either mischievous or friendly. I was told they were tiny hairy beings with no faces but the ones I have seen were handsome little beings. They did have faces and came in various sizes, like big and small. At times, they would blend into the scenery that they live in. I played alongside with them, but they also scolded me. 

But enough of the memegwesi. I am now going to tell you of a dark being that had claimed to be a friend to me. I was young, alone and naive so I trusted it. As I got older I realized that it was not of good intentions. My baba named it Nawus and although it had no gender, I called it a he. To this day I do not know what this being is. He was tall and was covered in hair from head to toe. I was warned to stay away from this being but never understood why..

 This is the story of my childhood growing up with these beings.

I often visited my koko as a child. There were many other children there too, but I was the youngest so I played alone most of the time. I was sitting on my kokos bed in her room, having a tea party. I had my glass tea cups and my picnic blanket too. I had invited my sister and brother but they didn't want to play with little me. Nothing out of the ordinary, it was a response I always received but it was getting lonely constantly playing by myself. Suddenly I could feel the little hairs on the back of my neck rise. My ears perked up at the sound of feet scurrying across the room. My heart pounded, but not out of fear. Out of curiosity. I cautiously peeked over the edge of the bed. I gasped as my eyes widened. Two tiny little creatures were on the floor, trying to get onto the bed. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and spoke.

"Hello." I said. 

They waved at me and I knew they meant no harm. Helping them onto the bed I gave them each a place at my make shift table and offered them tea and sweets. From that day on I had someone to keep me company when others refused to play with me. When I would visit my koko, there they were, waiting in the room to play with me. Sometimes I'd leave them gifts if I would be gone for long. Such as shiny nickels and dimes, tiny toys and jujubes or jelly beans, they did not care whether it was expensive or fancy, as long as it was either shiny or sweet. I would place gifts on a giant boulder I had found in the bush behind my kokos house. 

This reminded me of leaving sundances. My family and I would give offerings to the memegwesi, down the long grassy dirt road that trees surrounded on both sides of our vehicle. Mama and Baba would stop the car on the side of the road so other cars leaving could pass through. Sometimes there would be bright red flowers in the ditch that would always catch my attention but i was always afraid of the possibility that the soft swampy ground would swallow me like quick sand so I did not dare think to climb down to pick those beautiful flowers. 

Baba would take my siblings and I to the rock while mama searched the sides of the ditch for weeka. I can still smell the wet leaves and ground surrounding me as i walked on the path towards the memegwesi rock.

As we reached the middle of the forest there was this humongous rock already adorned in offerings similar to the one at my kokos. Behind the rock was a tale of the memegwesi, what they are and how they came to be. Baba would give us each a cigarette and a couple of silvers to place upon the rock. Being young I didn't understand how the memegwesi took the gifts. The memegwesi rock was always covered in gifts, did that mean they only picked certain offerings and left the rest?