When the sun finally came out, so did I. Too long in the kiva; I began talking to the ancestors... and what is worse, they started talking back. Even on the outside, I was hearing voices. One said, "GO!" Another said, "You must set your path by the rising of the sun." And so I did.

I went for a very long walk. In the plateau scrubland, my spirit animal joined me. For seven days, the bear was my constant companion. On those nights when the stars were at their brightest, and the moon hid her face, he told me tales of the beginnings of our people, and also of the end. On the eighth morning, he was gone.

I walked the tallgrass prairie, with a raven as my guide. We met the beast which is called "buffalo" by the white men and the rodents who live in towns. From far away, we saw the people who live in pointed houses, but we did not stop to talk.

The raven left when I came to a great river, too wide and swift to swim. There were people with long boats made from a single tree. They offered to take me across but I declined. Instead, I followed the river down to where it emptied into a great and never-ending marsh.

From here, I turned my face to the setting sun, where a great heron flew up from the rustling reeds. She led me through the swamps and thickets to a place at the end of the world. Never before have I seen so much water. It ran at me in great curls and then died foaming upon the sandy shore.

I quit that place and followed a redbird, who was quite insistent that I visit her home in the piney woods. It was cool and pleasant in the shade, but the biting flies soon drove me off.

Old Coyote took me through the desert, with its prickly cactus and odd creatures. I thought this strange place was another of his infamous tricks, so was on the alert. He showed me a spring of bright blue water but I did not dare to drink. All about were the bones of animals who did. I did not want to share their fate.

At the edge of the desert, Old Coyote turned me to the sunset and said, "Three days!" On the evening of the third day, I recognized the three jagged rocks which serve me as a landmark. After eighteen hands of days, I had come back home. And now, I must try to sort out all the tales I heard and the lessons I learned.

Long ago, in the Valley of Peace, the Katchina dwelt in perfect harmony. They were old and wise beyond measure and the valley provided for all their needs. Then it happened that a woman of the Katchina gave birth to twin sons. This was a very rare thing among those people and they rejoiced. They doted on the pair and brought them many gifts.

As the boys grew, their spirit showed itself. They were very competitive. If one would climb a tree, the other would have to climb it too, only higher. If one threw a stone, the other would throw one farther. If one would swim the length of the mighty river which circled the valley, the other would do it faster.

These contests disturbed their elders and they tried to make peace between the two boys, but this was not to be. Neither would allow himself to be outdone by the other. The people talked in secret and decided that the boys would have to be separated. One was taken to the far eastern side of the Katchina village and the other was taken to the western edge. In this way, they grew to manhood and each learned a trade. One became a goldsmith and the other worked in silver.

The goldsmith made many bright and shining ornaments for the people to wear in their ears and in their hair. When the silversmith saw how the people were decorated, he made many beautiful rings and bracelets of silver. The goldsmith saw this and made pretty pendants to hang from the peoples necks. The silversmith responded by making buckles in which he set pretty blue stones from the river. And so the competition continued.

The goldsmith gathered all the gold he could find and made a huge golden mask of his face. It was beautiful and he wanted all the people to see it. He went to the far eastern end of the valley and climbed the highest mountain. With a tremendous leap, he caught a grip on the sky and flew across the starry heavens. His great golden mask caught up all the light from all the many stars, and reflected it down into the valley. The people were amazed at the warm golden light in the sky, and they called this light "Sun". When the goldsmith reached the far side of the valley, he plunged into the mighty river and swam back around to the east, only to repeat his voyage across the sky. When the Sun was in the sky the people called that time "Day", and the time when the Sun was swimming back to the east was called "Night".

The silversmith saw all this and decided to make himself a mask of silver. Since he could not go east without angering the elders, he went west and plunged into the mighty river, just as his brother was starting his journey across the sky. The silversmith swam around to the same peak that his brother had used. He climbed to the top and, just as his brother reached the other side, he launched himself into the starry heavens. The silver mask could not capture all of the light from the stars, so they continued to shine. The mask reflected the cool silvery light and the people were not amazed to see the other brother was also in the sky. They made a name for this light, and that name was "Moon".

Then the silversmith discovered that he had made his mask too heavy. Because of this, he could not jump as high or fly as fast. This is why, every twenty-eight days, the Sun catches and passes the Moon. As the goldsmith sun gets closer, the silversmith moon turns his mask away, so that it does not melt in his brother’s heat.

When the world was very new, everything was dark. There was no light to see with. Coyote thought this was not good, because he could not hunt in the dark. For a long time, he wandered and he thought on this problem. He finally found the place where the land meets the water. Between the two, there was a strip of clean white sand. When Coyote walked on the sand, it gave out tiny sparkles.

"Aha!" said Coyote. "Here is my light!"

He took a great handful of the sand and flung it into the sky. Then he flung another and another, until the entire sky was full of a pale, silvery glow.

"Now I will have enough light to hunt by", he said. And off he went in pursuit of a fat rabbit.

Now, as it happened, Coyote did all this just at the time when the North Wind and the South wind were having a contest to see who was the stronger. The North Wind howled and growled and blew great blasts of icy air at the South Wind. As he was doing this, he managed to blow away much of Coyote’s sand. What he didn’t blow away, was frozen into little ice crystals, which then clung to the sky very tightly.

The South Wind was not sitting idly by. No indeed! He huffed and he puffed and blew a hot , scorching blast at the North Wind. So hot was his breath that it melted some of the sand into sparkling crystals, and they stuck fast to the dome of the sky. The rest of the sand he blew back to the north.

Between the blowing of the two winds, they swept away almost all of Coyote’s glowing sand from both the northern and the southern skies. They left it piled up in the middle regions between them, like a giant sand dune. Coyote looked up and saw what they had done. He looked around and saw there was still enough light for hunting. He decided it was best to just go about his business of chasing that fat rabbit. Besides, even he could not control the winds.

This tale was my gift to Inti, the Inca Sun God, at the Festival of Inti Raymi - 2007.

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I have little to offer Inti, other than the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart. I will tell a little tale to entertain the great Sun God of the Inca.

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Long ago, when the world was very new, there was nothing around but water. Living in the water, there were three brothers of the spirit. They swam in the water and eventually were bored. They swam to the top of the water and looked around but they could see nothing because all was covered in darkness.

"This cannot be", they all thought. The first brother dove deep and then raced for the surface with all his might. Up, up, and up, he arced, spraying drops of the sea all across the face of the sky. These drops twinkled and sparkled, but didn’t give enough light to see.

The second brother had a very good idea. He took a great mouthful of water and spat it against the dome of the sky. There it stuck, like a giant pearl; all shiny and white and bright enough to see. But the light was cold, and didn’t penetrate the depths of the sea. Also, the light would slowly vanish each fourteen ccircles, only to regrow itself during the next fourteen.

The third brother thought long on this problem. "We need warmth as well as light", he decided. "I am warm, and I can be bright if that is my desire!" He coughed up a piece of his own heart and flung it into that part of the sky which was opposite the silvery orb. The heart hung there, all glowing golden and warm. To you, he is Inti. For me, he is called Tsohanoai! It is all the same! He is the bringer of warmth and life to the seas and the earth. He is also the the creator of the people, but that is another story.

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