Gemaakt door Joost van Oorschot

zondag 11 maart 2007

Creation Myth


The creation of a pipestone quarry

A long time ago, a really long time when the world was still freshly made, Unktehi the water monster fought the people and caused a great flood. Perhaps the Great Spirit, Wakka Takka, was angry with us for some reason. Maybe he let Unktehi win out because he wanted to make a better kind of human. The waters got higher and higher. Finally everything was flooded except the hill next to the place where the sacred red pipestone quarry lies today. The people
climbed up there to save themselves, but it was too late. The water went over that hill. Waves tumbled the rocks, smashing them down on the people. Everyone was killed, and all the blood maked one big pool.

The blood turned to pipestone and created the pipestone quarry, the grave of those ancient ones. That's why the pipe, made of that red rock, is so sacred to them. Its red bowl is the flesh and blood of their ancestors, its stock is the backbone of those people long dead, the smoke rising from it is their breath. I tell you, that pipe, comes alive when used in a ceremony; you can feel power flowing from it.

Unktehi, the big water monster, was also turned to stone. Maybe the Grandfather Spirit, punished her for making the flood. Her bones are in the Badlands now. Her back forms a long high ridge, and you can see her vertebrae sticking out in a great row of red and yellow rocks.
This is how the pipestone quarry was created, many, many years ago. As told, the monster was punished for his bad behavior. It is sad for the people that they died, but the pipestone quarry can still be visited today.

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