{"id":980,"date":"2023-01-24T07:13:37","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T07:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/?p=980"},"modified":"2023-01-24T07:13:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T07:13:37","slug":"how-the-red-bird-got-his-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/indigenous-stories\/cherokee\/how-the-red-bird-got-his-color\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Red Bird Got His Color"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Gv-li loved to tease wa-ya. One day gv-li teased wa-ya so much that wa-ya became very angry. Wa-ya began to chase gv-li through the woods. Gv-li, being the clever animal that he is, kept ahead of wa-ya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gv-li came to a river. Instead of jumping in the river, he quickly climbed a tall tree and peered over a branch to see what wa-ya would do next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When wa-ya came to the river, he saw the reflection of gv-li in the water. Thinking that it was gv-li, wa-ya jumped in and tried to catch him. Wa-ya continued to search for gv-li for such a long time that he became so tired he nearly drowned. Finally, tired and exhausted, wa-ya climbed up the river bank and fell fast asleep. After a while, gv-li quietly climbed down the tree and slipped over to the sleeping wa-ya. While wa ya slept, gv-li began to plaster the eyes of wa-ya with mud. Then when he had finished, gv-li ran off through the woods laughing to himself thinking of the clever trick he had played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later, wa-ya woke up. He began to whine, &#8220;Oh, someone please help me. I can&#8217;t see. I can&#8217;t open my eyes.&#8221; But no one came to help him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At long last, tsi-s-qua u-wo-di-ge heard the cries of wa-ya. He flew over to wa-ya and landed on his shoulder. He said, &#8220;What&#8217;s the matter Brother Wolf? Can I help you?&#8221; wa-ya cried, &#8220;I can&#8217;t open my eyes. Oh, please help me to see again.&#8221;Tsi-s-qua u-wo-di-ge said, &#8220;I&#8217;m just a little brown bird but I will help you if I can.&#8221; Wa-ya said, &#8221; tsi-s-qua u-wo-di-ge , if you can help me to see again, I will take you to a magic rock that oozes red paint. We will paint your feathers gi-ga-ge.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tsi-s-qua u-wo-di-ge began pecking away at the dried mud on the eyes of wa-ya. Soon wa ya could open his eyes again. True to his promise wa-ya said, &#8220;Thank you, my brother; now jump up onto my shoulder.&#8221; Away they ran through the woods to the rock that oozed red paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When they came to the rock, wa-ya reached up and plucked a twig from a tree branch. He chewed the end of the twig until it was soft and pliable like the end of a paint brush. Then he dipped the end of the twig into the red paint and began to paint the feathers of tsi-s-qua u-wo-di-ge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When all of his feathers were gi-ga-ge, tsi-s-qua flew off to show his family and friends how beautiful he was. That is why, from that day to this, you can see to-tsu-wa flying around the woods in Cherokee country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Go Back To:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/indigenous-stories\/cherokee-nation\/\">Cherokee Nation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gv-li loved to tease wa-ya. One day gv-li teased wa-ya so much that wa-ya became very angry. Wa-ya began to chase gv-li through the woods. Gv-li, being the clever animal that he is, kept ahead of wa-ya. Gv-li came to a river. Instead of jumping in the river, he quickly climbed a tall tree and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[331,332],"tags":[213],"class_list":["post-980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cherokee","category-cherokee-stories","tag-cherokee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straightarrow.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}