“In the old days, people did not hunt animals. Animals hunted them. The people were hunted so much that after a while only two people survived: a brother and a sister.
Did the boy become the first hunter of animals? Maybe, because he learned with his bow and arrow to hunt snowbird and squirrels. As he got better, as young hunters do over time, he started to catch bigger and bigger prey.
One day while hunting he felt like he was being stalked by something. He told his sister, who helped him to make a snare for this beast. He set the snare in a melted snow spot.
It turned out the beast was the sun. When it rose, it was caught in the snare. It could no longer shine, so the world became dark.
The animals were scared and wanted to help the sun. Sure, they said, it was impressive what the boy had done but now the world was dark. Something had to be done about it. They sent the biggest animals they could to try to free the sun the snare. Caribou and Mos went first, but they failed against the boy and the snare.
The closer they got to the sun, it got too hot. Caribou and Mos couldn’t close enough to do it. So the hunting birds tried to fly to the sun, but the fire burned their feathers.
Finally Apqáhs, who back then was as big as a mountain with great whiskers and a thunderous tale, went to save the sun. The heat burned him, but he made it to the sun and started to chew. While he chewed, the sun’s heat made him very thirsty because he was drying out. He didn’t give up, but kept chewing and chewing and chewing. While he chewed, the heat shrank him and he got smaller and smaller. At last, he chewed the snare loose and the sun was free. But Apqáhs had been shrunk so much, he had become the tiny mouse we know of today.”
She says in the video, “Since that time, the people have been hunting on the land and the sun and the moon follow their cycles. The little boy is Tcikabis, and he’s known as the man on the moon.” I know the following video is not about Algonquian culture or history, but it’s cool.
