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The Snow People
I know you have never heard of the Snow People. We are American Indians. Our tribes were dispersed, and our land was stolen by the United States Indian Commission two hundred years ago. But the Snow People stayed close to the land Where We Were Born.
At first, we hid in the mountains.
But in the winter many of us died from the cold. So, we rented ourselves out to work for the American settlers for the privilege of staying on our land, working the land, and having food and warm places to sleep in the winter for our families. We traveled in packs like wolves. Many of the old ones were shapeshifters. That is why the American government could not destroy us. They couldn't find us.
Our specialty was corn. We grew the most beautiful corn the colonists had ever caught a glimpse of. Therefore, the settlers became complicit in our survival. Because we were excellent Farmers, Planters, and Harvesters.
We were clean, quiet, and orderly people who could enrich the earth and grow beautiful crops.
So when the government came looking for Renegade Indians, the colonists would say they never saw any. We were flawless farmers. So, when the railroads came, many of the settlers we worked with became extraordinarily rich. Because they were now able to export our corn to other cities.
We were called Apaches. But we got the name the Snowpeople because, in the winter when it snowed, we had to find warm places to sleep. In the summer and the spring, we lived in our homes in the mountains.
In the winter, our employers would find imaginative places for us to sleep.
"Show me the Snow people who snooze by the sparks on the hearth, after the masters of the farm have gone to slumber, and I will show you a house full of prosperity, the folklore went.
By break of day, we would disappear, never leaving one sign that we had slept there.
As time progressed, some of the Snowpeople slept in the rooms beneath the farmer's houses. Most farms had safe rooms underneath the Farmer's homes.
At first, the rooms were nothing but holes under the floors. Some of the farmers encouraged us to build rooms underneath their cabins.
Snowpeople were expert builders; so sometimes the rooms beneath the houses became more beautiful than the houses themselves. We created the first luxury apartments in the territory. The underground Apartments had sewer systems and running water.
Settlers were Amazed by our amazing skill and put it to substantial use. We could take a one-room cabin and by copying the composition, turn it into a three-bedroom house in a matter of days. Thomas Jefferson heard about us and employed many of us to help build Monticello. We built the first Underground bunkers at the White House.
Many of the settlers and the Snowpeople became like family. Some of the families had us build small places at the tops of their homes, in the rafters to sleep in when the weather got too wicked. We built beautiful rooms at the tops of their cabins. We were natural home builders.
Yet, what we are most proud of, we were instrumental in participating in the Underground Railroad for escaping Negro slaves. In one of the settler's homes, 10 safe rooms were built underground that led directly to a lake. These rooms were so beautiful that the slaves said they were more exquisite than their previous master's homes. We built beautiful furniture, beds, and chairs.
After the slaves were washed, fed, and given new clothes and money, they would be led through the rooms to the lake. They were put on boats and taken into Canada as free men and women. Some of the slaves did not Escape but they stayed and became part of the tribe of the Snowpeople. This is why some of us are African Americans.
Consequently, a generation later, many of the Snowpeople became a part of the settler's families. If an Indian Snowgirl was very beautiful, she sometimes married a European settler's son.
The first generations were brown-skinned. But by the second generation, the Snowpeople began to fade. Once in a while, you would see a beautiful white child with blue eyes and long pitch-black Indian hair. You knew immediately that she was one of the descendants of the Snowpeople. Thereafter, by the second and third generations, the characteristics of Snowpeople disappeared. That is why you have never heard of us.
Nevertheless, we were there. And we are always there on our ancestral land in some form.
But we no longer look like the Snowpeople or American Indians.
There is one way you can recognize a descendant of the Snowpeople. We lived for 120 years. Once in a while, a renegade child is born, and they say he has the heart of the Snowpeople. But mostly now we are Architects and builders. Some of the greatest architects in the continent of North America are descendants of the Snowpeople.
© China Clark
At first, we hid in the mountains.
But in the winter many of us died from the cold. So, we rented ourselves out to work for the American settlers for the privilege of staying on our land, working the land, and having food and warm places to sleep in the winter for our families. We traveled in packs like wolves. Many of the old ones were shapeshifters. That is why the American government could not destroy us. They couldn't find us.
Our specialty was corn. We grew the most beautiful corn the colonists had ever caught a glimpse of. Therefore, the settlers became complicit in our survival. Because we were excellent Farmers, Planters, and Harvesters.
We were clean, quiet, and orderly people who could enrich the earth and grow beautiful crops.
So when the government came looking for Renegade Indians, the colonists would say they never saw any. We were flawless farmers. So, when the railroads came, many of the settlers we worked with became extraordinarily rich. Because they were now able to export our corn to other cities.
We were called Apaches. But we got the name the Snowpeople because, in the winter when it snowed, we had to find warm places to sleep. In the summer and the spring, we lived in our homes in the mountains.
In the winter, our employers would find imaginative places for us to sleep.
"Show me the Snow people who snooze by the sparks on the hearth, after the masters of the farm have gone to slumber, and I will show you a house full of prosperity, the folklore went.
By break of day, we would disappear, never leaving one sign that we had slept there.
As time progressed, some of the Snowpeople slept in the rooms beneath the farmer's houses. Most farms had safe rooms underneath the Farmer's homes.
At first, the rooms were nothing but holes under the floors. Some of the farmers encouraged us to build rooms underneath their cabins.
Snowpeople were expert builders; so sometimes the rooms beneath the houses became more beautiful than the houses themselves. We created the first luxury apartments in the territory. The underground Apartments had sewer systems and running water.
Settlers were Amazed by our amazing skill and put it to substantial use. We could take a one-room cabin and by copying the composition, turn it into a three-bedroom house in a matter of days. Thomas Jefferson heard about us and employed many of us to help build Monticello. We built the first Underground bunkers at the White House.
Many of the settlers and the Snowpeople became like family. Some of the families had us build small places at the tops of their homes, in the rafters to sleep in when the weather got too wicked. We built beautiful rooms at the tops of their cabins. We were natural home builders.
Yet, what we are most proud of, we were instrumental in participating in the Underground Railroad for escaping Negro slaves. In one of the settler's homes, 10 safe rooms were built underground that led directly to a lake. These rooms were so beautiful that the slaves said they were more exquisite than their previous master's homes. We built beautiful furniture, beds, and chairs.
After the slaves were washed, fed, and given new clothes and money, they would be led through the rooms to the lake. They were put on boats and taken into Canada as free men and women. Some of the slaves did not Escape but they stayed and became part of the tribe of the Snowpeople. This is why some of us are African Americans.
Consequently, a generation later, many of the Snowpeople became a part of the settler's families. If an Indian Snowgirl was very beautiful, she sometimes married a European settler's son.
The first generations were brown-skinned. But by the second generation, the Snowpeople began to fade. Once in a while, you would see a beautiful white child with blue eyes and long pitch-black Indian hair. You knew immediately that she was one of the descendants of the Snowpeople. Thereafter, by the second and third generations, the characteristics of Snowpeople disappeared. That is why you have never heard of us.
Nevertheless, we were there. And we are always there on our ancestral land in some form.
But we no longer look like the Snowpeople or American Indians.
There is one way you can recognize a descendant of the Snowpeople. We lived for 120 years. Once in a while, a renegade child is born, and they say he has the heart of the Snowpeople. But mostly now we are Architects and builders. Some of the greatest architects in the continent of North America are descendants of the Snowpeople.
© China Clark
