TWO BROTHERS

Sitting around a fire one day with some teenagers from El Salvador & the Dominican Republic telling stories this story was gifted to me by one of the girls. She didn’t know where the story came from but she told it as if it were her own. We all shared stories from our Earth traditions and laughed with and at each other. It was a good day. If anyone is acquainted with this creation story let me know or if any has creation stories from their people will you share them?

When the world was young and covered with water People lived in the Sky World. A pregnant woman up there begged her husband for the bark of a tree forbidden to the Sky People. As any husband would he gave in. Somehow he opened a hole in the ground near the tree. She fell through the hole towards the waters below. Two large Pelicans saw her fall. They flew up and caught her breaking her fall. Knowing they could not hold her long a call went out for help. The great Turtle said, “Lay her on my back.


Once settled the woman asked for some earth. Muskrat went to the bottom of the Water for a long time. Many days later his body floated to the top dead with mud in his mouth. She mixed a piece of the tree root and bark she had held onto in her fall with the mud upon Turtle’s shell. She sang and danced around the mixture and created Earth and gave birth to a girl.


One day, as a woman, the daughter was startled by a man from the Sky People. She had never seen a man in her life. She fainted. The man crossed two arrows upon her stomach one sharp, the other dull and left. Many days later she gave birth to twins and died. One brother was evil. The other was good. The good brother created plant eating animals. The evil brother created carnivorous animals. The good brother created People and balanced things.


One day the two brothers fought. They spoke to each other’s mind asking how the other could be killed. The evil brother told the truth and the good brother lied in response. The good brother killed his evil brother and threw his body over the side of the earth. The evil brother’s spirit began to rule the night and his brother began to rule the day. Grandmother loved the evil son more than the other, and tried to kill her grandson. The Grandson killed his grandmother, removed her head and threw it into the sky. She became the Moon. Because she loved her evil son more than the other she came out only at night when he ruled to visit with him. During the day she retreated never wanting to look into the face of her other grandson.