All rights reserved by the author Lynda Rae McDonald
by
Lynda Rae McDoanld
After Spider Woman built her huge Web to hold the Universe together, Great Mystery gave Her a gift for all of her work. It gave Her one small flaming ball that had several smaller balls swirling around it. Great Mystery told Spider Woman that she may create whatever She wished on these balls that we now call planets. Spider Woman decided to try creating her first physical beings on the fourth planet from the flaming ball we now call the Sun. At the time, this planet was covered with water and had beautiful clouds swirling around it. Spider Woman created all kinds of plant and animal forms. No one life form was better or above another and all things saw how their lives depended on all other life forms. Spider Woman made all life in pairs so the Beings could learn to appreciate contrasts among themselves. Among these Beings, She created First Woman and First Man. They lived in harmony with all the other Beings on this planet, we now call Mars, for a very long time. As time went on, the flaming ball slowly began to cool and life became difficult upon the surface of the planet. Spider Woman came to First Woman and First Man and told them to begin building living space under ground. She showed them how to bring light underground and find water, so that they could bring the plants and animals underground with them and all could still live in harmony. This was the end of the First World of the First People.
The First People lived happily underground for a very long time, but as the flaming ball continued to grow cooler as it aged, the planet got so cold that water began to freeze even under ground. Spider Woman came to the First People and told them that she had been creating plant and animal life on a nearby planet that was closer to the flaming ball. It was a planet that was covered with water and beautiful swirling clouds. Spider Woman taught the First People how to build huge ships that could carry some of every plant and animal on their home planet. These ships would sail across the sky to the nearby planet to find a new home. The first people built these huge ships and sailed away to their new home. This was the end of the Second World of the First People.
When the First People landed on the new planet that we now call home, they found beatiful jungles filled with small and large furless creatures that we now call dinosaurs. They were very afraid until Spider Woman showed them how to build cities high in the mountains where the dinosaurs didn't go, because it was to cold for them. The first People, as well as the plants and animals they brought with them, were used to the cold as the planet they came from had been much colder than this new one when they left. The First People lived happily in the mountains for a very long time, but one day a large piece of rock broke loose from Spider Woman's Web and came crashing into this new wold, sending huge clouds of debris into the sky and cutting off the warmth of the Sun. The world became very cold, killing off the jungles and the furless creatures that lived in them. The world began to be covered in ice from the endless winter storms that raged over the planet. Spider Woman came to the First Peoples and told them they must leave the mountains and go down into the warmer flat lands towards the place were the Sun shined on the planet more of the time. This was the end of the Third World of the First People.
The First People had been living in the mountains on the two main places of land on this new planet. They began moving themselves and bringing the plants and animals that were used to the colder conditions towards the place where the Sun shines more of the time, the place we now call the equator. They began building large cities and planting the plants they had brought with them. After all the time they had been away from their original home, they began to forget ever being from any place but where they were, though they would look to the stars in the sky at night with a longing that they didn't understand. After so long of time being separated from each other on this new planet, they began to develop separate language and customs. They forgot that they were all one people and no one Being was better or over another. They became selfish, jealous, and greedy, because they had forgotten that they had all been created from a single Being and were all dependent on one another for life. They began to fight with each other and force others to live as they did. As the skies cleared and the weather calmed, the people began spreading all over the planet, they became even more separated from each other and began losing the ability to see life in everything on the planet. They completely forgot that Spider Woman had brought them here and that Great Spirit was in all things. All they knew was fear, hatred, and separation. This is the world we now live in.