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Turtle
Storyteller by Randy Chitto
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"Three
Noted Chiefs of the Sioux."
"Raven
Steals the Light" This
story is shared by many northwest coast nations.
There was a time many
years ago when the earth was covered in darkness. An inky pitch
blanketed the world making it very difficult for anyone to hunt
or fish or gather berries for food. An old man lived along the
banks of a stream with his daughter who may have been very
beautiful or possibly quite homely. This didn't matter to the old
man however because after all it was dark and who could tell.
The reason why the
world was dark had to do with the old man who had a box that
contained a box that held many other boxes. In the very last box
was all the light in the universe and this was a treasure he
selfishly kept to himself.
The mischievous Raven
existed at that time because he always had. He was none too happy
about the state of the world for he blundered about in the dark
bumping into everything. His interfering nature peaked one day
when he stumbled by the old man's hut and overheard him muttering
about his boxes. He instantly decided to steal the light but
first had to find a way to get inside the hut.
Each day the young girl
would go to the stream to fetch water so the Raven transformed
himself into a tiny hemlock needle and floated into the girl's
bucket. Working a bit of his "trickster" magic, he made
the girl thirsty and as she took a drink he slipped down her
throat. Once down in her warm insides he changed again; this time
into a small human being and took a very long nap.
The girl did not know
what was happening to her and didn't tell her father. One day the
Raven emerged as a little boy child. If anyone could have seen
him in the dark, they would have noticed that he was a peculiar
looking child with a long beaklike nose, a few feathers here and
there, and the unmistakably shining eyes of the Raven.
Both father and
daughter were delighted with their new addition and played with
him for hours on end. As the child explored his new surroundings
he soon determined that the light must be kept in the big box in
the corner. When he first tried to open the box, his grandfather
scolded him profusely which in turn started a crying and
squawking fit the likes of which the old man had never seen. As
grandfathers have done since the beginning of time he caved in
and gave the child the biggest box to play with. This brought
peace to the hut for a brief time but it wasn't long until the
child pulled his scam again, and again, and again until finally
only one box remained.
After much coaxing and
wailing the old man at last agreed to let the child play with the
light for only a moment. As he tossed the ball of light the child
transformed into the Raven and snatching the light in his beak,
flew through the smoke hole and up into the sky.
The world was instantly
changed forever. Mountains sprang into the bright sky and
reflections danced on the rivers and oceans. Far away, the Eagle
was awakened and launched skyward - his target now clearly in
sight.
Raven was so caught up
in all the excitement of the newly revealed world that he nearly
didn't see the Eagle bearing down on him. Swerving sharply to
escape the outstretched talons, he dropped nearly half of the
ball of light which fell to the earth. Shattering into one large
and many small pieces on the rocky ground the bits of light
bounced back up into the heavens where they remain to this day as
the moon and the stars.
The Eagle pursued Raven
beyond the rim of the world and exhausted by the long chase,
Raven let go of what light still remained. Floating gracefully
above the clouds, the sun as we now know it started up over the
mountains to the east.
The first rays of the
morning sun brought light through the smoke hole of the old man's
house. He was weeping in sorrow over his great loss and looking
up, saw his daughter for the first time. She was very beautiful
and smiling, he began to feel a little better.
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THE
LEGEND OF THE DREAM CATCHER
According to legend, dreams are
messages from sacred spirits. It is said that the hole in the
center of the web allows the good dreams through while bad dreams
are trapped in the web until they disappear in the morning sun.
Dream Catchers are believed to bless the "sleeping one"
with pleasant dreams, good luck and harmony throughout their
lives.
The
Legend of the Dream Catcher
Long
ago when the word was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was
on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the
great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a
spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language. As he spoke,
Iktomi the spider picked up the elder’s willow hoop which
had feathers, horsehair, beads and offerings on it, and began to
spin a web.
He spoke to the elder about the cycles of
life; how we begin our lives as infants, move on through
childhood and on to adulthood. Finally we go to old age where we
must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle. “But”,
Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, “in each time
of life there are many forces; some good and some bad. If you
listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right
direction. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they'll steer
you in the wrong direction and may hurt you. So these forces can
help, or can interfere with the harmony of Nature. While the
spider spoke, he continued to weave his web.
When Iktomi
finished speaking, he gave the elder the web and said, “The
web is a perfect circle with a hole in the center. Use the web to
help your people reach their goals, making good use of their
ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the great spirit,
the web will catch your good ideas and the bad ones will go
through the hole.” The elder passed on his vision to the
people and now many Indian people hang a dream catcher above
their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good is captured
in the web of life and carried with the people, but the evil in
their dreams drops through the hole in the center of the web and
are no longer a part of their lives. It’s said that the
dream catcher holds the destiny of the future.
The
World is a Box of Souls
The peoples of the west coast
consider the world to be like a huge box, which contains all the
souls in the universe as either humans or animals. On the west
coast, the sides of boxes are made from a single board of cedar
that has been curved and bent to form a container with but one
seam.
Life
for the individual begins in a steamed and bent cradle; those of
high rank progress to a seat, which is a three-sided box turned
inside out. Life is sustained by food (from fish and animals)
that is kept in bent boxes stacked along the walls of the house.
And at death the body is placed in a coffin box that is stacked
in special houses or mortuaries for the dead.
The
lineage or family group, a collectivity of souls, is contained in
a house constructed like a box. Living people enter through the
front and sides, while the deceased leave only through the back
of the house (by removing special planks); the souls depart
through the smoke hole above the hearth in the center of the
house.
Each
box is also a living form in which the design is continuous from
one side to the other, describing a single being (often a
supernatural guardian of the box's contents). The house is also a
living being as well as a container of souls. The house has both
a skin (made of removable cedar planks) and bones (the house
posts, beams and rafter, which are considered to be arms, legs,
backbones and ribs). Similar guardian and crest figures ornament
the façade and sometimes the sides of the house.
The
ultimate house/box is the universe, through which the sun passes
every day, entering the front entrance (symbolic of life) and
exiting from the back (symbolic of death). During the night the
sun passes over the world house but can be seen as starlight
shinning through the holes in the roof.
The
unifying symbol of the box as container of souls and wealth
provides a decorative field, used for generations by Native
artists on the coast to create complex and subtle designs.
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