Straddlebug || myBlog 
Subject : A Walpi Legend
Date/Time : 8/13/2012 10:21:40 AM
In the long ago, the Snake, Horn, and Eagle people lived here (in Tusayan) but their corn grew only a span high and when they sang for rain, the Cloud god sent only a thin mist. My people lived then in the distant Pa-lat Kwa-bi in the South.
There was a very bad old man there. When he met any one he would spit in their faces. He did all manner of evil. Baholihonga got angry at this and turned the world upside down. Water spouted up through the kivas and through the fire places in the houses.
The earth was rent in great chasms, and water covered everything except one narrow ridge of mud. Across this the Serpent-god told all the people to travel. As they journeyed across, the feet of the bad slipped and they fell into the dark water.
The good people, after many days, reached dry land.
While the water was rising around the village, the old people got on top of the houses. They thought they could not struggle across with the younger people. But Baholihonga clothed them with the skins of turkeys.
They spread their wings out and floated in the air just above the surface of the water, and in this way they got across.
There were saved of us, the Water people, the Corn people, the Lizard, Horned-toad, and Sand peoples, two families of Rabbit, and the Tobacco people. The turkey tail dragged in the water.
That is why there is white on the turkey's tail now. This is also the reason why old people use turkey-feathers at the religious ceremonies.
Subject : Tuscarora Proverb
Date/Time : 8/10/2012 9:49:12 AM
Man has responsibility, not power.
Subject : Tuscarora - Mosquito Story
Date/Time : 8/10/2012 9:48:48 AM
One time there lived a giant Mosquito. He was bigger than a bear and more terrifying. When he flew through the air, the Sun couldn't be seen and it became dark as night. The zooming of his wings was wilder than a storm. And when he was hungry, he would fly into a camp and carry off an person or two and pick their bones clean.
Again and again the warriors tried to destroy the wild beast but their arrows fell off him like dew drops off a leaf. They did not know what to do.
So the chief and the medicine men in the tribe ordered a big meeting to pray to the creator to help them destroy the monster Mosquito. They burned great fires and they sang, and they danced and they prayed.
Bat and spider heard their loud cry for help and decided to see what they could do. bat came down from the sky, looking for the monster to do battle with him and destroy him. And spider spun a huge web to try and catch him.
The great Mosquito heard this and he knew he could not beat bat, so he decided to run away. He flew and he flew and he flew so fast no one could see him. He was faster than lightning. The only sound was the wild zooming of his wings through the air. But bat was after him just as fast.
The giant monster flew around lakes, over rivers and over mountains toward the East. Bat kept after him, never tiring.
Swiftly and wildly, at the speed of eagles, the monster flew towards the ocean and there bat reached him.
When Sun was going down in a red mist at the end of the sky, the great monster came to the large lakes of the East. He turned to look and saw the bat was coming nearer and as he did this he flew right into spiders huge web.
The battle was short and the monster Mosquito was destroyed. His blood spattered and flew in all directions. And... a strange thing happened. From the blood were born small mosquitoes with sharp stingers.
No sooner were they born than they flew in all directions and they attack all animals without prejudice. These small mosquitoes with the sharp stingers multiplied a thousand fold.
It happened long ago, but to this day we have thousands of mosquitoes with sharp stingers. Bat still hunts them every night, and spider still spins a web to catch them.
Subject : Hopi Proverb:
Date/Time : 8/9/2012 9:24:22 AM
The rain falls on the just and the unjust.
Subject : Hopi Birds Story
Date/Time : 8/9/2012 9:24:02 AM
Why Birds Live in Our Hopi Villages.
The Hano people lived on a high, flat mesa at the top of the cliff. Birds flew over to the Hano village looking for anything they could find to eat in the trash and ashes. They would search for food and then fly back to a hill north of the village where they lived.
One day the bird chief went to the village chief to talk about food.
The two chiefs smoked together the way chiefs do.
"Look," the bird chief said, "we have to come all the way over here to find food. It's a long way to come."
The Hano chief told the bird chief, "Go back and tell the birds they are welcome to come and live right here with us. There is food enough for the birds and the Hanos both."
That is why you see so many birds in our villages today. They live so close they understand our language.
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