Wichita Tribe Creation Myth
Storyboard Text
- In the beginning, there were no stars nor a sun. For the longest time, the only man was Man-never-known-on-Earth. He created everything. He created the world out of land and water but everything was still dark.
- The Moon and the Morning Star •A Wichita tribe Creation Myth
- Then Man-never-known-on-Earth created a man called Man-with-the-Power-to-Carry-Light. He also created a woman named Bright-Shining-Woman. Everything they would ever need was there when they woke up. Bright-Shining-Woman received an ear of corn and she knew that it would be the food of generations to come.
- Although, the world was still dark. Without knowing why, Man-with-the-Power-to-Carry-Light began on a journey to the east, moving very slowly through the darkness. He came to a stranger who told him that there would be many villages and many people in the future, and that it would be up to Man-with-the-Power-to-Carry-Light to teach them.
- While they were talking, a voice from the east called to this stranger to shoot a black-and-white deer that would follow a white and black deer out of a stream nearby.
- Four times the stranger had to tell the impatient voice that he was preparing a bow and arrow to shoot the deer. Finally he emerged from his lodge as the deer jumped out of the water, and he shoot the black-and-white deer.
- This meant that the earth would turn, and the stars would move, and there would be day and night. The stranger, whose name was Star-that-is-always-moving, went to follow the deer that he had wounded, but Man-with-the-Power-to-Carry-Light stayed by the shore. From there he saw the sun rise for the first time.
- He returned to his home, but he traveled much faster now that there was light. That night he saw three stars in the sky, with another star nearby, and he concluded that they were the three deer and the man who followed them.
- After there was light, villages and people multiplied, as the stranger had predicted. Man-with-the-Power-to-Carry-Light and Bright-Shining-Woman went from village to village, teaching the people. Man-with-the-Power-to-Carry-Light taught the men about bows and arrows and he taught them to play the ball game.
- Bright-Shining-Woman taught the women about corn, how to grow it, how to feed the people with it, how to offer some corn at each meal to Man-never-known-on-Earth, and how to take kernels and rub them on children as a prayer. She also taught them the double ball game.
- Bright-Shining-Woman told the village women that after she was gone, they could count her appearances and then they would be able to keep track of when their children would be born. Then she left them, and that night the first moon came up, because she was the moon.
- Man-with-the-Power-to-Carry-Light taught the men that they must offer some of the game that they caught to the moon and stars and to other supernatural beings. He told them that he would leave them, but they would see him sometimes in the early morning. When they saw him, they were to take their children to drink and bathe in the river, which would give them long life. Then he left them and became the Morning Star.
- Throughout the generations, the Wichita tribe still center worship around heavenly bodies. Many of the original games of the Wichita are still played today; and many customs and rituals are still continued to be practice to this day.
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