Native American Legends
The Blackfoot Genesis
A Blackfoot Legend
All animals of the Plains at one time heard and knew him, and all
birds of the air heard and knew him. All things that he had made
understood him, when he spoke to them, the birds, the animals, and
the people.
Old Man was traveling about, south of here, making the people.
He came from the south, traveling north, making animals and birds
as he passed along. He made the mountains, prairies, timber, and
brush first. So he went along, traveling northward, making things
as he went, putting rivers here and there, and falls on them, putting
red paint here and there in the ground, fixing up the world as we
see it today. He made the Milk River (the Teton) and crossed it,
and, being tired, went up on a little hill and lay down to rest.
As he lay on his back, stretched out on the ground, with arms extended,
he marked himself out with stones, the shape of his body, head,
legs, arms, and everything. There you can see those rocks today.
After he had rested, he went on northward, and stumbled over a knoll
and fell down on his knees. Then he said, "You are a bad thing
to be stumbling against"; so he raised up two large buttes
there, and named them the Knees, and they are called so to this
day. He went on further north, and with some of the rocks he carried
with him he built the Sweet Grass Hills.
Old Man covered the plains with grass for the animals to feed on.
He marked off a piece of ground, and in it he made to grow all kinds
of roots and berries, camas, wild carrots, wild turnips, sweet-root,
bitter-root, sarvis berries, bull berries, cherries, plums, and
rosebuds. He put trees in the ground. He put all kinds of animals
on the ground. When he made the bighorn with its big head and horns,
he made it out on the prairie. It did not seem to travel easily
on the prairie; it was awkward and could not go fast. So he took
it by one of its horns, and led it up into the mountains, and turned
it loose; and it skipped about among the rocks, and went up fearful
places with ease. So he said, "This is the place that suits
you; this is what you are 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. He saw that this would
not do, and took the antelope down on the prairie, and turned it
loose; and it ran away fast and gracefully, and he said, "This
is what you are suited to."
One day Old Man determined that he would make a woman and a child;
so he formed them both the woman and the child, her son of clay.
After he had molded the clay in human shape, he said to the clay,
"You must be people," and then he covered it up and left
it, and went away. The next morning he went to the place and took
the covering off, and saw that the clay shapes had changed a little.
The second morning there was still more change, and the third still
more. The fourth morning he went to the place, took the covering
off, looked at the images, and told them to rise and walk; and they
did so. They walked down to the river with their Maker, and then
he told them that his name was Na'pi, Old Man.
As they were standing by the river, the woman said to him, "How
is it? will we always live, will there be no end to it?" He
said: "I have never thought of that. We will have to decide
it. I will take this buffalo chip and throw it in the river. If
it floats, when people die, in four days they will become alive
again; they will die for only four days. But if it sinks, there
will be an end to them." He threw the chip into the river,
and it floated. The woman turned and picked up a stone, and said:
"No, I will throw this stone in the river; if it floats we
will always live, if it sinks people must die, that they may always
be sorry for each other."
The woman threw the stone into the water, and it sank. "There,"
said Old Man, "you have chosen. There will be an end to them."
It was not many nights after, that the woman's child died, and
she cried a great deal for it. She said to Old Man: "Let us
change this. The law that you first made, let that be a law."
He said: "Not so. What is made law must be law. We will undo
nothing that we have done. The child is dead, but it cannot be changed.
People will have to die."
That is how we came to be people. It is he who made us.
The first people were poor and naked, and did not know how to get
a living. Old Man showed them the roots and berries, and told them
that they could eat them; that in a certain month of the year they
could peel the bark off some trees and eat it, that it was good.
He told the people that the animals should be their food, and gave
them to the people, saying, "These are your herds." He
said: "All these little animals that live in the ground rats,
squirrels, skunks, beavers are good to eat. You need not fear to
eat of their flesh." He made all the birds that fly, and told
the people that there was no harm in their flesh, that it could
be eaten. The first people that he created he used to take about
through the timber and swamps and over the prairies, and show them
the different plants. Of a certain plant he would say, "The
root of this plant, if gathered in a certain month of the year,
is good for a certain sickness." So they learned the power
of all herbs. In those days there were buffalo. Now the people had
no arms, but those black animals with long beards were armed; and
once, as the people were moving about, the buffalo saw them, and
ran after them, and hooked them, and killed and ate them. One day,
as the Maker of the people was traveling over the country, he saw
some of his children, that he had made, lying dead, torn to pieces
and partly eaten by the buffalo. When he saw this he was very sad.
He said: "This will not do. I will change this. The people
shall eat the buffalo."
He went to some of the people who were left, and said to them,
"How is it that you people do nothing to these animals that
are killing you?" The people said: "What can we do? We
have no way to kill these animals, while they are armed and can
kill us." Then said the Maker: "That is not hard. I will
make you a weapon that will kill these animals." So he went
out, and cut some sarvis berry shoots, and brought them in, and
peeled the bark off them. He took a larger piece of wood, and flattened
it, and tied a string to it, and made a bow. Now, as he was the
master of all birds and could do with them as he wished, he went
out and caught one, and took feathers from its wing, and split them,
and tied them to the shaft of wood. He tied four feathers along
the shaft, and tried the arrow at a mark, and found that it did
not fly well. He took these feathers off, and put on three; and
when he tried it again, he found that it was good. He went out and
began to break sharp pieces off the stones. He tried them, and found
that the black flint stones made the best arrow points, and some
white flints. Then he taught the people how to use these things.
Then he said: "The next time you go out, take these things
with you, and use them as I tell you, and do not run from these
animals. When they run at you, as soon as they get pretty close,
shoot the arrows at them, as I have taught you; and you will see
that they will run from you or will run in a circle around you."
Now, as people became plenty, one day three men went out on to
the plain to see the buffalo, but they had no arms. They saw the
animals, but when the buffalo saw the men, they ran after them and
killed two of them, but one got away. One day after this, the people
went on a little hill to look about, and the buffalo saw them, and
said, "Saiyah, there is some more of our food," and they
rushed on them. This time the people did not run. They began to
shoot at the buffalo with the bows and arrows Na'pi had given them,
and the buffalo began to fall; but in the fight a person was killed.
At this time these people had flint knives given them, and they
cut up the bodies of the dead buffalo. It is not healthful to eat
the meat raw, so Old Man gathered soft dry rotten driftwood and
made punk of it, and then got a piece of hard wood, and drilled
a hole in it with an arrow point, and gave them a pointed piece
of hard wood, and taught them how to make a fire with fire sticks,
and to cook the flesh of these animals and eat it.
They got a kind of stone that was in the land, and then took another
harder stone and worked one upon the other, and hollowed out the
softer one, and made a kettle of it. This was the fashion of their
dishes.
Also Old Man said to the people: "Now, if you are overcome,
you may go and sleep, and get power. Something will come to you
in your dream, that will help you. Whatever these animals tell you
to do, you must obey them, as they appear to you in your sleep.
Be guided by them. If anybody wants help, if you are alone and traveling,
and cry aloud for help, your prayer will be answered. It may be
by the eagles, perhaps by the buffalo, or by the bears. Whatever
animal answers your prayer, you must listen to him." That was
how the first people got through the world, by the power of their
dreams.
After this, Old Man kept on, traveling north. Many of the animals
that he had made followed him as he went. The animals understood
him when he spoke to them, and he used them as his servants. When
he got to the north point of the Porcupine Mountains, there he made
some more mud images of people, and blew breath upon them, and they
became people. He made men and women. They asked him, "What
are we to eat?" He made many images of clay, in the form of
buffalo. Then he blew breath on these, and they stood up; and when
he made signs to them, they started to run. Then he said to the
people, "Those are your food." They said to him, "Well,
now, we have those animals; how are we to kill them?" "I
will show you," he said. He took them to the cliff, and made
them build rock piles like this; and he made the people hide behind
these piles of rock, and said, "When I lead the buffalo this
way, as I bring them opposite to you, rise up."
After he had told them how to act, he started on toward a herd
of buffalo. He began to call them, and the buffalo started to run
toward him, and they followed him until they were inside the lines.
Then he dropped back; and as the people rose up, the buffalo ran
in a straight line and jumped over the cliff. He told the people
to go and take the flesh of those animals. They tried to tear the
limbs apart, but they could not. They tried to bite pieces out,
and could not. So Old Man went to the edge of the cliff, and broke
some pieces of stone with sharp edges, and told them to cut the
flesh with these. When they had taken the skins from these animals,
they set up some poles and put the hides on them, and so made a
shelter to sleep under. There were some of these buffalo that went
over the cliff that were not dead. Their legs were broken, but they
were still alive. The people cut strips of green hide, and tied
stones in the middle, and made large mauls, and broke in the skulls
of the buffalo, and killed them.
After he had taught those people these things, he started off again,
traveling north, until he came to where Bow and Elbow rivers meet.
There he made some more people, and taught them the same things.
From here he again went on northward. When he had come nearly to
the Red Deer's River, he reached the hill where the Old Man sleeps.
There he lay down and rested himself. The form of his body is to
be seen there yet.
When he awoke from his sleep, he traveled further northward and
came to a fine high hill. He climbed to the top of it, and there
sat down to rest. He looked over the country below him, and it pleased
him. Before him the hill was steep, and he said to himself, "Well,
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 down are
to be seen yet, and the place is known to all people as the "Old
Man's Sliding Ground."
This is as far as the Blackfeet followed Old Man. The Crees know
what he did further north.
In later times once, Na'pi said, "Here I will mark you off
a piece of ground," and he did so. Then he said: "There
is your land, and it is full of all kinds of animals, and many things
grow in this land. Let no other people come into it. This is for
you five tribes (Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Gros Ventres, Sarcees).
When people come to cross the line, take your bows and arrows, your
lances and your battle axes, and give them battle and keep them
out. If they gain a footing, trouble will come to you." Our
forefathers gave battle to all people who came to cross these lines,
and kept them out. Of late years we have let our friends, the white
people, come in, and you know the result. We, his children, have
failed to obey his laws.
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