Week 11 Story: Mickey and the Tobacco Plant

(Mickey and the Beanstalk)

Once upon a time, Mickey Mouse was out exploring.  He happened upon what looked to be a giant beanstalk.  Being the curious sort, he decided to climb it.  When he reached the top, there was a huge cave, so Mickey went in.  

He came upon this big giant smoking a pipe.  He knew that he had some Indian friends that loved tobacco, but they were under a long, big drought and couldn't raise any tobacco so he decided to ask the giant for some to take back to his friends. 

The giant told him no, because another Indian tribe had just showed up and smoked all the tobacco he had.  Well Mickey could see bags and bags of tobacco behind him so of course he knew the giant was lying but he said thanks anyway and left.  Mickey waited just outside the cave, out of sight of the giant, until he heard the big rumbling snores that told him the giant was taking a nap. 

Being small and quick, Mickey darted in quietly, grabbed a bag of tobacco, and fled the cave.  But the he tripped over the giant's magical harp in trying to escape and that created a big racket, waking the giant.

Mickey, with more speed and strength than he knew he possessed started hopping from mountain to mountain.  The giant was right on his tail.  Suddenly Mickey got an idea and when he hopped to the next peak, he flopped down and laid flat on the mountain.  This distracted the giant & he missed the peak and went tumbling down into the chasm on the other side.  The giant fell with such force that he kept on falling through the earth and he fell so far into the earth that he was never a problem again.  This great crash caused it to start raining again in the valley of Mickey's Indian friends and they were so excited, but they didn't have any more tobacco to use as seeds.

Mickey made his way back to his Indian friends with the bag of tobacco and said, "Here.  I know because of the drought, you lost all your tobacco and miss it very much.  I found some in the giant's cave and brought it back to you.  Since it's raining again, you can plant it now and share with all the other Indian tribes too."  And that's just what happened and the Indians never ran out of tobacco again.

Author's note:  I took the story of "The Origins of Tobacco" from the Mississippi/Great Lakes Indians.  In the original story there was an Indian called Manabush that went into the cave of the giant that kept guard over the tobacco.  It was the only place for the Indians to get tobacco.  The giant told Manabush that he couldn't have any tobacco because another tribe that only came once a year had just been there and smoked so there wasn't any.  But Manabush stole a bag and went hopping from mountain peak to peak until he laid flat & the giant missed and fell into the chasm.  Manabush then turned the giant into a grasshopper to be a pest to everyone that grew tobacco and he took the tobacco home to be shared among all Indian brothers so they'd always have tobacco.

Because of the giant, it kind of reminded me of Mickey and the Beanstalk, so I changed Manabush into Mickey and let Mickey know that his Indian friend were in need of tobacco.  He was just going to share the tobacco with them to smoke, but since the giant's great fall created rain again, they got to plant the tobacco and share with all the other tribes.  I just left the giant falling into the earth instead of turning him into a grasshopper because Mickey couldn't do that.

Bibliography:  The Origins of Tobacco by Menomini.  Weblink.