THE CREATION STORY

Reprinted with permission from Traditional Teachings by the Native North American Travelling College

Continued from last week

When the time came for them to be born, she gave birth to twin sons. The first one that was born came out the right way. He was in good form, good to look at, and didn’t have anything wrong with him. When the other one was born, he didn’t come out the right way. He broke through his mother’s side, and, in so doing, killed her.

Our elders say that even while she was carrying them in her womb, the two sons would argue and have fights. As soon as they were born the right-handed twin asked his brother why he had decided not to come into the world the natural way, thus saving his mother’s life. An argument began, but their Grandmother told them to stop their quarrelling.

The Grandmother buried her daughter and planted in her grave the plants and leaves that she had clutched in her hands when she fell from the sky world. Not long after, over her daughter’s head grew corn, beans, and squash. These were later known as the “three sisters” and became the main life support groups for the people of the “HOTINONSHONNI”. From her heart grew the sacred tobacco, which would later be used as an offering to send greetings to the Creator. At her feet grew the strawberry plants, as well as other plants that would be used as medicines to cure sickness. The earth itself was referred to as “OUR MOTHER” by the Master of Life, because their mother had become one with the earth.

It was then up to the Grandmother to raise the twins. The Grandmother gave the twins their names. The left-handed she called “Sawiskera” (Mischievous One), and the right-handed twin was given the name “Teharonhiawako” (Holder of the Heavens). The Grandmother made a mistake in thinking that it was Teharonhiawako, the one who looked right that was responsible for the death of her daughter.

Now that she had the responsibility of raising the twins, and because she felt bad that her daughter had been killed, she started mistreating Teharonhiawako and giving more attention to Sawiskera. By the time the twins grew up to be men, their Grandmother was old and ready to die.

They came to their Grandmother who had raised them, but who had also been mistaken about what had happened to her daughter.

Teharonhiawako felt bad that his Grandmother had favoured his brother during their youth.

He also felt bad that she blamed him for the death of their mother. 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 favourite 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 entered 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 divide the world in half. The night would belong to Sawiskera, and Teharonhiawako would get the daytime. 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.

Tehoraniawako hadn’t finished with his creation yet. There was one more thing he wanted to do.