Kwanokasha

Behind this painting, there's a very old story from local history. This one is set in Mississippi... before the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations split and before European contact (although there are Norse and African legends with an alarming similarity).

Long ago, the Choctaw believed that their settlements were protected, watched at all times, by child-sized forest spirts. They called these people "Kwanokasha", from the words "Kowi" meaning forest and "Anukasha" meaning dweller. These small people travelled with a bright light, and they lived in hidden caves.

The Kwanokasha could only be seen by the enlightened medicine men of the tribe, yet within each generation they were known to make contact. If any boy child aged 2 or 3 were to wander into the forest, the Kwanokasha would appear and seize the child, taking him far away to the Kwanokasha caves. There the child is placed before 3 of the Kowi spirits. Each of the spirits presents a gift before the child: the first offers a knife, the second one offers good herbs, the third offers poisonous herbs.

If this child accepts the knife, he will be destined to become a violent man, perhaps a murderer. If this child accepts the bad herbs, he will never be of any true help to his people. If however the child chooses the good herbs, his destiny is to be a great herb doctor, a leader and sage of his people. This child would stay for 3 days with Anukasha and, under an oath of secrecy, learn the secrets behind the curative powers of medicine.

For a very long time, this was the way all Choctaw medicine men were chosen.

This painting was done in acrylics, per usual. The little trumpet flowers are a strange flower I once found in Mississippi. When I picked it, it's juices stained my fingertips and made them tingle. I kept it frozen for a while to try and figure out what the odd flower was, but never did... Knowing my luck, it was probably the bad herbs.