Native American Legends
Old Man and the beginning of the World
A Blackfoot Legend
Old Man came from the South, making the mountains, prairies, and
forests as he passed along. He made the birds and animals also.
He traveled Northward, making things as he went along, putting red
paint in the ground here and there, making it all as we see it today.
He made the Milk River and then crossed it. As he was tired, he
went up onto a little hill and he laid down to rest. As he lay on
his back, stretched out on the grass with his arms extended, he
marked his figure with stones. You can still see those stones now,
showing you where his body laid.
Going on North when he was through he tripped over a knoll and
fell down hard on his knees. He said, "You are a bad thing
to make me stumble so!" Then he raised up two large buttes
there and named them the Knees. They are still called the Knees
to this day. He went on farther North, and with some rocks that
he had he built the Sweet Grass Hills.
Old Man covered the plains with grass for the animals to feed upon.
He marked off a piece of ground and in it make all kinds of roots
and berries to grow - camas, carrots, turnips, bitterroot, service
berries, bull berries, cherries, plums, and rosebuds. He planted
trees, and put all kinds of animals on the ground.
When he made the bighorn sheep with its large, heavy horns, he
had put it out on the prairie. But it didn't travel very easy on
the prairie; it didn't go very fast, and it moved awkwardly. So
Old Man took it by its horns and led it up to the mountains, and
turned it loose. There the bighorn skipped about among the rocks
and went up fearful places with no trouble whatsoever. So Old Man
said to it, "This is where you are meant to be; this is what
you're fitted for, the rocks and the mountains."
While he was in the mountains, he made the antelope out of dirt
and turned it loose, to see how it would go. It ran so fast that
it fell over some rocks and hurt itself. Seeing that the mountains
weren't the place for it, Old Man took the antelope down to the
prairie and turned it loose. He watched it for a moment, and then
said, "So this is what you are suited for, the broad prairie,"
as he watched it running at full strideacross the prairie.
One day Old Man decided that he would make a woman and a child.
So he formed them both of clay, the woman and the child, who was
her son. After he had made the clay into human shapes, he said to
it, "You must be people." And then he covered it up and
went away. The next morning he went to the place, and took off all
of the covering, but the clay had changed little. The second morning
he saw a little change, and the third, a lot more.
The fourth morning he went to the place, took off the covering,
looked at the clay people, and said, "Get up and walk."
They did so. They walked down to the river with their maker, and
then he told them that his name was Napi, Old Man. And that is how
we came to be people. It was he who made us.
The first people were poor and naked, and they didn't know how
to do anything for themselves. Old Man showed them the roots and
berries and said that "you can eat these". He pointed
to certain trees. "When the bark of these trees is young and
tender, it's good. Then you can peel it off and eat it."
He told the people that animals should also be their food. "These
are your herds," he said. "All the little animals that
are on the ground; squirrels, rabbits, beavers, skunk - are all
good to eat. You do not need to fear to eat their flesh. The birds
that fly, too; these I made for you so that you can eat of their
flesh."
Old Man took the first people over the prairie and through the
forests and the swamps, to show them the different plants he had
made. He told them what herbs were good for sicknesses, saying often,
"The root of this herb or the leaf of this herb, if gathered
in a certain month of the year,is good for a certain sickness."
In that way the people learned about the medicines.
He showed them how to make weapons with which to kill the animals
for their food. First he went out and cut some serviceberry shoots,
brought them in, and peeled the bark off of them. He took one of
the larger ones, flattened it, tied a string to it, and thus made
a bow. Then he caught one of the birds he had made, took feathers
from its wing, split them, and tied them to a shaft of wood.
At first he tied four feathers to the wood, and then shot the arrow.
But he found that it didn't fly well unless he used three feathers,
and when he did, it hit the mark. Then he went out and broke sharp
pieces off of some of the stones around him. When he tied them on
to the shaft, he found that the black flint stones, and some white
flint stones, made the best arrow tips.
When the people had learned how to made bows and arrows, Old Man
told them how to shoot animals and birds. Because it isn't healthy
to eat animal flesh raw, he showed the first people how to make
a fire. He gathered a soft, dry, rotten driftwood and made a punk
of it. He then found a piece of hard wood and drilled a hole in
it with an arrow point. He gave the first man a pointed piece of
hard wood and showed him how to roll it between his hands until
sparks came out and the punk caught fire. Then he showed the people
how to cook meat, so that they didn't get sick from the raw meat.
He told them to get a certain kind of rock that was on the land,
while he found a harder stone. With the harder stone he had them
hollow out the softer stone and to make a bowl with it. Thus they
made their dishes.
Old Man told the first people how to get spirit power; "Go
away by yourself and go to sleep. Something will come to you in
your dream and will help you. It may be some animal. Whatever the
animal tells you to do in your sleep, do it. Obey it. Be guided
by it. If later you want help, if you are traveling alone or you
cry for help, your prayer will be answered. It may be by an eagle,
or a bear, or buffalo. Whatever animal hears your prayer, you must
listen to it.
That was how the first people got along in the world; by the power
that was given to them in their dreams.
After this, Old Man went back to traveling North. Many of the animals
that he had created followed him. They understood when he spoke
to them, and were his servants. When he got to the North point of
the Porcupine Mountains, he made some more mud images, blew upon
them, and they became people, men and women. They asked him, "What
are we to eat?"
By way of answer, Old Man made many images of clay in the form
of buffaloes. He blew his breath upon them and they stood up. When
he made some signs to him, they started to run. Then he said to
the people, "These animals; these buffalo, they are your food."
"But how can we kill them?" the people asked. "I
will show you," he replied.
He took them behind a cliff and told them to build rock piles.
"Now hide behind those rock piles," he said. "I will
lead the buffalo this way. Now, when they get opposite of you, rise
up."
After telling them what to do, he went toward he herd of the buffalo.
When he called to them, they started to run towards him, and they
followed him until they were inside the piles of rock. Then Old
Man dropped back. As the people rose up, the buffalo ran in a straight
line and jumped right out off of the cliff.
"Go down and take the flesh of those animals," Old Man
cried.
The people tried to tear the limbs apart, but they could not. Old
Man went to the side of the cliff, broke off some pieces with sharp
edges, and told the people to cut the flesh with these rocks. They
obeyed him. When they'd finished skinning the buffalo, they set
up some poles and put the hides on them. Thus they made a shelter
to sleep under.
After Old Man had taught the people all of these things, he started
off again, traveling North until he came to where the Bow and the
Elbow rivers meet. There he made more people and taught them the
same things. From there he went further North. When he'd gotten
almost all the way to the Red Deer River, he was so tired that he
lay down on top of a hill. The form of his body can be seen there
yet, on the top of the hill where he'd lain.
When he awoke from his sleep, he traveled farther North until he
came to a high hill. He climbed up to the top and there sat down
to rest. As he gazed over the country, he was very satisfied with
it. Looking at the steep hill below him, he said to himself, "This
is a fine place for sliding. I will have some fun!" And he
began to slide down the hill. The marks where he slid are still
there, and the place is known to all the Blackfeet as "Old
Man's Sliding Ground."
Old Man cannot die. Long ago he left the Blackfeet and went away
toward the west, going up into the mountains. Before he went, he
said to the people, "I will always take care of you, and some
day, I will come back." Even today some people think that he
spoke the truth, and that when he does come back, he will bring
with him the buffalo, who many believe that the white men have hidden.
Still others think that before he left he said that when he returned,
he'd find them a different people. They would be living in a different
world, he said, from that he had made for them and had taught them
to live in.
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