Lakota Story: Hide it
(Author Unknown)
Contributed by Jim Beard,
Wambli Ho News President and Volunteer Correspondent
November, 2005
One day the Great Spirit gathered together all the creatures and said to them, "There will come among us a new creature, one who walks on two feet, and thinks about things, one clever with its hands, and with a brave heart. These beings will be called human beings. There is something I wish to hide from them until such time as they are able to understand it."
"What is it?" asked the animals.
And the Great Spirit responded with the truth. "It is this. We each create our own reality."
"Reality?" whispered the animals. And each in turn thought of what the world was to them. Bear smelled the details of rotten logs where Ant worked to make new dirt. Ant spoke in chemical conversation and knew the world to be ordered but leaderless. Bird understood a desperate danger and called out her territory, her world a sharp black eye. Spider understood that the world will come to your doorstep. Tree spoke with cloud and heard tales of the faraway world but rooted himself always, always in one place. Yes, each creature knew what reality was.
"What is real to these beings called human," said the Creator, "is not real. They have the gift of imagination, the greatest gift of any bestowed to any creature who ever walked or swam, or flew, or crawled, or slithered among us. And yet they want things instead of beauty. They want more instead of enough. They want speed instead of harmony. They want noise, constant noise, instead of the music of their own spirits. There will be many of them, and they will want many things. They will take from the earth what they want for they will think that they are separate from it. This reality will crush them, and all of us with them. Our mother, the Earth cannot long endure such heavy footprints."
Tell them! Just tell them!" shouted all the animals together.
Like a wind blowing through cedar, "Spring! Summer, Fall, Winter," sighed the Great Spirit, "They are not ready to understand. They are caught in a trap of their own cleverness. No, we must hide this. Hide it from them where they cannot find it. They must not find such wisdom as this until they are ready to understand its full power."
"We each create our own reality," said all the animals together
Frog and her brother jumped forward. "I'll hide it." Brother, "We'll hide it. Sister, "In the marsh." Brother, "In the water." Sister, "At the edge." Brother, "Of the lake." Together the spoke, "We'll hide it."
"No," said the Great Spirit, "They will consume these waters to quench their thirst. They will fill these marshes with their footprints. They will drain these wetlands for their parking lots. Surely they will find it before they are ready to understand its power."
Squirrel spoke. "I'll hide it in a hole, in a hole, in a hole in a tree in the middle of the forest."
"No," said the Great Spirit, "They will remove these forests to build their homes. Surely they will find it before they are ready to understand its power."
The buffalo said, 'I will bury it on the great plains.'
The Creator said, 'They will cut into the skin of the earth and find it.'
Bear rose to his hind legs. "I will go to the mountain and hide it in a cave. I will push with my shoulder a boulder before it and seal it forever!"
"No," said the Great Spirit, "The humans will one day move these mountains out of their way. Surely they will find it before they are ready to understand its power."
Just then, Salmon surfaced in the nearby stream on her way to spawn. She said nothing. She swam past the council up river to the headwaters.
Orca sounded in the bay, "Give it to me, I will swim to the bottom of the sea and hide it with my people for we have a long house there and no human has every seen it."
"No," said the Great Spirit, "The humans will explore even the bottom of the sea before they are ready to understand their true power."
Now Eagle swooped from a branch. "Hand it to me! I will fly to the moon and leave it there!
The animals all applauded, but the Great Spirit said, "No. They will go there, too, before they are ready. The humans are curious, they are smart, but they are not wise. Not yet."
"Go to the moon?" The animals gossiped among themselves, amazed.
Then Grandmother Mole broke through a hole in the trodden earth at the center of the circle. She shook the dirt from out of her whiskers, sneezing in the freshness of the open air. The animals became silent for everyone knows that Grandmother Mole, although blind to things in this world, sees well what cannot be seen.
"You must ask my sister the salmon," she said.
Squirrel said, "but she's gone on to spawn, to spawn, dig, dig her redd, put her eggs in it, in it."
Bear added, "And lay her carcass down to feed the stream."
Frogs, "Riparian. Riparian."
Eagle, "She never speaks anyway."
"More than just words can speak," said the Great Spirit.
Grandmother mole, sneezed for the second time. "Ask her children."
And all the animals turned to look at the children.
Generations later, seven generations from when the Great Spirit first called the council of all beings together, a child of Salmon, now full with eggs herself, joins in by raising her head for a precious moment, and only that, above the surface of the river. She says "Hide it inside of them."
At once the Great Spirit stood up and said, "So be it. Let it be done. Until such time as they discover it on their own, we will hide it inside of them."
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