PAGANW0LF
Trust male - 42 years
Blog / Tags / native america
Blog messages with the tag 'native america':
-
How Too-loo-lah, the rainbow, got its colors.
A Story from the Otoe - Otoe
"I shall tell you how Too-loo-lah, the rainbow, got its colors".
The delicate flowers of the Spring Moons bloom, and then they die. Gorgeous blossoms of summer moons live and a little longer and they too die. The riotous shades of autumn flowers flourish and then they are no more. We think they are gone forever-- But, no!! When the rainbow (the Too-loo-lah in our tongue) appears after a shower we see them again, these beautiful flowers of many colors, in the sky. The rainbow is the flowers' Land of the Hereafter."
"That is a beautiful story about beautiful things," said Sharp Claws. "Will you tell us another 'How" story?" "Shall I tell you what the people of my tribe call the tall flower (indigo flower) that grows upon the prairie, and how it got its name?" "Please!" begged Sharp Claws. "It always comes just at the time of the green corn," said Coming Daylight, "to tell us of the approach of the Warm Season. One time an old man stood at the edge of a small cornfield and looked at this flower which was growing nearby.
Suddenly a voice came from the flower, saying, 'Why-nee-yah,' which means in our tongue, 'Indian, go!' 'Why-nee-yah,' it repeated. 'This is the beginning of the Warm Season, and you will soon have roasting ears for your feasts. Go and cultivate that you may have much corn!' The old man almost forgot to do as the flower instructed him, although he finally remembered; and that is why the flower returns every year to remind the people to cultivate their corn and not to stand idle." As the story ended Circling Eagle, the boys' mother, called them in to sleep and she sang for them a little song they loved about the stars:
"One by one
The stars are lighted by the Sun
Before he retires to his lodge for rest.
It is his last duty of the day."
Over and over she sang the song until the Sleep Man had made his noiseless visit to the darkened tipi.
Aho Mitakuye Oyasin -
A Legend of the Devil's Tower, - Lakota Sioux (Lame Deer)
This is another characteristically tongue-in-cheek tale from Lame Deer.
Out of the plains of Wyoming rises Devil's Tower. It is really a rock, visible for hundreds of miles around, an immense cone of basalt , which seems to touch the clouds. It sticks out of the flat prairie as if someone had pushed it up from underground. Of course, Devil's Tower is a white man's name. We have no devil in our beliefs and got along well all these many centuries without him. You people invented the devil and, as far as I'm concerned, you can keep him. But everybody these days knows that towering rock by this name, so Devil's Tower it is. No use telling you its Indian name.("Grey Horn Butte" ["He Hota Paha"], - site of the first World Peace and Prayer gathering, under Chief Arvol Looking Horse.) Most tribes call it bear rock. There is a reason for that - if you see it, you will notice on its sheer sides many, many streaks and gashes running straight up and down, like scratches made by giant claws.
Well, long, long ago, two young Indian boys found themselves lost in the prairie. You know how it is. They had played shinny ball and whacked it a few hundred yards out of the village. And then they had shot their toy bows still farther out into the sagebrush. And then they had heard a small animal make a noise and had gone to investigate. They had come to a stream with many colorful pebbles and followed that for a while. They had come to a hill and wanted to see what was on the other side. On the other side they saw a herd of antelope and, of course, had to track them for a while. When they got hungry and thought it was time to go home, the two boys found that they didn't know where they were? They started off in the direction where they thought their village was, but only got farther and farther away from it. At last they curled up beneath a tree and went to sleep. They got up the next morning and walked some more, still headed the wrong way. They ate some wild berries and dug up wild turnips, found some chokecherries, and drank water from streams. For three days they walked toward the west. They were footsore, but they survived. Oh, how they wished that there parents, or aunts or uncles, or elder brothers and sisters would find them. But nobody did. On the fourth day the boys suddenly had a feeling that they were being followed. They looked around and in the distance saw Mato, the bear. This was no ordinary bear, but a giant grizzly so huge that the two boys would only make a small mouthful for him, but he had smelled the boys and wanted that mouthful. He kept coming close, and the earth trembled as he gathered speed. The boys started running, looking for a place to hide, but there was no such place and the grizzly was much much faster than they. They stumbled, and the bear was almost upon them. They could see his red, wide-open jaws full of enormous, wicked teeth. They could smell his hot, evil breath. The boys were old enough to have learned to pray, and they called upon Wakan Tanka, the Creator: "Tunkashila, Grandfather, have pity, save us."
All at once the earth shook and began to rise. The boys rose with it. Out of the earth came a cone of rock going up, up until it was more than a thousand feet high. And the boys were on top of it. Mato the bear was disappointed to see his meal disappearing into the clouds. Have I said he was a giant bear? This grizzly was so huge that he could almost reach to the top of the rock, trying to get up, trying to get those boys. As he did so, he made big scratches in the sides of the towering rock. But the stone was too slippery; Mato could not get up. He tried every spot, every side. He scratched up the rock all around, but it was no use. The boys watched him wearing himself out, getting tired, giving up. They finally saw him going away, a huge, growling, grunting mountain of fur disappearing over the horizon.
The boys were saved. Or were they? How were they to get down? They were humans, not birds who could fly. Some ten years ago, mountain climbers tried to conquer Devil's Tower. They had ropes, and iron hooks called pitons to nail themselves to the rockface, and they managed to get up. But they couldn't get down. They were marooned on that giant basalt cone and they had to be taken off in a helicopter. In the long-ago days the Indians had no helicopters. So how did the two boys get down? The legend does not tell us, but we can be sure that the Great Spirit didn't save those boys only to let them perish of hunger and thirst on the top of the rock. Well, Wanblee, the eagle, has always been a friend to our people. So it must have been the eagle that let the boys grab hold of him and carried them safely back to their village. Or do you know another way?
Told by Lame Deer in Winner, Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, South Dakota, 1969. and recorded by Richard Erdoes. -
How the Fawn got its spots : A Dakota Sioux Legend
Long ago, when the world was new, Wakan Tanka, The Great Mystery, was walking around. As he walked he spoke to himself of the many things he had done to help the four-legged ones and the birds survive.
"It is good," Wakan Tanka said. "I have given Mountain Lion sharp claws and Grizzly Bear great strength; it is much easier now for them to survive.
"I have given Wolf sharp teeth and I have given his little brother, Coyote, quick wits; it is much easier now for them to survive.
"I have given Beaver a flat tail and webbed feet to swim beneath the water and teeth which can cut down the trees and I have given slow-moving Porcupine quills to protect itself. Now it is easier for them to survive.
"I have given the Birds their feathers and the ability to fly so that they may escape their enemies. I have given speed to the Deer and the Rabbit so that it will be hard for their enemies to catch them. Truly it is now much easier for them to survive."
However, as Wakan Tanka spoke, a mother Deer came up to him. Behind her was her small Fawn, wobbling on weak new legs.
"Great One," she said. "It is true that you have given many gifts to the four-leggeds and the winged ones to help them survive. It is true that you gave me great speed and now my enemies find it hard to catch me. My speed is a great protection, indeed. But what of my little one here? She does not yet have speed. It is easy for our enemies, with their sharp teeth and their claws to catch her. If my children do not survive, how can my people live?"
"Wica yaka pelo!" said Wakan Tanka. "You have spoken truly; you are right. Have your little one come here and I will help her."
Then Wakan Tanka made paint from the earth and the plants. He painted spots upon the fawn's body so that when she lay still her color blended in with the earth and she could not be seen. Then Wakan Tanka breathed upon her, taking away her scent.
"Now," Wakan Tanka said, "your little ones will always be safe if they only remain still when they are away from your side. None of your enemies will see your little ones or be able to catch their scent."
So it has been from that day on. When a young deer is too small and weak to run swiftly, it is covered with spots that blend in with the earth. It has no scent and it remains very still and close to the earth when its mother is not by its side. And when it has grown enough to have the speed Wakan Tanka gave its people, then it loses those spots it once needed to survive.
Aho
)O( -
Aho, Waken Tanka
Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made_and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock
Aho Mitakuye Oyasin
)O(
