Cultural Corner

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

THE CREATION STORY

From the book LEGENDS OF THE NATIONS

Produced by the North American Indian Travelling College

In spite of this, he still loved his Grandmother. This was revealed in one of the arguments the twins had over their Grandmother when she died.

Sawiskera wanted to kick her body off the edge of the world, and into the water. But the other one said, “No! The best thing to do is to place her back into the earth, because she felt so strongly about being a part of the earth.” In the course of the argument, they fought over the body. Somehow, Sawiskera pulled the head off their Grandmother’s body, and it was thrown up into the air. This is why within our tradition we talk about our Grandmother, the Moon, who helps brighten up the night world for her favorite Grandson, the left-handed twin, Sawiskera.

Teharonhiawako took her body away and put her back into the earth. Then, he began to go about this world, creating the things we understand - the various animals, different medicines, flowers, all the different beings - but as he was going around doing this, his brother was right behind him making his own creations.

Sawiskera tried to create beings himself, and they came out looking ugly. He also tried to alter what his brother made.

Teharonhiawako made the rose, and his brother put thorns on it.

Teharonhiawako created the deer, elk and moose, and Sawiskera altered the mind of the mountain lion to kill these mild-mannered creatures. Teharonhiawako would create beautiful trees, and his brother would refashion them to create the opposite side effect.

This went on until Teharonhiawako created everything he could think of, but his brother was always behind him, disrupting or altering what he created. At the end, it seemed that everything balanced out evenly. But it always looked like one would win over the other.

Finally, Teharonhiawako got tired of this constant tampering and confronted his brother. They got into a discussion, finally agreeing to a contest to see who would be “The Ruler of The World.”

The first contest they played was a form of the lacrosse game, but after six days, it ended in a draw. Then, they played the great peach bowl game, and again after six days, it ended in a draw. Finally they agreed that they must fight until one of them was a clear winner. Sawiskera fashioned himself a spear, while Teharonhiawako took the antlers of a deer to defend himself.

After many days of fighting, Sawiskera appeared to gain the upper edge on his brother. Finally, he lunged at his brother and fell on top of the deer antlers, disabling him.

Teharonhiawako didn’t want to kill his brother or do anything terrible to him, so what they did was the divide the world in half. The night time would belong to Sawiskera and Teharonhiawako would get the day time. Sawiskera would take his part of the world and his time of doing things. He warned his brother that he would always be there and would be thinking about how he had been beaten and how he was going to get revenge, so they agreed to split up.

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‘INTERPRETATIONS OF SKYWOMAN’ art exhibit now open at the Native North American Travelling College until Jan. 2, 2015. A themed art exhibition showcasing ways that traditional and contemporary artist render Skywoman into an art form. For information call 613-932-9452.