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15 - The Blackfeet Creation · Blackfeet Native American Stories

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen of Blackfeet Indian Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Lucy LaFaro, New South Wales, Australia. Blackfeet Indian Stories
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  Speaker 1: by George B. Grinnell, Chapter fifteen, The Blackfeet Creation. The
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  Speaker 1: Blackfeet believe that the Sun made the earth, that he
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  Speaker 1: is the creator. One of the names by which they
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  Speaker 1: call the Sun is Nappy Old Man. This is how
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  Speaker 1: they tell of the creation. In the beginning, there was
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  Speaker 1: water everywhere, nothing else was to be seen. There was
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  Speaker 1: something floating on the water, and on this raft were
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  Speaker 1: Old Man and all the animals. Old Man wished to
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  Speaker 1: make land, and he told the beaver to dive down
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  Speaker 1: to the bottom of the water and to try to
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  Speaker 1: bring up a little mud. The beaver dived and was
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  Speaker 1: under water for a long time, but he could not
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  Speaker 1: reach the bottom. Then the loon tried, and after him
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  Speaker 1: the otter, but the water was too deep for them.
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  Speaker 1: At last the muskrat was sent down, and he was
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  Speaker 1: gone for a long time, so long that they thought
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  Speaker 1: he must be drowned. But at last he came up
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  Speaker 1: and floated almost dead on the water. And when they
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  Speaker 1: pulled him up on the raft and looked at his paws,
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  Speaker 1: they found a little mud in them. When old Man
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  Speaker 1: had dried this mud, he scattered it over the water,
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  Speaker 1: and land was formed. This is the story told by
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  Speaker 1: the Blackfeet. It is very much like one told by
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  Speaker 1: some Eastern Indians who are related to the Blackfeet. After
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  Speaker 1: the land had been made, old Man traveled about on it,
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  Speaker 1: making things and fixing up the earth so as to
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  Speaker 1: suit him. First, he marked out places where he wished
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  Speaker 1: to the rivers to run, sometimes making them run smoothly,
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  Speaker 1: and again in some places putting falls on them. He
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  Speaker 1: made the mountains and the prairie the timber and the
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  Speaker 1: small trees and bushes, And sometimes he carried along with
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  Speaker 1: him a lot of rocks from which he built some
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  Speaker 1: of the mountains as the sweet grass hills, which stand
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  Speaker 1: out on the prairie by themselves. Old Man caused grass
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  Speaker 1: to grow on the plains so that the animals might
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  Speaker 1: have something to feed on. He marked off certain pieces
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  Speaker 1: of land where he caused different kinds of roots and
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  Speaker 1: berries to grow. A place for camis and one for
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  Speaker 1: wild carry. It's one for wild turnips, sweet root and
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  Speaker 1: bitter root, one for service berries, bullberries, cherries, plums, and rosebuds.
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  Speaker 1: He made all kinds of animals that travel on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: When he made the big horn with its great horns,
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  Speaker 1: he put it out on the prairie. It did not
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  Speaker 1: seem to travel easily there. It was awkward and could
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  Speaker 1: not go fast. So he took it by one of
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  Speaker 1: its horns and led it up into the rough hills
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  Speaker 1: and among the rocks, and let it go there. And
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  Speaker 1: it skipped about among the cliffs and easily went up
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  Speaker 1: fearful places. So old Man said to the big horn,
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  Speaker 1: this is the place for you. This is what you
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  Speaker 1: are fitted for, the rough country and the mountains. While
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  Speaker 1: he was in the mountains, he made the antelope and
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  Speaker 1: turned it loose to see how it traveled. The antelope
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  Speaker 1: ran so fast that it fell over some rocks and
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  Speaker 1: herd itself. He saw this would not do, and took
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  Speaker 1: the antelope down on the prairie and set it free there,
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  Speaker 1: and it ran away fast and gracefully, and he said
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  Speaker 1: to it, this is the place that suits you. At last,
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  Speaker 1: one day old Man decided that he would make a
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  Speaker 1: woman and a child, and he modeled some clay in
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  Speaker 1: human shape. And after he had made these shapes and
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  Speaker 1: put them on the ground, he said to the clay,
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  Speaker 1: you shall be people. He spread his robe over the
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  Speaker 1: clay figures and went away. The next morning he went
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  Speaker 1: back to the place and lifted up the robe, and
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  Speaker 1: saw that the clay shapes had changed a little. When
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  Speaker 1: he looked at them the next morning, they had changed
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  Speaker 1: still more. And when on the fourth day he went
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  Speaker 1: to the place and took off the covering, he said,
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  Speaker 1: to the images, stand up and walk, and they did so.
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  Speaker 1: They walked down to the river with him who had
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  Speaker 1: made them, and he told them his name. As they
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  Speaker 1: were standing there, looking at the water as it flowed by,
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  Speaker 1: the woman asked old man, saying, how is it? Shall
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  Speaker 1: we live always? Will there be no end to us?
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  Speaker 1: Old man said, I have not thought of that. We
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  Speaker 1: must decide it. I will take this buffalo chip and
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  Speaker 1: throw it in the river. If it floats, people will
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  Speaker 1: become alive again four days after they have died. They
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  Speaker 1: will die for four days only, But if it sinks,
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  Speaker 1: there will be an end to them. He threw the
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  Speaker 1: chip into the river, and it floated. The woman turned
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  Speaker 1: and picked up a stone and said, no, I will
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  Speaker 1: throw this stone into the river. If it floats, we
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  Speaker 1: shall live always. If it sinks, people must die, so
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  Speaker 1: that their friends, who are left alive may always remember them.
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  Speaker 1: The woman threw the stone in the water, and it sank. Well,
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  Speaker 1: said old man, you have chosen. There will be an
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  Speaker 1: end to them. Not many nights after that, the woman's
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  Speaker 1: child died, and she cried a great deal for it.
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  Speaker 1: She said to old man, let us change this the
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  Speaker 1: law that you first made. Let that be the law.
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  Speaker 1: He said, not, so what is made law must be law.
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  Speaker 1: We will undo nothing that we have done. The child
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  Speaker 1: is dead, but it cannot be changed. People will have
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  Speaker 1: to die. These first people did not have hands like
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  Speaker 1: a person. They had hands like a bear with long claws.
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  Speaker 1: They were poor and naked, and did not know how
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  Speaker 1: to get a living. Old man showed them the roots
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  Speaker 1: and the berries, and showed them how to gather these,
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  Speaker 1: and told them how at certain times of the year
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  Speaker 1: they should peel the bark off some trees and eat it.
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  Speaker 1: That the little animals that live in the ground, rats, squirrels, skunks,
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  Speaker 1: and beavers were good to eat. He also taught them
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  Speaker 1: something about the roots that were good for medicine to
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  Speaker 1: cure sickness. In those days, there were buffalo, and these
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  Speaker 1: black animals were armed, for they had long horns. Once,
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  Speaker 1: as the people were moving about, the buffalo saw them
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  Speaker 1: and rushed upon them and hooked them and killed them
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  Speaker 1: and then ate them. One day, as the Creator was
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  Speaker 1: traveling about, he came upon some of his children that
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  Speaker 1: he had made, lying, their dead torn to pieces and
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  Speaker 1: partly eaten by the buffalo. When he saw this, he
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  Speaker 1: felt badly. He said, I have not made these people right.
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  Speaker 1: I will change this. From now on, the people shall
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  Speaker 1: eat the buffalo. He went to some of the people
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  Speaker 1: who were still alive and said to them, how is
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  Speaker 1: it that you people do nothing to these animals that
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  Speaker 1: are killing you. The people replied, what can we do?
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  Speaker 1: These animals are armed and can kill us, and we
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  Speaker 1: have no way to kill them. The Creator said, that
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  Speaker 1: is not hard. I will make you something that will
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  Speaker 1: kill these animals. He went out and cut some straight
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  Speaker 1: service burial shoots and brought them in and peeled the
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  Speaker 1: bark from them. He took a larger piece of wood
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  Speaker 1: and flattened it and tied a string to it and
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  Speaker 1: made a bow. Now he was the master of all birds,
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  Speaker 1: and he went out and caught one, and took feathers
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  Speaker 1: from its wings and tied them to the shaft of wood.
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  Speaker 1: He tied four feathers along the shaft and tried the
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  Speaker 1: arrow at a mark, and found that it did not
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  Speaker 1: fly well. He took off these feathers and put on three,
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  Speaker 1: and when he again tried it at the mark, he
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  Speaker 1: found that it went straight. He picked up some hard
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  Speaker 1: stones and broke sharp pieces from them. When he tried them,
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  Speaker 1: he found that the black flint stones made the best
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  Speaker 1: arrow points. He showed them how to use these things.
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  Speaker 1: Then he spoke to the people and said, the next
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  Speaker 1: time you go out, take these things with you and
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  Speaker 1: use them as I tell you. Do not run from
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  Speaker 1: these animals. When they rush at you and have come
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  Speaker 1: pretty close, shoot the arrows at them as I have
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  Speaker 1: taught you, and you will see that they will run
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  Speaker 1: from you, or will run around you in a circle.
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  Speaker 1: He also broke off pieces of stone and fixed them
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  Speaker 1: in a handle, and told them that when they killed
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  Speaker 1: the buffalo, they should cut up the flesh with these
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  Speaker 1: stone knives. One day after this, some people went on
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  Speaker 1: a little hill to look about, and the buffalo saw
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  Speaker 1: them and called out to each other, Ah, there is
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  Speaker 1: some more of our food, and rushed upon them. The
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  Speaker 1: people did not run. They began to shoot at the
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  Speaker 1: buffalo with the bows and arrows that had been given them,
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  Speaker 1: and the buffalo began to fall. They say that when
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  Speaker 1: the first buffalo hit with an arrow felt it prick him,
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  Speaker 1: he called out to his fellows, Oh, my friends, a
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  Speaker 1: great fly is biting me. With the flint knives that
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  Speaker 1: had been given them, they cut up the bodies of
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  Speaker 1: the dead buffalo. About this time old man came up
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  Speaker 1: and said to them, it is not healthful to eat
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  Speaker 1: raw flesh. I will show you something better than that.
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  Speaker 1: He gathered soft, dry, rotten wood and made punk of it,
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  Speaker 1: and took a piece of wood and drewed a hole
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  Speaker 1: in it with an arrow point, and gave them a
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  Speaker 1: pointed piece of hardwood, and showed them how to make
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  Speaker 1: a fire with fire sticks and to cook the flesh
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  Speaker 1: of animals. After this, the people found a certain sort
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  Speaker 1: of stone in the land, and took another harder stone,
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  Speaker 1: and worked one upon the other, and hollowed out the
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  Speaker 1: softer one, so as to make of it a kettle.
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  Speaker 1: It is also told that the Creator made people and
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  Speaker 1: animals at another place, and in another way, at the
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  Speaker 1: Porcupine mountains, he made other earthen images of people and
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  Speaker 1: blew breath on the images, and they became people. They
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  Speaker 1: were men and women. After a time, they asked him
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  Speaker 1: what are we to eat? Then he took more earth
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  Speaker 1: and made many images in the form of buffalo, And
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  Speaker 1: when he had blown on them, they stood up, and
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  Speaker 1: he made signs to them, and they started to run.
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  Speaker 1: He said to the people, there is your food. Well now,
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  Speaker 1: they replied, we have those animals. How are we to
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  Speaker 1: kill them? I will show you. He took them to
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  Speaker 1: the edge of a cliff and showed them how to
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  Speaker 1: heap a pile of stone, running back from the cliff
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  Speaker 1: like this, with the point of the V toward the cliff.
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  Speaker 1: He said to the people, now do you hide behind
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  Speaker 1: these piles of stone, And when I lead the buffalo
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  Speaker 1: this way, as they get opposite to you, stand up.
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  Speaker 1: Then he went on toward a herd of buffalo and
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  Speaker 1: began to call them, and the buffalo started toward him
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  Speaker 1: and followed him until they were inside the arms of
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  Speaker 1: the V. Then he ran to one side and hid,
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  Speaker 1: And as the people rose up, the buffalo ran on
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  Speaker 1: in a straight line and jumped over the cliff, and
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  Speaker 1: some of them were killed by the fall. There. He said,
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  Speaker 1: go and take the flesh of those animals. Then the
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  Speaker 1: people tried to do so. They tried to tear the
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  Speaker 1: limbs apart, but they could not. They tried to bite
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  Speaker 1: pieces out of the bodies, but they could not do that.
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  Speaker 1: Old man went to the edge of the cliff and
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  Speaker 1: broke some pieces of stone with sharp edges, and showed
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  Speaker 1: them how to cut the flesh with these. Of the
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  Speaker 1: buffalo that went over the cliff. Some were not dead,
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  Speaker 1: but were hurt, so they could not run away. The
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  Speaker 1: people cut strips of green hide and tied stones in
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  Speaker 1: the middle, and with these hammers broke in the skulls
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  Speaker 1: of the buffalo and killed them. When they had taken
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  Speaker 1: the skins from these animals, they set up poles and
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  Speaker 1: put up the hides over them, and so made a
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  Speaker 1: shelter to sleep under. In later times, the Creator marked
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  Speaker 1: off a piece of land for the five tribes Blackfeet, Bloods, Pagans,
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  Speaker 1: gross Ventures, and Sassus, and said to these tribes, when
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  Speaker 1: people come to cross this line at the border of
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  Speaker 1: your land. Take your bows and arrows, your lancers, and
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  Speaker 1: your war clubs, and give them battle, and keep them out.
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  Speaker 1: If they gain a footing here, trouble for you will follow.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter fifteen.