When Grizzlies Walked Upright
Storyboard Text
- I will leave the Above World, and climb down the mountain and settle on the land below
- But be careful not to stick your head out at the top. If you do, the wind may catch you by the hair and blow you away.
- The Chief of Sky Spirits grew tired of his home in the Above World, so he carved a hole in the sky with a stone and pushed all the snow and ice down until he made a great mound that almost reached the sky from the earth.
- The Chief of the Sky Spirits touched the ground occasionally, growing trees and creating plant life. Where he threw small ends of his giant stick, he created animal life, grizzly bears being the largest of them. The grizzlies could stand on two feet and talk, just like humans. They looked so fierce that the Chief of Sky Spirits sent them away from him to live at the base of the mountains.
- A great storm that shook the top of the mountain blew smoke into the Chief's home, and so he told his youngest daughter, "Climb up the smoke hole and ask the Wind Spirit to blow more gently. Tell him I'm afraid he will blow the mountain over." He also gave her a warning about the Wind Spirit:
- The daughter's curiosity got the better of her, and she was blown away by the wind. When she landed, a family of grizzlies found her while out hunting for food, and they adopted her and raised her with the grizzly cubs. Many years later when the daughter grew up, she married the oldest of the grizzly cubs and they had many children. The children weren't like their mother or the grizzlies.
- The mother grizzly knew she would die very soon, so they sent the eldest grandson to find the Chief and tell him where he could find his daughter. Happy that he would see his daughter again, he rushed to see her, but grew angry when he realized that the bears were taking care of her daughter and grandchildren, especially because he had not created the new creatures.
- The Chief punished the bears, taking away their ability to walk on 2 legs and ability to talk. He took his daughter and left the earth, going back up to live in the sky. His grandchildren were the first Indians, "The ancestors of all the Indian Tribes." From this point on, Indians living around Mt. Shasta wouldn't kill grizzly bears, as they are believed to be their creators.
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