Post by Okwes on Apr 26, 2007 12:19:33 GMT -5
Creation Of The Animal People - Okanogan
The earth was once a human being: Old One made her out of a woman. "You will
the mother of all people," he said. Earth is alive yet, but she has been
changed. The soil is her flesh, the rocks are her bones, the wind is her
breath, trees and grass are her hair. She lives spread out, and we live on
her. When she moves, we have an earthquake.
After taking the woman and changing her to earth, Old One gathered some of
her flesh and rolled it into balls, as people do with mud or clay. He made
the first group of these balls into the ancients, the beings of the early
world. The ancients were people, yet also animals. In form some looked human
while some walked on all fours like animals. Some could fly like birds;
others could swim like fishes.
All had the gift of speech, as well as greater powers and cunning than
either animals or people. But deer were never among the ancients; they were
always animals, even as they are today. Besides the ancients, real people
and real animals lived on the earth at that time. Old One made the people
out of the last balls of mud he took from the earth. He rolled them over and
over, shaped them like Indians, and blew on them to bring them alive. They
were so ignorant that they were the most helpless of all the creatures Old
One had made. Old One made people and animals into males and females so that
they might breed and multiply. Thus all living things came from the earth.
When we look around, we see part of our mother everywhere.
The difficulty with the early world was that most of the ancients were
selfish and some were monsters, and there was much trouble among them. They
were also very stupid in some ways. Though they knew they had to hunt in
order to live, they did not know which creatures were deer and which were
people, and sometimes they ate people by mistake. At last Old One said,
"There will soon be no people if I let things go on like this." So he sent
Coyote to kill all the monsters and other evil beings among the ancients and
teach the Indians how to do things.
And Coyote began to travel on the earth, teaching the Indians, making life
easier and better for them, and performing many wonderful deeds.
Reported by Ella Clark in the 1950s.
The earth was once a human being: Old One made her out of a woman. "You will
the mother of all people," he said. Earth is alive yet, but she has been
changed. The soil is her flesh, the rocks are her bones, the wind is her
breath, trees and grass are her hair. She lives spread out, and we live on
her. When she moves, we have an earthquake.
After taking the woman and changing her to earth, Old One gathered some of
her flesh and rolled it into balls, as people do with mud or clay. He made
the first group of these balls into the ancients, the beings of the early
world. The ancients were people, yet also animals. In form some looked human
while some walked on all fours like animals. Some could fly like birds;
others could swim like fishes.
All had the gift of speech, as well as greater powers and cunning than
either animals or people. But deer were never among the ancients; they were
always animals, even as they are today. Besides the ancients, real people
and real animals lived on the earth at that time. Old One made the people
out of the last balls of mud he took from the earth. He rolled them over and
over, shaped them like Indians, and blew on them to bring them alive. They
were so ignorant that they were the most helpless of all the creatures Old
One had made. Old One made people and animals into males and females so that
they might breed and multiply. Thus all living things came from the earth.
When we look around, we see part of our mother everywhere.
The difficulty with the early world was that most of the ancients were
selfish and some were monsters, and there was much trouble among them. They
were also very stupid in some ways. Though they knew they had to hunt in
order to live, they did not know which creatures were deer and which were
people, and sometimes they ate people by mistake. At last Old One said,
"There will soon be no people if I let things go on like this." So he sent
Coyote to kill all the monsters and other evil beings among the ancients and
teach the Indians how to do things.
And Coyote began to travel on the earth, teaching the Indians, making life
easier and better for them, and performing many wonderful deeds.
Reported by Ella Clark in the 1950s.
