Native American Legends Musquakie - Chasing the Bear

Native American Legends Musquakie - Chasing the Bear

An American Indian Legend - Nation Unknown

They say that once, a long time ago, it was early winter. It had snowed the night before, and the first snow still lay fresh on the ground. Three young men went out to hunt at first light. One of them took his little dog, Hold Tight, with him.

They went along the river and up into the woods, where they came to a place on the side of a hill where the shrubs and bushes grew low and thick. Here, winding among the bushes, the hunters found a trail, and they followed it. The path led them to a cave in the hillside. They had found a bear's den.

"Which of us shall go in an drive the bear out?" the hunters asked one another.

At last the oldest said, "I will go," and he crawled into the bear's den. With his bow he poked the bear to try to drive him out. "He's coming! He's coming!" the man in the cave called to his companions.

The bear broke away from his tormentor and lumbered out of the cave. The hunters followed him.

"Look!" the youngest of the hunters cried, "See how fast he's going! He's heading for the north, the place from whence comes the cold; that's where he's going!" And the hunter ran to the north hoping to turn the bear and drive him back towards the others.

"Look out!" shouted the middle hunter, "here he comes! He's going to the east, to the place where midday comes from!" And he ran towards the east, to try to turn the bear and drive him back towards the others.

"I see him!" cried the oldest hunger, "He's going to the west, to the place where the sun falls down. Hurry, brothers, that's the way he's going!" And he and his little dog ran as fast as they could the west, to try to turn the bear back.

As they hunters ran after the bear, the oldest one looked down. "Oh," he shouted, "there is Grandmother Earth below us. This bear is leading us into the sky! Brothers, let us turn back before it is too late!"

But it was already too late; the sky bear had led them too high. At last the hunters caught up with the bear and killed him. The men piled up maple and sumac branches, and on the pile of boughs they butchered the bear. That is why those trees turn blood-red in the fall.

Then the hunters stood up. All together they lifted the bear's head and threw it away towards the east. Now, early on winter's mornings a group of stars in the shape of the bear's head can be seen low on the horizon in the east, just before daybreak.

Next the hunters threw the bear's backbone away to the north, and if you look north at midnight in the middle of winter you will see the bear's backbone there, outlined in stars.

At any time of the year, if you look at the sky, you can see four bright stars in a square, and behind them three big bright stars and one tiny dim one. The square of stars is the bear; the three running behind him are the hunters, and the little tiny one that you can hardly see is the little dog, Hold Tight.

Those eight stars move around and around the sky together all year long. They never go in to rest like some of the other stars. Until the hunters catch up with the bear, they and the little dog will never rest.

That is the end of that story.

Native American Legends

Why the Stars are in the Sky

An Eskimo Legend

To the Eskimos the stars are not just put in the sky to give light or guide the wandering traveler. They are living things, sent by some twist of fate to roam the heavens forever, never swerving from their paths. One of these creatures who left the earth and went to live in the sky was Nanuk the bear.

One day Nanuk was waylaid by a pack of fierce Eskimo hunting dogs. Nanuk knew only too well that Eskimo dogs are not to be trifled with, and he tried to give them the slip. Faster and faster he ran over the ice, but the dogs were still at his heels. For hours the chase went on, yet he could not shake them off.

In the fury and terror of the hunt, they had come very close tothe edge of the world, but neither Nanuk or his pursuers noticed. When at last they reached it, they plunged straight over into the sky and turned into stars.

To the Europeans they are the Pleiades, in the constellation of Taurus the bull. But to this day Eskimos see them as Nanuk the bear, with the pack of savage dogs out for his blood. Up in the sky directly overhead the Eskimos see a giant caribou, though we call it the Great Bear.

Over on the other side of the sky, they can make out some stars in the shape of an oil lamp. (We say it is the constellation of Cassiopeia.) On the horizon between then lamp and the caribou the Eskimos see stars like three steps carved out of the snow. They call it the stairway from Earth to the Sky, but we talk of Orion the Hunter. Sometimes, on the darkest nights, the Eskimos' dead ancestors come out to dance. The stars are the lights round the dance floor. Then Gulla glows across the sky: the shimmering pattern of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.

To the Norsemen it was Bifrost, the bridge from our world to Asgard, home of the gods. But to the people of the Far North, the loveliest and most wonderful star of all is the sun. They see her as a young girl of dazzling beauty. In their brief Arctic summer she is there night and day, for this is the season of the midnight Sun, when her brother Aningan, the Moon, chases her round and round the North Pole so she cannot escape over the horizon. Aningan the moon is a great hunter, and he chases animals as well as his sister the Sun. He has a faithful pack of hunting dogs to help him. Sometimes his hounds are carried away by the joy of the hunt, and they jump over the edge of the sky and run down the stairway in Orion to Earth. That is why there are shooting stars.

After hunting Aningan rests in his igloo, which he shares with his cousin Irdlirvirissong. His cousin loves jokes and games, and sometimes she comes out and dances in the sky. She is so funny that if the Eskimos see her they roar with laughter. But first they make sure none of their sorcerers or their other leaders are nearby, for if Irdlirvirissong knows that people are laughing at her she will be angry, and her punishments are terrible. She kills people who make fun of her, and eats them up. The sorcerers are powerful, and ordinary Eskimos tremble before them, especially Angakog, the mightiest of all. Yet even Angakog's magic arts are powerless against the planet Jupiter. For Jupiter is mother to the Sun and the Moon, and a constant peril to all sorcerers. They have to be very, very careful, or Old Mother Jupiter will open them up and devour their livers. Angakog trembles in fear of her, even as the ordinary folk tremble in fear of him.

Native American Legends

Algon and the Sky Girl

An Algonquin Legend

Algon was a great hunter who found a strange circle cut in the prairie grass. Hiding in the bushes nearby, he watched to see what might have caused it. Finally, a great willow basket descended from the sky bearing twelve beautiful maidens.

The maidens got out of the basket and began singing celestial songs and doing circle dances. All of the girls were beautiful, but the most beautiful of all was the youngest, with whom Algon was immediately smitten.

He ran toward the circle in the hope of stealing her away, but just as he arrived, the girls were alarmed and left in the basket, which flew high into the sky. This happened again three more times, but Algon's resolve only grew. Then he devised a strategy.

He placed a hollow tree trunk near the circle. Inside the tree trunk lived a family of mice. He took some charms out of his medicine bag and transformed himself into a mouse. When the girls in the basket next arrived, he and the other mice ran among the girls. The girls stomped on the mice killing all of them but Algon, who then resumed his human form and carried off his beloved.

He took her to his village and in time she fell in love with him. They had a son and the three lived very happily for a time. But as the years passed, the sky- girl grew very homesick. She spent the entire day gazing up at the sky, thinking of her sisters and parents. This homesickness continued until she could no longer bear it. So she built a magic willow basket, placed her son and some gifts for her people in it, climbed in, and headed for the sky. She remained there for years.

In her absence, Algon pined for his wife and son. Every day he went to sit in the magic circle, in the hope that they would return. He was now growing old.

Meanwhile, in the far-off sky-country, his son was growing into manhood. The lad asked questions about his father, which made the sky-girl miss Algon. She and her son spoke to her father, the chief of the sky-people. He told them to go back to the Earth, but ordered them to return with Algon and the identifying feature of each of the Earth animals.

Then the sky-girl and the son returned to Earth. Algon was overjoyed to see them and was eager to gather the gifts the sky-chief wanted. From the bear, he took a claw; from the eagle, hawk, and falcon, a feather; from the raccoon, its teeth; and from the deer, its horns and hide. He placed all of these gifts in a special medicine bag, and ascended with his wife and son to the sky- country in their willow basket. His father-in-law divided the tokens among his people, offering tokens to Algon and the sky-girl; and they chose the falcon feather. The chief said that they should always be free to travel between the sky-country and the Earth, and so Algon and his wife became falcons. Their descendants still fly high and swoop down over the forests and prairies.

When Tcikabis Trapped The Sun

Once Tcikabis decided to visit the sky. His sister tried to talk him out of it but his mind was made up. He climbed to the top of the highest tree, but when he got there and looked around, the sky was still above his head. So Tcikabis used his medicine and blew on the tree until it was twice as tall as it was before. He climbed to the top, but the sky was still overhead. So Tcikabis used his medicine again and blew on the tree until it was even taller. But when he climbed to the top, the sky was still overhead. Tcikabis used his medicine again and the tree grew even taller. But when he climbed to the top, the sky was still overhead. Finally he used his medicine a fourth time and this time the tree grew so tall that when he climbed to the top, he could step off onto a road leading across the sky.
Now Tcikabis was tired from all that effort, so he lay down on the road to sleep. But he didn't sleep long before a loud noise woke him up. It sounded like something big was coming. He looked, but all he could see was a light getting brighter and brighter. It was the sun!
"Get out of my way," said the sun.
"No," said Tcikabis, who never did what anyone told him. "I don't want to move. You go around me."
"I can't go around you, I'll set the treetops on fire if I leave my path. This is my road, now get out of my way!"
Tcikabis just laughed at the sun. "If you don't want to go around me, jump over me then," he said. "I don't intend to get up."
"Fine!" The sun stepped over Tcikabis. He was so hot that Tcikabis' clothes caught on fire as the sun passed over him, and if it wasn't for his powerful medicine he would have been burned to death from the heat. Now Tcikabis was naked and burned and his hair was singed off and he was angry. "I'm going to get revenge."
When he went home his sister asked him what happened. "The sun burned me. I was just sitting there minding my own business and he burned me." Tcikapis forgot all about being such a troublemaker and ignoring the sun's warnings. "I'm going to get revenge on him."
"No, don't do that. You'll just cause more trouble for all of us."
But Tcikabis didn't listen to her. He got to work making a magic net, big enough to catch the sun in. He went back up the tree and set a trap on the sun's path. When the sun came that way, he was caught in the net, and darkness covered the whole world.
Tcikabis was happy, but his sister said "Nothing good will come of this."
The darkness lasted and lasted. The people were starting to starve. No plants would grow, and there was no light to hunt by. Everyone was angry and they told Tcikabis "Let the sun go! We need him!" But Tcikabis said "I can't let him go. If I get close enough to cut the net, I'll be burned to death this time."
But everyone bothered him so much that Tcikabis finally agreed to carry some little animals up the tall tree. Maybe one of them could hide in the shadow of a rope and gnaw through it. The turtle tried, but he was too big. He got burned and had to turn back. The rabbit tried, but he was too big too. He got burned and had to turn back. Even the squirrel was too big. He got burned and had to turn back too. Finally the mouse tried it. He was so little that he could hide his whole body behind the rope. He gnawed through it and the sun escaped.
And then life went on as usual.