Chapter One: The Creation of the World
Yuchi
In the beginning, this world below the great dome of the sky was nothing but water. The first bird and animal people, larger and more powerful than those we know today, lived in the land above the dome of the sky. Water-animal people lived in the waters below. There was no earth at all, no world to stand on.
In time, the land above the sky dome grew crowded. Some of the bird people began to complain. "We need more room," the bird people said. "We need a way to make a world for the animal people down below, in the middle of the waters."
"But it takes earth to make a world," T-cho, the Sun, said. "Where will we find earth? Everything below is water."
Because no one knew the answer, the sky people agreed to hold a council to decide what to do. Sun led the meeting. "If there is any earth in the world below," she said, "it must be beneath the waters. But how are we to find it? You birds cannot fly below the waters, and I must not touch them at all."
Crane spoke up. "Then we shall ask the animals who live in the water to help."
"Perhaps Beaver will help," said Red-Bellied Woodpecker. "He could live on land as well as water."
So the birds flew down to talk to the water people, and asked Beaver to dive down through the waters to find some earth to make a world. "I will do it!" Beaver cried, and he tried. He came up gasping. "I swam as deep as I could swim," he wheezed when he could speak. "If there is a bottom, I could not find it."
The bird people then asked Fish Otter to try to find the earth they needed. "I will do it!" Fish Otter agreed, and he slid down through the waters. He was out of sight much longer than Beaver, but he, too, came up gasping. "I swam as deep as I could," Fish Otter choked out when he could speak. "If there is a bottom, I could not find it."
After all the other water people had failed, the people from the land above the sky dome decided to ask the very last, Lock-chew, the crawfish. "Crawfish, will you dive down to find the bottom of the waters?"
Lock-chew was a careful fellow. "I can dive deep, so perhaps I can find earth for you," he said. "Perhaps not. You must watch for a sign. If I go so deep that I cannot come up again, you will see blood in the water. If I have found earth, I will stir it up with my tail and claws. You will see the water grow yellow with mud before you see me."
Crawfish was very small to dive so deep, but Sun and the bird people said, "Try." So he did. He swam down, down, down out of sight, and he was gone for a very long time. At last, the watchers saw yellowish water come swirling up. A while after that, Crawfish appeared, too, with a little dirt clutched in his claws.
Crawfish placed the crumb of soft earth on the top of the water. T-cho, the Sun, touched it. Then T-cho asked the bird people, "Who will spread this earth out across the water, and fan it dry?"
"Let Ah-yok, the Hawk, do it," some said. "The wind from his wings can spread it smooth and dry it, too."
"No," cried all the others. "The wings of Yah-tee, the Buzzard, are wider and stronger. He is the best one to do this work!"
It was agreed that Yah-tee should go, and that no one was to walk upon the new land until it was smooth and dry. So Yah-tee, the Buzzard, flew up high and began to soar over the bit of earth with wide swoops. He glided back and forth on his great wings, and at once the earth began to spread out in all directions. He flew and flew and flew, and it spread and spread and spread until it was the great island that is the earth today. "How beautiful and flat it is!" the bird and animal people cried. Yah-tee soared on, and the land began to dry in the soft wind from his passing. But then -- ai! When the work was almost finished, Yah-tee's wings grew too tired to hold stretched out so wide and still for even a moment longer. To keep from skimming down onto the soft earth, he flap-flap-flapped his great wings to lift himself back into the sky. Because the earth was still soft, the wind from his wings made hills and valleys everywhere he passed as he climbed. As the earth dried, the hills and valleys hardened, so that we see them still.
Even with its hills and mountains, the bird and water animals were pleased with the new earth that rode upon the water. To keep it from sinking, the bird people tied each of its four corners to the rim of the sky dome with strong ropes.
The earth was finished, but there was still work to do. The new earth and its animals were living in the dark, for there was no light to see by. T-cho, the Sun, called a council to find someone to light the darkness. "Glow-worm can do it!" some cried, and so Glow-worm tried. He flew up and all around, but the glow he made came only in faint flickers. The people groaned.
"I can make light," said Yohah, the Star, and he climbed up the sky. Yohah's gleam was too dim to shine far.
"We need more!" the people called out.
Shar-pah, the Moon, stepped up and went to take a turn, but even she was too pale. The earth was lighter, but still too dark.
The people turned to the Sun. "Mother, what shall we do?"
T-cho, the Sun, smiled. "You are my children. I will make your light. I will shine for you." So she went off to the east to climb up into the sky. At her first step up, dawn broke. At her second, bright morning flooded over the earth. The earth's creatures sang out loud for joy as they watched her pass across the sky toward noon.
As T-cho passed over them, a drop of her blood fell to the ground, and from the blood and earth mixed together there sprang up the first human people, the Children of the Sun, the Yuchis.
Text copyright © 2001 by Jane Louise Curry
