Masters was talking to his grandmother on the phone one day when she asked if he was homesick. Masters missed kunutchie, made of pounded hickory nut meat and formed into a ball. He also missed the wild onions and mushrooms his family used to gather in the woods each spring. A week later, a UPS man arrived at Masters' door in Houston with a Styrofoam box. Inside were the kunutchie, the wild onions, and a note from his grandmother.
Masters still has quite a bit left from that care package delivered last spring.
He uses the precious contents sparingly. Masters lives a life here that is steeped in Cherokee tradition, from the chimes outside his back door that signify, with every jangle, that the spirits are with him, to the traditional pottery he makes from Oklahoma clay he dug up himself. His respect for his heritage also motivates him to do well at Rice. He says he wants to get a Ph.D. in psychology so that he can help his people. He dreams, he says, of one day becoming chief of the Cherokee Nation, and he is preparing himself for that day.