Long ago in Native culture, there was a complete idiot whose name was Kipoch the wanderer. He was loosely tied to any other people and did whatever he wanted to do. Many times, he only got himself in trouble.
One day, Kipoch was walking through the woods, and came upon a meadow, an immense grassy field. He liked the way the strong breeze felt in his face, and as he looked up, he noticed an eagle gliding in the wind. He wondered how it would feel to fly like a bird. It must be a great feeling to fly around so freely, he thought.
He decided to find out and asked the eagle: “Mikisiw,” he called out,” come down and tell me how it feels to fly.”
The eagle felt quite annoyed at the intrusion and screamed back: “It feels great, but you will never really know, so just leave me alone.” The eagle asserted and flew further away to avoid the pest yelling at him.
Kipoch jumped up and down and demanded the eagle to come back, but the bird didn’t listen. Kipoch calmed down but he was still determined to find out how flying felt.
He went back into the woods “how in the world will I ever find out?” he thought. Just then, he saw some chickadees resting on a branch. He asked them the same thing he asked the eagle, but the small birds ignored him and flew to another branch. Kipoch persistent as he was, walked over to the other branch and asked them: “Just tell me a few things about it.” The birds looked at each other and smiled: “Catch us if you can, Ha! Ha!” the birds chirped and flew out of sight.
Kipoch felt sad, he was so eager to find out how it felt to fly, but he would never get any help from the snobby birds.
During a long sorrowful walk, Kipoch came upon a lake and noticed a pelican floating happily on the water. Kipoch stood on the shoreline and had a great idea. He jumped in the lake and dove until he was just under the pelican. He reached up and grabbed the pelican’s legs. He hung on and tried to provoke the big bird to fly away, instead, he pulled the legs right off. The pelican flew a little ways and then died on the water.
Kipoch swam back to shore and was very disappointed that he couldn’t experience the thrill of flying. He then had a thought, the combined weight of him and the large bird was too much to become airborne. All he would need to do was use the wings himself. The pelican’s wings might be large enough to hold him up and glide through the air.
He swan back out the dead pelican and dragged it to shore. He cut off the wings and tied them to his arms. He needed a high place to jump from. As he searched for high grounds, he thought of how exciting and fun it would be to fly through the sky.
He searched for many hours and could not find a hill or cliff high enough for his maiden flight. He decided to look for the tallest tree he could find. Moments later, he found one.
The tree was very tall, tall enough for Kipoch to glide for a long, long time. He started to climb and as he started to get winded, he looked down and noticed just how high the tree really was. He didn’t care though because he determined to fly.
He stood on the highest branch that could hold his weight. He jumped away the tree and spread his wings. The feeling was surreal, magic, it was wonderful. That is until he started to fall. He had only flown two feet away from the tree. As he fell, he grabbed out for the branches and managed to slow his fall. He hit the ground with a loud thud, and got up holding his sore back.
He looked at the place he fell and up at the tree he fell from. Kipoch decided then and there that he would never again try to do what only certain animals are supposed to do.
As he walked, he came upon a river, and as he stood on the riverside, he observed the fish swimming by. He wondered how it would feel to swim like a fish.
The End