Tsa Ch'ayah How the Turtle Got Its Squares: A Traditional Caddo Indian Children's Story

Sadie Bedoka, later Sadie Bedoka Weller, was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma in 1901 and died in 1970. She contracted polio when she was still a very young girl, and she walked for the rest of her life on crutches. Because of her handicap she was sent to live with relatives near Binger, and it was through them that she acquired a broad and deep knowledge of Caddo customs and grew up as a fluent speaker of the Caddo language. One can easily believe, as she did, that physical restrictions on her movements came together with inborn mental abilities to lead her to focus throughout her life on matters of an intellectual nature. She took great pride in her knowledge and was eager to share it with those who were anxious to preserve the Caddo language and traditions with which she was so familiar. I first met Mrs. Weller in 1959 and worked with her intensively on the Caddo language in the summers from 1961 to 1965, visiting her sporadically after that until she passed away. Her interest, enthusiasm, and collaborative attitude made her a pleasure to be assoicated with. She remembered a number of what she called children's stories from her own childhood. It was typical of those stories that they explained some well-known characteristic of a particular animal, and this story of how the turtle got its squares is a good example. Wallace Chafe