Beneath the Cottonwood

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. I continue my memories of the great cottonwoods of my childhood. Here, from 2019, is a photo I took looking south on the Missouri from the On A Slant Indian Village south of Mandan, ND. Our family spent the day here every year, and I spent most of my time in the village and at the center learning about the ingenious ways the native peoples lived in the harsh summers and winters of the North Dakota prairie. You can see much from my photos of that trip in 2019: Remember History: On A Slant and Double Ditch — the Mandan and Hidatsa peoples.

The Mandan people built earth lodges with cottonwood to support the home. Women owned the lodges and did most of the building. Watch here:

And a cottonwood story — there is a “star” within the cottonwood, here’s why:

But most summer days, we followed a path to the river beneath the towering cottonwoods so my parents could fish, one of our main meals.

Beneath the Cottonwood

Following the path
beneath the giant cottonwood
tuned to the song of meadowlark
and the peck, peck, peck
of the downy woodpecker
to the edge of the Big Muddy
for Dad’s cast for a Northern Pike
and we, brother and I,
catch and release hopping friends,
Woodhouse Toad.

Sheri Edwards
10.10.22 285.365.22
Poetry/Photography

For more information related to this post, see WriteOut Journal Cottonwood

And today’s doodle is a sketch of the cottonwood leaf.

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