Stories from My Grandfather – Creation of the Tribes

WHAT’S PLAYING: Yothu Yindi “Yolngu Woman”

 (This is the Choctaw version of the Tower of Babel myth.)

Many generations ago, Aba, the Good Spirit Above, created man. All spoke the language of the Choctaw and understood one another. They came from the bosom of the earth, being formed of yellow clay, and no men had ever lived before them.

One day they came together and, looking upward, wondered what the clouds and the blue expanse above might be. They continued to wonder and talk among themselves and at last, determined to endeavor to reach the sky. So, they brought many rocks and began building a mound that would touch the heavens.

That night, however, the wind blew strong from above, and the rocks fell from the mound. The second morning, they began work on the mound again. But as the men slept that night, the rocks were again scattered by the winds.

Once more, on the third morning, the builders set to their task. But once more, as the men lay near the mound that night, wrapped in slumber, the winds came with so great a force that the rocks were hurled down upon them.

Daylight came and the men made their way from beneath the rocks and began to speak to one another. To their astonishment and alarm, they found that they spoke many different languages and could not understand one another.

Some continued thenceforward to speak the original tongue, the language of the Choctaw, and from these sprung the Choctaw tribe.

The others, who could not understand this language, began to fight among themselves. Finally, they separated. Those who longer spoke Choctaw scattered–some going north, others west, and other east–and formed various tribes.

And we, the Choctaw, remain the original people.