(Peace Pilgrim)

A very long time ago...the world was nothing but water.  Far to the east and to the west lived two female goddesses. Hurung Whuti...of the East was the goddess of rocks, clay, and minerals. Her house was a kiva. She usually had one gray and one yellow fox skin that was tied to the top of the ladder leading  into her house. In the West...there lived another Hurung Whuti in a similar kiva.  She had a large turtle-shell rattle on her ladder. The Sun rose and set on this world of water.  Shortly before Sun appeared in the east he would dress himself in the gray fox skin. This would create the white dawn of the Hopi. After a bit, he would he took off the gray skin and put on the skin of the yellow fox. This brightened the sky into the yellow dawn of the Hopi. Then, he rose from the north end of the kiva in which the Hurung Whuti of the East lived. When he had crossed the sky... and arrived in the West, Sun would announce his arrival at the western Hurung Whuti's kiva by fastening the turtle-shell rattle on the top of her ladder. Then he entered into the kiva and passed through an opening in its north end and would continue his course eastward under the water. It came to pass that the two Hurung Whuti decided there should be some dry land in the Underworld and they caused the waters to recede eastward and westward so that some dry land appeared. The Sun passing over the land noticed that no living being could be seen. When he mentioned this to the goddesses, the one in the West invited the one in the East to come and talk about it.
Hurung Whuti of the East journeyed over a great rainbow to confer with her sister of the West. After a long council they decided to create a little bird. Huruing of the East made a wren of clay and covered it up with a piece of native cloth. They sang a song over it and after awhile, a live bird came forth. Since Sun always passed over the middle of the earth, the deities thought that he might not have seen living creatures in the North or South. They sent the little wren to fly all over the earth, but it returned and said that no living being existed anywhere.  (Actually, Spider Woman, Kohkang Wuhti, lived in a kiva somewhere in the southwest at the edge of the water, but Wren failed to notice her.) Thereupon, the Hurung Whuti of the West created many birds and animals in the same way as the wren had been created. She sent them out to inhabit the earth. As her sister had created the birds and the animals, the Hurung Whuti of the East created a man and woman out of the same kind of clay and covered them with the same cloth. Again the Hurung Whuti sang their special songs, and the man and the woman were endowed with life.  The two Hurung Whuti taught the man and the woman a language, and the deity of the East led them back over the rainbow to her home. There they lived for a short time before they and their children wandered out over the eastern land to make homes of their own. While the Hurung Whuti were busy creating the birds, the animals, and the first man and woman, Spider Woman decided that she, too, would create men and women. Thereupon she gave life to all kinds of people...and with the help of Mockingbird, Yaupa, she taught each group its own language before sending it off to live. After a talk with her sister, the Hurung Whuti of the West decided that she must create more people to inhabit the lands of the West. These were the ancestors of the Hopi. After this was done,  the Hurung Whuti parted and went to live for all time in their homes under the waters far to the East and far to the West.
The Hopi still remember the Hurung Whuti and make many prayer offerings to them.

(Hopi)

In the beginning there was no fire... and the world was cold. It was this way until the Thunders sent their lightning and put fire into the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree which grew on an island. The animals knew it was there because they could see the smoke coming out at the top, but they could not get to it on account of the water. So... they held a council to decide what to do. Every animal that could fly or swim was ready to go after the fire. Raven offered... and because he was so large and strong they thought he could surely do the work. It was for this reason he was sent first. He flew high and far across the water and landed in the tree. While he was wondering what to do next the heat blistered all of his feathers black and he became afraid. He came back without the fire. The little Screech-Owl  volunteered to go and reached the place safely but while he was looking down into the hollow tree... a blast of hot air came up and nearly burned his eyes. He managed to fly home as best he could... and it was a long time before he could see very well.  Then the Hooting Owl  and the Horned Owl went but by the time they got to the hollow tree the fire was burning so fiercely that the smoke nearly blinded them and the ashes carried up by the wind made white rings about their eyes. They had to come home without the fire.  Now no more of the birds would try. Now the little snake, the black racer, said he would go through the water and bring back some fire. He swam across to the island and crawled through the grass to the tree and went in by a small hole at the bottom. The heat and smoke were too much for him too and after zigging blindly over the hot ashes until he was almost on fire himself he managed to get out at the same hole. But his body had been burned black.  He came back and the great blacksnake "The Climber" offered to go for fire. He swam over to the island and climbed up the tree on the outside but when he put his head down into the hole the smoke choked him so that he fell into the burning stump and before he could climb out again he was as black as the Racer...Now all  held another council for still there was no fire and the world was cold. The birds, snakes, and four-footed animals all had some excuse for not going because they were all afraid to go near the burning sycamore. At last the Water Spider said she would go.  She could run on top of the water or dive to the bottom so there would be no trouble to get over to the island.  However, the question was...how could she bring back the fire? "I'll manage that," said the Water Spider. She spun a thread from her body and wove it into a bowl and she fastened it on her back.  She then crossed over to the island to where the fire was still burning. She put one little coal of fire into her bowl and came back with it. And ever since then... we have had fire and the Water Spider still has her bowl.

One time long, long ago, before the People had horses, the buffalo suddenly disappeared. All the hunters killed elk, deer, and smaller game animals along the river bottoms then. When all of them were either killed or driven away, the people began to starve. They were camped in a circle near a buffalo drive. Among them was a very, very poor old woman, the second wife of her husband. Her buffalo robe was old and full of holes. Her moccasins were old and were torn by rocks. While gathering wood for the fire one day, she thought she heard someone singing a song. It seemed quite close... but when she looked around she saw no one.
Following the sound and looking closely she found a small rock that was singing, "Take me! I am of great power. Take me! I am of great power." When the woman picked up the rock it told her what to do and taught her a special song. She told her husband and said, "Call all the men together and ask them to sing this song that will call the buffalo back." Her husband asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure." She replied. "First get me a small piece of the back of a buffalo from the Bear-Medicine man." Then she told her husband how to arrange the inside of the lodge with some sagebrush and buffalo chips. "Now tell the men to come and ask them for the four rattles they use." It is a custom for First wife to sit close to her husband in their lodge. However... this time the husband told Second wife to put on the First wife's dress and sit beside him. The buffalo stone began to sing after all the men were seated in the lodge. "The buffalo will all drift back. The buffalo will all drift back." Then the woman said to one of the men, "Go beyond the drive and put up a lot of buffalo chips in line. Then all of you are to wave at the chips with a buffalo robe, four times, while you shout like you were singing. The fourth time that you shout, all the chips will turn into buffalo and will go over the cliff." The men followed her directions while the woman led the singing in the lodge. She knew just what the young man was doing all the time, and she knew that a cow-buffalo would take the lead. While the woman was singing a song about the leader that would take her followers over the cliff, all the buffalo went over and were killed. Then the woman sang a different song..."I have made more than a hundred buffalo fall over the cliff...and the man above hears me." Ever since then, the people have taken good care of a buffalo stone for they know that it has much power.

Once, in the beginning animals and people lived together in harmony and talked with each other. However, when mankind began to increase at a rapid pace, the animals were pushed and crowded into forests and deserts. Man began to kill  four-footed's for their skins and furs, not just for food that was much needed. The animals angry at such treatment by those whom they had befriended decided they must punish such a greedy mankind. The Bear tribe met in council. This was led by Chief Old White Bear. After many Bears had spoken against humankind and their bloody ways, war was agreed upon. But what kind of weapons would the Bears use? Chief Old White Bear suggested that the human's weapon, the bow and arrow, should be used against him. The council all agreed.  While the Bears worked and made bows and arrows, they wondered what to use for bowstrings. One of the Bears sacrificed himself to provide the strings. The other Bears searched for wood that would be good for arrows.. When the first bow was finished and tried out, it was discovered that the Bear's claws could not release the strings to shoot the arrow. One Bear offered to cut his claws, but Chief Old White Bear would not let him to do that. Without claws he could not climb trees for food or safety. This might lead to the Bear's death. The Deer tribe called together it's council. Led by Chief Little Deer it was decided that any Indian hunters, who killed Deer without asking forgiveness in a proper manner, would be punished with painful rheumatism in their joints. After this was decided, Chief Little Deer sent a messenger to their nearest neighbours the Cherokee. "From now on, your hunters must first offer a prayer to the deer before taking him," stated the messenger. "You must ask his forgiveness and state you are forced only by the needs of your tribe to kill the deer. Otherwise, a terrible disease will come to the hunter." When Deer is slain by an Indian hunter, Chief Little Deer will go to the place and ask the slain deer's spirit, "Did you hear the hunter's prayer for forgiveness?" If the reply is yes, then all is well and Chief Little Deer returns to his home. But if the answer is no, then the Chief tracks the hunter and strikes him with the terrible disease of rheumatism and makes him a helpless cripple who will be unable to ever hunt again."  Then the finned-ones and reptiles held their council and it was decided they would haunt those Cherokee who tortured them. They did this by sending horrible dreams of snakes twisting around them and eating them alive.  These snake and fish dreams occurred very often amongst the Cherokees. To obtain relief, the Cherokee pleaded with their Shaman to make the frightening dreams go away. It was promised the dreams would go if they no longer brought misery to the snakes and fish. Now when the plants heard what the animals had decided to do against humans, they decided on a plan of their own. Every  tree, bush, herb, grass, and moss agreed to provide a cure for each one of the diseases named by the four-footeds, finned-ones,  reptiles and insects. From then on whenever any Cherokee visited the Shaman about their problems the cure was there and if the medicine man was not sure he communicated with the plant - spirits and asked. They always suggested a correct cure for mankind's diseases. This was the start of plant medicine from Mother Earth among the Cherokee Nation a very long time ago.