The Three Nations of Kataskenaw
Let me tell you some more about the three nations which belong to Kataskenaw. You might be surprised that I refer to them as nations; implying that each has a rather different manner of living than the other. I should quickly dispense of the idea that there is one "Kataskenaw" people. It is a fiction and no more than something imagined by people like you and me who come from places where we take for granted that each person is equal under the law. In reality, their "great" confederation has only held (and not always so firmly) since the turn of the twentieth century.
We call these nations the Maileut, Longfoot, and Atissa. And they all come from Mercanti and Malorian and were given to these nations by foreigners: mostly Scalvians and other Gots, who generally left them to live in peace. Yet, they had to have a name by which to know them. This relationship where each lives apart from the other in peace has not stood the test of time, as you will discover eventually.
Our first nation is the Maileut or pâwanîwak¹. Locals tend to hold (quite mistakenly) that the Maileut have always lived in the country. Some old charmer might even move you with the famous expression that "since rivers rushed with water, the land rushed with Maileut". But like any civilization, the Maileut were a small tribe that grew powerful as they made war on weaker enemies. Then in time they spread across the land and called it kitaskinaw². Living among them in those times was a torment. People feared their mounted archers and their volleys of arrows which drove them out of the prairie. They were very powerful in open battle and made strongholds in the forests and along the coasts. The Maileut also excelled in husbandry. They are known for growing the “three sisters” which mature favourably in the prairie lands which they cherish most. These sisters are: corn, beanstalk, and squash. Each sister can be brought together to make a surprisingly abundant and resilient crop, with the beans using the cornstalk as a natural trellis and the squash-leaves covering the roots of each plant to conserve moisture and prevent the growth of wildflowers and stubborn grasses. Their natural acuity for farming is accompanied by the necessity of herding and hunting the native bison for meat, fur and fat. They used to gather them in groups, and have them charge off well-known ridges in order to cull them all at once. These days they simply use rifles. By this practice they came to be associated with the bison by the other nations. Though they once won all the country as I have already you, it was not long before the Longfoot and Atissa came and in turn, waged all sorts of dreadful wars on them.
The Longfoot or nanamwêwak³ were fantastically better in almost every way to the Maileut in the water. Their cavalry stood no chance against them. They rowed from inner Ethia in their war-canoes and took the jagged shores by force. Though these battles were fought many centuries ago from today, I shouldn’t need to tell you that the Maileut are still sore about this defeat. It was not so easy for the Maileut and the Longfoot to come to a peace. Not only were the Longfoot marvellous sailors, but they excelled in the construction of immense longhouses in pine, spruce, and cedar. Their lofty wooden monuments and houses came to dot the landscape; they were made up and painted in many colours to look like the faces of men and of fish, turtles, whales and other creatures of the sea. This was to honour the many legends surrounding their god, who is the Old-Man-In-The-Sky. These days, they are almost entirely associated with turtles and tortoises which are common in the south. The Longfoot men can fish better than almost anyone else and if you ever find yourself in the town of sâkôcihiwêwinis⁴, simply ask for the pit-roasted salmon that the fishwives bake in the cedars. There's a supper you will remember for the rest of your life.
Nobody is quite so certain where the Atissa or atisonâniwak⁵ come from but they are the most recent arrival in the area. Unlike the Maileut and Longfoot who can both understand each other, the Atissa use their own language: Athéhsa'kéha⁶ which I have already told you about. They call themselves the athéhsa'kéha:ka⁷ and made their way into the forests from the wild north. Despite their reputation as backward, they are skillful fighters. They devised all sorts of deadly traps and played tricks on the Maileut and Longfoot in order to rout them. At their greatest, they controlled even the outer groves of the northwest forest. It is a common belief among the Maileut (particularly in those northern parts) that their ancestors were all trees, whose bodies were stripped of protective bark and made into mortals as punishment by kisêmanitow⁸ or Kisemanito. The Atissa instead hold that they were made by their own creator, Orenda, to keep the forests well and safe. Living among trees, the Atissa are natural woodworkers and are excellent in the making of wooden ramparts and longhouses like the Longfoot. Handcrafted objects of Atissa-make are valued highly across the country and the continent. They hunt moose, elk and deer for meat while raising paddies of wild rice near their lakes which their cooks will make into all kinds of flavourful stews. They value family, which forms the basis of their government which you will learn about later on. Today there is now a perimeter line drawn that the Maileut and Longfoot must not cross. South of it, they may fell all the trees they like. North of it, Atissa territory: no logging allowed. By this compromise, the Maileut and Longfoot made peace with the Atissa.
These are only the first things to know about the three nations of the Confederacy. More's to come and soon.
¹This Maileutian word translates to "The scrawny ones" in Mercanti.
²This Maileutian word translates to "Our land" in Mercanti.
³This Maileutian word translates to "Those who stutter" in Mercanti.
⁴This Maileutian word translates to "The little conquest" in Mercanti.
⁵This Maileutian word translates to "The brown ones" or "the tan ones" in Mercanti.
⁶This Atissan word translates to "Language of the brown people" in Mercanti.
⁷This Atissan word translates to "The brown people" in Mercanti.
⁸This Maileutian word translates to "Great Spirit" in Mercanti.
