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Subject : Pima - Creation of the World
Date/Time : 8/30/2012 9:46:13 AM

In the beginning there was nothing at all except darkness. All was darkness and emptiness. For a long, long while, the darkness gathered until it became a great mass.

Over this the spirit of Earth Doctor drifted to and fro like a fluffy bit of cotton in the breeze. Then Earth Doctor decided to make for himself an abiding place. So he thought within himself, "Come forth, some kind of plant," and there appeared the creosote bush. He placed this before him and set it upright. But it at once fell over. He set it upright again; again it fell. So it fell until the fourth time it remained upright. Then Earth Doctor took from his breast a little dust and flattened it into a cake. When the dust cake was still, he danced upon it, singing a magic song.

Next he created some black insects which made black gum on the creosote bush. Then he made a termite which worked with the small earth cake until it grew very large. As he sang and danced upon it, the flat World stretched out on all sides until it was as large as it is now. Then he made a round sky-cover to fit over it, round like the houses of the Pimas. But the Earth shook and stretched, so that it was unsafe. So Earth Doctor made a gray spider which was to spin a web around the edges of the Earth and sky, fastening them together. When this was done, the Earth grew firm and solid.

Earth Doctor made water, mountains, trees, grass, and weeds made everything as we see it now. But all was still inky blackness. Then he made a dish, poured water into it, and it became ice. He threw this round block of ice far to the north, and it fell at the place where the Earth and sky were woven together. At once the ice began to gleam and shine. We call it now the sun. It rose from the ground in the north up into the sky and then fell back. Earth Doctor took it and threw it to the west where the Earth and sky were sewn together. It rose into the sky and again slid back to the Earth. Then he threw it to the far south, but it slid back again to the flat Earth. Then at last he threw it to the east. It rose higher and higher in the sky until it reached the highest point in the round blue cover and began to slide down on the other side. And so the sun does even yet.

Then Earth Doctor poured more water into the dish and it became ice. He sang a magic song, and threw the round ball of ice to the north where the Earth and sky are woven together. It gleamed and shone, but not so brightly as the sun. It became the moon, and it rose in the sky, but fell back again, just as the sun had done. So he threw the ball to the west, and then to the south, but it slid back each time to the Earth. Then he threw it to the east, and it rose to the highest point in the sky-cover and began to slide down on the other side. And so it does even today, following the sun.

But Earth Doctor saw that when the sun and moon were not in the sky, all was inky darkness. So he sang a magic song, and took some water into his mouth and blew it into the sky, in a spray, to make little stars. Then he took his magic crystal and broke it into pieces and threw them into the sky, to make the larger stars. Next he took his walking stick and placed ashes on the end of it. Then he drew it across the sky to form the Milky Way. So Earth Doctor made all the stars.

Subject : Pima Proverb
Date/Time : 8/30/2012 9:45:28 AM

Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself.

Subject : Sauk - Coming of Corn Story
Date/Time : 8/29/2012 8:31:52 AM

The Coming of Corn

I will relate the manner in which corn first came. According to tradition handed down to our people, a beautiful woman was seen to descend from the clouds, and alight upon the earth, by two of our ancestors who had killed a deer, and were sitting by a fire roasting a part of it to eat. They were astonished at seeing her, and concluded that she was hungry and had smelt the meat. They immediately went to her, taking with them a piece of the roasted venison. They presented it to her, she ate it, telling them to return to the spot where she was sitting at the end of one year, and they would find a reward for their kindness and generosity. She then ascended to the clouds and disappeared. The men returned to their village, and explained to the tribe what they had seen, done ad heard, but were laughed at by their people. When the period had arrived for them to visit this consecrated ground, where they were to find a reward for their attention to the beautiful woman of the clouds, they went with a large party, and found where her right hand had rested on the ground corn growing, where the left hand had rested beans, and immediately where she had been seated, tobacco.

~ Sauk leader Black Hawk (Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak) 1833

Subject : Sauk Proverb
Date/Time : 8/29/2012 8:30:46 AM

Sharing and giving are the ways of God.

Subject : Shawnee - Star Maiden Story
Date/Time : 8/28/2012 8:40:32 AM

The Shawnee Indians tell of a group of star maidens who came secretly down to Earth to perform a mystical dance within a magical circle drawn upon the great prairie. One day by chance a young hunter saw the twelve beautiful girls just as they decended from their celestial chariot. He hid nearby and watched their strange fairy dances, fascinated not only by the grace of the movement, but also by the beauty of the dancers. On the following day the youth, White Hawk, returned to the place and found that so, too, the dancers came again. Intrigued, White Hawk watched the ceremonies day after day as he found himself falling deeply in love with the fairest and youngest of the maidens.

Knowing that the girls would be frightened away should he approach them, White Hawk used his supernatural powers to change his form into that of a field mouse. In that fashion he crept through the long prairie grass until he was right within the magic circle. When his love danced near, White Hawk suddenly resumed his normal form and rose to seize her firmly in his arms.

The others fled at once and sped away into the heavens, for the young maiden could not escape the lad's grasp and the rest had no choice.

Star Maiden looked at White Hawk and found him to be a handsome young man, and she returned his love. They were warmly welcomed in his village. The two were married and lived happily for many years. A son was born to them.

Yet after a period Star Maiden experienced a longing for her former home and people. She ran away, taking her little son with her, and journeyed to her land above, to the village of white tents in the sky.

But she was not happy there, for she truly loved White Hawk and could not think of living without him. In council, the chiefs of the star kingdom decided to invite White Hawk to make his home with them in the sky. Star Maiden's son, now grown to be a brave youth, was sent as a messenger to Earth; and he was able to persuade his father to return with him to star country.

As a token for his new countrymen, White Hawk took with him gifts such as a feather from an eagle, a horn from a bison, a cast-off skin from a rattleshake. These were accepted with much ceremony and delight, for the sky people had never seen these strange things. For himself and his wife and son, White Hawk took the feathers of a white falcon, and in that guise the three now live not in the land nor in the heavens, but they are free as the wind and can travel to either home.

The dancers no longer come to Earth for their ritual dances, but they can be seen in the sky in the constellation Corona Borealis. There they dance on summer evenings, their circle not fully complete, since Star Maiden is no longer with her sisters.

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