Native American Legends
How Old Man above created the World
A Shasta Legend
Long, long ago, when the world was so new that even the stars were
dark, it was very, very flat. Chareya, Old Man Above, could not
see through the dark to the new, flat Earth. Neither could he step
down to it because it was so far below him. With a large stone he
bored a hole in the sky. Then through the hole he pushed down masses
of ice and snow, until a great pyramid rose from the plain. Old
Man Above climbed down through the hole he had made in the sky,
stepping from cloud to cloud, until he could put his foot on top
the mass of ice and snow. Then with one long step he reached the
Earth.
The sun shone through the hole in the sky and began to melt the
ice and snow. It made holes in the ice and snow. When it was soft,
Chareya bored with his finger into the earth, here and there, and
planted the first trees. Streams from the melting snow watered the
new trees and made them grow. Then he gathered the leaves which
fell from the trees and blew upon them. They became birds. He took
a stick and broke it into pieces. Out of the small end he made fishes
and placed them in the mountain streams. Of the middle of the stick,
he made all the animals except the grizzly bear. From the big end
of the stick came the grizzly bear, who was made master of all.
Grizzly was large and strong and cunning. When the Earth was new
he walked upon two feet and carried a large club. So strong was
Grizzly that Old Man Above feared the creature he had made. Therefore,
so that he might be safe, Chareya hollowed out the pyramid of ice
and snow as a tipi. There he lived for thousands of snows. The Indians
knew he lived there because they could see the smoke curling from
the smoke hole of his tipi. When the pale-face came, Old Man Above
went away. There is no longer any smoke from the smoke hole. White
men call the tipi Mount Shasta.
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