Day and Night

Cree Nation Story

When all was finished, that He planned, the Creator was tired and decided to take a rest. All the animals were happy, but after a while they realised that there was something missing.

As all was new to them they did not know what it was, until Brother Bear called a meeting of them all and said:” I do not know who is here, because it is all dark and I can not see any of you.  We need to do something about this. My head is full of lumps as I keep walking into trees and their branches. If you all agree we will ask our brother Eagle, because he can fly the highest and see the farthest, if he can see anything or is it dark all over.”

So all the animals and birds took a vote and agreed to ask Brother Eagle to fly as high as he could and look as far as he could and find out if there is anything to be seen. Brother Eagle agreed. He was away for a long time. When he came back, he reported that he had seen something far away but he was way too tired to go any closer.

Grand Father Turkey Vulture said, I am as big as Brother Eagle and I have a lot of feathers on my head, if there is anything to bring back I can hide it in the feathers on my head. And away he went. After a while he saw a cottage with the door open and there was light coming out, so he took the light, put it into his feathers and headed home. The light was so hot that it burned all the feathers off his head and he had to drop it. When he got home he told the others what happened. To this day he has no feathers on his head.

Brother Rat said:” I have a long tail, full of long hair I will go get the light and hide it in my tail,” And away he went. He found the cottage, took the light, and hid it in the hair on his tail. And guess what happened, the light again was so hot that it burned all the hair off his tail. To this day there is no hair on Brother Rat’s tail.

The animals did not know what to do. Finally Grand Mother Spider said:” let me give it a try” and away she went.  She first went down to the creek, got some clay, made a thimble, hung it around her neck and headed to the cottage. She put the light in the thimble and went home.

All the animals were very happy, because now they could see, but now the others from the cottage had no light and were angry. They armed themselves and wanted to go to war to get the light back.

Brother Bear said;” no need to fight over this, we can have the light for 12 hours and you can have it for 12 hours, ” and they all agreed.

Thanks to Brother Bear we have day and night.

 

 

I work with Muskwa International Foundation Inc. which is an entity that was formed to assist the street children in the Philippines, mostly in Manila and Davao, the two largest cities in the Philippines.  You can find out about their projects here Street Children and Natural Disasters.

The stories I tell here I learned from the Elders and Story tellers and I am passing them on with their blessings. These stories can be anything from 4,000 to 5,000 years old.