The Beginning of the World

Blackfoot Mythology

The Old Man came from the south, making the mountains, the prairies, and the forests as he passed, the birds and the animals too. He traveled north making things as he went and arranging the world as we see it today.

He covered the plains with grass and marked off a piece of ground, and in it made many kinds of roots and berries, camas, carrots, turnips, bitterroot, sarvisberries, bull-berries, cherries, plums, and rosebuds. He planted trees and he put many animals on the ground.

He created the bighorn sheep with its big horns out on the prairie. But it did not travel easily on the prairie; it was awkward and clumsy. So Old Man took it by the horns and led it up into the mountains, and turned it loose. There the bighorn ran among the rocks and went up fearful places with ease. So Old Man said to it, "You are suited to the rocky mountainsides."

Whn he was in the mountains, he made an antelope and turned it loose. It ran so fast that it fell on a mountain slope and hurt itself. Seeing that the mountains were not the right place for it, Old Man took the antelope down to the prairie and turned it loose. When he saw it running away gracefully, he said, "You are suited to the broad prairie."

One day Old Man decided that he would make a woman and a child. So he formed them both of clay, the woman and the her son.

After he had molded the clay in human shape, he said to it,"You must be people." And then he covered it up and went away. The next morning he went to the place, took off the covering, looked at the images, and said "Arise and walk." They did. They walked down to the river with their creator, and then he told them that his name was Napi, Old Man.

The Dawn and Dusk of Man is a Thinkquest Mythology Project by Sheila, Min, Ana and Tencia of Montgomery Blair High School.