Spider, the Native American Vendor

Patrick "Spider" Day, a 79-year-old retired truck driver and security guard, sells Native American arts and crafts at the Farmer’s Market on the Loma Linda University Health campus some Tuesday evenings. He encourages people with an interest in Native American arts and crafts to stop by the booth and chat for a while. Among the things he might talk to you about, is the story behind his unusual nickname. Since he was a young boy, Day has felt a personal connection with the eight-legged creatures. “I loved to catch them and tease the girls,” he remembers. He enjoyed spiders so much, that soon his friends made it his nickname. One day, "Spider" became much more than just a nickname. “I was up at Big Sur at a camp-out with the Boy Scouts when I was 15,” he remembers. “One or two of the older boys were members of the Order of the Arrow, and some of the local Indians came to see us. One of them, a medicine man, came over to me and said, ‘You’re Native American. Your name is Iktomi.’” “When he said what it means, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up!” he remembers, “He said it means 'Spider'.” Day was unaware one-quarter Native American by birth until his parents told him when he was 17. Even so, Day says that somehow, he always knew in his heart what the medicine man revealed to him that day. When asked how long he has identified as an American Indian, he answers, “Basically all my life. When I was a kid, I was always the Indian. I never wanted to be the cowboy." Because of the unusual alignment between his childhood nickname and the spiritual name given him by the medicine man, Day has researched spiders in a variety of Native American cultural contexts. “In Lakota tradition, Iktomi is associated with the Trickster character, similar to the Raven and Coyote.” But in the cosmology of Day’s ancestors, the Tennessee band of Cherokee Indians, he says, Iktomi stands for wisdom, peace, and a family orientation to life. “As a spider spins webs, Iktomi is sometimes associated with hunting and trapping,” he reflects. Day’s wife, Gail, is also a Native American. “She and I got married about 45 years ago, and that’s when I really started identifying as an Indian,” he says. “Before that, I was a wanderer, riding my motorcycle across the country, a 1936 Indian Chief,” he laughs. Day and his wife still travel a lot. They live in a motor-home and spend much of the year going to pow-wows and other tribal gatherings, selling their handmade necklaces, beaded pouches, medicine bags, cell phone covers, dream catchers, and other forms of jewelry. They have been selling his crafts, made out of turquoise, shell, Bison bone and leather, and other indigenous ingredients for the better part of the last five decades, but increasing charges for vendor’s booths have almost driven them off the pow-wow circuit. Gail became ill seven years ago, and is now a patient at Loma Linda University Medical Center. When she has a doctor’s appointment there, Day takes the opportunity to set up his booth at the Farmers' Market on campus. “My wife has gotten real good care here,” he reports. “She says Loma Linda is the best.” Even though things aren’t exactly flying off his shelves at the Loma Linda Farmer’s Market, Day enjoys the opportunity to meet people and talk about his life.