Some nice bits in the intro too:
"The 166 legends recorded here come from the heart and soul of the native people of North America. Some have been told for thousands of years, and they are still being told and retold, reshaped and refitted to meet their audience's changing needs, even created a new out of a contemporary man's or woman's vision."
"They arise out of the earth - the plants, herbs, and animals which are integral parts of the human realm."
"They are imbedded in the ancient languages and flow according to the rhythms of the natural world - a different pace indeed from that of a technological. man-made environment."
"Mysterious but real power dwells in nature - in mountains, rivers, rocks, and even pebbles."
"To those used to patterns of European fairy tales and folktales, Indian legends often seem chaotic, inconsistent, or incomplete. Plots seem to travel at their own speed, defying convention and at times doing away completely with recognisable beginnings and endings."
"Yet with all their regional images and variations, a common theme binds these tales together - a universal concern with fundamental issues about the world in which humans live."
"By moving often cataclysmic events into the realm of myth or folklore, the storyteller can at once celebrate, mourn, and honour the past - and look ahead to a time when he great heroes may return to their people, bearing powerful medicine to restore former glory"
"They are also magic lenses through which we can glimpse social orders and daily life"
"In the end however, these legends are not told merely for enjoyment, or for education, or for amusement: they are believed. They are emblems or a living religion, giving concrete form to a set of beliefs and traditions that link people living today to ancestors from centuries and millennia past."
"Myth in its living, primitive form is not merely a story told but a reality lived."
TALES OF WORLD CREATION
- In Southwestern tales, four or five world of different colours or elements are stacked one on top of the other, and people climb up a reed or stalk through a hole in the ceiling of one dying world into the next, newborn one (love this)
- People in the Northwest tell of descending through a hole in the sky (associated with a smoke hole of a tipi) to emerge into the present world.
- In the California region, the culture hero creates another character, frequently Coyote, who in turn makes man from wood or clay and gives him life.
- The theft of light or fire is a prominent theme, as is the establishment of the earth's topography
Pushing Up The Sky -SNOHOMISH
- story told by family elders to teach what could be accomplished if people worked together
- The Creator had many languages left when he reached Puget Sound so he scattered them around. Thats why so many Indian languages are spoken there.
- The people could not talk together, but it happened that none of the, were pleased with the way the Creator had made the world.
- The sky was so low that the tall people bumped their heads against it.
- The wise men of the different tribes had a meeting to see what they could do about lifting the sky. They agreed the people should get together and try to push it higher.
- But they were puzzled with how to do it because everyone spoke different languages - how will they know when to push (they all had to do it at the same time)
- One men in the council suggested they use a signal. "When the time comes let someone shout 'Ya-hoh', that means 'Lift together!' in all our languages"
- The wise men of the council sent that message to the people and animals and birds and told them on what day they were to lift the sky
- Everyone made poles from giant fit trees to use
- The day came and all the people raised their poles and touched the sky with them, the wise men shouted 'Ya-hoh', everybody pushed, the sky moved a little. They kept shouting and pushing until the sky was in the place it is now
- Since then no one has bumped their head and no one has been able to climb into the Sky World
- 3 hunters were chasing 4 elks and didn't know about the plan, they were hunting at the place where the earth nearly meets the sky. The elks jumped into the Sky World and the hunters ran after them. In the Sky World they were changed into stars, the 3 hunters form the handle of the Big Dipper. The four elks make the bowl of the Big Dipper.
Earth Making - CHEROKEE
- Cherokee are one of the few Indian tribes who conceive the sun as female. This version of the tale is unusual because it refers to the sun as a he
- Earth is floating on the waters like a big island, hanging from four rawhide ropes fastened at the top of the four sacred directions.
- The ropes are tied to the ceiling of the sky, which is made of hard rock crystal. When the rope breaks the world with will come tumbling down, and all the living things will fall with it and die. Then everything will be as if the earth had never existed, for water will cover it. Maybe the white man will bring this about.
- Water covered everything in the beginning, living creatures existed, but up there above the rainbow, and it was crowded. "We are all jammed together" the animals said, "We need more room".
- They wondered what was under the water so they sent the Water beetle down to look, he skimmed the surface but couldn't find any solid ground, he dived down and and brought back up a dab of soft mud.
- The mud magically spread out in all directions and became the earth. Someone powerful fastened it to the ceiling with cords.
- In the beginning the earth was moist and flat and soft, the animals kept sending down birds to see if it had hardened yet. Birds flew down but said it wasn't solid enough yet.
- They sent the Grandfather Buzzard down, he flew down close to the ground, he was getting tired and when he flapped his wings down they made a valley and when he flapped them up they became a mountain. They animals made him come back to prevent the whole earth being only mountains. THis is why the Cherokee land is so mountainous.
- The earth was at last dry enough and the animals descended.
- There was no sun or moon so they couldn't see very well, they pulled the sun down from behind the rainbow, "Heres a road for you" they showed him his path from east to west.
- They had light but it was too hot, sun was too close. They pushed the sun as high as a man, then as high as four men and that was just hot enough so they left him there.
- Someone powerful had created plants and animals, told them to stay awake and watch for 7 days and 7 nights, most couldn't manage it and fell asleep. Only the owl and the mountain lion managed it, so they were given the gift of seeing in the dark so they can hunt at night. Same with the plants, the trees who stayed awake for the 8 days were given the power to not lose 'their hair' in the winter.
- Now there is still a another world under the one we live on. You can reach it through a spring or water hole, but the underworld people need to be your scouts and guide you.
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