Washington D.C. through my eyes (XXII)

Creation Story, 2001
Harry Fonseca
(Maidu, Hawaiian, Portuguese)
Sacramento, California)

In the beginning appeared
Helin Maideh and Turtle
on a raft;
And it was black,
it was dark

For quite some time
They floated around
Then Turtle asked Helin Maideh
For a place to rest.

So Helin Maideh called ko-do-yam-peh
And down came
Ko-do-yam-peh
On a feathered rope,
In the form of the sun;
He landed n the raft

And Ko-do-yam-peh told Turtle,
"If you want to rest,
You have to work for it."
So he took Turtle,
Put Turtle
In an endless sea.

Turtle dove down
Was gone for four days,
four years,
four hundred years -
Time isn't that important.

Anyway, Turtle returned
More dead than alive.
So, Ko-do-yam-peh took mud
From under Turtle's paw, he took mud,
Rolled it into a little ball
And placed it on the water.

It grew to become the world,
Once the world was created,
Ko-do-yam-peh created
the animals and the plants,
The streams and rivers
And the mountain ranges.

And then he created the first two people.
And, he gave them the gifts of fire,
The first bath,
The Kum,
And the changing seasons

At first there was order,
But after some time,
Chaos returned to the people.

Hummingbird was told
"Fly to the north
and bring back
Hai-kut-wo-tu-peh and Wo-non-meh."

Hummingbird returned
Telling how to prepare
For the visit
Of these two old men.

"Gather silently
In the Kum
With no light
That they should not be seen."

The two old men
Descended,
Through the smoke hole
On the Kum.
They talked to us.

Then two young boys
Threw pitch on the fire
And the fire flared
Exposing their bodies.

Wo-non-meh's flesh was
All edible animals,
And Hai-kut-wo-tu-peh's
All edible plants.

When the fire burned low,
The teaching began:
"Limit chaos and
Cultivate order:
By singing, dancing, and
Talking to each other.

Realise life is short,
Respect your elders,
And recognise that death,
is part of living."

When the two old men left,
The two young boys
Fell over dead.
And a rain of fire,
Destroyed almost all.

Except a few
Who followed
The old men's teachings
And life was good.

Over time, chaos returned
Returns.
And the lessons proved true,
Are true.



Story told by Henry Azbill, 2002
and put to verse by Judy Allison.