Nature Power. Harry Robinson
they send ’em out in nighttime, the Indians do, send ’em out. Just the one. Just by himself. Send ’em out and tell ’em, maybe they were hunting someplace, then they come down off the hill, way down the road somewhere. Then they could leave something near the road, maybe leave hom, deer horn. Or maybe cut off the heart. Leave the heart there, something for the kids to go get ’em. And bring ’em. And they might, after supper, after dark. And tell the boy or girl, “You go over there.” And showed them whereabouts. “I left something there. You go over and get them and bring ’em here.” Well, this boy, they got to go. They got to be over there. And even if they don’t like it, if they’re scared, but they got to go. And when they get there, or before they get there, they might meet some animal on the way going that way, or coming back. Or maybe that’s the one that they went to get, that’s the one that will talk to ’em. Then, when they come back, well, they got the power already. And they wouldn’t say. But whoever send ’em, they know. And that’s how they get the power.
The first section of Nature Power, “You Got to Have Power,” features five stories of initial encounters with power-helpers (shoo-MISH). Although the stories are quite different from one another, they have one thing in common. In each a child is either taken to an isolated place and left there by parents and relatives or sent at night to an isolated place to retrieve some part of an animal. While alone, each meets his or her shoo-MISH.
Although invisible, this power is very real. “They got the power in them, in their arms, in their body,” Harry explained, “but you cannot see it.”
If there was a fan, I could bring it and sit it here and the wheel is not turning. Then I take this wire and put ’em over there on the plug. The same second, and it’ll turn. It’ll turn by the power. Pull that out, and this wheel, it’ll stop. Did you see that power come through the wire? No. Can’t see. Indian, the same way. You can’t see their power.
The second section, “Power Just for Themselves,” presents five stories about the interaction between individuals and their shoo-MISH during times of crisis. Although the encounter with one’s shoo-MISH occurs early in life, the power-helper does not reappear until one is in need, often much later. Many shoo-MISH offer protection to humans “just for themselves,” not for others.
Or if they got the children, they can use his own power for his children, or his wife, and that’s all, because they’re not told by the other bird or animal, or whatever they talked to ’em, to have a power, they don’t tell ’em to use their power for somebody else.
“Power to Do the Doctoring,” the third section of the book, features four stories about healing others through the shoo-MISH. “Was told by the bird or animal,” explained Harry. “He can do to anybody. He can use his power to anybody what was sick or get hurt, anything like that. And that’s what they call the Indian doctor.” Although Harry was trained in the ways of the shoo-MISH, he never acquired his own: “I was sent out a few times, but I never see nothing.” Consequently, he considered himself vulnerable to sickness and bad luck. “People without shoo-MISH, if they got trouble or something then what can they do? They got no power to get the trouble away from them.” For this reason, Harry had to go to Indian doctors for a cure when he fell ill.
Whoever they didn’t have shoo-MISH, they got to hire Indian doctor. Just like me. Because I got no shoo-MISH. But I was sick, and I know what’s the matter, but I can’t do it. And I got to get Indian doctor to do that for me. But if I had shoo-MISH like the other people, well, I can do it myself.
There were many Indian doctors, each of whom was responsible for curing different ailments.
See? The Indian power, the Indian doctor, the power person, they not all the same. Each one, they got a little different way in their power. They good for certain things, but they not good for the others. Maybe another Indian doctor can be good for the others, but what he know, this other one, they don’t know that. See? That’s the way it goes. Then, there’s a lot of different ways. Some of them power person or Indian doctor, this power, they call it shoo-MISH. That’s his power. That was the animal they talked to ’em. Doesn’t matter what kind of animal. Any animal—bear or grizzly or wolf or coyote or deer, any animal can talk to ’em. And they can tell ’em, the same animal, they can tell ’em: “You look at that. And take a look. And you could see a man or woman. They’re already in a bad way. You do this. You go and do this.” Show them what to do to save ’em. To be all right. He got to be told by his power. And they can go and do that, what they was told. And they saved him or her from getting in a bad way.
Whenever he could, Harry attended the shnay-WHUM, the winter dances in which people sang in honour of their shoo-MISH. Not only were the sick doctored at these events, but just dancing there to support the singers was better than any insurance policy that money could buy. The story “Don’t Forget My Song” describes Harry’s own experience with an Indian doctor at one of these winter dances.
The stories in the fourth and final section of the book, “Encounters with Power,” focus on the wide range of power experiences within the Okanagan world. In one story, “You Can’t See Me, but Just Listen,” a man encounters power in the form of a voice that foretells the network of highways to come. Another, “The Indians, They Got the Power,” describes how some Indian doctors stopped a train with their shoo-MISH. Yet another recounts how a Hedley boy was picked up by a large gorilla-like creature and transported to a community many miles away. “She Was Dead at One Time, but She Come Alive” tells the story of several people who died and returned to life.
“QUITE A BIT OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WHITE PEOPLE
AND THE INDIANS”
From the beginning of our friendship, Harry was preoccupied with power, whether in the context of his own health or in relation to the history of his people. During one of our first taped sessions in 1979, he referred to the source of this power in his creation story, a story that he told many times throughout our years together, sometimes in full, sometimes in fragments. Reproduced in Write It on Your Heart as “Twins: White and Indian,” the story explains how God, at the beginning of time, created five people, two of whom were twins. To each of the first three people he created, God gave a paper containing a set of written instructions on how to survive until the end of time. With only one paper for the two remaining brothers, God decided to go away to think about how to proceed. Before he left, however, he placed the paper under a rock and told both twins not to touch it in his absence. The younger twin became curious about the paper, and fearing that it contained something important, he disobeyed God’s instruction and stole the paper without the other twin’s knowledge. When God returned and asked about the missing paper, the younger twin denied knowing anything of it.
According to Harry, this younger twin, “now today, that’s the White man.… And that’s why the White man can tell a lie more than the Indian.” Angered by the younger twin’s action, God gave him the paper and told him that this would become the source of his power until the end of time.
“That paper … it’s going to show you how
you going to make it to get back here.
But not right away.
Long time from now.…
But when you come back, a long time from now,
you going to have a heck of a time.
You’re going to lose a lot of people.
There’s a lot of people
that’s going to be drowned on that water.…
But that paper, it will show you how you going to do it.
to get back here.”
“And the older twin,” explained Harry, “that’s me. That’s the Indian.” Instead of power in the form of paper, God gave the older twin an intangible spiritual power. “So that’s why,” explained Harry, “the Indian, they got a different way.”
You know, the Indians, God put the Indians in the head, you know, in the heart, for the things to know. But the White people, they got the paper. [If] they don’t read the paper, they forget things. It’s just