Tysoyaha
Overview
A distant relation to the well-known Half-Moon Spearcatcher, Tysoyaha was a Miccosukee No-Moon who likewise made a strong case for including freed slaves and other persons of African descent in the greater Uktena tribe. Her human Kin had a long history of pride and independent thinking, and the best of these traits appeared in Tysoyaha, Sun Daughter.
Descendents of the Creek, the Miccosukee eventually settled much of the southern regions of modern-day Florida, especially around the swamplands of the Everglades. This was certainly not by choice, as Wyrmbringers intent on relocating all Indian peoples to the west forced the Miccosukee out of the upper panhandle region at various periods in the early and mid 1800s. Only scant numbers of Miccosukee survived in the south, along with some of their Changing brothers and sisters. They had to make many changes in their lifestyle, the most difficult being the loss of their staple crop, yellow maize. Still, hunting was good. The Miccosukee recalled that in their creation stories, they had fallen from the heavens into a great lake. Changers like Tysoyaha wondered if in some way, they were not being returned to a place of beginnings, safe in the south from the Wyrmbringers.
The Miccosukee weren't the only ones to see the sub-tropical lands as a perfect place to remain hidden from Wyrmbringers. Over time, many slaves fled to the swamps; most were descended from African captives, sold into bondage and brought to the New World in chains. Some were of mixed blood, part white, part Indian, part African. Tysoyaha was among the first to welcome these new arrivals, and she eagerly listened to their stories of far away places and of cruelties that rivaled those done to her own people. But what most intrigued her were the tales of strange and wonderful Changing Peoples, who wore the fur of giant cats and even spider skins. Turning a deaf ear to the dubious words of her sept, Tysoyaha and her two packmates, Lokcha and Wewasicataw, begged for aid from their totem, Crocodile, to show them a path to the newcomers' ancestral home in Africa. And their totem found their plea to be so sincere, the next time they journeyed into the spirit world, they saw a silver path open beside a long river.
The pack followed the path for many moons, until one night, the river dried up to a trickle. Tysoyaha and her friends emerged into a land they'd never seen, one as warm and sunny as their home, yet with trees, birds and stars that were not familiar. Not far away, they found a great river, much like the one they'd followed in the Umbra, and sitting on the bank was a dark-skinned woman with lanky limbs and bright eyes. their tongues were different, but Lokcha was a Lawgiver, and she showed the stranger through her gestures and drawings on the riverbank that they came in peace. Wewasicataw was a Moon Dancer, and he sang a beautiful song to the stranger, telling of the pack's homeland far away. Finally, Tysoyaha played a flute carved from bone for the dark-skinned woman, and as the fast-beat song ended, the stranger changed.
Her hands and feet were covered in prickly hairs, and the fingers and toes stretched into eight limbs. The woman's forehead split open and her two eyes became many orbs of light. Before the pack was a spider, larger than the bears that roamed the swamps back home. The spider didn't attack, but she began weaving between two nearby trees, and in her web was a story of how some of the Kin to the Changing People had fallen prey to the greed of other humans, wanting money from the fair-skinned people.
These Kin had been taken captive and sent no one knew where. In the web were pictures of large cats the pack had heard about, but there were many other creatures they'd never seen before. They understood from the spider's story that she believed the Kin had been stolen away to the pack's homeland. It was enough for Tysoyaha to see that there was indeed a link between the newcomers to the swamps and the Changing People of the spider's land. The pack gave her thanks and showed their own four-legged forms to the spider. Then, they left, retracing their footsteps on the long trek back to the swamp.
The sept eagerly welcomed the pack home, astonished at the tale Wewasicataw sang for them. He sang it again before a Great Council of Uktena, and Spearcatcher saw that Tysoyaha and her pack had given the tribe more than enough reason to welcome many of the refugee slaves as Kinfolk.
So while the battle of Spearcatcher and Yellow Fur is the one most Moon Dancers recall in the story of the Kin Debate, it is the strange journey of Tysoyaha, Sun Daughter, and her pack which first inspired her cousin to argue for bringing in new Kinfolk. As a No-Moon, she showed the Uktena a new way, welcoming strangers who suffered as much as the Pure Ones in their loss of home, freedom and family.
References
- WTA: Tribebook: Uktena, p. 93-94