The
old man from the Navajo tribe
told his creation story first. The man was very old with silver hair
that reached the middle of his back. The man had glowing green eyes.
This man was very quiet but when he spoke everyone listened. His voice
was deep and carried across the land, almost as an echo. His skin
appeared very rough and worn out. His hands were very tough and his
fingers callused, evidence of his long life.
"The
Changeable World," the old
man began. The story he was about to tell has been passed down through
all generations of the Navajo tribe. The world he begins to speak of is
the world we live in today. This world was found after four other
worlds.
A
long time ago there was a black
world, the same black as charcoal. This world was desolate and
contained nothing but darkness. One day, over this world, four clouds
formed in the sky. The four clouds were different colors and contained
different elements of the world. Two of the clouds symbolized man and
woman. The white cloud was the cloud of man because man is thought of
as the dawn of the morning, or the light that awakens. The black cloud
was that of woman. The cloud of the woman represents the darkness in
which children sleep while being nursed by mothers. The other two
clouds were blue and yellow. The blue cloud represented the sky, the
unknown above. The yellow cloud represented the sun.
From
the four clouds man and woman
were created. When the black cloud collided with the white cloud, man
was created. The blue and yellow clouds collided to create woman. These
creations of man and woman are not as we perceive them today. The man
and woman created here are called the Mist People. Man and woman had no
solid form or substance. They were merely spirits floating in the air.
Man and woman in this sense will proceed to create all beings of the
world. Some will change to beast; snakes, reptiles, insects, birds and
of course humans.
The
man was located on the east
side of the world and the woman was located on the west. This
represents the sunrise and sunset that we experience today. The man
burned a bright light in the east. The light was vibrant and clear and
could be seen all the way across the world. The woman also burned a
bright light in the east. The light of the woman was just as bright but
was blue. This light could be seen all the way across the world as
well. Man saw the light of the woman and began looking for it. Woman
saw the light of the man and began looking for it at the same time. Man
and woman were both unable to find the lights of the other and returned
disappointed. This happened for several days and each became
frustrated. Man gave up looking for the light because all he ever found
was smoke. Woman did not give up as easy as man. She decided she would
look for one more day and on this day she found man. After the man and
woman met, the man asked the woman if she would bring her light to him
and live with her. After man and woman were living together, other
beings began to be created. These other beings began to clutter up the
world in which the man and woman lived. So the man and the woman found
a hole in the world.
This
hole in the world led to the
second world. The man and the woman wondered the second world until the
other beings of the first world had found the same hole and began to
descend upon the second world. The man and the woman then went to the
third world, followed by the other beings. Then the man and woman went
to the fourth world and the same thing happened. Every time the
man and the woman and the beings went through a new world, they
changed.
And little by little the man and the woman changed into humans. The man
and woman that we know now were created. The other beings began to
evolve into different beings. Some were beast, snakes, reptiles,
insects, birds and others. Finally, when the man and the woman and the
other beings reached the fifth world they realized that it was big
enough for everyone. The fifth world is "The Changeable World," which
we now
know as earth.
"This is our belief
about the
creation of humans and creatures as it has been passed down through
many generations,' concluded the old Navajo man.
Author’s Note: The
original story went into much more description of
the travel between the five worlds. It also talked about some of the
beings that were created. I shortened these parts of the story for
length. The original story connected the four worlds to the four clouds
and the beings that were from each world were the color of the clouds.
Then Earth was the final world and it was different from all of the
other worlds. The Navajo creation myth was exactly what I was looking
for. I had to find four stories from tribes that are located in the
four cardinal directions of America.
The Navajo worked
perfectly for the
southern tribe. This story describes the creation of humans which
is what I am looking for in choosing my stories. This will be the
constant theme throughout the rest of my stories. My frametale
emphasizes the number four and uses it to connect the people that will
retell the creation stories. This story also includes a reference to
four which is very important for the Native Americans. This story uses
the four clouds that come from the four different directions. Also,
four
beings are created at first, then four more beings come about. This
grouping of things into four will reappear throughout my other stories
as well.
Coverpage
Story: The Creation or Age of Beginning
Author: Aileen O'Bryan
Book: The Dine: Origin Myths of the Navaho Indians.
Year: 1956
Websource. Sacred
Texts Archive
Navajo Elder. Navajo Nation. Websource
Compass. Webource