Long, long ago, when the world was so new that even the stars were dark, it was very, very flat.

Chareya, Old Man Above, could not see through the dark to the new, flat earth. Neither could he step down to it because it was so far below him.

With a large stone he bored a hole in the sky. Then through the hole he pushed down masses of ice and snow, until a great pyramid rose from the plain. Old Man Above climbed down through the hole he had made in the sky, stepping from cloud to cloud, until he could put his foot on top the mass of ice and snow.

Then with one long step he reached the earth.

The sun shone through the hole in the sky and began to melt the ice and snow. It made holes in the ice and snow. When it was soft, Chareya bored with his finger into the earth, here and there, and planted the first trees.

Streams from the melting snow watered the new trees and made them grow. Then he gathered the leaves which fell from the trees and blew upon them. They became birds. He took a stick and broke it into pieces. Out of the small end he made fishes and placed them in the mountain  streams.

Of the middle of the stick, he made all the animals except the grizzly bear. From the big end of the stick came the grizzly bear, who was  made master of all. Grizzly was large and strong and cunning. When the  earth was new he walked upon two feet and carried a large club. So strong was Grizzly that Old Man Above feared the creature he had made.

Therefore,  so that he might be safe, Chareya hollowed out the pyramid of ice and snow as a tepee. There he lived for thousands of snows.

The Indians knew he  lived there because they could see the smoke curling from the smoke hole  of his tepee. When the pale-face came, Old Man Above went away. There is  no longer any smoke from the smoke hole. White men call the tepee Mount Shasta.


Click here to Return to the Native American Lore contents page