Salish Creation Myth

Old Man in the sky created the world. Then he drained all the water off the earth and crowded it into the big salt holes now called the oceans. The land became dry except for the lakes and rivers. Old Man Coyote became lonely and went up to the sky to talk. He was so unhappy that he was crying. Old Man in the sky questioned him.

"Why are you so unhappy? Have I not made enough land for you to run around on? Are not Chief Beaver, Chief Otter, Chief Bear, and Chief Buffalo on the land to keep you company?"

Old Man Coyote cried more to this. Old Man in the sky became cross and scolded him. "Foolish Old Man Coyote, you must not drop so much water onto the land. I have worked many days to dry it. Soon you will have it all covered with water again. What is the trouble you are having? What more do you want?"

"I am very lonely because I have no one to talk to," he replied. "Chief Beaver, Chief Otter, Chief Bear, and Chief Buffalo are too busy with their families. I want people of my own to watch over."

"Then stop this crying," said Old Man in the sky. "If you stop annoying me with your visits, I will make people for you. Take this parfleche. It is a bag made of rawhide. Take it to a mountain filled with red earth and fill the bag to bring back to me."

Old Man Coyote took the bag and traveled many days and nights. At last he found a mountain with much red soil.  He filled the parfleche, but was weary from the long journey and decided to sleep for a while. "When I waken, I will run swiftly back to Old Man in the sky."

After a while, Mountain Sheep came along. He saw the bag and looked to see what was inside. "The poor fool has come a long distance to get such a big load of red soil," he said to himself. "I do not know what he wants it for, but I think I will mess with him." Mountain Sheep dumped all of the red earth out and filled the lower half of the bag with white soil, and the upper part with red soil.  Then laughing heartily, he ran to his hiding place.

Soon Old Man Coyote woke up. He tied the top of the bag and hurried to Old Man in the sky. When he arrived to the sky, it was nighttime. It was so dark that the two of them could not see the soil in the parfleche. Old Man in the sky took the dirt and said, "I will make this soil into the forms of two men and two women."

He did not see that half of the soil was red and the other white. Then he said to Old Man Coyote, "Take these people down to land. They are yours. So do not come up here anymore." Then he finished shaping the two men and women in the darkness.

Old Man Coyote put them in parfleche and carried them down to land. In the morning, he put breath into them. He was surprised to see that one pair was red and one pair was white. "Now I know that Mountain Sheep came while I was asleep. I cannot keep these two colors together." He carried the white ones to land by a big salt hole. The red ones he kept in his land so he could talk with them. That is how the Indians and white people came to the earth.