Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada's Past Read Online Free Page B

holding stones that are blackened on one side. I tossed the bowl and tried to get all the dark sides of the stones to land face up but I couldn’t. Then my brother tried and he couldn’t. We played the game for many days but no one won.
    â€œSo then we played Tehonttsihkwá:’eks.” Again the man and woman looked confused and Shonkwaya’tíson explained. “We each took a long stick, bent the end and laced it back together so that it would hold a small round stone. We then used these sticks and the stone and struggledagainst each other. I tried to move the stone past my brother and couldn’t. He tried to move the stone past me and he couldn’t. We battled for many days but no one won.
    â€œAnd then we began to fight. I grabbed my brother and pushed him to the ground. He grabbed me and pulled me down. He tried to hold me down but I broke free. I tried to hold him down but he broke free. Neither one of us was stronger than the other. One moment I was on top, the next moment he was. We fought for many days.
    â€œAll the creatures that Thawíhskaron and I had created had long stopped what they were doing and had come to watch us fight. After we had been fighting for many days I saw one of them, Ohskennón:ton, the long-legged, sharp-antlered one, lower its head to the ground and drop its antlers. I picked them up and used them to push my brother back. Their power helped me pushed my brother over the edge of the earth.”
    At this, Tharonhyawá:kon sat quietly for several moments before continuing. “My brother still lives in the underworld. He is there right now and he wants to come back and spoil more things on earth. But now that I have created you,” he said, looking squarely at the man and woman, “he wants to come back and create mischief and trouble for you.”
    The human beings exchanged worried glances.
    â€œDo not be afraid,” he said, “I will watch over you and protect you. I have asked my grandfather—the husband of the woman who fell from the sky—to come down from his home in the sky-world to help you. He is Rawé:ras and he lives with the west wind. From time to time he will come with the west wind and bring the rains that will replenish the waters on earth that will sustain you. He will use his loud voice and his bright fire spears to keep my brother in the underworld. So now the only time my brother can leave the world below is at night. And because the sun is no longer in the sky, he has no power when he is here on earth. He can only prowl about.”
    â€œWhen I pushed my brother over the edge of the world, my grandmother became very sad. She liked my brother very much, she missed him greatly, and she died soon after. So I put her head in the sky so that shewould watch over the earth during the night and watch over her grandson when he comes up from the world below to move about.
    â€œThere was still one more thing that happened here on earth before I created you,” Shonkwaya’tíson added. “I was walking through the forest one day when I met a manlike being. He said he was very powerful and could do many special things. He said that he had created all the swimming creatures, walking creatures, foods, and rivers on earth. I told him that it was not true, that I had created those things. So he challenged me to see who had the greater power. ‘The one whose power is greater is the one who is telling the truth,’ he said. I then told him to look in the distance, for there, far away, stood a great mountain. I challenged this being to use his power to move the mountain as far as he could. He stood there looking at the mountain, gathered all of his powers, and made the mountain move closer. He turned to me, smiled and said, ‘Its true, you see. I have great power for I have moved a mountain.’
    â€œâ€˜It’s my turn,’ I told him. And I looked at the mountain, I looked
hard
at the