Long ago, when the world was new, Opossum was called “Siqua.” Opossum was proud of his name, as he was proud of all things about himself, and he would introduce himself to everyone he met. “Osiyo,” he would say with a grin, “my name is Siqua.” All of the people and animals knew Opossum as Siqua, for people and animals spoke to each other back then.
One day, there were new people, and new animals, who had no names. They did not know how to play stickball or chunkey either. Opossum took it upon himself to teach them to play chunkey. “Now what you do,” Opossum explains, “is throw the spear where you think the stone will stop, and whoever gets the closest wins. It is quite the easy game to play.”
Once a few rounds were played, and the new animals had gotten used to the game, Opossum would get them to bet with him. Now most of the new animals had hooves, and could not throw spears as well as Opossum, who would easily win. He would get them to bet cornmeal, persimmons, and whatever else they had, each time convincing them he was sure to lose the next round.
Eventually, the new animals had gotten tired of losing all of their things to Opossum and held a meeting. The animal leading the meeting was large, with a wrinkled snout and a corkscrew tail. There, they came up with a plan to deal with Opossum.
“Osiyo, Siqua,” the leader of the new animals (who we now call Pig) says to Opossum the next day, “would you like to play a game of chunkey with me?”
“’Siyo,” Opossum says, returning the greeting, “but do you have anything left to bet, oginalii?”
“No, Siqua, you’ve already won all I have,” admits the other animal, “well, all except one thing.”
“What?” Opossum asks, nose twitching curiously. “What haven’t I won yet?”
“My name,” Pig says.
“Your name?” Opossum laughs. “You don’t have a name.”
“Oh yes I do, you just haven’t heard it yet. It is an amazing name,” Pig assures him.
“Well, tell me it then,” demands Opossum.
“If you can beat me in a game of chunkey, you can have it, if you want it,” says Pig. “Of course, you’ll probably win. No one is better than you at chunkey, Siqua.”
Opossum considers this for a moment. His name is good of course, the best, but what if this other name is better? “Alright then, if you are so eager to be rid of your name, I’ll play a game with you.”
And so, the two get ready to play chunkey. The stone is rolled, and Pig throws his spear. Opossum gets ready to throw his spear, when a loud clucking noise startles him, making his arm freeze mid-throw and causing the spear to veer far away from the chunkey stone. Scowling, Opossum challenges Pig again, and again a strange new noise distracts him, this time a loud braying. This happens a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time, until all of the things Opossum had won from the new animals Pig had won back.
“One more game,” Opossum hisses.
“One more game? You don’t have anything to bet,” Pig snorts.
“My name then! If you win, you can have my name, and if I win, I get yours.” Opossum grins. “Unless you think your luck has run out?”
Pig agrees to the final game, and they roll the stone. However, when the two animals go to throw their spears, Pig backs up onto Opossum’s tail. Opossum yipes in pain and drops his spear, making him lose for the seventh time in a row.
“You cheated,” accuses Opossum.
“I did no such thing,” Pig says. “You dropped your spear.”
Opossum gives him a smile that is more akin to him baring his teeth than a sincere show of happiness, and says, “Of course you do realize, you cannot have my name after such unsportsmanlike behavior.”
Pig snorts, “I won it fair and square, meaning my name is Siqua now.”
“Well, I refuse to give up my name, and we cannot both be Siqua,” says Opossum.
Pig ponders on this, then asks, “You are rather fond of showing off your teeth, are you not, Siqua?”
Opossum blinks. “Of course I am, I have more teeth than anyone! And they are so sharp and white.”
“Well then, I shall be Siqua, and you shall be Siqua Utsetsasdi,” says Pig.
“I suppose that’s fair,” says Opossum. He rather likes the sound of that, and it is two names, so it is as if he had won the game anyhow.
Soon however, Opossum grows to dislike sharing his name, and so he drops his first one. The next time he introduces himself to people, he says, “Osiyo, my name is Utsetsasdi.”
Author's Note
This is an original story I came up with after learning that the Cherokees named pigs after opossum when they were first introduced to them. I thought it would be fun to have Opossum lose his name in a game of chunkey, as that is a traditional gambling game the Cherokee have played. I actually have played it before. I won one game, and then refused to ever play it again so I could say I have never lost. I had Opossum lose seven times because it is a sacred number that frequently shows up in Cherokee myths. In case it was not clear, the “new animals” are the animals the colonists brought with them, and they are responsible for the noises that startle Opossum.
A note on the use of Cherokee: oginalii means “my friend” and it is pronounced “oh-gee-nah-lee.” Another thing of note is that Utsetsasdi roughly translates to "grinning," which is why Pig brings up Opossum's teeth before suggesting the name. A fun fact about opossums is that they have 50 teeth - more than any other mammal in North America. As for my characterization of Opossum, I based that on the myths. He does not show up in them that often, but when he does, he is usually tricked. I do not interpret this as being due to stupidity, but rather that Opossum is prideful, and his ego can be exploited. As my later stories will show, he does have some clever moments in the myths that lead me to this conclusion.
Bibliography
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (p. 265). Source.
Image Information
Chunkey Stones from Wikimedia Commons.