Dangerous Creatures: Native American Stories

   And here we are at the last four Dangerous Creatures tours, which are collections of various world folk tales.

   When Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, he found people there. People whom he mistakenly named Indians, because he believed he had reached India. People have lived in North America for thousands of years. There are many tribes, with many different cultures. I will now share with you some of the stories that the descendants of these first Americans tell.

   Some people say that in the beginning, the earth was nothing but water. Then, an animal from the world above was sent to dive down under the water to pull up some mud, so that the land could be created from it. Many animals tried and failed. The Cherokees say it was a water beetle that finally succeeded. The Crow say it was a muskrat. Many other people believe that it was a turtle. And some say that the earth rides on the back of a turtle today.
   At first, the mud of the new world was soft. So the buzzard flew down to see if the earth was dry enough to live on. And wherever his wings flapped downwards, valleys formed, while mountains formed where he swooped upwards. In this way, the Cherokees say, the land was given shape.
   The animals were told to keep watch over the newly created world for seven days and seven nights. But only the owl and the cougar were able to stay awake. And so it was that these animals were given the gift of sight in the dark.
   You may see the glint of their eyes in the moonlight, and hear the cougar scream or the owl screech – which some people believe predicts death.

   If you look around to see what watches in the dark, you may look up. Up past the trees, until you see the stars known as the Big Dipper. These are in the Great Bear constellation. Many people say that these stars once were bears, who were pursued by hunters into the sky.
   The bear is an animal of great power, and he can be a good friend and teacher or a fierce enemy.
   The Inuit are descendants of the very last people to cross from Asia into Alaska before the land bridge between the continents disappeared under the Bering Sea. They say that humans and bears distrust each other because, long ago, a hunter’s wife turned into a bear and killed her unfaithful husband.

   The Pauma of northern California have a story about a girl who married a rattlesnake. She lived with Rattlesnake and bore him four sons, whom she told that they must never bite their human relatives. Like all children, some listened while others did not.
   According to the Okanago, a northwest people, one day Rattlesnake got new and powerful fangs that could kill. But he promised that he would never bite anyone who treated him with respect. And furthermore, he would never bite anyone without a warning shake of his rattle.
   Rattlesnake gave his old fangs to his brothers, Wasp and Bee. The venom in Rattlesnake’s old fangs, now possessed by Bee and Wasp, would only cause pain.
   Many other stories from North America say that wasps and bees are relatives of poisonous snakes. Of course, you know that wasps and bees do not have fangs. But they do have stingers and venom. And so, like the rattlesnake, they are creatures that must be treated with respect.

   Many Native American stories explain how biting or stinging insects came to be, especially mosquitoes. If you live where there are a large number of these creatures, you must know how annoying they can be. Some people from the southeast and northwest coasts say that such troublesome winged creatures rose from the ashes of a giant cannibal when his body was burnt. A story from the northeast says that mosquitoes are the children of a witch who hated humans.
   Not all insects are pests, however. Some are creatures of great beauty. The Papago of the southwest say that, one day, the Creator was watching a group of children playing, and he wanted to make something special for them. So he took all the colours of a summer day, and he created butterflies.

   According to the Brulë Sioux, it was another tiny creature, the spider, that predicted the coming of Europeans and the end of the way of life that Native Americans had followed for thousands of years. At that time, millions of buffalo covered the plains of North America. The spider said, “When these new people come, the buffalo will go away.” Indeed, by 1895, only a thousand remained alive! The Caiouers say that the others walked into the face of a mountain, which opened up to reveal a world of beauty, where the buffalo could dwell forever.

   A tale from the White River Sioux says that an old woman sits in a hidden cave, sewing porcupine quills onto a buffalo robe in the traditional way of her people, with her dog watching her. Whenever the old woman’s attention wanders, the dog pulls the quills from the robe.
   The legend says that when the old woman finishes the robe, the world will end. Many people say that the world has already been destroyed and recreated, and that this may happen yet again.

   This is the end of my Native American stories.