An Iroquoian Story of Creation

Continued from last week

And he understood what had happened when he thought back to the winter. And he went back to where his brother’s small dwelling was and he went in and grabbed him out. And he called him outside and they began to argue very much. And they started to push each other and they started hitting each other. And they got into a big fight. And it was really serious this time. They say that they were hitting very hard and they started to throw rocks and pick up things and swing things at each other. And Teharonhiawako accused his brother Sawiskera of capturing the animals, and just going and getting them when he wanted, because he didn’t want to go out and look for them and do the contest the way they had set it out in the beginning. So he was very upset that the animals had become wild and wouldn’t come any more.

So they were fighting about this. And it was kind of like the straw that broke the camel’s back. Their fight led them off all across the land. And the grandmother, one thing that had changed for her when she came from the Sky world, she began aging. And she was very old now, and had a hard time getting around. But she was trying to follow the boys to get them to stop their fight. And when she finally caught up with then they say that Teharonhiawako, the holder of the skies, had his brother Sawiskera down on the ground. And he had found an antler of a deer, one of the drop-off antlers, and he had picked it up and he was going to kill his brother with it. He was going to hit him in the head with this antler. The Grandmother finally caught up to them. And she made them stop, and they listened to her and they stopped their fight.

And Teharonhiawako, the holder of the skies said that from that time on that some things would change. He said that he had won the fight. He said it was over. And he said one of the things that would happen, he said the grandmother had told them about a Sky road that went from the earth back up to the sky world. And it went back up to that hole where she first fell through. That was the entrance back into the sky world. So, they said along that road in the future, all of the people who would be created, and they knew that this would happen. They said the people who would go back to the Sky World, they would have to become spirit beings to travel this road. And they said there would be many of them going back. They said, as part of Sawiskera’s part of losing this battle, was that Teharonhiawako was going to build a house for Sawiskera, halfway up that road in between the earth and the Sky World. And it would be part of Sawiskera’s punishment to sit there and to watch the people as they go by and to know where they are going, and for Sawiskera to know that he can’t live on the earth any more where the human beings would be, because he would cause too much trouble. So he is living in between the two worlds. And he can only watch as all of the people go past in front of his house up this Sky Road. And he knows where they’re going to go. He can call them in, they say, but that’s all he can do, is to talk to them, try to entice them to come in to visit with him, and then he could visit with them. So they say that’s one of the things that would happen.

Continued next week