Straddlebug || myBlog 
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.
Subject : Arapaho Proverb
Date/Time : 8/8/2012 7:49:32 AM
Each bird loves to hear himself sing.
Subject : The Arapaho story of Creation
Date/Time : 8/8/2012 7:49:01 AM
There was a deluge, nothing but water. A man was walking around on the water for four day and four nights, carrying a Flat Pipe. He wondered what he could do to protect it. For a total of six days he walked around with the Pipe, weeping and fasting.
On the morning of the seventh day, he decided that there needed to be earth for the Pipe to rest on. So he called to the four directions (northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest) for people to come and help find land. Then he called forth seven cottonwood trees (though there was still no dry land), and then called forth creatures of the air and of the sea.
He asked if anyone knew where land was. The Turtle said that it was at the bottom of the ocean. So the Man asked the animals if they could dive down and find it. A series of creatures dives for the land. First: The Grebe; Second: two waterfowls; Third: three waterfowls, including the Kingfisher; Fourth: Otter, Beaver, Packed Bird (coot), and Garter snake; Fifth: black snake, two kinds of ducks, goose, and crane; Sixth: all the creatures dive. But each time, they fail.
Then, the seventh dive is made by Turtle in the company of the Man. Before the Man dives, he ritually moves the Flat Pipe four times, then touches it to his body a fifth time. It turns into a Red-headed Duck and it accompanies him on the dive along with the Turtle. Both the Duck and the Turtle succeed in bringing up a sod of earth for the Man (Arapaho).
The Man then dried the earth, then cast it in four directions (southeast, southwest, northwest, and northeast) and created the Earth.
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