Tales of the Sun, Moon, and Stars
Sun Creation
[Brule
Sioux]
Far from being relics, Indian myths are still told on winter nights, and as some of the old tales die, new legends are being born according to a medicine man's dreams or visions. It is a rare privilege to be present as a legend's birth, as with this one, told for the first time by Leonard Crow Dog in 1981.
This story has never been told. It is in no book or
computer. It came to me in a dream during a vision
quest. It is a story as old as the beginning of life,
but it has new understandings according to what I saw
in my vision, added to what the grandfathers told
me-things remembered, things forgotten, and things
re-remembered. It comes out of the World of the
Minds.
Some people say we are descended from Adam and Eve,
but there was no Adam or Eve in our creation. Some
people try to tell us that we were born with the
burden of original sin, but that is an alien white
man's concept. Sin was not in the mind of the
universe of our creators or the created.
When this world came into being seven million eons
ago, it was composed of numberless hoops,skeletons
with no substance. Land, the whole earth, had yet to
be made. All was orbits within orbits within orbits.
The world on which we are sitting now, our earth, was
made up of sixteen sacred hoops. There was no earth,
no land, but there were planets and stars. Above all
there was the great sun. He controlled all the orbit
powers. He had the sole power to communicate, to talk
planet-talk between the universes, stars, and
orbits.
The sun had seven shadows, and in them he recreated
himself. The seventh shadow was the important one.
The sun looked at it and saw that its design was
different. This shadow was the creator of the red
man's land.
Then the great sun called to all the orbits, planets,
and stars: "Come to the sixteen hoops! Come to the
sixteen hoops!" and they all went to the pace the sun
had appointed and made earth-plan talk. The sun would
not allow them to leave until they were done. And
that great ball called earth, the earth plant
himself, said to the sun: "Instruct us in the way of
the universe." For this purpose and for this reason
the orbs and the orbits talked to each other. They
related to each other and that was the first
relation-making feast, the first alonwanpi of
the universe.
And one of the orbits, the east, asked the sun: "Why
have you called us to come here? What have you called
me for?"
Then the west asked: "Sun, why have you called all
the orbits and planets here? What is the purpose?"
"I have called you here in a sacred manner, for a
sacred purpose: To help me make this earth, this
land. To breathe into these sixteen hoops."
The north said: "What is that thing you call land,
what is this thing you call earth? What have I to do
with it?"
The great sun replied: "You are the living moisture;
you are the atmosphere; You are the north. You will
be the caretaker of this earth. You will make the
seasons in all eternity."
And the power from the north answered: "Hou, hou!"
This was the echo of the echos of all the universe,
and it reverberated throughout the hoops and
orbits.
So the sacred four-direction powers breathed their
life-giving breath into this earth we are sitting on.
The sixteen hoops were still skeleton hoops; you
could see through them, walk through, float through;
they had no substance yet.
The sun again called all the powers and planets to
crowd around the earth and breathe into it, and this
was the beginning of the red man's life. All the
powers of the universe participated in its creation,
but there arrived among them in a whirlwind an
unknown power right out of the center of the
universe. Its name was Unknowingly, and it also
breathed into the sixteen hoops. All the powers
breathed fire and the other elements into this land,
and when they had finished, one and a half million
eons of creation had passed.
The sun looked at the earth. Everywhere he saw beauty
and light. He saw the art designs of the universe,
the creation art of the planets, and land painting.
The sun gathered parts of all the riches of all the
universes and put them into this newly created world;
nothing was wasted.
But the earth bare. It was a bald-headed world. No
life was on it yet; it was rock, a far-shining
crystal.
The Great Unknown Power, the Grandfather Power,
Unknowingly, was part of the sun and the sun was part
of him. Unknowingly was seen-unseen and had many
forms. He spoke: "Ho! Aho! Now it is done. This is
the Great Way of the Great Spirit talking." And of
the earth he said: "This will be my seat. This will
be my backrest." In the earth he planted the seed of
life, a planting that took half a million eons of
creation time.
First Unknowingly planted trees, the kind that never
change, that are always green: the pine and cedar.
They are the green relations of the universe, and we
still use the cedar as incense in our ceremonies. In
his mind this tree planting was done in the blink of
an eye, but it lasted a million and a half eons of
creation time. At that point the sun did not move
yet, did not rise and did not go down, just stood in
one place. The sun looked at the earth covered with
green and said: "It is beautiful. I am satisfied."
Then the great sun made the four seasons for north to
take care of, and when he had finished, another
half-million eons of creation time had pasted. And no
birds had yet been created; just our green
relations.
The trees spoke to each other. Every day and every
moment they were talking, and they are still talking
now in an unknown language which humans do not
understand. When a little child emerges from the
womb, the first thing it does is to cry and cry. It
too is speaking in an unknown language-tree language,
universe language, survival language. Though the
newborn later forgets, he knows at birth that we have
to survive to take care of this world, to live in a
sacred manner after the original instruction.
When three million eons of creation time had passed,
the great sun looked down from his orbit and thought:
"This is unique. Everything moves in the Great Way.
Caretakers, the sacred four directions, have been
appointed, and they are doing well what they are
supposed to do." And he looked at a tree and saw that
a big branch was broken off. He said: "Ton, Ton,
Tonpi. Birth giving. It's time for creating people,
for forming them up in pairs."
Don't call us Indians; call us Birth People, because
that is what we are.
The sun thought: "Everything looks nice, and birthing
is about to take place, but somebody should be the
caretaker of this Birth people land. The
four-direction powers already take care of the
planet, but I want a special caretaker for the
hemisphere upon which I shall put the red man." At
that time he did not think of it as Mother Earth but
as the Planet of the Universes, the Orb of
Planification. Because there was no mother yet, no
man or woman; just he colors of the four directions
and the plants, and the intelligence of powers, the
intelligence of Tunkashila.
The great sun called loudly: "Unknowing, you always
arrive unknowingly. Come unknowingly from your seat."
And Unknowingly arrived with lightning and with
powers that no human could scientifically analyze,
that could not be computed, powers sacred and secret,
the oldest, most innate. Unknown was a shadow who
spoke with lightning, with thundering. The great sun,
anpetu-wi, still stood idle fixed in his place
from the moment of creation. Then suddenly, at
billions of miles an hour, the sun began to move.
Moving, he released glowing gases, the energy of the
fire without end, life-giving warmth. Unknowingly was
right beside him at that moment of creation time.
(Were he and the sun one? Were they two? Was he the
sun's seventh shadow?)
Unknowingly said: "Now we are going to make a human
out of all these elements. We will take the vein of
the cedar tree to create a man who will be the
caretaker of this land. His name shall be Ikche
Wichash-the Wild Matural Two-Legged, the wild, free
human. Unknowingly was the seventh shadow of the sun,
and he spoke the lightning language to communicate
his wishes. If the shadow walked through this room
here, you couldn't see him, but you would somehow
feel his presence and you would have a new vision.
Unknowlingly called the whirlwind. "Yumni-Omni, Tate
Yumni, arrive!"
Whirlwind arrived with a thundering moan-the
earth-birthing sound. The sun, from his eye of eyes,
his eye of the universe, made tears flow. When one
tear hit the earth, it turned into a blood clot,
we-ota. It was as yet only a shadow, but for
four generations this shadow developed itself. The
whirlwind enfolded him, hit him, helping him to
become a body. He was We-Ota-Wichasha, Blood Clot
Boy, and he was almost seven feet tall. When the
whirlwind hit him, supernatural knowledge went into
him, as well as the power of speech and the knowledge
of language. And when Blood Clot received these
powers, he became a man. The sun was content, saying:
"Now a caretaker has been created for this land."
We-Ota-Wichasha developed not only into one man, But
into seven nations of the seven ore colors. Today we
have only four colors-the red man, the white man, the
black man, and the yellow man. What happened to the
other three kinds of men? Where did they go?
One was Kosankiya-a great planet, with plants, with
animals, with humans. Kosankiya is the darkness of
every blue. He said: "I shall be the nest maker. I
shall be the upholder of the dome. I shall be the
blue sky." He is still here, whether it is day or
night. That vault above us makes himself dark at
night, blue during the day.
And where is the second one? His name is Edam, Hota
Edam, Hotanka-the Great Voice blaxing forth. Where
does he come from? He is floating in the voids. He is
red, an art design. You can see him among the thunder
clouds sometimes. And he is the Wakinyan, the great
thunderbird, the winged part of the sixteen sacreds.
He is still here.
And still one is missing; where is he? Look
carefully, for he is the spirit of the land, the
yellow spearhead of te earth powers. He is Wo-Wakan,
the supernatural.
At this time the earth was a crystal inhabited by a
great intelligence and overblanketed by the sun and
shadows he had creartd. Its shining center was
crystal, glass, and mica, but ti was solid now. You
could not pierce it or walk through it, for the
skeleton had been covered with flesh, green flesh.
Next Wakan Tanka, Tunkashila, formed animals in
pairs, to give their flesh so that man could live.
And then it was time to create woman. There was no
moon then; it was still the period of the sacred
newness. The sun again called all the planets and
supernaturals, and when they had assembled, the sun,
in a bright flash, took out one of his eyes. He threw
it on the wind of his vision into a certain place,
and it became the moon. And on this new orb, that
eye-planet, he created woman. "You are a planet
virgin, a moon maiden," he told her. "I have touched
you and made you out of my shadow. I want you to walk
on the earth." This happend in darkness at the time
of a new moon.
"How will I walk over to that land?" asked the woman.
So the sun created woman power and woman
understanding. He used the lightning to make a bridge
from the moon to the earth, and the woman walked on
the lightning. Her crossing took a long time.
Now the maker of the universe had created man and
woman and given them a power and a way that has never
been changed. Doing that, the sun had used up another
million eons of creation time. He instructed the
woman in her tasks, which she accomplished through
her dreams, through her visions, through her special
powers.
The Great Spirit had created the woman to be with the
man, with We-Ota-Wichasha-but not right away. They
had to make contact slowly, get used to each other,
understand each other for the survival of their
caretaking. Tunkashila let blood roll into her. She
walked on the lightning, but she also walked on a
blood vein reaching from the moon to the earth. This
vein was a cord, a birth cord that went into her
body, and through it she is forever connected with
the moon. And nine months of creation were given to
her. At first she was without feeling, for love was
created in her and inside the man long after their
bodies had been formed. They did not live as we do
today but were a part of the land, taking care of it
even while it took care of them. The man and the
woman began to communicate with each other and talk
for many years. Then inside them a feeling emerged.
Even before they touched each other they felt a
vibration, womb understanding. So by the powers of
the great sun, by the powers of Tunkashila, it was
given to them to understand that they were man and
woman, creators themselves. That understanding came
to the man through lightning, through the sun blood
that was in him, and it came to the woman through
that birth cord which connects her to the moon and
whose power she still feels at her moon time.
"You are the caretaker of the generations, you are
the birth giver," the sun told the woman. "You wil be
the carrier of this universe."
Walks-all-over-the-sky
[Tsimshian]
This is an older and more traditional tale about the sun
and moon, in contrast with the contemporary vision of the
previous story.
In the beginning, before anything that lives in our world
was created there was only the chief in the sky. The chief
had two sons and a daughter, and his people were numerous.
But there no light in the sky-only emptiness and darkness.
The chief's eldest son was named Walking-About-Early, the
second son was called The-One-who-Walks-All-Over- the-Sky,
and the daughter was Support-of-Sun. They were very strong,
but the younger boy was wiser and abler than the elder.
It made the younger son sad to see the sky always so dark,
and one day he took his brother and went to cut some good
pitch wood. They bent a slender cedar twig into a ring the
size of a persons face, then tied the pitch wood all around
it so that it looked like a mask. They lit the wood, and
The-One-Who-Walks-All-Over-The-Sky put on the mask and went
to the east.
Suddenly everyone saw a great light rising. As the people
watched and marveled, the chief's youngest son ran from
east to west, moving swiftly so that the flaming mask would
not burn him.
Every day the second son repeated his race and lit up the
sky. Then the whole tribe assembled and set down to
council. "We're glad your child has given us light," they
told the chief. But he's too quick; he ought to slow down a
little so we can enjoy the light longer."
The chief told his son what the people had said, but
Walks-All-Over-the Sky replied that the mask would burn
before he reaches the west. He continued to run very fast,
and the people continued to wish he would go slower, until
the sister said, "I'll try and hold him back a little."
The next time Walks-All-Over-the-Sky rose in the east and
started on his journey, Support-of-Sun also started from
the south. "Wait for me!" she cryed, running as hard as she
could. She intercepted he brother in the middle of his race
and held him briefly until he could brake free. That's way
the sun today always stops for a little while in the middle
of the sky. The people shouted with joy, and
Support-of-Sun's father blessed her.
But the chief was displeased with Walking-About-Early
because he was not as smart and capable as his younger
brother. The father expressed his disappointment, and
Walk-About-Early was so mortfied that he flung himself down
and cryed. Meanwhile his brother, the sun, came back tired
from his daily trip and lay down to rest. Later when
everybody was asleep, Walking-About-Early rubbed fat and
charcoal over his face. He woke his little slave and said,
"When you see me rising in te east, jump up and shot, "
Hurrah! He has arisen!"
Then Walking-About-Early left, while Walks-All-over-
the-Sky selpt deeply, his face shedding light out of the
smoke hole. Suddenly Walking-about-Early rose in the east,
and his charcaled face reflected the smoke hole's luster.
The litle slave jumped up and shouted, "Hurrah he has
arisen!"
Several people asked him, "Why are you so noisy, bad
slave?" The slave jumped up and down, pointing to the east.
The people looked up and saw the rising moon, and they too
shouted,"Hurrah!"
Time passed, and animals were created to live in our world
below. At last all the animals assembled to hold council.
They agreed that the sun should run from east to west, that
he should be the light of day, and that he should make
everything grow. The moon, they decied, should walk at
night. Then they had to set the number of days that would
be in a month. The dogs were wiser than the other animals
and spoke first. "The moon shill rise for forty days," they
said.
All the animals were silent. The dogs sat together talking
secretly amoung themselves and thinking about what they had
said. The wisest dog, their spokesman, was still standing.
He was counting up forty on his fingers, when the porcupine
suddenly struck him on the thumb. "Who can live if there
forty days to each month?" the porcupine said. "The year
would be far to long. There should only be thirty days in a
month.
The rest of the animals agreed with the porcupine. And as a
result of this council, each month has thirty days and
there are twelve months in a year. By now the animals were
disgusted with the dogs and banded together to drive them
away. For this reason dogs hate all the creatures of the
woods, and most of all the porcupine, who struck the wise
dog's thumb with a spiny tail and humiliated him in the
council. And because of the porcupine's blow, a dog's thumb
now stands opposite to his other fingers.
Before that long-ago council ended, the animals also named
the following month's:
Between October and November, Falling-Leaf Month
In addition, the animals divided the year into four
seasons-spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
New things were also happening in the sky. When
Walks-All-Over-the-Sky was asleep, the sparks that flew out
of his mouth became the stars. And sometimes when he was
glad, he painted his face with his sister's red ochre, and
then people knew what kind of weather was coming. If his
red paint colored the sky in the eveing, there would be
good weather the next day, but a red sky in the morning
ment that storms were coming. And that's still true, people
say.
After the sky had been furnished with the sun, moon, and
stars, th chief's daughter, Support-of-Sun, was cast down
because she had played such a small part in the creation.
Sadly she wandered westward into the water, and her cloths
became wet. When she returned, she stood near her father's
great fire to warm herself. She wrung the water out of her
garments, and let it drip onto the flames, making a great
cloud of steam that floated out of the house. It settled
over the land and moderate the hot weather with damp fog.
Her father blessed her, for the whole tribe enjoyed it. And to this day, all fog comes from the west.
The cheif was glad when he saw that all three of his children were wise. Now it was the duty of the moon, Walking-About-Early, to rise and set every thirty days so that people may know the year. The sun, Walks-All-Over-the-Sky, was charged with creating all good things, such as fruit, and making everthing plentiful and the cheif's daughter Support-of-Sun, served by refreshing the hot earth with cold fog.
---Based on a version recorded by Franz Boas in 1916.
Some Northwest tribes did indeed have slaves, as this story
suggests; the status could be inherited from one generation
to the next, and they looked upon as their owners'
possessions, to be killed if the owner wished. Since the
Tsimshians lived in Northwest, the fog that came from the
West refers, naturally to the weather rolling in from the
Pacific Ocean.
Between November and December, Taboo Month
Between December and January, The Intervening Month
Between January and February, Spring Salmon Month
Between February and March, Month When Olachen Is Eaten
Between March and April, When Olachen Is Cooked
Between May and June, Egg Month
Between June nd July, Salmon Month
Between July and August, Humpback-Salmon Month
Between September and October, Spinning Top Month
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